Loose Ends that need tying

[greekguy]

i think there are still a few things we need to do before the game starts, so here goes:
- set up election office: a few people were "voting" in the foreign minister nom. thread. i think someone should set up the election office and get all the election procedures in the thread, so people can get easy access to the election info.
- Information office: since no one else has shown interest in running it and ravensfire has said he thinks it should be run by the people and not the government, i'll set up one on Creation Day. i hope this will help keep people informed.
- DemoGame FAQ: we need to write a good, concise, but informative FAQ, so people know what the DemoGame is, what it is about, how to play, etc. if no one else wants to do this i'll be willing to help.

[Strider]

All of this should have been done weeks ago. Why was the only thing that got done after I resigned was the constitution?

The constitution should have been finished a week ago, and we should now be tying up a summary of the differant articles inside of the constitution. To aid newer players in understanding the concepts.

A detailed FAQ should have been done about a week and a half ago.

An Introduction thread, which includes links to the FAQ, Constitution Summary, The Constitution itself, and the Citizen Registry should have been completed by now also.

[Icmancin]

I agree with Strider, those should have been finished before. I am quite annoyed that people are Voting for Nobody before the election and the policies are posted. I'll help with the Information Office but I won't do it alone. The FAQ thread should start right away: I'll do it but I'll need some guidelines.

[zyxy]

There is some material for a FAQ here, here and here.

EDIT: here and here is some stuff on C3C.

[peter grimes]

I'll take a quick stab at this, just to get the ball rolling. You should know up front that I've never played before, so be sure to check everything. What follows is an idea for the introduction, stolen whole hog from Zorven:
constitution



What is Game of Democracy VII?

When you play a game of Civilization III, you make all the decisions: where to build cities, what city improvements to build, who to attack. You are the sole decision maker. Now imagine that you are playing the game and 3 of your friends are sitting at the computer with you. All 4 of you are deciding together how to play the game. This is a democracy.

In Game of Democracy VII (Democracy Game, DemoGame, DGVII), there are many people involved with making the decisions on how the game is played. Instead of all sitting at the same computer, we use the forums to discuss the game with each other. To manage many people playing the game, a government has been formed to provide a structured way for everyone to be involved in the decision making process. This government is much like real life. It has a Constitution, a Code of Laws, and elections to select Leaders that are responsible for managing certain aspects of the game. Continue reading and you will find all you need to know to participate in the DemoGame.
________
Adapted from Zorven

EDIT: I've activated the links, but the CoL link goes to the same one as the constitution until we know where it'll be stickied. Any suggestions on how to attribute Zorven?

[peter grimes]

This is the FAQ thread for Game of Democracy VII.

What is a demogame? - Simply put, a demogame is a game where a group of people discuss and poll the actions of the game. The Designated Player (typically the President) plays about 10 turns, carrying out the actions posted in the TCIT (Turnchat Instruction Thread).

What version of Civ3 is going to be used? - We are using Civ3 Conquests v1.22. This means that if you have an earlier version of Civ3 Conquests, it won't work. This is for multiple reasons (including PBEM, corruption model, etc.). There may or may not be an additional patch. This only means you can't play or view the saves, which doesn't matter too much. There are loads of screenshots and game action reports from which you can make informed decisions about the direction of the game.

What is the history of the Demogame? - The Demogame was started by TheDuckOfFlanders in a thread in the Off Topic forum back in 2001. There have been 5 previous demogames. Most of the origanal players have since left, but you can still view the old demogames in the archives.

What is a turnchat and TCIT? - A turnchat is where citizens can observe the president playing the game. A TCIT is where elected officials post their instructions. Citizens posting instructions are not valid.

How do I register? - You can register in this thread. You must register before you can vote in polls, or run for office.

How do I get elected? - At the end of every month, there are nominations for positions in the demogame. You can nominate yourself, or have someone nominate you. You accept by posting "Accept" in the nomination thread. Be sure to read the constitution on nominations, and job descriptions for all of the elected positions.

Great, I got elected! Now what do I do? - You start by posting a thread in the government forum for the position you were elected for. You also link to the previous term thread in your first post. When the term ends, link to the next thread when it becomes available.

What are Citizen's Groups? - These are groups that help push for a certain goal in the demogame. These are not political groups . In fact, political groups are banned from the demogame. What you could do is make a group that says, "Our goal is to collect all the horses on our continent", or "Our goal is to control the east side of the continent". You can not, however, tell people who to vote for, etc.

Where can I find the latest save? - Gamesaves are held in the turnchat threads. These threads are stickied in the main Demogame forum.

Where can I find a summary of previous saves? I don't want to read every turnchat log! - You can find summaries in the Turnchat Summary Thread, and screenshots in the Screenshots Thread. Even if you don't have Civ3 Conquests, you can still gather information from here. You can even participate if you play on a Mac!

I came too late to be nominated. How can I still participate in the government? - Asside from citizen groups, you can be the governor of a city. City threads are in the government sub-forum, and you can post a link to your city in the City Index Thread. There is also a Designated Player Pool. These people execute the decisions made by the Government in the game. These people press the buttons and move the mouse in-game.


I see a lot of polls are closed. Why is that? - Most polls have an end date, typically 2-3 days. This is because these polls are used for instructions in the turnchats.

Is there a Demogame Website? - Yes, here .
__________________



EDIT: activated all links except those for the city thread, which don't exist yet.
The website link goes to demogame.civfanatics.net I hope that's the right one
Removed the italicized text, and cleaned it up a little.
Changed mayor to governor, and added blurb about DP's.

If there is a way for me to allow public editting, let me know. But for now, I'm posting as is in the Demogame FAQ. Post edit requests here, please.

[greekguy]

thanks a lot peter_grimes. that will be a great base to get things going with FAQ's, Intros, etc.

@everybody: we still need an election office. is there anyone out there who has the time and commitment to run it? Strider, any chance you can do it again? if no else will do it, i guess i could try...

@Icmancin: i would love for any help at all, you're welcome to help with the Information Office. I'll set it up on Creation Day and will find you something you can help with. Any other help, from anyone, would be greatly appreciated.

one more thing: how are elections going to work exactly. are we going to have noms. go up on the 1st for now on, or are we going to just have the first term be short either way, we need to decide soon.

poll up about elections and nominations. hopefully this will decide how we do it...

[Strider]

The DG community has lost my active support for the time-being. As such, I won't be partcipating in the management of the demogame untill such time that the community wakes up.

[peter grimes]

Update:

I edited the Intro and FAQ that I had posted earlier in this thread. Activated all the links I could, and implemented the changes I had suggested. I people like these, they can be ready to post immediately. I'm still open to comments and edits.

[greekguy]

@ peter: take out the part that says city mayors, since in this game, each city will be run by a governor instead.

that is really good, but i think it's missing a few things (especially describing government positions). i'll try to post a more in depth one tommorrow, but i think you should post it as a basic FAQ in the FAQ thread.

[Furiey]

I would probably be able to run the election office.

[peter grimes]

Update: FAQ published!
Reminder - if there is a way for me to allow public editing of the FAQ, let me know. Until that happens, post edit suggestions in this thread, please.

[greekguy]

Originally Posted by Furiey

I would probably be able to run the election office.

Thank You!! I think it would be a good idea to get the Election Office set up ASAP, with procedures and stuff posted. After that, you just need to be able to post nomination and election threads on time.

@peter: Great Job!! I think this will really help newbies who need a basic understanding of the DemoGame.

EDIT: just thought of something to add. it would probably be a good idea to put in what an 5BC game is. Here's a link to a post made by me saying what it is. You could use it as a base or just take it, word for word.

[Strider]

As the FAQ is moving along nicely, we still need someone for the election offic and information office.

We also still need a Welcome thread, Constitution(al) FAQ thread (ravensfire?), and a "How do I get started?" type thread.

[greekguy]

Originally Posted by Strider

As the FAQ is moving along nicely, we still need someone for the election offic and information office.

Furiey has volunteered for the Election Office and i volunteered for Information Office. I've said i'm going to set up on Creation Day, unless you think i should set up earlier?

Originally Posted by Strider

We also still need a Welcome thread, Constitution(al) FAQ thread (ravensfire?), and a "How do I get started?" type thread.

I could write a forums description and government position FAQ.

[Strider]

Originally Posted by greekguy

Furiey has volunteered for the Election Office and i volunteered for Information Office. I've said i'm going to set up on Creation Day, unless you think i should set up earlier?

I could honestly careless when you set up. Might want to start thinking of an organization though. Possibly do it by colors:

Blue- Newest save Info
Green- Constitution Related
Red- Judiciary Related
etc.

Also, don't try to be the "one-stop shop for information." There is a clause inside of the COL that requires leaders to provide information about there offices. Even though I told Ravensfire that it didn't work (Weird, I came up with the idea, and then I told him it's a piece of crap. You'd think that would be enough incentive to change it), I'm doubting he'll take it out. However, what I would recommend is trying to 'force' some of the leaders to actually obey that law, and then just provide links to the Government threads.

Originally Posted by greekguy

I could write a forums description and government position FAQ.

I don't think we need a forum description to much. Acouple of them is self-explantory. Only thing I can think of off the top of my head is "If you are planning to ask what the polls forum is used for, then please kindly leave."

Seriously, maybe just something like the following: "You can find all recent discussions and game decisions inside of the Citizens forum. (then make Citizens Forum a link)." Basically the same thing for the Government and Poll forums.

Okay, now moving onto the Government Poistion FAQ. I would prefer that the person who made the constitution do it. Afterall, he's the only one who truely knows what everything means. Even more important that the creator writes it, as it can then be used to determine Judicial Reviews.