A Clockwork Rainbow

[Ahigin]

Looking forward, Japan would like to announce the creation of the World Martial Arts Tournament. It will be held every five years* and will determine the world's most skilled fighter. All styles are welcome, but only one can prevail.

*The tournament after this year will be held in 1955, as if the tournament had started in 1950.

OOC: Early days of UFC? Let's announce the Hunger Games instead!

P.S. But seriously, what are the rules? Gender categories? Weight categories? I mean, if there's just one winner, it seems like there's gonna be very little sportsmanship there.

 

[gay_Aleks]

In related news, Argentina would also organise the first Women/Men's World Cup for Volleyball, under the guidance of the Federación Internacional de Voleibol, based in Argentina. We implore teams from all over the world to join us, as sport makes us equal in all but our skill.

(This had to happen at some point, you know?!)

 

[JohannaK]

In related news, Florida announces the creation of the Wayward Sun Award, an international competition that will judge the most interesting cultural artifact of the year, whether it be a painting, a sculpture, a poem, a novel, a song, an entire album, a movie, etc. This award, backed by the Floridian government, will be given out in St Augustine during the Midsummer Festival of the following year.

 

[JamesCaesar]

Gonna have to drop this game, sorry.

 

[Shadowbound]

Hindustan announces it will be hosting the First Elephant Polo International Championships this coming year.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Well, finally Hindustan will have something to be proud of.

 

[Traveller76]

Star of India​

Socialists to campaign in countryside
The Socialist Congress Party has primarily been a urban based party since its formation in 1884 with only a few candidates from rural areas near the large cities. In a surprising move the SCP announced that it will tour the entire country visiting not only urban but more remote rural areas. According to Party Chairman Vijaya Patel the tour will be a voter registration drive along with the usual rallies. "We need to remind the people that the SCP stands for all of them no matter what class, religion or ethnicity. We also plan to remind voters of the promises the Congress and Liberal parties made five years ago and what has happened since then."

In a country where politics, especially local politics can be brutal and violence a fact of life the Chairman dismissed such concerns when asked about it. "We will notify local authorities of our plans but we also will take precautions. We can not and will not be intimidated and we plan to provide a safe space for people to listen to us. Those parties who rely on violence or intimidation by gangs of men to coerce votes have already failed." The tour is to be conducted by railroad and road convoys and a schedule of events are to be issued later in the month.

 

[JohannaK]

The Wayward Sun Committee is currently reviewing last year's cultural production. We encourage countries, companies, and relevant individuals to provide their own shortlists to ease the task.

 

[Traveller76]

The Wayward Sun Committee is currently reviewing last year's cultural production. We encourage countries, companies, and relevant individuals to provide their own shortlists to ease the task.

East India would like to submit the film Do Bigha Zamin for consideration.

 

[Traveller76]

Star of India​

Parties to focus on rural voters and districts
While the General Election is a year away, the major parties are following the lead of the Socialist Congress Party and launching campaigns to reach out to rural voters and districts. According to Professor of Political Science Manas Chester of University of Bombay "While every vote is important the rural areas of the country remain a vast untapped wealth of voters, funds and volunteers to the party or candidate that reaches out towards them". Major urban areas are already well covered by the parties. The Socialists plan to focus on land reform by limiting the amount of land a single person can own and voter registration. The National Congress, taking a page from the socialists plan to also focus on voter registration along with higher tariffs on imported agricultural goods and investments into rural industrialization. The Liberals plan to have the central government create an Agricultural Credit Bank that can issue loans at little or no interest for rural improvement such as irrigation. A second major platform is the creation of village and home based industries to create jobs for women and the elderly who can not leave home for work.

The Princes Association remains divided between Orthodox and Modernist camps with some princes encouraging economic and social development while others vow to stop 'socialist and anarchist agitation'. The Dravida Kazhagam Party is a power in southern Madras and will continue agitation for the creation of a separate state called Tamil Nadu and a preservation of Tamil culture along with rural improvement. Professor Chester "If rural voters and power brokers are smart they can use the multiple parties to play kingmaker. Expect the major parties to use every tactic to win voters and begin the groundwork for future campaigns."

 

[Shadowbound]

Well, finally Hindustan will have something to be proud of.

How does an Argentine get into the World Cup?

By being a referee.

 

[Sniiperman456]

Since lots of other countries are conducting World Cups, Switzerland will create a basketball World Cup. It will be overseen by the SBA, or Switzerland basketball association. Other nations are welcome to send there teams here.

 

[JohannaK]

I must inquire, does Switzerland have any professional basketball teams, or any nationals who play the sport professionally, at least?

 

[Sniiperman456]

I must inquire, does Switzerland have any professional basketball teams, or any nationals who play the sport professionally, at least?

Ooc: in real life no, in this game yes.
Ic: Switzerland has the sba, which has 30 teams. They play each other each year in a season of basketball.

 

[JohannaK]

I suppose basketball was invented in Switzerland in this timeline.

 

[Sniiperman456]

I suppose basketball was invented in Switzerland in this timeline.

OOC:Yep!

 

[SouthernKing]

Right, I'm not mentioning any of these other sports competitions in the update.

As for stats, apologies, I have had an unexpectedly busy last few days. I am aiming to finish them this weekend for sure.

 

[Immaculate]

The Treaty of Rostov On Don

The nations of Moscow, Petrograd, and the Republic of Yekaterinburg agree to cease all hostilities with one another and withdraw their forces to borders outlined below.

Furthermore, the Miedzymorze, as sponsor and guarantor of the nation of Moscow agrees to cease all hostilities with the Republic of Yekaterinburg for as long as the Yekaterinburg government and its people cease hostile actions against Miedzymorze or its allies and friends.

Borders will be defined as <<borders from the turn zero update>>.

As such, Miedzymorze, Muscovite, and Petrograd governments recognize the legitimacy of the Republic government of Yekaterinburg in the east and the government of Yekaterinburg and its allies recognize the legitimacy of the Miedzymorze, Muscovite, Petrograd, and Don-Kuban governments in the west.

Signed,
P. Gavinksi
Miedzymorze Prime Composite


(needs signatures from Moscow and Yekaterinburg)

 

[Bair_the_Normal]

Confirmed and signed.

 

[SouthernKing]

So trust me - I feel really, really awful about doing this, especially so early in the game - but honestly, at this point, I don't really see any other option but to call this off.

I had a bit of an epiphany a while ago: I actually don't enjoy running world-spanning games of this sort with 30+ players and like twice that number of polities total. After a very short period of time they truly become a drag, and I have immense respect for GMs who can work through that. I personally just don't have the patience to. The reason I keep feeling the urge to run these sorts of games, I think, is the truly immense amount of fun I had in worldbuilding. And what kept me going beyond that was engaging with players who helped add to that world, through your stories and even just random chat conversations. I truly, genuinely, want to extend an immense thank you to everyone who did that - every single person who posted fluff in this thread was fun to read, especially christopher_sni - and I also want to extend a huge apology for pretty much completely wasting your effort.

Furthermore, that one update took way more time and effort than I had anticipated. It had nothing to do with the gameplay mechanics, which were fine - it was simply that, a lot of days, I would come to my computer and open the requisite things only to find that I just didn't have the energy or the motivation to do it. The game wouldn't have been sustainable like that. I tried to make it interesting for me by adding space and nukes and stuff like that, but only ended up shooting myself in the foot by placing those off in the distance. Additionally, I realised that there were about half a dozen other things I told myself that I wanted to do with my free time in 2017 that running this game would have made utterly impossible.

Furthermore, I also shot myself in the foot again by making the start of this game excruciatingly slow. That's also about the pace it would have gone had it continued. That isn't something I'd want to do to either myself or to all of you lot.

With that in mind, I think this is the last time you'll see me run a world-spanning game like this (though I'm open to co-GMing at some point)

Again, I'm really sorry, and I feel terrible about wasting everyone's time, but this game simply wouldn't have been sustainable in its current state, and it was better to than to let me, the game, and more importantly everyone else involved, all suffer.