A Proposal Concerning GMs

[Head Serf]

As you all may or may not have noticed, the model parliament currently has two near inactive GMs. This is a huge problem, as many of the jobs they are supposed to perform are not being done, and therefore the game is losing a lot of realism and interest. Without GMs, we cannot have any foreign policy nor any problems to find solutions for. What will we do after all the drugs have been legalized and all our days turned to holidays?

Anyway, first, some statistics concerning our "acting" GMs. Perfection has, in the last month, only started 1 thread, the Let's Get Organized! thread, which he failed to update after the first week, and therefore was unstickied a few days ago. He has only made 1 post since August 22, or almost two weeks. What was this post? He was defending himself against criticism he was inactive.

Abgar has done a little better, although not anywhere near what is needed to keep model parliament afloat. She has made 4 threads in the last month, almost all of them related to the constitution and sign-ups, and has made 10 posts. What are these posts you say? Well, the vast majority are posts dealing with counting votes and such during the elections. Now this is nice and all, but we need someone who will help organize the bills, someone who can say voting is closed, and most of all, someone to create events/problems for the parliament.

In addition, GMs should:

Make a semi-cohesive gameworld that allows us to address problems, develop laws, policies and budgets (thanks Provolution for picking this up)
Update To-Do list (perfection failed)
Stimulate the game environment so all ideologies feel welcome (John? Godwyn?)
Make sure the world around progress 1 year per month (where are our real world events?)
complete factbook with basic background (thanks Provolution)
Challenge each minister with a problem or two term, and a few for the prime minister
Update the Constitution with amendments (abgar failed)

In response to these problems, Provolution and myself, Head Serf, have decided to run to be the new GMs if that is desired by the other members of the Model Parliament. I urge you to please consider the change seriously and not to shrug it off, the future of this game depends on your decision.

 

[Provolution]

I support this proposal of Head Serf, and hope we can get a decent and enjoyable game for all ideologies and platforms, our idea is to generate 2-5 issues/events per week, where one term represents a year.

This term represents 2007-08. Next term will be 2008-09. If we play this for a year, we will see 12 elections and 3 US Presidential Elections happening in the background.
Each year will see parliamentary elections, choice of prime minister and finally national budget as well as 8-25 issues, depending on the amount of players, season and our interest in keeping the game engaging and stimulating.
Knowing the political compass, we want to keep all four corners engaged and interested in playing the game, not making this a one-sided game.

This means we are to impact your modern history of Civilitas, we will choose the US President for you (Hillary Clinton or Rudy Giuiliani), we will decide if the Koreas are to be reunited or not, if Putins Russia is becoming more democratic or not. Later in the game, as we proceed 1 year per month, we will see how the Greenhouse Effect impacts the world and Civilitas.

We will also place some external parameters, in a form of a national security review, state of the nation update and make sure there are differences between the 4 provinces, each having its own strengths and weaknesses, which means we will take the necessary liberties to handle the factbook.

In the issues/events we will present, there will be plenty of arguments for both sides, since we want to fill up your arsenals for running valid and good arguments, not namecalling and other idle processes. We may consider 1/3 of the events to be international and 2/3 of the events to be domestic, so we can keep both groups interested. Also, we will not overburden ourselves or our players, which is why we think 2-4 issues per week is plenty.

If you are interested in even a better Model Parliament, I hope you go with Headserf and me, and quite possibly a 3rd GM we are yet to determine.

 

[Smidgey]

Whilst I do think we need GM's, would you be giving up your parliament seats in order to do this?

Our GM's must be politically neutral. We cannot have a Conservative GM constantly saying hospitals are failing as a problem for ministers to solve, not can we have a Socialist GM telling us that millions are in poverty because of a poor social system. I will be happy to support you guys as new GM's if you can promise to be politically neutral.

I appreciate this post and it's good to see some action in this much needed field .

 

[Provolution]

I will leave my post as Member of Parliament of Civilitas, Secretary of Defense of Civilitas, Mayor of Isthmus City and yes, even my citizenship altogether, which is of course a prerequisite for GMship, if the players want this.

Therefore, if this takes place, downtown must find someone to replace me. I will be politically neutral, which is why a libertarian GM as a third GM would make sense in addition to us. If the games become bigger, we may even expand from 3 to 5, but that is far ahead.

 

[downtown]

If Provo becomes a GM, I will remove him from his cabinet spot. In fact, I agree..GMs should not even retain a seat in parliment.

I dont want to rush to a yea or nay on this. I want to talk to a few other people, and consider all of our options.

 

[The Ninja]

We desperately need active GMs, I for one cannot acurately formulate my part of the budget without knowing what we already have, and what we need to buy. Prov, Head serf, if you guys want to be those GMs, I'll support you. Just do me one favor and...Please choose what infrastructure we have first! (I need to be able to finish that budget for downtown.)

The Ninja

 

[Provolution]

I will consult with Head Serf, and agree on the main outline of map assumptions, if we get the needed support to do this. We will also add in the last fragments to the factbook.

 

[Provolution]

HEAD SERF, check your PM box, you got mail.

 

[Splime]

My concern about Provolution being a GM, along with Head Serf, is that they're not exactly moderates. Head Serf is a member of the Conservative Party, IIRC, and Provolution is one of the most authoritarian players. However, if they can prove that they can be neutral, then I think we'll do well.

 

[Provolution]

I may be authoritarian compared to the main bulk of the players, but I will remain neutral.

The way we make this neutral is to make one of the GMs invent the event, where the other handles the outcome of parliament/cabinet/court actions.

I also do promise to be neutral, as long as the laws are well written and thought out, the outcome will tend to be positive. We also planned on having a third GM from a lower left quadrant (I am actually in the very center almost, origo, but appears "authoritarian" - 1.45 - as the majority are libertarians.) The same challenge will apply for any person in here, with this position.

If I cannot remain neutral, I will step down of course, but I can emulate all from libertarians, to social democrats, conservatives, socialists and even communists and fascists if need be.

Remember, all policies may well work, but the magic is in that people have vry different ideologies and goals.

 

[Methos]

I don't know anything about Head Serf, so I have no opinion, but Provo is a different story. I've played both here and the DG with him and I must say Provo is very good about pushing the game a long. I would agree that Provo would be great at keeping this game going, which is what it needs.

As I mentioned elsewhere, rather than swap out the GM's, what if we added these two to our current list? With four GM's we can make sure one of them doesn't burn out too quickly and possibly have more unique and interesting game because of it.

 

[Head Serf]

I will be as neutral as anyone. Also remember that Provolution and I can watch out to make sure the other is being reasonable.

 

[sirdanilot]

I can agree with Provolution as a GM. And Headserf, I have no objections to have him as a GM either.

I'd say we put up a voting thread. People would be able to vote for their GMs. This doesn't have to be a choice between Headserf/Provolution and Abgar/Perfection, but can also be, for example, Headserf/Abgar or Provolution/Perfection etc... there could even be more than 2 GMs!

As for a third GM, I don't think we'll need that if Headserf and Perfection are going to be active enough. At least, not anytime soon.

edit: Although if we choose new GMs they lose their cabinet and MP position, they should still finish what they've left off, for example they should still handle the bills they opened, but they couldn't propose a new bill as that's a MP action.

 

[Provolution]

I think I spent all my bills, except for the defense minister bill, but that is fair to leave to the next guy in line. All my bills seem to go through, as they are quite broad and bipartisan. We will of course invite the two to help us, but we will delegate them tasks, not the other way around, as we want the pace to be kept. When the workload increases, a 3rd GM would be nice, for handling threads, provinces and so on.

I think you had a typo, "Head Serf and Perfection...."

 

[sirdanilot]

Yes, in the 3rd block of text I made a typo, but I'm too lazy to change it

I agree with leaving any bill proposals you can still make to the next Minister, aswell as if you would have any endorsements left, but I already know you don't have any so that doesn't matter. Headserf is just a normal MP now, isn't he? If that's so, then I don't think we need that he passes his endorsements to anyone (although he should still maintain his bill. And respond to the pm I sent him! ).

If there aren't any objections within the next few minutes, I'll put up a voting thread. We can't have future GMs putting up a voting thread for themselves, can we?

 

[Provolution]

ACTION LIST

Getting this game in gear. Provolution will handle the factbook and make it complete, with the last national figures, facts and map features.

Events


Both GMs generate two events each per week and cooperate on a fifth. The one we cooperate on, is the key international event/issue.

For Province Level events, we only handle events per request, that is for a target audience that concerns itself with running provinces and cities. The average for these sub-games would be two events per province per week, two events per major city per week and one event per minor city per week (limit of 8 MPs).

We just scrap events in cities unless we know enough of the MPs there are active. It just seems there isn't enough active members to make for interesting discussion and decisions.

DIVISION OF TASKS

HEAD SERF handles events for New Alexandria and Cook Island, as both are of a somewhat Anglo-American culture and have comparable profiles and intertwined history. Cook Island is more like New Hampshire where New Alexandria is more like Oregon or Washington State. This represents 4 events/issues per week, plus city 7 subgames if wanted.

Provolution handles New Fanatica and Nurlsk, as he knows about both Dutch-German history as well as Russian history and present. This represents 4 events/issues per week, plus 7 city subgames.

For handling events/issues for the government, we quarter the events into four subsets, in which the Cabinet counts as double.

Prime Minister - Here we bring up a national security question/dilemma/issue the PM may decide to handle alone, invite individual ministers or Cabinet to help him out, leave for the Supreme Court to handle or to bring for the Parliament. This one is fun, we privately send this to PM Downtown, and he needs to figure out what to do. All other issues will be public.

One event per week, one of us invents the idea, the other decides on the outcome based on their action. We change roles every second week.

Cabinet - Here we introduce two events/issues per week, one for each minister for the entire term (we set a limit on 8 ministers for the cabinet). This means that we need to sequence events per ministers, for example we can for example start out with a union strike in Portsborough (for Mangxema) and an oiltanker going down outside Karmel (for Ball Lightning).

We both make joint events for Foreign Affairs Minister and Defense Minister (both international events). Head Serf handles Justice, Interior and Environment, where Provolution takes on Business/Finance, Education/Science and Health.

For the events we make together, we both decide the outcome, for the events we make alone, we let the other handle the outcome. This makes it more neutral.


Supreme Court - Here we bring up a legal dilemma challenging the approved laws, where the court needs to decide. This is one event per week. This issue can be someone breaking the law, or where two laws conflicts and they need to decide. This interpretation will also set precedence in later cases, making their interpretation effectively a law.

One of us makes this issue, the other handles the outcome of the justices reaction. We change positions here every second week.

Parliament.

Here we present one issue/event per week, plus the Supreme Court events and ministerial events that spill into Parliament. The National Event, as we call it, will every second week be domestic or international of nature, and would cover several political areas at once. The Parliament needs to handle this.

One of us makes this issue/event, the other handles the outcome. However, both cooperate on this one in 2 out of 4 cases.

All this will be more than enough to handle, but will keep the game interesting.

 

[sirdanilot]

Erm, are you guys absolutely sure you can handle that? That really looks like a hell of a lot work every week to me. I for one wouldn't be able to do that. And they aren't just simple tasks, you have to come up with something good every time, too.

I'm not trying to scare you off or anything, but you should be realistic and know how much time and inspiration you can put in this. I'd suggest to delete several parts of that. We'll want quality above quantity, after all.

 

[Provolution]

The game will be scaleable for the provinces, but most likely, it will be only 5 issues per week, which is quite easy to make when we are two people (2.5 each) . I already made a list of events for the entire term. If the game expands in number of players, province politics may become more interesting, and I figure our pain treshold is about 4-5 events per week in total.

Remember, 1 month is one game year.

 

[Head Serf]

I'm gone for two hours and I get 8 PMs.

Anyway, it all looks pretty good, although I'd like to add that individual MPs should be able to bring up one supreme court case per month, to handle the constitutionality of bills and such. Got to go check what our constitution says about that...

 

[Provolution]

I think the Supreme Court can only handle the event we bring them and what the nation brings them, for 2 events per week. They are semi-GMs in a legal sense. I think the Supreme Court needs to constitute itself, and set rules for how they handle Supreme Court requests per week (one case per week, max two cases in real emergencies).