Kuriko For Himes West - RP to Revival!

[Lenlyvit]

Greetings, fellow friends and Islanders. Today I am publishing this message not as your incumbent delegate, but rather as a candidate for the Senate seat of Himes West. Before we get into that though, I believe giving a little bit of background information about myself is the best thing to do.

My name, as you know, is Kuriko at this time but quite awhile ago I was known as Lenlyvit. I started playing NationStates in 2012 by joining XKI, but back then I didn't know anything beyond answering issues and quickly grew bored. I returned to NS in August 2016, and since then I've helped defend innocent regions and I've held multiple government jobs throughout the multiverse including being WA Delegate here in my home region.

But enough of that, I think it's time to discuss what I think qualifies me to hold the position of the Himes West Senate seat as well as what I hope to accomplish. Many of you don't know it, but before I rejoined XKI in 2017 I had created my own region. This region, which has survive for over two years, is RP centric and does nothing but RP. I was able to build a great moderation team to keep it going, and I believe that if given the chance I can do the same thing here.

My plans will start out small if I'm elected, because I think it'll take awhile to get things sorted out and back running again. I'll lay that out in the following spoilers:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Moderation}
If elected, I plan on working with Central Ruska to create rules concerning moderating the role play. I also plan on working with the community to find out who else will be good potential moderators, and building a core team of reliable members that will ensure rules and regulations are followed.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Factbooks and National Information}
If elected, I plan on getting together a team of role players who knows how to code factbooks and National Information pages. With their help, I'll work on creating a guide on how to write well written factbooks and national information guides.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Realism in the Role Play}
My biggest pet-peeve when it comes to role play is realism. If elected I will ensure that there is a realistic aspect to our role play, from realistic nation populations to realistic events/time frames. The hardest thing is realistic timeframes, so we would need to work together to come up with a time frame to do things.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Maps, Maps, and more Maps!}
I think maps are awesome. They can hold lots of information, and they are a necessary thing for any role play to have. I plan on finding one, if not multiple, people who know how to create maps to go with our regional role play. These maps could range from one large overarching RP map with all the nations, to smaller more condensed maps of the nation's themselves.

Aaannnddd that was long once again. Anyways, vote Kuriko for Himes West!!

[Witchcraft and Sorcery]

Super excited to see you stepping up on this, Kuri. RP has a bright future indeed.

[Louisistan]

I'm happy to see you have decided to run for the council yet again!

Here's a few questions:

1.) Will you ensure space for "casual" roleplayers?

2.) Will you try to reconcile 10ki RP with the regional map?

[Paffnia]

What do you think about the Transparency Act? With some time passed since the law passed, how would you evaluate how it's gone? What would you like changed, if anything?

[Lenlyvit]

Mar 7, 2019 10:18:27 GMT -5 Louisistan said:

I'm happy to see you have decided to run for the council yet again!

Here's a few questions:

1.) Will you ensure space for "casual" roleplayers?

2.) Will you try to reconcile 10ki RP with the regional map?

Hey Louis, thanks for the questions! I'll answer them below:

1. I honestly think casual RP is a good thing, but it definitely needs rules. It also needs guidelines on what's allowed, what's appropriate, and how it is handled. So to answer your question, I think a "maybe" is in order. I'll definitely try to work something out if elected.

2. The answer to this one is: it depends on what the updated new map looks like. Depending on what Pengu's map in PNG form looks like, I'll definitely consider it.

[Lenlyvit]

Mar 7, 2019 11:59:11 GMT -5 Paffnia said:

What do you think about the Transparency Act? With some time passed since the law passed, how would you evaluate how it's gone? What would you like changed, if anything?

I think it's working out pretty well, but like others have said we still haven't seen the full scope of it play out. As of now I wouldn't change it, and my evaluation is that the public comment part is working out really well.

[Ater Nox]

Hi Lenlyvit, good luck with the election. I apologise in advance, I'm going to question you a little more than people running for other senate seats. I understand that a lot of this is probably for whoever is elected to consider post-election, and a lot of the issues might not actually be a problem, but I'd like to know if you have any ideas on any of it at the moment. Also, for the things that are likely up to the community to decide, which way you would be leaning. Initial thoughts are ok with me, I'm not really looking for hard promises (except for the last question)

RP activity questions:

How do you think you can encourage people who RP to use the RP board more? Are you planning on starting a few RPs yourself to 'seed' the board?

How will you encourage people who haven't RPed before to join in?

Something I've noticed a lot when it comes to RP is that a fair few people will sign up, but then post once or twice then sort of fade out. What will you do to encourage engagement and upkeep of RPs rather than a stream of new RPs that don't go anywhere?


With respect to nation RPing:

What do you envision for the RP board with respect to nations? Are you aiming to create a collective world of the nations of the participants, or something more loose?

Will there be some sort of canon? How would it be enforced?

In the past, people have complained that RP population was tied to NS nation population. I suppose people tend to want to be big countries, either population-wise or power-wise, and not a poorer country with little political influence. Do you have any thoughts on how to address this without ending up with everyone ending up as a superpower?

I've noticed a lot of people tend to be interested in wars in RP. This can lead to people coming up with ludicrously large militaries and acting in ways that wouldn't fly in a RL international politics (eg North Korea style threats). On the other hand, realistic responses like you seen in RL such as sanctions and so forth aren't very welcoming to someone who is new. Do you have any thoughts on how to deal with this, and ensure the RP scene is welcoming to new people who might make a few mistakes?

Another complaint has been that there were too many rules and requirements to join in on the more realistic RPs here. Do you have any ideas about how to address this, while still ensuring realism?

Some people's nations are set in the future, or the past, or aren't realistic in some other way, say because all the people are super intelligent dogs. How will you help them join in?


Other questions:

Do you have any other ideas of things you would like to do as Senator outside the reports?

What is your favourite breakfast?

[Paffnia]

Crossing party lines, such as they are, to offer my full endorsement, Lenlyvit. You've been the best delegate we've had in a while, and your input and leadership on the Council are both immense. Looking forward to seeing where the RP sector goes.

[Jabberwocky]

What would you do to promote greater involvement by other party members?

[Lenlyvit]

Mar 8, 2019 15:15:42 GMT -5 Ater Nox said:

Hi Lenlyvit, good luck with the election. I apologise in advance, I'm going to question you a little more than people running for other senate seats. I understand that a lot of this is probably for whoever is elected to consider post-election, and a lot of the issues might not actually be a problem, but I'd like to know if you have any ideas on any of it at the moment. Also, for the things that are likely up to the community to decide, which way you would be leaning. Initial thoughts are ok with me, I'm not really looking for hard promises (except for the last question)

RP activity questions:

How do you think you can encourage people who RP to use the RP board more? Are you planning on starting a few RPs yourself to 'seed' the board?

How will you encourage people who haven't RPed before to join in?

Something I've noticed a lot when it comes to RP is that a fair few people will sign up, but then post once or twice then sort of fade out. What will you do to encourage engagement and upkeep of RPs rather than a stream of new RPs that don't go anywhere?


With respect to nation RPing:

What do you envision for the RP board with respect to nations? Are you aiming to create a collective world of the nations of the participants, or something more loose?

Will there be some sort of canon? How would it be enforced?

In the past, people have complained that RP population was tied to NS nation population. I suppose people tend to want to be big countries, either population-wise or power-wise, and not a poorer country with little political influence. Do you have any thoughts on how to address this without ending up with everyone ending up as a superpower?

I've noticed a lot of people tend to be interested in wars in RP. This can lead to people coming up with ludicrously large militaries and acting in ways that wouldn't fly in a RL international politics (eg North Korea style threats). On the other hand, realistic responses like you seen in RL such as sanctions and so forth aren't very welcoming to someone who is new. Do you have any thoughts on how to deal with this, and ensure the RP scene is welcoming to new people who might make a few mistakes?

Another complaint has been that there were too many rules and requirements to join in on the more realistic RPs here. Do you have any ideas about how to address this, while still ensuring realism?

Some people's nations are set in the future, or the past, or aren't realistic in some other way, say because all the people are super intelligent dogs. How will you help them join in?


Other questions:

Do you have any other ideas of things you would like to do as Senator outside the reports?

What is your favourite breakfast?

I'm sorry this took so long Ater.

RP activity questions:

How do you think you can encourage people who RP to use the RP board more? Are you planning on starting a few RPs yourself to 'seed' the board?

My thinking is, the best way to get people to use the RP board more is to use the tools given to us to make it more visible and better known. This could include using the region-wide telegram system, using the forum announcement option, and many more things I can't think of but surely will. As I myself would like to get involved in role play here in XKI, I probably would start out by creating a few RP's to seed the board but I wouldn't moderate them myself.

To be fair, I feel like things should be discussed and worked out before anything happens though. I don't know what people are in to, and I think when I discover that it will shape how I go about things.

How will you encourage people who haven't RPed before to join in?

There are quite a few ways, some of which I answered above. Use tools to inform them of the RP, create guides on how to RP effectively so it's easier for them to understand, and possibly create an RP mentoring program.

Something I've noticed a lot when it comes to RP is that a fair few people will sign up, but then post once or twice then sort of fade out. What will you do to encourage engagement and upkeep of RPs rather than a stream of new RPs that don't go anywhere?

Ah, I've given this quite a bit of thought in the last few days since you posted it. I've kind of come up with two ways, although they need a lot of work and it will take some time. I was thinking something along the lines of what TITO does, what with its Battle Stars and Medals.

Creating an RP ranking system, where each of their RP posts are counted and totalled after an RP concludes, doesn't seem like a bad idea to me. After a certain amount of RP posts are reached they receive a star, or a coin, or what-have-you like TITO members receive after a mission. Then after they reach an amount like 100, or 200, depending on the system created, they receive a colored banner to show where they rank in the community of RPers by post count.

On the flip side, my other idea isn't so hard to accomplish. With each RP started there could be a Medal with the name of the RP on it, showing that they completed that particular RP. This would encourage people to see the RP through to the end, I hope, and if I'm elected I look forward to being able to work on these.

With respect to nation RPing:[/u]

What do you envision for the RP board with respect to nations? Are you aiming to create a collective world of the nations of the participants, or something more loose?

This is something I've been thinking about all day, trying to find a way to answer this one last question (because I skipped it at first). My vision with respect to nations is to create a world, a world worth exploring and reading into with diverse nations and governments. A world with substance instead of being shallow.

A collective world would be ideal, however what about multiple worlds? A world for each level of technology where nations with the same tech level can congregate may be a good idea, or it may be a crappy idea. It's worth exploring, and if elected I'll have 4 months to work on this stuff and find harmony.

Will there be some sort of canon? How would it be enforced?

This is tricky. I, loving to read books, would love to read and write canon. However, it would be hard to enforce it I think. I honestly don't know, and I think I would like to investigate this.

In the past, people have complained that RP population was tied to NS nation population. I suppose people tend to want to be big countries, either population-wise or power-wise, and not a poorer country with little political influence. Do you have any thoughts on how to address this without ending up with everyone ending up as a superpower?

My thoughts are a little complicated on this, I guess. Something we could do is come up with a size scale on whatever map we use, and using that figure out how much land each nation holds. From there we could possibly figure out how much population that land could sustain, and max out that particular nations population at the size their territory can sustain.

I've noticed a lot of people tend to be interested in wars in RP. This can lead to people coming up with ludicrously large militaries and acting in ways that wouldn't fly in a RL international politics (eg North Korea style threats). On the other hand, realistic responses like you seen in RL such as sanctions and so forth aren't very welcoming to someone who is new. Do you have any thoughts on how to deal with this, and ensure the RP scene is welcoming to new people who might make a few mistakes?

As with RL nations, size of the military of a nation directly corresponds with that nation's total population. Working from the maximum size of a nation's population, we could set a percentage amount of their population that could be in the military. So say, your nation has 330,000,000 men but you want a realistic military size. This population is comparable to the US, which has a military size of .05% of the total population of the nation. I'm thinking a standard percentage to use for all nations is worth exploring so that the only difference is nation pop.

The second part of your question, about sanctions and such things being unwelcoming to newcomers, could be countered probably. I'm thinking of creating an RP mentor program that will help prevent newcomers from making mistakes by teaming them up with experienced mentors.

Another complaint has been that there were too many rules and requirements to join in on the more realistic RPs here. Do you have any ideas about how to address this, while still ensuring realism?

Rules are needed to ensure realism, otherwise it wouldn't be very real. However, requirements seems like a weird thing to have to join in on an RP. I'll have to consult with CR first, but I'll see what I can work out because I want to figure out how it was run before so as to not make the same mistakes.

Some people's nations are set in the future, or the past, or aren't realistic in some other way, say because all the people are super intelligent dogs. How will you help them join in?

An interesting question, and one that needs some thought. In my opinion it shouldn't matter if the species isn't human, or seems unrealistic, because role playing is all about the imagination. I would encourage people to be a bit wacky, and if the species isn't human then I would ask a description be written to explain the species.

As for technology wise, it might be a good idea to separate nation RP into three categories. Past Tech, Modern Tech, and Future Tech are the three most likely to be used while throwing Postmodern Tech in with Future Tech. Some may not be used, some may be used more than others. But having the options there would be a good idea.

Other questions:

Do you have any other ideas of things you would like to do as Senator outside the reports?

At this point my main priority would be to get the RP set up and running, so I'm not really thinking about this too much at the moment. One thing I want to continue doing is being discussed by the Co9 right now, so I can't detail it really.

What is your favourite breakfast?

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal

[Lenlyvit]

I wish I could have answered some of them better than I did.

Mar 11, 2019 19:45:10 GMT -5 Paffnia said:

Crossing party lines, such as they are, to offer my full endorsement, Lenlyvit. You've been the best delegate we've had in a while, and your input and leadership on the Council are both immense. Looking forward to seeing where the RP sector goes.

Paffnia, this means more to me than I can put into words. Thank you!!

[Paffnia]

Congrats Lenlyvit!

[Louisistan]

Congratulations!

[Lenlyvit]

Thanks guys!!