SC Proposal: Commend Destructive Government Economic System

[Grea Kriopia]

Commend Destructive Government Economic System

A resolution to recognize outstanding contribution by a nation or region.

Category: Commendation

Nominee(nation): Destructive Government Economic System

Proposed By: 9003

The Security Council,

Inspired by Destructive Government Economic System (DGES)’s unprecedented suggestion in the early International Art Trade to collect artifacts from nations which had ceased to exist to preserve each nations’ history,

Convinced by its persuasive argument that collecting these artifacts should be pursued before it’s too late, as we already see the effects of time degrading these artifacts as they disappear,

Observing the sheer and unparalleled amount of ancient artifacts from nations that no longer exist preserved by DGES;

Admiring DGES’ enthusiastic collecting and maintaining of these artifacts to fight for their dwindling preservation, which has amassed a spectacular collection of:

• Tens of thousands of artifacts from a diverse range of nations and cultures, which have been carefully and indiscriminately displayed in DGES’ museums,

• Over 200 artifacts from nations where no other artifact has been found from, thus granting relevancy to forgotten communities,

• many hard to find artifacts eg. “Soops”, “Mindless contempt”, and “Sionis Prioratus”;

Appreciating that DGES has loaned out hard to find artifacts to provide an opportunity for more exact copies of these artifacts to be created permitting for more nations to display in their galleries and preserve their legacy, eg. NASTIC 2 and Lord Ravenclaw;

Pleased that DGES shares more the 16,000 Ex-Nations works of art in a gallery;

Noting that through service in The North Pacific Cards Guild as a Deputy Guildmaster DGES:

• has worked on growing the community of art collectors,

• wrote an extremely in depth guide to help novice and experienced art collectors while collecting and enabling nations with less resources to learn of strategies to pursue their goals in collecting,

• has assisted in creating a monthly competition to find, recognize, and awarding the best art collections on certain themes,

• provided critical feedback on the development and operation of The North Pacific’s “31 Days of Legendaries”, a program to giveaway 31 Legendary quality pieces of art including “The Hive Mind of Testlandia” valued at 328 bank at the time,

Encouraging DGES’s support of others in their art collecting endeavours by donating priceless works of art to other nations, including “Sciongrad”, “Menta Lee-IL”, and “Reploid Productions”;

Hereby Commends Destructive Government Economic System.

Co-authored by Praeceps

This is the discussion thread. To cast your vote, go HERE

[HumanSanity]

FOR
DGES is well recognized in the cards community for being a friendly face and good guiding hand. His work contributing to TNP's Cards Guide has been helpful, in my understanding, to that whole project - which has been a massive success and is completely unprecedented.

Arguably most importantly, he created this guide for Trading Cards. It's how I learned about Trading Cards initially, its very comprehensive and even covers very advanced trading cards techniques: www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1301085

So yeah, good things. I also think there's something to be said for the fact that, OOC, Trading Cards is probably the most inviting sub-culture/sub-game within NS and that tone was set by DGES and other early pioneers of cards. That's obviously not 100% DGES' doing, nor is it something listed in the Commendation per se, but I wanted to throw it out there

[Deleted]

While I appreciate a good collection as much as the next person, I don't necessarily think this is worthy of an SC commendation. There are a variety of collecting guides out there, and, pull events and card giveaways are pretty common throughout NS. The target didn't invent any of this (although I think TNP as a region was instrumental). I'm not really seeing the benefit to the greater NS community in one person owning all of these cards, as opposed to them being distributed in collections throughout the community. The reason many of these cards are so hard to come by is not that they are undesirable to collectors, and would otherwise have been destroyed, but that they became too costly for most to purchase. The reality is that hoarding like this has grossly inflated the card market, and in many cases, these collectors are manipulating card prices, to the exclusion of ownership by many thousands of less wealthy collectors.

THX through its WA proxy will vote Against.

[Jabberwocky]

Since I'm not involved in card collecting, I question whether it's all worthy of Commendation. It's really of little interest except to anyone BUT card collectors. Against

[HumanSanity]

Apr 30, 2020 10:39:42 GMT -5 @thx1138 said:

There are a variety of collecting guides out there, and, pull events and card giveaways are pretty common throughout NS.

1) DGES has by far and away the best card guide that has been created. It must have taken exceptional work to create. It is detailed and covers almost every detail of the Trading Card system including its more complicated aspects (e.g. bank transfers, dropping, etc.). I doubt DGES is the only person who could have done this, but he is certainly the one who put forth the time and effort to do it and there is a reason no one else has replicated that.
2) Pull events and giveaways are pretty common, but DGES was one of the first to be a part of them (as I understand it). Additionally, using them as community building events on the scale that DGES/TNP do is unprecedented (and in such a cosmopolitan way that all of NS is invited, not just TNPers).

Apr 30, 2020 10:39:42 GMT -5 @thx1138 said:

I'm not really seeing the benefit to the greater NS community in one person owning all of these cards, as opposed to them being distributed in collections throughout the community. The reason many of these cards are so hard to come by is not that they are undesirable to collectors, and would otherwise have been destroyed, but that they became too costly for most to purchase. The reality is that hoarding like this has grossly inflated the card market, and in many cases, these collectors are manipulating card prices, to the exclusion of ownership by many thousands of less wealthy collectors.

I think this argument is *far* better but leaves me in a quandary of sorts. Are there any Commendable cards-related actions if developing a strong collection is not Commendable? And, should collectors avoid attempting to build strong collections?

Everything you're saying is true but is also a product of the modern era of NS writ large where specific sub-games have become highly specialized to where only the most "elite" can compete and lower level participants lose their place. As things have become more intense for the people at their highest levels, they've become more exclusive and cards is no different.

This isn't DGES' fault, it's not really anyone's fault. The cards market is in some ways failing because it has no natural checks against rampant inflation and exclusivity. I don't know what those checks would be--higher transfer fees? Market/auction fees? Raising junk fees to keep up with inflation? Making card drop rates higher on WA nations to decrease the utility of farming? Limiting the number of puppets you can farm off of?--but they're certainly beyond the scope of any one player to enact.

Apr 30, 2020 16:27:18 GMT -5 Jabberwocky said:

Since I'm not involved in card collecting, I question whether it's all worthy of Commendation. It's really of little interest except to anyone BUT card collectors. Against

1) I have little interest in role playing, but I recognize some people are very very good at it and that it's a valuable part of the game. Top collectors, like DGES, spend over an hour every day working on their cards, in the same way that the best military GPers spend over an hour at update, and preparing for update, every day.

2) DGES has made efforts to make cards of interest to more than just aggressive collectors - see above.

[Deleted]

Apr 30, 2020 17:24:14 GMT -5 HumanSanity said:

1) DGES has by far and away the best card guide that has been created. It must have taken exceptional work to create. It is detailed and covers almost every detail of the Trading Card system including its more complicated aspects (e.g. bank transfers, dropping, etc.). I doubt DGES is the only person who could have done this, but he is certainly the one who put forth the time and effort to do it and there is a reason no one else has replicated that.
2) Pull events and giveaways are pretty common, but DGES was one of the first to be a part of them (as I understand it). Additionally, using them as community building events on the scale that DGES/TNP do is unprecedented (and in such a cosmopolitan way that all of NS is invited, not just TNPers).

Full credit where it's due. If this had been a regional commendation of TNP for establishing the best implementation of NS Cards, It would have my support. The region was way ahead of the game both in terms of farming, and in making use of the cards as incentives. Everyone else followed that blueprint - wide NS community benefit. But, since I was in TNP when it all began, I know who drove the implementation piece at the start, and it wasn't DGES. As for the guide, I agree with Jabber in it having a very niche appeal. I've never looked at it, and I'm a collector.

I don't see anything wrong with building a collection, I do it myself, but it's of little benefit to anyone but me that I do. The whole crux of this commendation is that in collecting the cards, the target has somehow done NS a service, which I reject on the face of it. Having a good collection may be admirable, but it's not commendable, because there's little or no community benefit. The argument that this is somehow preserving the cards from loss or destruction is also dubious, since having these cards in wider circulation (and broader ownership) would serve the cause of preservation in a much more significant (and safe) way. I'm not upset that they own the cards, but I'm not convinced that their owning the cards is good for the NS card game overall, or game-wide culture.

[dollystania]

This is ridiculous. A nation shouldn’t be commended just for being rich and having the largest card collection.