Article
Hello America,
I would have written you sooner, but it seems the Admin has no sense of humor and gave me the mute for a couple of days. Congress elections are upon us and I would like to take a moment to give you a summary of what this January Congress has been working on for the past month.
Office of Militia Services
The first major discussion of the term was the reformation of the Office of Militia Services, or OMS. The idea of an OMS has been around for quite some time, but it has never really been functional. Congress voted to reform it on January 6th, and spend more than a week trying to figure out what the OMS should do, and how we should do it. In the end, it was decided that OMS should aim to be a constant boost for American Military Units to assist in development, and that Hell On Wheels (HOW) should be the only program for boosting damage output in key battles. Unfortunately, the specifics of the program were never fully developed, so the OMS discussion will once again be pushed forward to the next term.
Project Cornucopia
The next program Congress looked at was Project Cornucopia, a.k.a. ProCorn. This program was set up to provide food to new players to allow them to fight and rank up quickly. It required citizens to upload an avatar and post on the eUS Forums, but recently had been getting very little traffic due to its low profile and the declining amount of new players entering the game. Congress decided to roll the ProCorn program into the Mentor program under the Department of Education. This allows mentors to give food directly to the new players who need it, at their own discresion without having to jump through any hoops.
Military and Foreign Affairs
If you've been paying attention this month, you know that the US has been on somewhat of a roller coaster on the international scene. When this Congress took office on Christmas Day, the American colonies in Mexico were squirming for freedom. When international help arrived, the United States backed off and allowed Mexico to regain all of her territories. Later in the month, American forces took a hop down under to help the Australians liberate themselves from Indonesian occupation. Unfortunately, that progress is being eroded since Indonesia violated a Non-Aggression Pact signed with the Aussies. Finally, the US was gearing up for a new full-scale campaign with some of our allies when we were surprised by a Polish attack on Alaska. As you know, we were able to rally our allies and push back the invasion. Now, we are on the offensive and have worked with friends around the world to remove Poland from our border. In doing so, we have freed most of Russia and continue to put constant pressure on a nation that used to impose its will on the rest of the world. This collaboration has led directly to the birth of the world's newest alliance, The Aleutian Pact. Obviously I can't talk about too many specifics of what Congress did with regards to these military affairs, but I can assure you it was not insignificant. We spent many late nights working hard to make sure the President and the troops had everything they needed to get the job done, while keeping an eye out to make sure it was done right.
Budget
The final project the Congress worked on this month was to create a budget. Believe it or not, it has been months since Congress actually sat down and voted on how to spend our tax dollars. I personally worked closely with President Feefaroni and Treasury Secretary Devoid to figure out what we could afford to spend and where we needed to spend it. I talked with directors of different programs to find out what they could do with certain levels of funding, and ultimately led the Congress to vote on the budget. I can't get into specifics because of national security concerns, but I can say that we have a sustainable plan to fund all the major programs we need for many months to come. One thing I would like to note is that we did budget funding for OMS, but that money will be redirected into Hell On Wheels until the Congress can actually come up with a plan for OMS.
Who Was Active?
The first vote of the term was to select the Speaker of the House. Fourteen of the twenty elected Congressmen voted, plus Feefaroni who was elected President one week later. Sadly, participation quicly dropped from there. By the end, only 9 Congressmen voted on the budget bill. Overall, 16 of the 19 members still in Congress ever voted in the forums. Here is a tally of how many times your representatives voted in the private Congress chambers:
Sir Hynotoad [STU] - 8
Kitmen [STU] - 8
Tosh OPoint [Moe] - 8
Kilazul [YoA] - 7
Sivle [STU] - 7
met33 [YoA] - 7
Krothar [YoA] - 7
RealD [YoA] - 7
LordRahl2 [Fed] - 6
MollyEmma [Fed] - 4
EzZek [YoA] - 3
genyo [STU] - 2
Talio Extremist [Fed] - 2
nuevokid [YoA] - 1
Mitron1 [Fed] - 1
I hope you will keep these numbers in mind when you go to the voting booth today.
Previous article:
eNPR and Christmas Congress (12 years ago)
Next article:
Announcing my Run (12 years ago)
About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. It's creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.
