Article
So it's that time again. Congress elections. And, yes, I am running again.
However, this time I am doing things different. I have argued in the past that no matter what you put as your platform people do not really care. It is more about just your name and what people see over and over in the media. So this time, in addition to this massive wall of text I will be posting, I will only publish one article and only make one shout to get it out there. That is it. We will then see what happens. I know that when people SPAM the crap out of the shout box they seem to get a much larger vote count than those that do not. Or it could be that they have more friends/multies that can do the large number of votes for them. Either way, we will see with this term's experiment. The results will be interesting, the best result in that I get elected to Congress, with the same or greater number of votes as prior terms, and the worst result is that I do not get elected. Either way, we will see.
Continuing my wall of text the people will not read, I will give some information as to what happened in Congress this term. Usually we have someone that does this weekly, but seems like she went a little AWOL this term, personal issues I believe, so no great loss, but, still, was a nice weekly read.
As each term starts the first order of business was in electing a Speaker of the House. Now, for those of you that do not know, the Speaker of the House does not have to actually be a Congress member. That's correct; the leader of the Congress does not have to be elected by the people. For those of you that constantly complain about the same people getting into positions of power over and over -- SoH is a perfect example of that. Now there are some requirements that the SoH needs to meet to be nominated: former Congressperson in the last six months, cannot be a freshman Congressperson, and has to be a US citizen. So, for example, I would only need to get two other people with me (since 3 nominations are required) to get Leroy Combs on the ballot as SoH. Leroy was banned a few times and this is his second or third character in the game. I have nothing personally against him; I am just using him as an example. So, he was in Congress within the time period and is a US citizen, so he could become SoH.
Another point on this is that Pfeiffer was nominated and won a close vote for SoH and then declared for the CP in the country. When declaring for CP, you have to quit from Congress. However, since he was still qualified to be SoH, he kept that position. After the election, Pfeiffer did step down and open up new elections for the SoH, but under the current set of laws he was not required to. The law, written by Pfeiffer, allows someone to be SoH and the CP at the same time. There is nothing to stop this other than Congress itself.
I tried to institute a change in which the SoH has to be an actual Congressperson, but is pretty much died in Congress this term. The consensus, of like half a dozen Congresspersons that contributed, was that Congress can self-regulate and that the law was good enough. Basically, the law is written so the United States could be run as a dictatorship and everyone was OK with that! Yeah! Think about that!
Along those lines, I also proposed an amendment to the laws for a way to deal with a vacancy in the SoH position since there were no contingencies for it. Well that law was discussed by me, two other Congresspersons and the CP Pfeiffer. To say it died due to lack of attention would be a gross understatement. Now I am not a legal scholar, nor do I pretend to be, but I hate loop-holes and our current set of laws is full of them. In trying to close this one it was pointed out that my proposal did not cover every possibility that could happen for a vacated SoH seat. No, there were no counters or changes suggested just complaints and silence.
For those that do not know, most of the people in Congress run, collect the gold, and only vote on stuff in-game - avoiding IRC and the forums. There have been a bunch of excuses this term: its summer, people on vacations, people are reading everything but just not commenting, or my favorite, Congress is dead. So, Congress is dead but do not do anything about it, just ignore it? This is who is elected. And on that note, when I did try to revive a few dead topics to get things moving again, I was personally attacked for not doing enough on the topics. See, if you do anything in the forums you take the chance that people see everything as a direct attack against them - whether or not they were actually discussed in the topic or not. That, or weeks of silence.
One of the next things Congress actually accomplished was the expansion of West Point. West Point is a nice tool to help new players learn the game mechanics, level up, and get a little extra damage when fighting with the MU bonus. West Point MU had 12 slots. That meant with the leader in the MU they could train and rotate out only 11 players over the training period. This is less than the average number of players joining the USA daily. CP Pfeiffer proposed a onetime request to expand West Point to 25 slots. There was no disagreement on that, however, I proposed going all the way to 50 slots. I always think that if we are going to do something do it all the way and not half-*** it. The total cost was going to be 185 gold. It seems like a lot of money but this was the last time funding would ever have to go to West Point; we would not have to discuss this again if we had a major baby boom and West Point was filled and there was a waiting list. How would retention be if people tried to get in and it was filled? Again, we have the money do it all the way or not at all, am I right or am I right?
Looking up, that is a crap-ton of text. Take a break, rest your eyes, because more is coming.
A great thing will be if someone actually reads this whole thing, I will get PMs or posts in this complaining that I was not that active or the excuses for their inactivity. Yet, days, weeks go by on topics and they are "unable" to find the time to post on the forums but can idle in-game for hours a day. And these are the people you vote into Congress. Think about that!
Ok, another item that was on the agenda this term started in the term before. That’s correct; this is a 60 day discussion that has gone nowhere. And, in all likelihood, will not be completed this term and roll over into the next term. This is the development of a national Elite MU. We have many MUs in the USA and the Army is the only national MU (ran and funded by the government) but it was time for a hard hitting Elite MU to be controlled by the USA. Discussion went back and forth, primarily about the creation of one from the bottom up or for one of the existing MUs to go from a private MU to a government one. Since discussion was going back and forth, I called for a vote on July 13 to decide on if creating one from scratch or bringing over a private on. It is pointless to argue details when we do not know which direction we were going to head. On July 19 the vote was started: as of today only 9 Congresspersons have voted. If you look at the current Congress and check the companies they work at you will notice that they are all working daily, but not able to get into the forums for a vote on a bill that could cost well over 1,000 gold? Remember, as a citizen and taxpayer, this is your money. How long would you need to decide on if we were even going to spend that much money? This was not even a vote on the fine details of the bill (that still has not really started) this was the vote on if we should really do it or not!
Pfeiffer has put forth a few programs this term, as part of his retention portion of his campaign pledge, and one of them was Jump Start. This program was basically a way to direct new players from day one through a series of step, like getting on IRC, Forums, etc... and rewarding them with food along the way. While food is still pretty cheap, a young player with high quality food will level up pretty quickly and starting to earn gold and spending it in the economy. This program, designed to go hand-and-hand with West Point, was pretty good. Again I thought the money being requested was a little low for the trial program, but as I said before do it all the way or not at all. I had some serious questions about the program, details, etc. and all were answered promptly and were real answers. Great! Discussion flowing should be able to move to a vote and get these newbs trained up and fighting for the red, white, and blue. Nope! Dead topic in less than 6 hours! A program with a relatively low cost to put into our young players in hopes of keeping them playing and training them up DIES IN 6 HOURS. *sigh*
From being in Congress for several terms I can say, and I am guilty of it as well, that Congress seems to get bogged down in the details of an idea before even discussing if the overall concept is feasible or acceptable. A program was put forward to find a way to loan MUs money for expansion of their member slots, expansion of their communes, etc... Instead of getting into it as "is this a good idea or not?" we went right into loan terms, payback dates, penalties, tracking. Minutiae. Time and time again the details kill Congress. You know that saying that you cannot see the forest from the trees; half the time it seems like was are staring at the forest and wondering why it is not a beach.
To Be Continued...... in Part Two
Previous article:
Another Presidential Candidate Opinion (13 years ago)
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....Running for Congress Again PT 2 (13 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.
