(03-19-2022, 04:52 AM)Pronoun Wrote: Where do we draw the line between on-site and off-site communities? What about on-site and off-site mechanics? On-site and off-site gameplay?

There should never have been a line between them. That divide never should have existed. The forums ultimately derive from the gameside. The gameside and the forums are one and the same, and should have the same government.

(03-19-2022, 04:52 AM)Pronoun Wrote: NationStates is a game with many different mechanics: issues, trading cards, factbooks, World Assembly resolutions, and much more. Our regional government (both on-site and off-site, for however little value that distinction holds) already engages with a wide range of in-game mechanics and features: the RMB, the WFE, regional polls, regional officers, influence, endorsements, mass telegrams, dispatches, and more. There is no neat line that we can draw through these mechanics to separate on-site from off-site. Terms like the 'gameside' or 'off-site' community can mean whatever we want them to mean when no distinction truly exists. Does the MoD not engage with the in-game mechanics of regional telegrams in order to recruit players for a liberation operation? Does the CRS not engage with the in-game mechanics of endorsements and influence when considering regional security? Does the MoFA not engage with the in-game mechanics of military gameplay when negotiating mutual defense treaties with other regions? Does the MoE not engage with the in-game mechanics of dispatches when writing guides for new players? Does the High Court not engage with the in-game mechanics of ejections and bans when issuing sentences for criminal offences?

Clearly, our 'off-site' government doesn't just engage with on-site mechanics; it is built upon them. Dividing our government into a false dichotomy between on-site and off-site communities is a misnomer at best and intentionally acrimonious at worst. It advances a false self-fulfilling prophecy that there exists a gameside community and an off-site one. Speaking in broad strokes about 'building a vibrant gameside community' or 'improving collaboration between the gameside and forumside' easily evokes notions of two distinct communities separated by their chosen venues of discussion. In reality, we're all in the same region, playing the same game. It just happens that the game has many different mechanics — far more than any simple separation between gameside and forumside could accurately represent.

I agree.

The existence of a separate government for the gameside, like the local council, instead of integrating the gameside with our ministries, just effectively reinforces the idea of a separation, a virtual divide, that never should have existed in the first place.

We should integrate and unify the South Pacific. Get rid of the Local Council, and include the RMB within the scope of the Ministries of Engagement and Culture.

#AbolishTheLCNow!