o hai

[Anna Komnene]

No worries Mr. X.  I don't even think you did anything wrong, but I'm touched you stuck up for me.

Y'all are such drama queens. 

[Anna Komnene]

The amount of passive aggressiveness in this thread is pretty hilarious.  Honestly, I haven't been asking anyone to switch to the Mideast.

If someone thinks the Mideast is a fun place to be and wants to participate in what we have going on here, though, why the heck not?  It's a free country.  Nobody should have to stay some place they don't enjoy.  If people are coming to the Mideast, we should welcome them.  At least, that's what I would do if I was Governor.

[Anna Komnene]

First, yes I would welcome people to the region, especially if they are interested in running for office but also even if not.  Right now, we don't have that many candidates or people interested in running.  That makes things kind of boring.  Having active elections with exciting candidates would be much better for the region.  If that means I get voted out of office, that's okay.  I'd just find something else to do.

Your argument forgets too that people aren't robots.  Nobody can make anyone join another region.  The best anyone could do is ask.  People are free to say "No, I don't want to switch regions."  They might also say, "Okay, great your region looks like fun."  There's really no coercion involved in that scenario.  I think you're crediting the parties with way more strength than they actually have.  I'd lean more towards thinking that people can think for themselves.

Also, there are already mechanisms in place to discourage blatant "strategic registration."  Once someone switches regions, they can't switch again for another six months.  That's a really long time, so anyone that changes regions has to be prepared to stay there for the long haul.  Regions also tend to invalidate votes of people that just switched within the last week.

The real-life home-states argument makes even less sense because we have so many people in the game that don't even live in the United States, including you.  People from other countries should get special treatment by getting a free pass to choose anyone they want, while Americans should be frowned upon for picking the state that they want?  That's a pretty ridiculous idea.

The most important point, though, is that this is supposed to be a game that's fun.  If someone isn't having fun, or they think they might have fun in a different region, "the state of regions" is pretty irrelevant.  People may as well just not play if they can't enjoy themselves.

[Anna Komnene]

Duke before the election:  I love everyone.  Everyone loves me.  Let's have a group hug. 

Duke after the election:  Burn in hell Progressive Union!!!