Senate Confirmation Thread: Australian Swing Voter for Deputy Game Moderator

[Pericles]

I, Mr. Reactionary, by the authority vested in me by the Laws of the Republic of Atlasia as Game Moderator, first officer of the game engine thereof, hereby nominate AustralianSwingVoter for the position of Deputy Game Moderator. Tmthforu94 and JK2020 are hereby relieved of their duties and thanked for their service.

- R

The nominee has 24 hours to make an opening statement.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Would urge the Senate to reject as I do not believe this nominee can be trusted in such a huge position of power.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

If it isn't clear already, if confirmed as Deputy GM I would be focused on the story side of the equation.
Firstly, to allay concerns about me going out of control, as with previous deputies absolutely all stories I write would have to be approved by the GM first.
The GM office has essentially been dormant for over a year now, since Truman resigned as GM. Story output has been somewhere between extremely patchy and non-existent. Mr R has gone through quite a few Deputy GMs now, and all have failed to be at all active.
In my time in the game I have always been consistently active, and I've always proven to be extremely imaginative and creative. If confirmed I would continue how I have always gone.
Quite frankly, given no one else has even had the initiative to apply to fill the role, and given Mr R can keep my rampant imagination under control, what harm is there in at least giving me a try to see if I can provide active story-making.
I think what is paramount to an effective GM office is making sure the story output is engaging and entertaining, to keep players interested. As Deputy I would balance serious full stories with an element of humour through shorter stories or simply entertaining headlines as addendums. In terms of activity, my goal would be an edition of stories being released weekly as a bare minimum, with stories far more often most of the time.
There is also great importance in integrating Atlasian in game activities to the GM's stories. Reactions to legislation and political occurrences are useful in giving a more vivid backdrop to Atlasia, and giving officeholders more opportunities for activity.
A major area for potential stories is state governments. Previous GMs have established as canon that the full state governments still exist, and as such they give many opportunities for good solid stories. State elections, controversial legislation, scandals, all of which can be enabled without affecting actual players.
I also think there are many opportunities for integrating players into stories. As Deputy I would seek to integrate reaction quotes from relevant players to add to the context of a story, and, with the permission of the player, occasionally do a story focused on a player.
Yes this is basically my rambling thoughts, questions from both Senators and members of the public would be very useful (PTSD to my last confirmation hearing).

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Is there a plan or desire to appoint another Deputy GM in the near future for the sake of numbers and budget evaluations?

What is your strategy for making the GM team more central to the function of the game. All of the things you mentioned can be done, but either as an isolated side operation or as a central feature that everyone is necessitated to pay attention to. How would you ensure that it is the latter?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Is there a plan or desire to appoint another Deputy GM in the near future for the sake of numbers and budget evaluations?

You'd have to ask Mr R about that. Though I can certainly give some help for numbers and budget evaluations.

What is your strategy for making the GM team more central to the function of the game. All of the things you mentioned can be done, but either as an isolated side operation or as a central feature that everyone is necessitated to pay attention to. How would you ensure that it is the latter?

Quite frankly beyond being consistently active and interesting the GM's office cannot make itself a central feature. It is the responsibility of Officeholders to make sure GM stories are a central function of the game. The GM's office cannot force itself to be important, officeholders must decide to what extent they treat the GM's office as important and as a central tenet of the game.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Is there a plan or desire to appoint another Deputy GM in the near future for the sake of numbers and budget evaluations?

Gladly accepting applications from our mathematically gifted citizens. In the meantime I can score some numbers if they are PMd to me.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Is there a plan or desire to appoint another Deputy GM in the near future for the sake of numbers and budget evaluations?

Gladly accepting applications from our mathematically gifted citizens. In the meantime I can score some numbers if they are PMd to me.

I take it that means no one has applied so far?

[Peanut]

First I would like to greet the nominee. Now, for the questions:

What should be the balance between regional and federal stories?

Do you believe stories should mostly be in response to legislation (such as the old glue-huffing granny story in Lincoln or stories Tmth made about the Lincoln tourist tax) or should they occur in a vacuum and be used to motivate (and not to respond to) legislative action?

You mention that you'd be on the story side of things. Should the need arise, do you have any credentials to take on statistics duties? How so? Are you at all interested in that area of GMing?

Last but not least, is your nomination an attempt to push through commie Australian values in our beautiful Atlasian society?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

What should be the balance between regional and federal stories?

I would think the optimal split would be maybe one third regional, one third federal and one third international.

Do you believe stories should mostly be in response to legislation (such as the old glue-huffing granny story in Lincoln or stories Tmth made about the Lincoln tourist tax) or should they occur in a vacuum and be used to motivate (and not to respond to) legislative action?

I'd think legislative response stories should make up between a third and half of story output.

You mention that you'd be on the story side of things. Should the need arise, do you have any credentials to take on statistics duties? How so? Are you at all interested in that area of GMing?

I can do research and I've got good excel skills, however I'm a fairly sloppy mathematician. I can certainly give legislators an idea of a ballpark guess of cost and affects, however I can't really help with the precise numbers that are now expected for budgets.

Last but not least, is your nomination an attempt to push through commie Australian values in our beautiful Atlasian society?

You may very well think that, I couldn't possibly comment.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

cough cough

[Devout Centrist]

Do you have any suggestions for GM reform?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Do you have any suggestions for GM reform?

The current system is probably the best system that is reasonably possible for the game. GM reform would at best do nothing and at worst harm the Game Engine even further. All current problems with the Game Engine are not structural, but solely relate to the long-term lack of active story writers.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Speaking as a former GM, I would say the current structure of the GM department does not reflect how the job has been done post-reset, so I would not be opposed to significant reforms.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

What evidence can you provide that you would not just use your stories to attack and demonize the left? (Reactionary is part of the right so he might approve of such activities)

[YE]

I for sure have concerns about the nominee in the sense that I feel his obsessive nature with certain topics and individuals whether that be standing orders, the wiki, SNJC, or recalls could be problematic, I wouldn’t consider ASV to be unsuited for partisanship reasons considering his current registration. For goodness sake Adam Griffin was GM once.

I also find room to disagree with his comments about GM reform.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

What evidence can you provide that you would not just use your stories to attack and demonize the left? (Reactionary is part of the right so he might approve of such activities)

It's a bit rich to still consider me part of the right given how I was essentially defenestrated a few months ago.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

I for sure have concerns about the nominee in the sense that I feel his obsessive nature with certain topics and individuals whether that be standing orders, the wiki, SNJC, or recalls could be problematic,

And if I was given borderless power, then you'd be very right to be concerned. However given that absolutely everything I do has to be approved by the GM, there's no need to be concerned about me going too far. And if anything my obsessive nature is a good thing, as it means I am obsessively motivated to produce a good steady output of stories, something the Game Engine is in desperate need of.

I also find room to disagree with his comments about GM reform.

Probably. I've never really given GM reform any thought. It's a vague area so who knows how to interpret it. If a concrete reform proposal was introduced then I'd be far better positioned to give a proper opinion.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

What if Mr. R went on leave for two weeks and said to you "feel free to release stories on your own while I'm gone, just don't be blatantly unethical/unfair"? What would be your principles of how to behave in such a situation?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

What if Mr. R went on leave for two weeks and said to you "feel free to release stories on your own while I'm gone, just don't be blatantly unethical/unfair"? What would be your principles of how to behave in such a situation?

I'd probably run stories through the President in such a case.

[Devout Centrist]

Do you have any suggestions for GM reform?

The current system is probably the best system that is reasonably possible for the game. GM reform would at best do nothing and at worst harm the Game Engine even further. All current problems with the Game Engine are not structural, but solely relate to the long-term lack of active story writers.

With all due respect, I have seen GMs in the past say the exact same things you have said and then, once in office, go inactive for lengthy periods of time (if not outright resign). I would like to think that these men weren't just bad at their job and that we can do better in the way we structure the GM team.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Do you have any suggestions for GM reform?

The current system is probably the best system that is reasonably possible for the game. GM reform would at best do nothing and at worst harm the Game Engine even further. All current problems with the Game Engine are not structural, but solely relate to the long-term lack of active story writers.

With all due respect, I have seen GMs in the past say the exact same things you have said and then, once in office, go inactive for lengthy periods of time (if not outright resign). I would like to think that these men weren't just bad at their job and that we can do better in the way we structure the GM team.

Restructuring the GM Team isn't going to make people more active.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Given that you wouldn't be accountable to the voters, what would be your motivation for actually doing your job? We've seen so many deputy GMs promise to be amazingly active and then fail to be such/abruptly leave the game - why should we believe you'll be different?

[fhtagn]

There really isn't a point to asking about GM reform to a Deputy GM nominee. They don't really hold any power to running the GM position, nor do they have a say in it's structure anyway.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

There really isn't a point to asking about GM reform to a Deputy GM nominee. They don't really hold any power to running the GM position, nor do they have a say in it's structure anyway.

It has been a general practice though to derive input on structure from the people who have to "make the crap function" and thus it behooves us to listen to them about suggestions to make the crap less crappy.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Given that you wouldn't be accountable to the voters, what would be your motivation for actually doing your job?

My obsessive personality. And there's a nice opportunity to provide some entertainment in the game, while still adding the serious content needed to sustain activity.

We've seen so many deputy GMs promise to be amazingly active and then fail to be such/abruptly leave the game - why should we believe you'll be different?

All the Senate can do is trust that I'll be active. Just like they trusted that all the previous Deputies would be active then gave them a chance to prove themselves. What's the harm in giving someone a chance to prove whether they can be active or not. It's not like there's anyone else wanting to do it presently.