OOC: "Third World" inclusion in the World Congress

[Reddy]

I am unsure about giving the Third World any seats. I certainly think it would prove too complicated and based on highly fluctuating player activity and turnover in that area. I think adding 2 seats would end up giving too much power to a handful of players active in the TW. The average SC member probably needs a minimum of 15 votes to be elected. If we give the TW 2 seats and it ends up with say an average of 10 players(some who already control seats in the old world) it will delegitimise the election process somewhat with rotten boroughs. That is not say that this is a bad idea, it could indeed vitalise the TW.

If we have to have it, I personally favour one seat.

[jamescfm]

Thank you to everyone that has given feedback and voted in the poll, I think that has been a useful process. The results are pretty much a tie (especially if you were to exclude my own vote) but that isn't a major problem I don't think.

Based on the feedback in this thread, it seems that the most sensible approach would be to adopt a single seat for the non-playable countries, voted on by the other players in those countries. Even though numerically there may be more players supporting two seats compared to one, it seems that most players who support two seats, like me, do not have a major issue if only one seat is introduced. In addition, implementing one additional seat would minimise the problem that Reddy mentioned, whereby we might have a seat that only has one or two voting players in it.

The next step is to decide how to allocate this seat among the countries. Personally I would be in favour of an electoral process of some kind, but this will potentially have some drawbacks. There are two situations that I would particularly be concerned about, specifically. The first is players who control multiple countries grouping their votes together in a manner that runs contrary to the spirit of the process. The second would be players who already control Security Council members using a non-playable country to reinforce their position.

In both of these cases, it seems that it would not be possible to totally manage the process. In the latter case for example, it isn't always clear which countries will end up being elected to the Security Council so it would seem unfair to exclude players just on the chance that they might. The best approach that I can see is that we adopt some conventions, rather than enforcing strict rules on the process.

The system I would recommend: in advance of each Security Council session, a thread is created where the controllers of non-playable countries can signal their desire to stand in the election for the new "Seat E". If there is more than one country that wishes to stand, then the controllers attempt to discuss among themselves who should be elected in out-of-character terms. If no conclusion is reached from the discussion then the World Congress controller can hold a formal vote on the matter, in which each controller (not each country) is entitled to a single vote.

The main feature of a system like this is that it would not be an in-character process and would allow the involved players to consider out-of-character factors such as activity and diversity when making the decision about the country that should be elected. What do other people think of this system? Does it sound too convoluted? Is it fair to those involved? Please share your thoughts.

[XanderOne]

I fully agree on the fact that it should be an OOC process among the players controlling the non playable nations. Fair is fair, these players are the main involved and these players must debate among them about the election/appointment. I don't think it is too convoluted, probably it is the most reasonable way to handle such a matter.

[John Cracker]

I agree

[jamescfm]

Originally I had intended to wrap this up a couple of days ago but that was interrupted by server outages. I am going to take the relative lack of response to be a tacit endorsement from players and go ahead with the system I proposed in my previous post. For the sake of clarity, here it is again:

In advance of each Security Council session, a thread is created where the controllers of non-playable countries can signal their desire to stand in the election for the new "Seat E". If there is more than one country that wishes to stand, then the controllers attempt to discuss among themselves who should be elected in out-of-character terms. If no conclusion is reached from the discussion then the World Congress controller can hold a formal vote on the matter, in which each controller (not each country) is entitled to a single vote.

The first thread of this kind will be posted shortly and I will update the World Congress Information thread to reflect the new changes.