As most of you will hopefully be aware by now, since about this time last year, Particracy has had a system where Cultural Protocols needs to be affirmed each Cultural Era, or else the nation becomes a candidate for Culturally Open status. For more detailed information on what Cultural Protocols are and how they work, please read sections 6 and 15-17 of the Game Rules.
We are now at the close of Particracy's third Cultural Era. There are 2 categories of candidates for us to look at...
Category One: automatic candidates/new Cultural Protocols
In accordance with section 17 of the Game Rules, the first category consists of the 3 newly-created Cultural Protocols (ie. those set up during the Cultural Era which has just closed). These are the Cultural Protocols for...
Kalistan
Klavia Okeano/Keymon
Malivia
We are inviting feedback on how these Cultural Protocols have been working out, how players feel about them and whether or not they should continue into the next Cultural Era.
Category Two: unaffirmed Cultural Protocols
In accordance with section 15 of the Game Rules, the second category consists of the 5 Cultural Protocols which were not affirmed by players during the Cultural Era that has just closed. These are the Cultural Protocols for...
Aldegar
Barmenia
Dankuk/Dranland
Egelion
Indrala
On the previous two occasions, we went into the End of Cultural Era consultation with fixed quotas in mind in terms of how many of the Category Two Cultural Protocols would be saved. This time we are taking a different approach, where we are not starting out with any fixed quota, but will instead try to examine each candidate, listen carefully to player feedback and make a decision on the basis of the merits of each individual case.
That said, we do encourage you to try to be nuanced in your feedback, outlining a hierarchy of preferences as opposed to just saying "Save them all" or "Scrap them all".
As some of you will recall, the Cultural Protocol for Dankuk was a candidate at the close of the previous Cultural Era back in September. This does not mean it cannot be saved again this time, but it does naturally mean it is under extra scrutiny this time.
Notes on the consultation process
If you want to argue for a Cultural Protocol to be maintained, please avoid laborious explanations and excuses for why it didn't get affirmed. Instead, tell us what the Cultural Protocol means in practice to you. Present a positive case for why it should continue into the next Cultural Era.
The final choices will be made by Moderation, but before we make the decision, we want to hear as much feedback as possible.
When discussing a candidate nation on this thread, please tell us a little about your background in the game and provide links to your relevant in-game party account(s). If you do not do this, we may, for example, not realise you have been playing in the nation for the last year as opposed to being someone from outside the nation who has never actually played there.
We would like this process to be as open as possible. Every player in every candidate nation will be messaged about what the situation is and about this specific thread. Players may, if they wish, approach us privately with their views, but we would prefer if they gave their feedback here, in public, on this thread.
However, in order to ensure this openness, all posters have a responsibility to be civil. Every player in this game needs to feel comfortable coming to this thread and participating in this process. No matter how strong the emotions involved may be, courtesy must be maintained at all times.
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One of the factors we are interested in is how the candidate nations have fared in terms of player numbers during the current Cultural Era. Some in-game cultures are more popular than others, meaning some nations are regularly filled with players, whilst others spend most of the time as one-party states.
I have compiled a Party Numbers Rating for each of the unaffirmed nations. This works by dividing the Cultural Era into 5 periods, giving each nation a rating for each period and then adding up all of a nation's period ratings to give it its final score.
For each period, nations were given points based on their election with the highest number of parties with seats and their election with the lowest number of parties with seats.
No points were allocated for having just one party, but for each party after that, points were based on the number of parties with seats. In other words, 0 parties = 0 points, 1 party = 0 points, 2 parties = 2 points, 3 parties = 3 points, 4 parties = 4 points and so on.
To give an example of how many points a nation might win for a period, if its election with the lowest number of parties with seats was 4 and its election with the highest number of parties with seats was 7, then it would win 11 points (7+4). Similarly, if its election with the lowest number of parties with seats was 1 and its election with the highest number of parties with seats was 3, then it would win 3 points (3+0).
Without further ado, the Party Numbers Ratings are as follows:
Egelion - 35
Dankuk - 9
Aldegar - 4
Indrala - 4
Barmenia - 0
Of course, these ratings are intended to inform the process of deciding which Cultural Protocols to save, not to determine it. As we will no doubt hear soon from others, there are factors other than player numbers which affect how deserving a Cultural Protocol may be thought to be of saving.
This is a sensitive process and we want to say we understand how, for some of you - including some of our most devoted players - the final outcomes may be difficult to accept. We take no satisfaction in this. Please be assured we are trying to conduct this process as fairly as we can. And remember the choice of which Cultural Protocols to save and which to allow to expire will not be a personal judgement on any particular player or group of players.
One final request: no polls on this, please. Forum polls are easy to manipulate, because some players have multiple forum accounts.