Cultural protocol feedback

[jamescfm]

Based on the feedback so far, we have decided to approve four cultural protocols (Barmenistan, Kalopia, Luthori and Zardugal). Players are encouraged to continue discussing the remaining cultural protocols that we have not decided about yet.

Alduria: French
Hutori: Canadian
Ikradon: Ancient Egyptian-speaking African-American
Mordusia: English with French minority
Solentia: Arab
Vorona: English

[Pragma]

Alduria: keep
Hutori: keep
Ikradon: change to something
Mordusia: change to Luxembourgeois
Solentia: keep
Vorona: change to something

[Kubrick]

I'd argue to make Solentia open. There's already so few interest in Arab nations, it just guarantees another empty state.

[Zanz]

Yep, Solentia was always English speaking and always well populated in the long period I played there. A lot of history in English there, none AFAIK in Arabic.

[ChengherRares1]

I agree, Solentia should be back to open. I loved the nation as so and had always an European feeling.

[Pragma]

Do remember that "culturally open" tends to just mean "English", a culture we have plenty of.

[jamescfm]

Culturally open does not mean English, it means that players are not expected to follow any particular rules about character and country naming, other than those related to real-life variables. At the moment we have only six culturally open countries and among them are Endralon and Kanjor, both of which are consistently role-played as respectively Hungarian and French. Players wanting to play Solentia as an Arab country would be absolutely allowed to do so.

In terms of having plenty of English countries, we currently have Luthori, Mordusia and Rutania that are specifically "English" as well as Baltusia, Hutori, Kalistan and Likatonia that are English-speaking (based on the United States or Canada). All of these countries attract a disproportionately high number of players, with an average of 6.29 players per country right now, which is significantly higher than the overall average across the game (2.21 per country). In comparison, we have three Arab countries (Badara, Kafuristan and Solentia) that have two players between them (an average 0.67, well below the game average of 2.21).

Player numbers are not the only factor that should influence the decision but without a compelling argument in favour of keeping the cultural protocol, they do appear to suggest that making Solentia culturally open would drive player engagement.

[Reddy]

I believe that while non-English player numbers may never match English ones, restoring English translations could help improve their averages. Players like me in Cobura find ourselves more or less trapped in one party states as no one can even guess what kind of country Koinonia Metouro yeKobura (Cobura)is but Flag Koinonia Metouro yeKobura (United Kingdom of Cobura) would be more attractive.

Rant aside, I think it doesn't matter if all of the countries here adopt a culturally open status since they can always adopt new or old CPs. I do hope that the players in the countries get to have a bigger say than forum dwellers like us and also the history and lore remains protected.

[jamescfm]

Based on further feedback so far, we have decided to approve three more cultural protocols (Alduria, Hutori and Mordusia). Players are encouraged to continue discussing the remaining cultural protocols that we have not decided about yet.

Ikradon: Ancient Egyptian-speaking African-American
Solentia: Arab
Vorona: English

[Lucipher]

A while ago pragma and I were talking about redoing Ikradon's CPs to an Albanian-Roman mix with primarily Black ethnicity. Unfortunately we scrapped the idea at the time, thinking there would too much bureaucracy to deal with given we would have likely had to make the nation culturally open, then wait, then remake the CPs to our new idea. If the mods approve, I can go ahead and reactivate my party there and start drafting some protocols.