Wu Han wrote:I've long thought we should move away from the term "third world" to describe the non-mechanic countries in the world; I refer to them as such because it relates to the most fundamental base dynamic between those countries which exist between the forum and the base game. In other words, they are not subject to the mechanics of the base game. If we're being honest, we cannot ignore the imprecise and frankly contested implications of using the term "third world" to describe a group of imaginary countries of diverse and distinct roleplay lore-based contexts: the principle here has often been "Vascania isn't third world," in discussion (and in praise of Pragma's work). If players choose to use this term to describe these countries OOC or IC I think that's perfectly acceptable as well, but surely Moderation's terminology shouldn't be so imprecise.
In that thread, I responded with the following:
jamescfm wrote:The matter of the naming of the Third World is something that we have discussed multiple times in the Moderation team. Personally I understand the point that you make about the term "Third World" and why we might want to avoid using it, given the real world connotations. Over time the countries have been known by at least half a dozen names including my own (largely failed) attempt to brand them as the "forum-based countries".
On the other hand, "Third World" is actually somewhat precise in the sense that most players know which countries you are referring to when it is used even if it isn't a very accurate label. Finding another term that works both in-character and out-of-character would be difficult, which is why it might be better to adopt terminology that is explicitly out-of-character (like forum-based countries or non-mechanic countries).
Another alternative would be to invent and adopt an entirely fictional term to refer to this group of countries. Either this could refer to some genuine part of their position, for example calling them the "Group of 26", or it might just be an entirely made-up term like the "Otras countries" with some invented meaning. In an in-character context the only real unifying feature of all of these countries is that they all joined the World Congress Security Council at a later date than the ordinary playable countries.
Please share your thoughts on the matter and I have included a poll at the top of the thread to gauge general opinion on the matter.