Idea: Succession Game

General discussion for the game Anacreon
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Wayward Device
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So for those who have no idea what I am talking about, a succession game is an idea that originated in the Dwarf Fortress community. Dwarf Fortress is a game, unsurprisingly, about making a fortress for dwarfs. In a succession game instead of just playing until your fortress collapses into horrible ruin you pass on the save file at the end of the game year to someone else on the forum and make a little report about what you did. Maybe just some screenshots and a few lines about what you write something in the style of a megalomaniac tyrant. Whatever you feel. This has created some truly epic stories (see this for the classic that first got me into DF and more importantly as a solid example of what I'm talking about: http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/).

What I have in mind is an Anacreon succession game! Obviously the concept will need a little modification. Something like this:

1. Someone makes an alt and founds a democratic republic. They rule as the President/Grand Democrabot/Primary Admin for 7 cycles (1 week real time).

2. Being a democratic republic they hold fair and free elections at the end of their term of office in the forum game thread. Anyone on the forum can vote/run for election. A President/Grand Democrabot/Primary Admin cannot serve two terms in a row.

3. Once the new President/Grand Democrabot/Primary Admin is elected the incumbent shall make a report in the forum thread with at least the basic history of their rule, some screenshots and the current status of the democratic republic and then pass on control.

4. Repeat.

Anyone interested?

EDIT:

Potential Founding Presidents;

Wayward Device
gc2
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Nova Andromeda
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Last edited by Wayward Device on Fri Oct 02, 2015 9:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
gc2
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I think this is a good idea.
I would also suggest that at the very beginning, we will set some goal that this empire will accomplish, so that the game will not stagnate.
Watch TV, Do Nothing
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I support this.
gc2 wrote:I would also suggest that at the very beginning, we will set some goal that this empire will accomplish, so that the game will not stagnate.
I suggest that the goal be military conquest, with each player obliged in turn to attack at least one empire during his or her term and to never voluntarily abandon or cede territory once taken. Every player will have an incentive to make the empire get stronger during his or her own term, but since control over the succession empire will keep changing, it will also be dangerous to everyone (assuming that the succession players are also running their own empires on the side.)
Nova Andromeda
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I'd potentially be up for this. I wonder if more than one person can be logged in and trying to issue orders for the same empire?
Aureo-Oreo
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Nova Andromeda wrote:I'd potentially be up for this. I wonder if more than one person can be logged in and trying to issue orders for the same empire?
I could manage the same empire from different browsers at the same time so I don't see why not. Added bonus of higher efficiency for large empires since you can deal with two different sections at the same time.
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Wayward Device
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gc2 wrote:I think this is a good idea.
I would also suggest that at the very beginning, we will set some goal that this empire will accomplish, so that the game will not stagnate.
I agree, that's why I like the idea of in-thread "elections" for the next president. The candidates can lay out a manifesto like "I'll expand our reach beyond the nebula!" or "I'll secure our borders at home and build a fleet to counter the [insert enemy of choice] threat!". And their political opponents can bring up their past failings if they run for a second term :P
Watch TV, Do Nothing wrote:I support this.
I suggest that the goal be military conquest, with each player obliged in turn to attack at least one empire during his or her term and to never voluntarily abandon or cede territory once taken. Every player will have an incentive to make the empire get stronger during his or her own term, but since control over the succession empire will keep changing, it will also be dangerous to everyone (assuming that the succession players are also running their own empires on the side.)
Naturally, a successful democratic republic will want to export it's high standard of living to it's more backwards neighbors, by force of arms if need be! The first president should lay down some core directives, like laying claim to the worlds within trading reach of the capital and establishing a fleet doctrine. Successive presidents could add directives like a policy of enmity towards a certain empire or a minimum standard of living tech level for the citizens of our glorious republic.

A real problem will be dealing with the meta, players having their own empires. I guess we will all just have to agree to not mess about and be dicks, but things could get a little awkward if the new president controlled an empire he would be at war with. Perhaps the multiple people thing could help? Admirals would carry out the directives even if the president was an enemy spy. Or we could just have a qualification for the role like:

The President can't be:

a shapeshifting alien predator
from a barren planet (get back to your rock filthy crater-hick!)
secretly in control of a hostile power.
Aureo-Oreo wrote:
Nova Andromeda wrote:I'd potentially be up for this. I wonder if more than one person can be logged in and trying to issue orders for the same empire?
I could manage the same empire from different browsers at the same time so I don't see why not. Added bonus of higher efficiency for large empires since you can deal with two different sections at the same time.
I suppose that the current president could appoint trade minister and admirals or something if this is possible.

Anyway, looks like there is some interest in this. I'll edit the first post to include a list of people who might want to take part. Then at some point over the weekend I'll make a new account with a throwaway email and look for a good spot to get set up. I won't take worlds or anything, just try to find somewhere so that when we actually do start the first few presidents can accomplish more than just watching stingers painfully trickle up at a few thousand a cycle. I'll also write up some sort of basic rules on how election would work and stuff like that. Once we have a few more people we should hold the first election and get started!
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I still think this could be a fun idea.
Wayward Device
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I think it might work best if we started when the new beta II game does. The current beta galaxy is pretty lively right now and I think all of us who are active and interested in this have vested interests there already. I'm still happy to start up in the current beta game if everybody is for that, I just think things might get a little tricky.
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Wayward Device wrote:I think it might work best if we started when the new beta II game does. The current beta galaxy is pretty lively right now and I think all of us who are active and interested in this have vested interests there already. I'm still happy to start up in the current beta game if everybody is for that, I just think things might get a little tricky.
Wouldn't it be better to call it a test run to work out the bureaucracies and rules if we started on Beta I first? To see what flaws we didn't take into account of and it probably wouldn't be a dominating galactic power, but it would still help to preview how this democracy in theory would work in-game.
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Nova Andromeda
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Aureo-Oreo wrote:
Wayward Device wrote:I think it might work best if we started when the new beta II game does. The current beta galaxy is pretty lively right now and I think all of us who are active and interested in this have vested interests there already. I'm still happy to start up in the current beta game if everybody is for that, I just think things might get a little tricky.
Wouldn't it be better to call it a test run to work out the bureaucracies and rules if we started on Beta I first? To see what flaws we didn't take into account of and it probably wouldn't be a dominating galactic power, but it would still help to preview how this democracy in theory would work in-game.
I agree. This is a good idea and I also wanted to test some things in nebular space. I think we should have a coordination thread linking to a 'current activities' Google doc.
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Sounds fun! Sign me up! :)

I like that last idea, Nova; alternatively, we could all migrate discussions onto a real-time chat program.
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