[#5] Osiris, Past and Future: Observances and Inferences on Regional Dynamics (2014)
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2022 4:09 am
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This is an excellent one, written by Todd McCloud for the second NationStates World Fair, goes over the early history of Osiris from McCloud's perspective up to the founding of the first Osiris Fraternal Order. It's detailed and informative, I find myself coming back to it a lot. All of the links to the old Zetaboards Osiris forum are broken here, but with some effort you should be able to find them on this forum.
Archived Zetaboards Source
Author: Todd McCloud
Back to index
I’ll preface this essay by saying this was written a few weeks prior to its publication. That being said, events may have changed between now and then. That’s alright. It is probably better to express the viewpoints as they pertain to the situation at hand rather than reflect on it later.
A Little Backstory
On October 19th, 2011, Osiris (and Balder) were transformed from backwater afterthoughts into bona-fide game-created regions. Excitement was high, as was tension. A race to the delegacy secured a TITO foothold (led by then-delegate Sichuan Pepper), but this foothold would later give way to elections for the delegacy of the region. In the meantime, forums were erected by the likes of Leo and Zao, two guys vying for control of the region. Indeed, Osiris has always been the unstable one of the two created sinkers: Balder had quickly fallen into “defender” control with the nation Robin Hood and more or less stabilized after a few bumpy roads and regime changes (and one really odd delegate, but that’s another story). Anyway, Grub of TITO announced elections on the NS Forums (which was a controversy in of itself), and it became clear to certain individuals that in order to lay claim to a region they’ve just started calling home, they had to band together, establish another set of “neutral” forums, and win the elections A Mean Old Man (whom Grub chose) presided over.
The forums were opened to the public two days later on October 21st. Four administrators - Kain the Dragoon, ToddMcCloud, Dalimbar, and Zaolat – were selected, with Zao the root under a dummy account (although the initial thought was to have the root controlled by 2-3 “non-delegate” players, but that’s beside the point). To jolt these forums into life, a decision was made to ensure these forums would gain rapid exposure. The forums began quickly, with candidates posting their platforms as general teasers. I remember these guys quite well. There was Mahaj and Zao, a few newcomers in Revert and Aurora, and some userites like Canalk. Heck, one player was even ejected from the WA due to rule infractions. They each had very interesting takes on where the new region should go. Ultimately, however, Zaolat won. But even the way in which he won was controversial: he was actually tied with Revert until the very end, when Revert conceded. So, Zaolat was now charged with leading Osiris towards a new government, establishing a constitution, and then holding formal elections on the forums. The first “elected” Pharaoh was Dali, then Oliver, then Earth, then Mad Jack, etc. All led the region in dignity and with as much grace as they could muster.
So what happened? How did we go from that… to here? Well, one has to understand that life in Osiris has never really been easy. The seeds sown from early on were only glimpses into what would be a tumultuous ride, a voyage that would see prominent players leave the game in disgust and some of the original, core founders nearly lose their sanity over trying to handle the chaos. Take the case of Zao, for instance. The player for all intents and purposes was and still is a good gameplayer, but the constant barrage of drama both on the forums and in private was a constant drain. Luckly, he was talked from the brink, but I suspect he wasn’t going to delete the forums now that I am able to reflect on it. I can understand his misery, and I can believe people deal with this misery differently than I.
As for me, I dealt with it in the following manner: ignore the petty bickering, sort out the major stuff, and attempt to bring the two sides together. Two sides? Apparently I omitted a few details from the founding of Osiris to now. We have a series of three different coups to inform the audience. The first was a rather quick and, depending who you talk to, silly attempt to usurp the delegacy. This one involved former “Empire” members led by Neo Kervoskia. A second coup involved Douria and his coup aided by members of Gatesville. The third coup featured Cormac, but was admittedly done out of frustration and was short-lived. Furthermore, we had a major disconnect with respect to a government restructurization. Asta (Detective Figs) came on the scene after Cormac, about a month later, and issued various new changes to the government. The goals behind these changes were good and were sensible: clearly, something had to be done to “fix” the region again. I personally commend her for that and for accepting the difficulties that followed.
See, it all goes back to that first coup. Most seem to cite that “first coup” started some real distrust between those in the region who identified as former empire members and those who did not (though there are examples prior to this one). All one has to do is read the posts after their announcement. It was in place when there was no trial to determine an appropriate sentence, and when the region was threatened if a trial would be convened. It was in place when the government was dissolved and re-structurization was commenced. Heck, it was there when Zao left the forums. And it was something that seemed to get worse as time went on.
Up until recently…
Everyone has a different story from here out. Some will tell you, perhaps, that a particular part I overlook was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”, while others may tell you a part I highlight “wasn’t a big deal”. There are many upon many stories of drama, various late night chat fights, phone calls, private conversations, etc. I’m not here to report on that business, because frankly I only know what I’ve been told and that line of story is different for everyone else. And frankly, much of it is personal for those involved and I believe in protecting individuals when it comes to that sort of stuff.
Shortly after Zao left, I was inserted as the forum owner. I took on that responsibility because I wanted to give Osiris the assurance that never again would their forums be put at risk. Never again would they have to worry about the oft-chance that they’d wake up and their forums were gone or that administration would act weird (not that it had in the past). My modus operandi was simply to keep the ownership front stable, and to take a greater role in hashing out administrative problems. I kept my head out of the government for a reason – since I’m more of a TEP guy, I didn’t want to get involved in Osiris and use my influence to make them into another TEP. Furthermore, I understood my role as simply handling administration – I didn’t want to meddle in the affairs of the region as their forum owner. That wasn’t my job. So, for the most part, I was able to do this without many problems. Every once and a while I’d pull someone into a private chat telling them to cool off if I felt things were getting too heavy over IRC, or send them a PM if I felt they were baiting someone in an argument. But over time, I became less responsive. Part of it was due to real-life work commitments. Part of it was due to me being sick as well. But that’s not important.
I found myself hurled back into the thick of things when I was notified by three administrators (Tim, Dali, Biyah) that they wanted Georgie out of administration, or they were prepared to resign. Their reason was Georgie had done a few things without consulting administration, which is something we’ve traditionally done, way back to when Earth was an admin here too. One must understand, that since I’ve been sick and busy in real-life, I did not do a lot of administrative work over that time. It was generally handled by other administrators. And, at the time, I did not know how much time I’d be able to devote to maintaining the forums. Not only that, but I had to admit the three of them did a good job in maintaining the forums (though I was not aware of the in-fighting and just how deep the conflict had become at that time). My hand was forced. After a night of fighting, a vote was cast – 3 to 1. I didn’t have much of a choice, or so I thought. I suppose in hindsight, some think I probably should have just accepted their willingness to resign and hand-pick a new admin team. But, there was a problem with that. Well, two actually: 1. They had a lot of power in the region and could have established new forums while taking me out of the equation. 2. At that time, I had no idea how big the problem between some in the region had become, and didn’t know how to really announce to the region that the entire admin team, sans myself, was removed. Furthermore, aside from the occasional bickering between a few members, they did do a good job at their job. They updated the forums well, kept track of IP’s, and handled diplomatic maskings and the likes. But, so did Georgie. Regardless, this made me angry, and started to wake me up as to what all was happening here.
Asta proposed updating the forums. It made sense – there was no government, but she was the delegate, and administration should cater to that. But the administrators were having a slow-go at it, and sometimes even protesting what should be done. This… was an odd situation. I was asked, then demanded by some, to pick new administrators to “lessen the authority of the empire”. So, I’ve had one ultimatum proposed by former empire members, and an ultimatum proposed by those who did not identify as former empire members. It was a toxic situation, but it led me to selecting a new administrator, reached as a particular compromise. The administrator I selected was Venico. He was privy to reading the various dramas that had occurred in the “hallowed” halls of administration, specifically, the fights I participated in of recent memory. There is little doubt in my mind that this gave him another reason to do what he did and coup the region.
So, he did just that. Elections were cancelled, new forums were constructed, etc. Admittedly, I was on the outside looking in at all of this. It was strange. Initially, I embraced this as a way to solve the administration deadlock. However, as time went on, I became increasingly concerned that this was a coup. It bothered me that their group’s flag was flying atop the WFE. It bugged me that they bulked their endorsement numbers by foreign factions (even though it was raiding groups and, let’s be honest, there’s still a place in my heart for that lot). It irked me that they established new forums without even letting me know about the circumstances. And it raised my eyebrow when I noticed one had to sign an oath to their region in order to apply for citizenship. In my eyes, this was less of a liberation and more of a coup. So, I took action. I presented these concerns to the natives of Osiris, and asked them to endorse a few WA pillars in the region, namely Neo Kervoskia, Mahaj, and Sentimental Journey (Diamete). I was subsequently banned. Understandable enough.
For the longest time, I suspected all that was needed was a compromise. But because I had no idea at the time how deep the lines were drawn, most of what I was proposing was not going to fly. And that worried me a bit. I realized that in trying to be solely external with how I handled administration, I had lost touch with the region and its (violent) changes. I thought the region needed a neutral person. What the region really needed was a even-keeled guy who could corral any quarrels and lay down some discipline with a firm but not vindictive hand.
There was a problem with this realization, though. I couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on during this whole process. I was still banned, and still was not convinced this new faction was for Osiris. So I spoke to some people one-on-one, to try and gather their thoughts. After patching a rather bizarre quilt of people’s opinions and what was going on, I became more relaxed. Yes, some people in the ranks have caused problems a while ago. But… to be honest, I too was known as a volatile pot-stirrer prior to TEP taking me in. In light of that, I had to let them see things out. This whole business of being neutral is a good idea, but the fact of the matter is, especially due to changes in influence and gameplay dynamics, this business of trying to remain separate from the two sides was only resulting in people getting banned and people feeling despondent over people being banned.
Just before the new year, I wrote a statement regarding my current sentiments. From there I worked my way back into the fold, cautiously, but determined to watch, really watch this time, to make sure that we don’t go through another catastrophe.
Avoiding the Catastrophe
As I stated earlier, Osiris underwent three coups in 2013. Ask anyone who immerses themselves in gameplay about the general opinion of what Osiris was and you’ll get something along the lines of “a damn crazy drama powder-keg.” By why is that? We can’t solve a problem if we don’t identify the root cause of it. Was it the people in the region? Maybe, but I seem to recall not all fights happened with one particular person or even a group of particular people. That being said, while I do believe some people are more prone to drama than others, simply pruning away members of the community will not solve things. Soon the honeymoon of the “hard reset” (throwing back to my piece in the last world fair) will be over and we as a region will need to get through the lows in activity, the hard times, the delegate switches, you name it. In other words, a more permanent solution needs to be realized.
In order to obtain this long-term solution, a few conditions need to be met: establish firm but fair leadership, place bold individuals in the government, create some kind of system of laws that lay out some general guidelines, and bring the rest of the community back into the fold. There are many sub-points, but they all pretty much stem from these four factors. Some seem to go hand-in-hand, which is true, but only to a point. Security, for instance, seems to be lacking here. But realistically, all these qualities beget security. This system is not characterized by any particular order of these points; rather, their inclusion is essential to a quick recovery (or as quick as can be hoped for).
Probably the most damaging thing over Osiris has been one word: trust. In order to re-establish this trust and give everyone comfort, citizens need the assurance that the mistakes of the past will not happen again (or at least for a long time). Time is generally the cure-all for this, but the process can be hastened by strong leadership. Leadership, especially in fragile situations like this, should humble themselves and come to the realization that leadership is put in place to serve the people, and not the other way around. These leaders are usually level-headed, calm, slow to anger, just, and above all have their crap together. But that’s not all. Show me a good leader, and I’ll show you someone who knows how to motivate and confide in others. They’re not figureheads; they don’t put themselves on pedestals or attempt to build-up their image. Heck, you might not be aware of all a particular leader has done, but the way in which they carry themselves speaks more volumes than any NS Resume or list of positions could ever do. In short, it’s not about them. It’s about what they can do for those around them. This humility morphs to trust when the people see a consistency in this behavior.
But on the flipside, leaders must be just. Boundaries are drawn. There are no mulligans, there are no individuals “above the law”, not even themselves. Instead, their justice is fair, but also swift in order to prevent another episode of drama, and their choice of action is non-negotiable. This doesn’t really seem easy. And, well, it isn’t. But bear in mind there are no perfect leaders out there, especially when one’s playing a game for crying out loud. Heck, if a leader can obtain the majority of the above qualities, they should be fine.
And yet, leadership is not necessarily government. I need to draw that line right now. I’ve seen time and time again some leaders not holding any actual position in their region, yet they always… seem… to have their hand in things here and there. That’s because even though they’re not in government, their opinion is still important and still valued. People look over their shoulders to see if these leaders give them a silent nod or a disapproving foot-tap. So I’m going to segue to my next point by identifying who should be in the government. This government will need bold, passionate individuals which may or may not include a portion of leadership. A lot of work will have to be done in order to recover from a major regime change, and let’s face it, there are many leaders in this game who have lost their reliability. That simply cannot be acceptable in a region that’s trying to pick itself up. You’re going to need workers. And your government is where your workers should reside. They should be active, passionate, sensible, articulate, and maybe even a little cunning. Regardless, they should be able to somehow work together in some capacity. That doesn’t mean they agree all the time (actually they should not agree all of the time). It doesn’t mean they won’t fight now and then. Conflict can be a healthy, beautiful thing in this game. What it does mean is that the end of the day they make the region a little bit better than it was when they shut their computers off the night before. That’s all one can really ask for in a government. Make the region better. Somehow.
Regardless of how the lines are drawn, regardless of how the die is cast, both groups can and should be involved in the process of “breaking ground”; that is, establishing a rather short set of laws. Figure out what sort of government is in the region, even if it is solely authoritarian (though in larger regions I’m a strong proponent of an easy-to-join government centered on some kind of democracy). It doesn’t need to be verbose – that’s what the legislature is for, should one be created. All it needs to establish is a few things: 1. The general framework of the government 2. Some early ground rules, typically handled by a court or some other entity 3. A means to get active people involved and integrated in the region. All three are fairly important to success in the region. And I cannot stress the importance of expediting this process: make it fast, set up some groundwork, and move on. But don’t make it too fast. What I’m trying to say is develop the structure of the government and let the legislature fill in the details later. It gives them something to do in the meantime, and will help keep them active.
Finally, attempt to get back most of the old community. At the end of a long coup, this can be a bit easy – so long as no one has retired or moved to another region they really happen to like, you’re pretty much set on getting your numbers back. With something like Osiris, it’s a bit different. To be fair, many people have joined the ranks of the Osiris Fraternal Order (OFO). But there are a few holdouts in the region. You can find many of them on the old forums. Guys like Quadrimmina, Charax, Campinia, Tim, Dali, Diamete, guys like that. There are others – I’m more or less gleaning responses on the old forums. But yes, it’s important to get them back into the fold, too.
Why is that? Well, simply put, they in their own ways are a part of the community. Just because one side “won” does not mean the others who are on the outside of this particular side are all shut out. Indeed, the community is not defined by any one faction. The community is simply defined as those who shaped it and claim it as their own. In Osiris, there are multiple factions, sure. A challenge to the newly formed government will be how to deal with those factions. I don’t think this will include everyone being welcomed back with open arms. But I do posit, how successful can a transition be if many individuals are still on the outside looking in? I guess I will leave that up to the reader to answer.
Final Thoughts
Now’s time for me to write in current time. I kept the above as it read a little over a week ago, save some edits and revisions here-and-there to help it flow better. Some things have changed. Some haven’t. But consider this: with this large change, how can one define success in this stage in the game? So far, I’d call it fairly successful judging by the above qualities. But ultimately time will tell. I am certain icons from the past did not set out to make a government that would experience four coups in a little over one year. Heck, consider how quickly the Empire lost their grip in TEP after looking like they were dug in and quite comfortable. Clearly this is something that must be defined long-term. But, if it is indeed successful, this will certainly go down as one of the hundreds, thousands of unique stories that pop up in NS over time.
As for Osiris, I hope the region continues to rebound. I hope others who are angry or holding out will come to grips with the changing, dynamic region and realize that it has, for better or for worse, moved into a different direction. I hope this will move toward a better Osiris, an Osiris that isn’t clique-y or with factions vying for power, but one that is run by the people who have toughed out this long road. They deserve stability.
This is an excellent one, written by Todd McCloud for the second NationStates World Fair, goes over the early history of Osiris from McCloud's perspective up to the founding of the first Osiris Fraternal Order. It's detailed and informative, I find myself coming back to it a lot. All of the links to the old Zetaboards Osiris forum are broken here, but with some effort you should be able to find them on this forum.
Archived Zetaboards Source
Author: Todd McCloud
Back to index
I’ll preface this essay by saying this was written a few weeks prior to its publication. That being said, events may have changed between now and then. That’s alright. It is probably better to express the viewpoints as they pertain to the situation at hand rather than reflect on it later.
A Little Backstory
On October 19th, 2011, Osiris (and Balder) were transformed from backwater afterthoughts into bona-fide game-created regions. Excitement was high, as was tension. A race to the delegacy secured a TITO foothold (led by then-delegate Sichuan Pepper), but this foothold would later give way to elections for the delegacy of the region. In the meantime, forums were erected by the likes of Leo and Zao, two guys vying for control of the region. Indeed, Osiris has always been the unstable one of the two created sinkers: Balder had quickly fallen into “defender” control with the nation Robin Hood and more or less stabilized after a few bumpy roads and regime changes (and one really odd delegate, but that’s another story). Anyway, Grub of TITO announced elections on the NS Forums (which was a controversy in of itself), and it became clear to certain individuals that in order to lay claim to a region they’ve just started calling home, they had to band together, establish another set of “neutral” forums, and win the elections A Mean Old Man (whom Grub chose) presided over.
The forums were opened to the public two days later on October 21st. Four administrators - Kain the Dragoon, ToddMcCloud, Dalimbar, and Zaolat – were selected, with Zao the root under a dummy account (although the initial thought was to have the root controlled by 2-3 “non-delegate” players, but that’s beside the point). To jolt these forums into life, a decision was made to ensure these forums would gain rapid exposure. The forums began quickly, with candidates posting their platforms as general teasers. I remember these guys quite well. There was Mahaj and Zao, a few newcomers in Revert and Aurora, and some userites like Canalk. Heck, one player was even ejected from the WA due to rule infractions. They each had very interesting takes on where the new region should go. Ultimately, however, Zaolat won. But even the way in which he won was controversial: he was actually tied with Revert until the very end, when Revert conceded. So, Zaolat was now charged with leading Osiris towards a new government, establishing a constitution, and then holding formal elections on the forums. The first “elected” Pharaoh was Dali, then Oliver, then Earth, then Mad Jack, etc. All led the region in dignity and with as much grace as they could muster.
So what happened? How did we go from that… to here? Well, one has to understand that life in Osiris has never really been easy. The seeds sown from early on were only glimpses into what would be a tumultuous ride, a voyage that would see prominent players leave the game in disgust and some of the original, core founders nearly lose their sanity over trying to handle the chaos. Take the case of Zao, for instance. The player for all intents and purposes was and still is a good gameplayer, but the constant barrage of drama both on the forums and in private was a constant drain. Luckly, he was talked from the brink, but I suspect he wasn’t going to delete the forums now that I am able to reflect on it. I can understand his misery, and I can believe people deal with this misery differently than I.
As for me, I dealt with it in the following manner: ignore the petty bickering, sort out the major stuff, and attempt to bring the two sides together. Two sides? Apparently I omitted a few details from the founding of Osiris to now. We have a series of three different coups to inform the audience. The first was a rather quick and, depending who you talk to, silly attempt to usurp the delegacy. This one involved former “Empire” members led by Neo Kervoskia. A second coup involved Douria and his coup aided by members of Gatesville. The third coup featured Cormac, but was admittedly done out of frustration and was short-lived. Furthermore, we had a major disconnect with respect to a government restructurization. Asta (Detective Figs) came on the scene after Cormac, about a month later, and issued various new changes to the government. The goals behind these changes were good and were sensible: clearly, something had to be done to “fix” the region again. I personally commend her for that and for accepting the difficulties that followed.
See, it all goes back to that first coup. Most seem to cite that “first coup” started some real distrust between those in the region who identified as former empire members and those who did not (though there are examples prior to this one). All one has to do is read the posts after their announcement. It was in place when there was no trial to determine an appropriate sentence, and when the region was threatened if a trial would be convened. It was in place when the government was dissolved and re-structurization was commenced. Heck, it was there when Zao left the forums. And it was something that seemed to get worse as time went on.
Up until recently…
Everyone has a different story from here out. Some will tell you, perhaps, that a particular part I overlook was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”, while others may tell you a part I highlight “wasn’t a big deal”. There are many upon many stories of drama, various late night chat fights, phone calls, private conversations, etc. I’m not here to report on that business, because frankly I only know what I’ve been told and that line of story is different for everyone else. And frankly, much of it is personal for those involved and I believe in protecting individuals when it comes to that sort of stuff.
Shortly after Zao left, I was inserted as the forum owner. I took on that responsibility because I wanted to give Osiris the assurance that never again would their forums be put at risk. Never again would they have to worry about the oft-chance that they’d wake up and their forums were gone or that administration would act weird (not that it had in the past). My modus operandi was simply to keep the ownership front stable, and to take a greater role in hashing out administrative problems. I kept my head out of the government for a reason – since I’m more of a TEP guy, I didn’t want to get involved in Osiris and use my influence to make them into another TEP. Furthermore, I understood my role as simply handling administration – I didn’t want to meddle in the affairs of the region as their forum owner. That wasn’t my job. So, for the most part, I was able to do this without many problems. Every once and a while I’d pull someone into a private chat telling them to cool off if I felt things were getting too heavy over IRC, or send them a PM if I felt they were baiting someone in an argument. But over time, I became less responsive. Part of it was due to real-life work commitments. Part of it was due to me being sick as well. But that’s not important.
I found myself hurled back into the thick of things when I was notified by three administrators (Tim, Dali, Biyah) that they wanted Georgie out of administration, or they were prepared to resign. Their reason was Georgie had done a few things without consulting administration, which is something we’ve traditionally done, way back to when Earth was an admin here too. One must understand, that since I’ve been sick and busy in real-life, I did not do a lot of administrative work over that time. It was generally handled by other administrators. And, at the time, I did not know how much time I’d be able to devote to maintaining the forums. Not only that, but I had to admit the three of them did a good job in maintaining the forums (though I was not aware of the in-fighting and just how deep the conflict had become at that time). My hand was forced. After a night of fighting, a vote was cast – 3 to 1. I didn’t have much of a choice, or so I thought. I suppose in hindsight, some think I probably should have just accepted their willingness to resign and hand-pick a new admin team. But, there was a problem with that. Well, two actually: 1. They had a lot of power in the region and could have established new forums while taking me out of the equation. 2. At that time, I had no idea how big the problem between some in the region had become, and didn’t know how to really announce to the region that the entire admin team, sans myself, was removed. Furthermore, aside from the occasional bickering between a few members, they did do a good job at their job. They updated the forums well, kept track of IP’s, and handled diplomatic maskings and the likes. But, so did Georgie. Regardless, this made me angry, and started to wake me up as to what all was happening here.
Asta proposed updating the forums. It made sense – there was no government, but she was the delegate, and administration should cater to that. But the administrators were having a slow-go at it, and sometimes even protesting what should be done. This… was an odd situation. I was asked, then demanded by some, to pick new administrators to “lessen the authority of the empire”. So, I’ve had one ultimatum proposed by former empire members, and an ultimatum proposed by those who did not identify as former empire members. It was a toxic situation, but it led me to selecting a new administrator, reached as a particular compromise. The administrator I selected was Venico. He was privy to reading the various dramas that had occurred in the “hallowed” halls of administration, specifically, the fights I participated in of recent memory. There is little doubt in my mind that this gave him another reason to do what he did and coup the region.
So, he did just that. Elections were cancelled, new forums were constructed, etc. Admittedly, I was on the outside looking in at all of this. It was strange. Initially, I embraced this as a way to solve the administration deadlock. However, as time went on, I became increasingly concerned that this was a coup. It bothered me that their group’s flag was flying atop the WFE. It bugged me that they bulked their endorsement numbers by foreign factions (even though it was raiding groups and, let’s be honest, there’s still a place in my heart for that lot). It irked me that they established new forums without even letting me know about the circumstances. And it raised my eyebrow when I noticed one had to sign an oath to their region in order to apply for citizenship. In my eyes, this was less of a liberation and more of a coup. So, I took action. I presented these concerns to the natives of Osiris, and asked them to endorse a few WA pillars in the region, namely Neo Kervoskia, Mahaj, and Sentimental Journey (Diamete). I was subsequently banned. Understandable enough.
For the longest time, I suspected all that was needed was a compromise. But because I had no idea at the time how deep the lines were drawn, most of what I was proposing was not going to fly. And that worried me a bit. I realized that in trying to be solely external with how I handled administration, I had lost touch with the region and its (violent) changes. I thought the region needed a neutral person. What the region really needed was a even-keeled guy who could corral any quarrels and lay down some discipline with a firm but not vindictive hand.
There was a problem with this realization, though. I couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on during this whole process. I was still banned, and still was not convinced this new faction was for Osiris. So I spoke to some people one-on-one, to try and gather their thoughts. After patching a rather bizarre quilt of people’s opinions and what was going on, I became more relaxed. Yes, some people in the ranks have caused problems a while ago. But… to be honest, I too was known as a volatile pot-stirrer prior to TEP taking me in. In light of that, I had to let them see things out. This whole business of being neutral is a good idea, but the fact of the matter is, especially due to changes in influence and gameplay dynamics, this business of trying to remain separate from the two sides was only resulting in people getting banned and people feeling despondent over people being banned.
Just before the new year, I wrote a statement regarding my current sentiments. From there I worked my way back into the fold, cautiously, but determined to watch, really watch this time, to make sure that we don’t go through another catastrophe.
Avoiding the Catastrophe
As I stated earlier, Osiris underwent three coups in 2013. Ask anyone who immerses themselves in gameplay about the general opinion of what Osiris was and you’ll get something along the lines of “a damn crazy drama powder-keg.” By why is that? We can’t solve a problem if we don’t identify the root cause of it. Was it the people in the region? Maybe, but I seem to recall not all fights happened with one particular person or even a group of particular people. That being said, while I do believe some people are more prone to drama than others, simply pruning away members of the community will not solve things. Soon the honeymoon of the “hard reset” (throwing back to my piece in the last world fair) will be over and we as a region will need to get through the lows in activity, the hard times, the delegate switches, you name it. In other words, a more permanent solution needs to be realized.
In order to obtain this long-term solution, a few conditions need to be met: establish firm but fair leadership, place bold individuals in the government, create some kind of system of laws that lay out some general guidelines, and bring the rest of the community back into the fold. There are many sub-points, but they all pretty much stem from these four factors. Some seem to go hand-in-hand, which is true, but only to a point. Security, for instance, seems to be lacking here. But realistically, all these qualities beget security. This system is not characterized by any particular order of these points; rather, their inclusion is essential to a quick recovery (or as quick as can be hoped for).
Probably the most damaging thing over Osiris has been one word: trust. In order to re-establish this trust and give everyone comfort, citizens need the assurance that the mistakes of the past will not happen again (or at least for a long time). Time is generally the cure-all for this, but the process can be hastened by strong leadership. Leadership, especially in fragile situations like this, should humble themselves and come to the realization that leadership is put in place to serve the people, and not the other way around. These leaders are usually level-headed, calm, slow to anger, just, and above all have their crap together. But that’s not all. Show me a good leader, and I’ll show you someone who knows how to motivate and confide in others. They’re not figureheads; they don’t put themselves on pedestals or attempt to build-up their image. Heck, you might not be aware of all a particular leader has done, but the way in which they carry themselves speaks more volumes than any NS Resume or list of positions could ever do. In short, it’s not about them. It’s about what they can do for those around them. This humility morphs to trust when the people see a consistency in this behavior.
But on the flipside, leaders must be just. Boundaries are drawn. There are no mulligans, there are no individuals “above the law”, not even themselves. Instead, their justice is fair, but also swift in order to prevent another episode of drama, and their choice of action is non-negotiable. This doesn’t really seem easy. And, well, it isn’t. But bear in mind there are no perfect leaders out there, especially when one’s playing a game for crying out loud. Heck, if a leader can obtain the majority of the above qualities, they should be fine.
And yet, leadership is not necessarily government. I need to draw that line right now. I’ve seen time and time again some leaders not holding any actual position in their region, yet they always… seem… to have their hand in things here and there. That’s because even though they’re not in government, their opinion is still important and still valued. People look over their shoulders to see if these leaders give them a silent nod or a disapproving foot-tap. So I’m going to segue to my next point by identifying who should be in the government. This government will need bold, passionate individuals which may or may not include a portion of leadership. A lot of work will have to be done in order to recover from a major regime change, and let’s face it, there are many leaders in this game who have lost their reliability. That simply cannot be acceptable in a region that’s trying to pick itself up. You’re going to need workers. And your government is where your workers should reside. They should be active, passionate, sensible, articulate, and maybe even a little cunning. Regardless, they should be able to somehow work together in some capacity. That doesn’t mean they agree all the time (actually they should not agree all of the time). It doesn’t mean they won’t fight now and then. Conflict can be a healthy, beautiful thing in this game. What it does mean is that the end of the day they make the region a little bit better than it was when they shut their computers off the night before. That’s all one can really ask for in a government. Make the region better. Somehow.
Regardless of how the lines are drawn, regardless of how the die is cast, both groups can and should be involved in the process of “breaking ground”; that is, establishing a rather short set of laws. Figure out what sort of government is in the region, even if it is solely authoritarian (though in larger regions I’m a strong proponent of an easy-to-join government centered on some kind of democracy). It doesn’t need to be verbose – that’s what the legislature is for, should one be created. All it needs to establish is a few things: 1. The general framework of the government 2. Some early ground rules, typically handled by a court or some other entity 3. A means to get active people involved and integrated in the region. All three are fairly important to success in the region. And I cannot stress the importance of expediting this process: make it fast, set up some groundwork, and move on. But don’t make it too fast. What I’m trying to say is develop the structure of the government and let the legislature fill in the details later. It gives them something to do in the meantime, and will help keep them active.
Finally, attempt to get back most of the old community. At the end of a long coup, this can be a bit easy – so long as no one has retired or moved to another region they really happen to like, you’re pretty much set on getting your numbers back. With something like Osiris, it’s a bit different. To be fair, many people have joined the ranks of the Osiris Fraternal Order (OFO). But there are a few holdouts in the region. You can find many of them on the old forums. Guys like Quadrimmina, Charax, Campinia, Tim, Dali, Diamete, guys like that. There are others – I’m more or less gleaning responses on the old forums. But yes, it’s important to get them back into the fold, too.
Why is that? Well, simply put, they in their own ways are a part of the community. Just because one side “won” does not mean the others who are on the outside of this particular side are all shut out. Indeed, the community is not defined by any one faction. The community is simply defined as those who shaped it and claim it as their own. In Osiris, there are multiple factions, sure. A challenge to the newly formed government will be how to deal with those factions. I don’t think this will include everyone being welcomed back with open arms. But I do posit, how successful can a transition be if many individuals are still on the outside looking in? I guess I will leave that up to the reader to answer.
Final Thoughts
Now’s time for me to write in current time. I kept the above as it read a little over a week ago, save some edits and revisions here-and-there to help it flow better. Some things have changed. Some haven’t. But consider this: with this large change, how can one define success in this stage in the game? So far, I’d call it fairly successful judging by the above qualities. But ultimately time will tell. I am certain icons from the past did not set out to make a government that would experience four coups in a little over one year. Heck, consider how quickly the Empire lost their grip in TEP after looking like they were dug in and quite comfortable. Clearly this is something that must be defined long-term. But, if it is indeed successful, this will certainly go down as one of the hundreds, thousands of unique stories that pop up in NS over time.
As for Osiris, I hope the region continues to rebound. I hope others who are angry or holding out will come to grips with the changing, dynamic region and realize that it has, for better or for worse, moved into a different direction. I hope this will move toward a better Osiris, an Osiris that isn’t clique-y or with factions vying for power, but one that is run by the people who have toughed out this long road. They deserve stability.