[Distribution] TNS Issue XXIII

The Spotlight - Interview with BMWSurfer



Comfed: Okay. First question: How did you start off in TNP?



BMWSurfer: Well I joined NationStates in early 2017, and founded in The South Pacific. After some region shopping, I decided the best way to learn about the game was to join the biggest region. I originally planned to only stay a few months then go make a name for myself in a UCR, but I loved it so much here that I ended up staying.



Comfed: I'm sure lots of people would be familiar with that story. You're currently a Colonel in the NPA, how did you get started in there?



BMWSurfer: Well, I read through all of my options in TNP government when I first joined, and military gameplay looked interesting to me. I wasn't sure at first if I really wanted to commit to being there during updates, so I joined the Auxiliary which at the time was essentially our piling service. I became close friends with the soldiers and officers, and over the next 9 months climbed my way up the ranks to Lieutenant (the first officer rank). I loved the culture of the NPA and the friendships I made there, so I stayed there and have been in the NPA through my entire NS career.



Comfed: That's great! What was your first position in the government and who gave it to you?



BMWSurfer: While I'm more well known in TNP for my role in Home Affairs, my first passion in NS was the World Assembly. My first leadership role was as a Deputy Minister of World Assembly Affairs, and I served under Deropia and alongside TlomzKrano, who is now Delegate.



Comfed: Very interesting. Could you go into a little more detail abut your role in TNP Home Affairs?



BMWSurfer: I served for a year as Minister of Home Affairs, for two terms under Siwale, and for one term under Pallaith. I also served this year as a deputy and advisor to current HA Minister Nimarya, where I created a system of recordkeeping for HA.

When I first joined TNP, I would've never believed I would become a Minister, especially in Home Affairs. However, over the years I've grown to love HA, and welcoming people into our great region.



Comfed: Home Affairs certainly is an overlooked but essential part of TNP. What was your favorite moment in TNP?



BMWSurfer: I took a break from NS for about a year, from the end of my last HA term until April of this year. When I refounded my nation, it was mere seconds before people here in TNP noticed. I hadn't even rejoined our Discord servers before I was pinged by people welcoming me back. Moments like that make everything worth it .



Comfed: That's sweet. What’s your favorite thing about TNP?



BMWSurfer: I definitely think the community here is my favorite thing. If it weren't for the welcoming of the people here I probably wouldn't still be here



Comfed: If you could only pick one ministry to work in, which one would it be?



BMWSurfer: I would pick World Assembly Affairs. It has a little bit of everything, keeping new TNPers engaged, inter-regional cooperation, and plenty of stuff to do all the time. Although, both Home Affairs and Communications are very close seconds.



Comfed: Awesome! That's all the questions I have for now, thanks for being interviewed!



BMWSurfer: Thank you for interviewing me!



RA Highlights



November was a relatively peaceful month for the Regional Assembly, a reprieve from the busyness of October and a clear transition into the holidays. There were four motions brought before the chamber this month, of which two were appointee confirmations and two were related to citizenship applications.



In October, Delegate TlomzKrano re-appointed Siwale to the Election Commission for another 6 month term pending a vote of the RA to confirm the appointment. Debate was short, and consensus in support of the confirmation was clear from the beginning. Siwale has served on the EC for its entire modern history, and is a well known and very trusted member of the TNP community. Voting on the confirmation ended at the very beginning of this month, with 47 in favor, 1 against, and 4 abstentions.



In a similarly non-controversial move, Lady Raven Wing was appointed as prosecutor in the court case The North Pacific vs. St. George. The court case involves speaker St. George (also known as MadJack) refusing to process a citizenship application, and is still ongoing. The confirmation of Lady Raven Wing also had broad consensus, and the confirmation was passed with 31 in favor, 2 against, and 15 abstentions.



In addition to these, two residents who applied for citizenship, Funkadelia and Aleister, were denied citizenship by Vice Delegate Dreadton. When this happens, according to the legal code, the RA votes to uphold the rejection of citizenship. Both rejections were upheld.



In addition to these motions which went to vote, Cretox State applied to join the Security Council and was accepted pending a confirmation by the RA. The confirmation is still in debate, where much of the discussion revolves around balancing the needs of activity and seniority within the SC. We look forward to seeing how this debate unfolds in the coming month.



News - Z-Day



Hello fellow survivor. I see that you’ve also survived the recent zombie apocalypse. Oh. So you survived it by hiding under your bed, hoping you won’t get the virus? And I suppose you’ll want the whole story to it, huh? Well then, here’s what happened during the 24 hours where brain-sucking zombies, infected by a virus invaded the world.



Before the actual disaster, TNP posted a regional poll to decide what TNP should do when the zombies strike the world. We chose to cure the zombies, rather than exterminating them or embracing them and sending them to infect other nations. (and also for nations to do whatever they want).



The zombies came on October 30th, and The Office of The Surgeon General released a public service announcement and instruction for curing other nations. Unfortunately, the game admins decided to stop curing research on all nations, meaning that nations had to begin researching a cure again. People were advised to join the regional discord and mask themselves to access the channels to coordinate with each other.



On the same day, Max Barry reassured the NS community that everything will be fine. All cure manufacturing ended all around the world. He said that “The real problem I want to discuss, though, is how some regions have closed their borders, and nations have redirected their resources into researching a "cure," or even exterminating zombie hordes with military force. I can't emphasize enough that this is a complete over-reaction. It is, in fact, this kind of needless fear that stokes division and prevents us from returning quickly to a regular lifestyle.”



The zombies kept coming and TNP saw a steady increase of zombies and decided to close its borders. Fortunately, the cures were being developed, and people began to send missiles to other nations, which drove down the number of zombies. Lists were created to show nations where to send their cures to make them do the most. Some people still decided to exterminate, and nations with zombies to exterminate were posted in a discord channel. Others decided to embrace the zombies, and sent hordes to other nations, infecting them. These nations were then kicked out of the region, preventing them from infecting others.



These border measures ended, and Max Barry created a news post declaring it. ”You can reimpose them if you really must. But why would you? Stop cowering in fear and embrace life again! “Get out and stretch your legs! Use your brains! Yes, especially those. Your soFt, deliciOus braiNs. Get tHem outsIde. Where wE cAn rEach them” he also said, creating some suspicion of him being infected. This was later confirmed when he announced that he was just struck by a cure missile, and to ignore his previous comments regarding the apocalypse.



The apocalypse ended soon after, and even after, through those combined efforts, TNP managed to decrease zombie numbers, and came out with the region with the most survivors. 23.7 trillion! While the rest of the world wasn’t so lucky, having 55.1% dead, TNP was mostly spared.



I guess you could say that Z-Day this year was a blast! For those who didn’t join us this year, make sure you join next year! Whether you’re curing your fellow region mates, shooting down zombies, or shipping them out to your rival’s nation, Z-Day is surely a fun day for all! (Except for the zombies being shot down, of course.)



NPA Bulletin







The NPA has been very busy prepping for the holiday season, starting off the month of November with a visit to everyone’s favorite admin friends over at Testregionia ! They looked around for Testlandia , but couldn’t seem to find them anywhere… hoping to leave a little surprise and feeling a bit naughty, a tag was left behind for them to enjoy!



However, the rest of Nationstates was not to be forgotten. NPA Officer COL BMWSurfer, as well as Minister and Deputy Minister of Defense COL Gorundu and GEN 9003 led several tag and detag runs throughout the month, whipping new recruits into shape and singing awfully premature yuletide carols along the way. Featured Region of the Day Mikov Call was also hit on minor update of November 15th, led by GEN Gladio on the trigger.



During one of these tag runs the North Pacific Army also unseated several delegates in approval of the proposal “Repeal: ‘Liberate Confederation Of Corrupt Dictators’”, contributing to the eventual failure and dropping of a proposal that sought to remove an offensive liberation from fascist region Confederation of Corrupt Dictators.



The NPA also departed on two separate joint operations with members of ERN, looking to spread some Christmas cheer before Thanksgiving, ending at Christmas , where Defense Minister 9003 declared Die Hard a Christmas movie and challenged others to prove otherwise. The second, held on Major of November 25th featured an ultimately unsuccessful attempt at invading the region of Japan as variance resulted in the target region updating earlier than expected. However, participating members had a fun time bonding with members of different organizations.



High Command also had something in store for the beginning of the holiday season. On Thanksgiving weekend, a total of nine soldiers from the North Pacific Army gathered with members of several other organizations, including Lily and The Grey Wardens in an effort to unseat delegate Mikeswill of the region Nationstates . Soldiers were seen prepping for the op an hour before the jump, chatting with comrades and enjoying stories from times long past. The raid itself was successful, bringing King Zhaoxiang Of Qin up to the position of WA Delegate for a single update and ending Mikeswill’s 16-year long reign - the longest in Nationstates at the time.



World Assembly Digest



WA Digest



Fifteen WA proposals in total went to vote during the month of November, nearly double that of October. Of these fifteen, eight were GA proposals, with the remaining seven being in the SC. Only two proposals failed at vote, both of which were in the SC. These defeated proposals included “Commend Ariusgrad” and “Commend Twobagger”. Impressively, ten out of the fifteen voted-on proposals were submitted by members of the TNP WA Ministry; this is 67% of voted-on proposals and 77% of passed proposals during the month. A total of ten unique authors submitted the fifteen voted-on proposals this month. Three passed resolutions this month were sponsored Accelerator proposals. Former TNP WA Minister Morover was commended this month.



Most Supported

The most widely supported proposal during November was SC 332 “Commend Sierra Lyricalia”, which passed with 89.6% support and sought to commend a prominent antifascist military gameplayer, WA and issues contributor, and member of the WA General Secretariat. Overall, this was an incredibly uncontroversial commendation that faced no major opposition. This proposal was authored by Cretox State and co-authored by Honeydewistania .



Most Opposed

The most widely opposed proposal to come to vote during November was another SC proposal, “Commend Ariusgrad”. Proposed by Joan Darc , this proposal sought to recognize its nominee’s region-building efforts in the founderless region of Philippines and received 31.7% support. A large portion of the opposition to this proposal stemmed from concerns over the actual significance of the nominee’s accomplishments, along with strange construction; specifically, the proposal cited the region maintaining “warm relations” and creating government positions as commendable.



Most Controversial

The most controversial proposal to come to vote in November 2020 was undoubtedly “Commend Twobagger”, proposed by Jakker City . Narrowly failing with 46.9% support, this proposal aimed to recognize the contributions of its nominee to defending, a subset of military gameplay, and regional development. The proposal was the subject of intense opposition from the beginning, with 10000 Islands being a primary voice of criticism. The proposal’s voting numbers shifted between slight support and opposition throughout the duration of the vote, and a single substantially powerful regional delegate had the power to flip the vote for most of it. The turning point arguably came after a highly publicized incident in which three members of The Black Hawks moved WA nations into The South Pacific and voted in favor of the proposal in an alleged violation of TSP sovereignty. Given the incredibly narrow final margin of the vote, there could very well be another attempt at this commendation in the future.

]November Justice Election



The months of November brought us another Judicial election and this time all three justice positions were up for election. With it being a normal judicial election, there was a larger field than the special elections that have been held recently with 8 citizens declaring their candidacy. The citizens that ran in this election were: Comfed, Honeydewistan, Laeg, Lord Lore, Monkemafiatopia, saintpeter, Vivanco, and Yalkan.



Comfed

Comfed ran in this election on the back of their successful defence in a recent Court case as one of the newest citizens in the field. Comfed also ran on their belief that they had sufficient experience to allow them to take on the role of Justice with an open mind and the ability to be a neutral and unbiased judge of issues. Whilst Comfed received some support, they were not elected.



Honeydewistan

Moving onto looking at Honeydewistan’s campaign, they had a much more informal campaign than some of their other competitors. They had a campaign thread, but did not post any campaign promises or reasons to vote for them until they were asked to. After being asked why they should be a good pick for Justice they said that their neutrality in TNP politics put them in a strong position to ensure their neutrality if they were elected as Justice. However, when it came to voting, Honeydewistan did not receive the support needed and therefore was not elected.



Laeg

Laeg was the most inexperienced candidate in the election, having only joined TNP’s forum in October. Their campaign was a short one in which they promised to work to ensure that laws in the region remained fair and just, as well as ensuring cases were balanced and equal for both sides. In their campaign, they also endorsed Vivanco and Lord Lore as the other two justices that they liked to see elected alongside them. However, Laeg’s campaign was not successful and they were not elected.



Lord Lore

Lord Lore is a Security Councillor within TNP. They declared their candidacy in the election and then chose not to post a campaign thread. Despite not having a campaign thread, Lore was elected as Justice in the third tally of votes.



Monkemafiatopia

Monkemafiatopia is a new member of the TNP community and chose not to post a campaign thread. Likely due to the lack of a campaign thread, they received very little support and were not elected.



Saintpeter

Saintpeter ran off of the back of an unsuccessful attempt to get elected as Justice in the August Special Election. In this campaign, they had more experience in this branch of government in TNP having argued in a request for review before the Court as well as being Temporary Hearing Officer for another case. In their campaign thread Saintpeter argued that it was important to protect the independence of the judiciary, and ensure this by not voting in any RA business during their tenure as Justice. As well as this, they stood on a promise to make the Judicial branch more accessible to new members of TNP by looking at implementing law clerks within the judiciary to allow new members to get experience within TNP’s Court. Saintpeter’s campaign proved to be popular and was the second elected Justice.



Vivanco

Vivanco was the only incumbent standing for re-election. Vivanco ran their campaign as a continuation of their time as Justice after their election in the August Special Election. They also ran on their experience of TNP law as a former Attorney General as well as their time as Justice last term. As well as this, one of Vivanco’s most important aspects was the need for stability and independence within the judiciary. Vivanco proved to be the most popular candidate in the election and was the first Justice to be elected.



Yalkan

Yalkan is a long-standing member of TNP and stood for election for the first time in a while. Yalkan did not post a campaign thread, which proved to be an issue when it came to voting. Due to the lack of a campaign, Yalkan was not very popular amongst voters and therefore was not elected as Justice.



Therefore, after an election that had a good turnout and had a large field, Vivanco, Saintpeter, and Lord Lore were elected as Justices.