Welcome to the New Forum.

First announcements to be made.

(1) Each candidate receives $3 million dollars and there is no transferring of money. Everyone gets $3 million, no more, no less.
(2) There will be no PAC money this election.
(3) No party funds.
(4) Elections will be two days in length, no break, twenty-one (21) events. Day one is ten events in length; day two is eleven. Each day you get one regular marquee event and a super-marquee on day two.

Register ONE account per player. There is no need for a single person having 3, 4, 5, or even 13 accounts between all of their multis.

I want to go ahead and let everyone know that we've disabled post counts throughout most, if not all of the forum, and we will not be importing post counts from the old forums (someone always asks this).

For those confused about member titles, you need two posts in order to change it. Presently, that means the sign in forum. We don't mind if you're welcoming others, but please don't spam the forum just for a member title.

And to reiterate: ONE account per player.

In regards to masking, we will begin masking people later tonight. We're waiting for the initial influx to be over and then we'll proceed to mask everyone.

Thanks for your patience.

I should have said this up front here: Media rules are posted for comment here.

And an addition to this announcement: Something I should probably highlight more strongly from the media rules.

If you haven't done so, you have the opportunity to create or claim a foreign politician running in the 2009 elections which precede our timeline, obviously. As you read through the rules, you'll se you have a very limited guidance on their activities should they win; but it should be a fun exercise.

You have until midnight EST tomorrow get involved.

Your next steps; you'll have 48 hours to post an event for each politician you've claimed after the primaries have been concluded. After that, 72 hours to vote. Results will be tabulated, and we'll move immediately to the 2010 elections after that.

Note: If any player-controlled candidates do win, I'll override the "once per month" rule for guiding foreign politicians, as we're holding two elections this month. You're getting 2009 and 2010 in one month, so that seems fair.

PAC rules have been posted for comment here.

The use of multis will be significantly restricted this reset and we'll be announcing more on that shortly. In the interim period, as Liberio referred to above, the standing rule is one player/one account - no more registration of multiple accounts.

Thanks!

Because I hadn't taken 2009 into account with the 6 month - 30 votes concept for foreign elections, I am awarding a one-time extra 5 points. You will, of course, be able to cast an additional 5 votes for the 2010 elections which will ALSO take place this month. Going forward, there will not be two elections per month. 2009 is actually preceding our current timeline, so it's kind of an anomaly.

You don't need to edit your votes in the foreign voter thread; I'll do that now.

Time to post an event for each politician you've claimed or created in foreign elections- presuming they've been allowed and survived their primary. Primary results have been posted; election lists updated.

2009 Foreign Elections Voting Time.

Minor note- I'd overextended the foreign politicians creation/claiming time by a day accidentally. You've got until the end of today. Thanks.

Foreign candidate primaries are over.

If you still have a horse in the 2010 foreign election race, you can post an election event. Remember, roughly 2 paragraphs is all I'm looking for. Thanks.

Senate Classes & who is Senior/Junior?

In all cases, the winner with the larger margin of victory got the longer term. For the races without distinct margins of victory in both/either seats (Atlantic Seaboard, Cascadia, Bluegrass), the admin of that region determined who got which term, and conveyed that to me. The Senator with the shorter term, however, got the "Senior Senator" distinction for the region. Just cause I felt they deserved something - even if it is only a title - for having to run an election sooner than the other guy in the region.

Class I is up in 2016, Class II in 2014, and Class III in 2012. If you don't know which one you are, I've compiled an official list here.

House and Senate majorities will be addressed as follows:

President Magruder, upon assuming the Presidency, appointed a mainstream Democrat as his Vice President. That position will be admin-controlled (Hayes). You can assume, for purposes of game play, that the VP's approval sailed through the last Congress as required by the 25th Amendment. We'll have the backstory details posted shortly, but that's it in a nutshell. That said, the Democrats will control the Senate. The GOP will have control of the House.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!
-Mal

Happy Thanksgiving
-Hayes [/bandwagon]

Hey Governors! Looking for bragging rights? Try working on your regional rankings.

But first, eat turkey.

Until Thursday I'm going to be very, very swamped with school work (joy). I uh.. haven't finished the new House Rules yet so we're going to be winging it for a few days.

I'm starting to get questions on this, so let me paste in a response to a player on whether foreign travel / interaction is a go right now.



There you have it. I may be amenable to re-opening it, but not until I'm positive I can make it work for me. I'm at capacity for responsibilities, so this really must not be a time intensive thing. I'll keep you posted.

To be clear:

All negotiations with GM (either through Chairman Wagoner or President Henderson) or the UAW (President Gettelfinger) are done on the boards only. That's the only place that I HAVE been acting as those characters, and the only place that I WILL be acting as those characters. Anything via instant message has always been me talking as myself or in my official position as Econ admin. I'm looking through my chat logs, and never have I said that the conversations are in character- so they should not be taken as such.

Hopefully that clears up some confusion.

General note:

To players who try to use an admin-caused delay (to use a complete hypothetical, we'll say the Senate not getting to business immediately because the admin of the Senate had forgotten to post committee sizes, preventing the Senate from getting to business on day 1) as an IG spin piece, you're only wasting your breath.

Thanks.

With the upcoming holidays, USG will be taking our traditional hiatus over the Christmas weekend. ALL IG activities will be put on pause until January 2nd. Take this time to be with your families and friends, and if you don't have any of those, go for a walk. Several people will still be here, and I'm sure GD will be just as mind-numbing and active as it is now. Porthos has some activities planned for the break to inject a little excitement into your USG addictions, so don't fret.

Dates below refer to 12:00 AM EST.

23 Dec - break for Christmas
2 Jan - game resumes

Winter Break Activity

First, if you missed it see the Master Election List.

From Dec. 23-Jan. 1 I'll be running a game I'm calling Politburo: Power Play. Here's how this will work.

For veterans, this is a spin on a similar game from several years ago, Papal Conclave.

Setting:

Players will assume the role of a randomly designated Chinese Communist Party official considered a "Fifth Generation" member, someone born around the 1950's- a few from the mid-40's on as well. Generations of leadership include Mao Zedong (1st), Deng Xiaoping (2nd), Jiang Zemin (3rd), and Hu Jintao (4th and current). Along with the populist Wen Jiabao, Hu and his generation will exit in 2012 (IRL, this is a rough guess, nothing is certain in PRC) and will orchestrate a new generation of leaders to follow them. They have positioned Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice-Premier Li Keqiang to succeed them, roles I will play in the proceedings.

Chinese leadership works effectively like this; there are military, state, and party positions. The party is paramount; provinicial party leaders are senior, for example, to provincial Governors. Power is projected as follows, in particular for game purposes-

• Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (9 members)- The real source of power in China. How the Committee works is largely a mystery to outsiders, but there is a "ranking" that is publicly known.
• 18th Politburo (25 members)- Senior party members holding all the top positions. These include all Standing Committee members.
• Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (~300 members, but we are only concerned with about 30 of them)- Nominally selects Politburo leaders, but not really. Many of our up and comers will be from this group.

I will run the outgoing members of the Standing Committee, the outgoing members of the Politburo, and any fifth generation Central Committee members not taken by players. There are 37 player positions. You will receive a photo, a list of provinces associated with the character, and a link to their resume. All of the characters are RL party members today, and you may use any research you can find on them to roleplay. You may diverge from that script as well.

Goal:

As it will be very difficult to unseat the top two contenders, but it can be attempted, you should probably shoot for realistic goals. Really, your goals should be-

1. Getting into the Standing Committee and ranking as highly as possible
2. At least getting into the Politburo
3. Acquiring a desirable, top shelf portfolio
4. Not getting purged!

You will receive a GDP ranking of all provinces (there are four kinds of provinces) and regions, which will help you in determining the more desirable portfolios. Not all portfolios are provincial; there are Cabinet posts and other posts as well, like Propaganda Chief.

Playing the Game:

Without getting into the details just yet, you will essentially play by addressing the Central Committee and discussing the Party goals. This is your "public" roleplaying with everyone. Largely to be discussed will be Xi Jinping's proposed guiding political ideology; every generation has one, and you'd better fall in line or find a sneaky way to work around it. Privately, you will-

- Build strong cliques, primarily based upon regional and provincial affiliations, but also from organizational and ideological perspectives.
- Seek patrons from the outgoing membership and a few of the high-ranking incoming leadership already positioned in the Politburo.
- If necessary, work to purge or sideline opponents; this is a bit of a risk and can backfire.

You will actually be encouraged to work together to build cliques, but realize that you may find it more of a challenge then you initially may think. There are certain factors to creating a clique that will limit your influence and encourage team building among people who don't usually work together in GovSim.

Political Background:

To get a sense of the direction you'll be taking, IRL and IG the poor economic situation and realization that a degree of political "liberalization" is necessary will drive discussions. There are certain taboos that, if raised, will likely get you purged; for instance, discussing "freeing" Tibet and referring to the Dalai Lama's group as something other than the "theologically autocratic Dalai clique". There are suspisions Xi will rehabilitate the deceased Zhao Ziyang, someone he was close to that was accused of supporting the Beijing protesters in 1989; his name is taboo right now. Xi is on good terms with both Hu and Wen, which is part of why he is well positioned. Opposing him are the remnants of the Shanghai clique led by top "lawmaker" Wu Bangguo; these were Jiang Zemin loyalists who have largely been purged under Hu.

Reward:

None. You will not keep "claims" as in elections. However, you will see leadership in the news frequently and they will impact the direction of the China storyline. China has a clear storyline this reset, but we are neither riding the railroad nor is it choose your own adventure-free form. Your leadership picks will affect many major events in Asia for gameplay months to come, so I feel that will be something you can appreciate. One problem with Papal Conclave was the reward factor, and frankly I think bragging rights and satisfaction in impacting the GovSim storyline to a degree should be sufficient.

Sign up here!

"Kyoto Protocal" City Bid

A round of climate change talks under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been taking place yearly; 2008 in Poznań, Poland; 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark; 2010 in Mexico City, Mexico (yes, I made that up); and 2011... where?

Right here in the US. To submit your city for consideration, PM me one brief paragraph explaining why your city should be chosen for the December 2011 meeting. You have until midnight, EST, Dec. 19th. Good luck!

See above!

1. Politburo has one opening. PM me if you want it. I'll note here, in this post, when the position is filled. First come, first serve.

Claimed!

2. Foreign travel will be re-established, but on quite different terms from previous resets. I'll post rules in the Library some time between today and Saturday. Undoubtedly, any foreign travel posts will take place in Lake Wobegone and The World. When I figure it out. In the meantime, it's still on hold and don't ask when and how you can travel. Like all things I do (because I'm so original, not at all predictable), I'll probably make it a mini-game.

3. I don't really have a three. It just feels like there should be three posts.

Looking for a couple of volunteers with interest in high level military operational planning. Send PM.

I have more than enough volunteers at this point. Those selected will be notified as to their new assignments.

If you do something dumb or something wonderful, it could be reflected in the admin news. We're not entirely neutral observers when it comes to the news, because that's not entirely our role. The admin news reflects poorly upon you when you do something that the general constituency, in our opinion, feels is dumb- like, say, calling someone names on the Senate floor (and just because you haven't seen news on something, don't think we haven't noticed it, either). It may also reflect positively if we feel you've spun something well or made lemonade from lemons. The admin news isn't necessarily authoritative either. It could simply be a reflection of a constituency or an opinion of the moment. It's not set in stone.

We all have our dumb moments. Spin your way out of them.

The admin staff understands your concern over the new fundraising rules and when they will be announced. We are still working on finalizing the details, and are aiming to release the appropriate information by the end of the winter break. Your patience is appreciated. Asking for further details will only annoy and delay us at this time.

As we've said countless times, you will know everything you need to in plenty of time.

Okay, travel is up and running. I'll likely do a "travel day" where I process a bunch of requests in a batch once a week or two. Don't pester me to process them. Please!

Nothing too terribly important: starting Sunday evening, I'll be departing for cold, wintery Minnesota to spend Christmas with some family who aren't doing too terribly well; I won't be back 'til after the break starts. If the GM hearings don't finish up before then, that's alright; we'll pick them up after the break (if I'm still around).

Also, shortly after we return from break, I'll be traveling to Singapore and Thailand for a study-abroad program (roughly 4 Jan to 18-19 Jan). I'll leave all budget- and econ-related materials with the admins so they can answer your questions while I'm away; I expect to have at least some e-mail access, even if I can't get to the boards.

I suppose it bears mentioning- if you do travel somewhere dangerous over State and HS warnings, you do open yourselves up to the not-so-tender mercies of myself, Hayden, Sykes, and the foreign relations admin team. In other words, you'll probably come back safe.


Probably.

Also---

You better look through all the announcements today if you didn't; we made a few announcements today and bumped each other around a lot.

Less important announcement-

For the Kyoto discussions, Cavalier wins with his "Salt Lake City" application. Here it is for your viewing. I felt his arguments were compelling and entirely relevant to the effort.



Second place, Kowalchuk for "Miami"; third place Aric Toal for "Boston". Thanks to all applicants.

Politburo begins tomorrow morning. This will exist in Lake Wobegon / The World. When the game ends, the Politburo forums and threads will be destroyed.

All of the forums and posts needed have been created. Good luck.

(Note: if you didn't sign up, see the rules; you can roleplay.)

Just a bump on Politburo. Realizing we're on break, half of the people who signed up have not participated. It's only been a day and you can make up for yesterday still, as the posting dates are fairly flexible. In a few days, I'll give inactive's positions away.

I'm going to let it slide on bills this has already happened to in the Senate - there's no point in going back now and undoing stuff which is already far into debate - but if a piece of legislation has passed a Senate Committee or the House, and is sitting in the SML's office, there is no rule preventing it from coming to debate. You cannot motion to suspend the rules to bring it to the floor for debate. The SML must place the bill on the docket for it to come up for debate (that's the point of the SML, the power to control the agenda). You can motion to suspend the rules and bring such a bill up for a vote, but that must attain 2/3rds of the senate as a whole to pass (because it's effectively the same thing as invoking cloture). When you motion to suspend the rules on a bill that is sitting in a committee's legislation folder, or in the hopper, that's a different story. There IS a rule preventing that bill from reaching debate at that time - the rule that it has to go through committee first. Those motions need only a majority of those voting in favor to pass.

Please note the game is still on break. Hope you are all having a good time.

I have seven spots open for the Politburo game. You have 24 hours to PM me, and from the point I accept you, another 24 hours to put in all of the past turns.

Jon Paterson, Maikeru are both MIA. I'll give you guys 24 hours to jump in, but your spots are up for grabs.

Olude Carter, Mitchell, BAM, Anthony Sherman, Wendell Olson are gone and can not come back. Please don't sign up for mini-games you don't intend to play.

Nolan's spot has been replaced. He posted an LOA on the 19th and hasn't been back yet. If he comes back in 24 hours, I'll give him a chance at one of your characters since he gave an LOA.

Welcome back from the break!

I want to point out the late arrival of the Conference Committee. House and Senate Leadership would be wise to read up on it, since I drastically altered the rules from last reset. Biggest difference you'll see, I set a rigid time table for the committee to resolve legislation. So no more of the ConCom where legislation goes to die.

Hi- I didn't want to do a general announcement, but as I'm getting asked about a few projects, I've extended the break LOA for myself until tomorrow for personal reasons. I'll process-

• Politburo - Not done!
• Last month's international leader stuff - Done!
• NW leg.- Done!
• Cabinet- Done!
• Start international elections. - Done!

Well. Maybe not all in one day. We'll see.

I'm back, and I'm ready to get back to work. Thanks for understanding I needed a mini-break! If you're waiting on me for something, it'll be resolved today or tomorrow.

Also, special note- thanks to all who participated in Poltiburo, including those who were purged (some of you don't know it but yes, you were purged!). I'm deleting the folder, processing the material today, and will definitely have your results for you today.

Wrap up of Politburo tomorrow, that is, the characters new positions in the PRC. I've done all the calculations, just didn't give out positions yet. For your informational purposes, as this won't appear in the news article I print, here's two lists- a list of people purged and the patron list, who outranked who and whom each Politburo member ended up supporting.

Patronage- Patron= Highest support. Mentor= Strong support. Supporter= Lowest support

Guo Boxiong
Song Xiuyan- Supporter

He Guoqiang
Jiang Yikang- Patron
Nie Weiguo - Mentor
Zhang Chunxian - Supporter

Hu Jintao
Yang Jing- Supporter

Hui Liangyu
Liu Yandong- Supporter

Jia Qinglin
Yang Jing - Patron
Xu Shaoshi- Mentor

Li Changchun
Ji Bingxuan- Supporter

Liu Qi
Xu Shaoshi- Patron
Yang Jing- Mentor
Chen Lei- Supporter

Liu Yunshan
Bo Xilai- Mentor

Wang Gang
Wang Zhengwei- Mentor

Wang Lequan
Jiang Yikang- Patron
Sun Zhengcai- Mentor
Wang Zhengwei- Supporter

Wen Jiabao
Zhang Gaoli- Supporter

Wu Bangguo
Shang Fulin- Patron
Cao Jianming- Mentor
Yang Jiechi- Supporter

Xi Jinping
Wang Zhengwei- Supporter

Xu Caihou
Bo Xilai- Supporter

Yu Zhengsheng
Yang Jiechi- Supporter

Zhou Yongkang
Liu Yandong - Supporter


Purged for inactivity or through the purge lists (in order of influence)-

Wang Zhengwei
Chairman, Autonomous Region People's Government, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
Ningxia
Madison Ballentine

Wang Qishan
Vice-Premier (Fourth); a "Crown Prince".
Shanxi, Beijing, Hainan
Donovan Moore

Zhang Baoshun
Secretary of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee
Hebei, Shanxi
Markus Nathaniel Rasan

Zhao Leji
Secretary of the CPC Shaanxi Provincial Committee
Qinghai, Shaanxi
Bill Bobby

Zhang Chunxian
Secretary of CPC Hunan Provincial Committee, Chairman of Standing Committee of Hunan Provincial People's Congress
Henan, Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Hunan
Thomas Caffee

Han Zheng
Mayor, People's Government, Shanghai Municipality
Zhejiang, Shanghai
Fox_Reynard

Wang Yang
Guangdong Party Chief
Anhui, Guangdong, Chonqing
BAM

Ma Kai
National Reform and Development Commission Minister
Shanghai
Anthony Sherman

Wang Chen
Director, Information Office of the State Council; President, People's Daily
Beijing
Virgil Hyde

Li Bin
Minister, State Population and State Family Planning Commission
Liaoning, Jilin
Mitchell

Ling Jihua
Director, CPC, Central Committee, General Office
Shanxi
Olude Carter

Qiang Wei
Secretary of the CPC Qinghai Provincial Committee, Chairman of Standing Committee of Qinghai Provincial People's Congress
Jiangsu, Qinhai, Beijing
Wendell Olson

Lu Zhangong
Chairman of Standing Committee of Fujian Provincial People's Congress, Secretary of CPC Fujian Provincial Committee
Zhejiang, Fujian
Maikeru

Wang Yi
Director, Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council
Beijing
Jon Paterson

Politburo is over. See the International News Wire.

International elections are way off course, and will be set back on course. You may post events now.

An unfortunate Northwest news announcement duty: Per this announcement, all Northwest politicians had 7 days to get active- I gave them ample time post break to get active. Governor Zachary Flint is hereby removed from office.

Lt. Governor Eric Morrison (R-ID) has 24 hours to accept the post- as he is a Senator, he must decide which he wishes to take, though he has PMed to indicate he will likely accept the Governor position. Should he decide to remain in the Senate, the post goes to Thor Oppegaard (D-MT). I will not be holding a special election. The term will still continue through 2014.

Just thinking about this- I will have an election for Lt. Gov. in 2012. It'll run as one normally would run, except the focus is upon Lt. Gov, not whom you're supporting, and how you'll support NW. No money involved, same number of events. Thanks.

(Edit, other important note; this decision means Anthony Sherman gets a full term, as will all Senate and and Governor vacancy replacements for NW so long as I am admin. Lt. Gov. is the only position that must be replaced by special election due to appointment/party issues that could arise without special elections.)

It's been brought to my attention that 7 days, that's 168 hours, from my Jan. 6th post at 9 AM is actually tomorrow, 9 AM. It would appear that under the rules of my post Flint gets yet another chance.

This is the second time this has happened in one Governorship, so I can't say I'm inclined to go back and give him until tomorrow- however, I will abide by my former ruling. 9 AM tomorrow to post in character.

Whoa whoa whoa- on the NW Governor train, everyone must see the above announcement. Sit tight on all of these announcements until 9 AM tomorrow.

Just to formalise a few things -- I have handed off Appalachia and The Sierra Club due to my free time ceasing to exist from today forward. Between school and personal aspirations, I won't be around enough to properly tend to either Appalachia or The Sierra Club. I will however keep on in the House.

The best way to contact me is via PM -- I will try and check the site once a day, but no promises. If I don't get back to you in a timely manner, it doesn't mean move on with a situation. Any and all clarifications and rulings will come in due time, but please understand some situations may linger a day or two.

Flint is gone. Welcome Governor Morrison, who has been a real gentleman through this. And nothing is going to make me change my mind on this one.

Yesterday's poor math incident on my part has confirmed three important things-

- Be civil if a ruling doesn't go your way. You may be later vindicated.

- The inactivity rules may require a public clarification and is being discussed by the admin team.

- I will never provide any kind of holiday inactivity amnesty again.

Two more updates-

Upon review, I've decided that Flint should have been removed for inactivity on January 5th (I think) due to inactivity prior to the break. Inactivity rule will be updated and enshrined in the library. If you require further clarification on inactivity rules, apply to Help Desk or Shovel's Shed and remain civil.

FRAS travel is now taking place for mission 1 and mission 2.

International elections for 2012 is open for votes, if you registered. I know it's gotten lost in the shuffle.

Missions 1 and 2, two days left to post for your trip.

Fundraising Rules are up. Please read all of it, because while the names and places might seem the same, it's a new ballgame.

Stealing some WiFi, as I'm having some odd Internet problems. If I was in the middle of working on something with you, keep doing whatever it was you were doing, I will catch up shortly.