By
Andalla
For the longest time now, among the most overlooked issues plaguing our RP universe is globalization. Simply put—we are acting like non-globalized countries in a globalized world. Just take a look at countries' interactions with each other. Of course, we do have an amazing active community, but there's just so much more to Eurth than just those who are active. Our current situation is described very well by our Featured Nation January 2020 dispatch, which deviates a bit from the usual and instead features the entire region. Here it is:
"The Region of Eurth is a massive, socially clumsy community, notable for its absence of moral laws and spontaneously combusting puppets. The laid-back, apathetic population of 100-ish players live in a state of perpetual fear, as a complete breakdown of social order has led to the rise of order through biker gangs."
One can tell that excerpt was written with a humorous tone, intending to parody the default NS nation description. But it does shed light on the reality that Eurth isn't globalized enough. To this day, we have yet to fully agree on an international language, international currency, etc. There are some generally-accepted standards, but I'm afraid to say we're not enforcing them enough.
Hold on—before you leave. The solution for this problem is, in fact, very easy.
It may be as simple as having several international organizations to help standardize things, at least to an extent. There have been, many, many, many attempts to do this since 2017, including one by myself (eheh, sorry).
What was the single underlying deterrent that has prevented any attempt from successfully materializing?
Roleplay.
Okay, okay, I get it, we are a roleplaying community. But establishing international standards is an urgent matter, and—admit it—we don't need to roleplay every last detail of our universe. There can always be predetermined events. Besides, I'm sure we've all seen the multiple attempts at roleplaying the creation of international organizations. From only the top of my head:
"Starting our own Model UN" by Orioni, OOC thread that never really materialized into a full-fledged RP. It was a great idea, in all honesty, and it definitely should've been one of Eurth's top goals. Most talk about this took place from late 2017 to mid-2018.
"When life gives you lemons, make GIN and tonic" also by Orioni, an attempt to create a Group of Island Nations (GIN). OOC planning started in early 2019, last activity was in June 2019.
"The Laws of the Sea" by Faramount and SSI. It was the talk of the town in late 2018, then it went silent.
"From Skies to Safety", my own, which was done with the help of Gallambria and Orioni (in line with plans for the UN thingy). Most activity regarding this was OOC planning sometime around mid- to late 2018, then it also went silent.
"The Thalassan War", a thread that I am currently in the process of resurrecting. Supposed to be a community thing (All nations around Andalla/Giokto are welcome), but everyone except me and SSI are dead.
I definitely don't intend to sound like I'm complaining. Not at all! I love it when people get together to help further our community's goals. But should it just stop there? Of course we try our best to keep roleplaying and creating lore co-equal, but sometimes we must create an imbalance so that the other side will rise up to balance it again.
For this problem, I propose we still do go on with our roleplaying, but instead turn the process upside-down.
What I tend to notice is that, whenever a new thread is made, its pre-existing OOC thread only deals with the overview; the large details. The finer details of the story are developed impromptu, as participants push the story forward through their posts.
What if we turn it around, just this once? We set all the important details in stone first—the organization's name, history and function, how it was established, what it does, its parent/child organizations, and which nations are participating. Then we begin roleplay.
@Orioni's idea about the Model UN was the best example of this; sadly it did not materialize. What O did was to first establish the mechanisms of the organization—who heads it, who participates in it, how meetings are convened, its committees and their purposes, etc.
What I further appreciate about Orioni's idea is how it focused on roleplaying the present, not the past. The OOC thread made little mention of history; rather, the RP thread/forum that would be created would instead show the UN in action, in the current timeline. Whereas other RPs like The Laws of the Sea focused on how it was established, and not what it really does.
So, what we should instead be doing, is creating a list of pre-existing international organizations with their important details already decided upon. Then we leave it to the great people of Eurth to take it upon themselves and create an associated RP thread, whether it be for depicting the organization's founding or depicting its activities in the present.
What if nobody chooses to RP it, at all? No problem. As long as it's on the list, it exists. People can cite it in their Wiki pages, news posts can make mention of it, even RP threads can use it. It will not matter whether or not said organization is actually being actively RPed, or just sitting there on the list. Why, it doesn't even need to be IC at all! It could even be a group of people on Discord, deciding random details about our RP universe like its currency and language as I've mentioned before, then recording it somewhere so that it becomes official lore and not generally accepted lore.
That way, we get to encourage standardization. I may be the guy who enjoys little details, but think of this. How are we going to regulate the size of a country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) beyond their coastlines? How are we going to determine who trades with who? How are we going to deal with pandemics and medical issues? How are we going to connect the world through transportation and telecommunications? How are we going to create more diplomatic interaction between members of the community?
There are existing international organizations to serve that purpose IRL, and we should have the same here, too. Again, it does not need to be roleplayed. The mere fact that it exists would be enough to bring our RP universe one step closer to achieving globalization and, ultimately, realism (hooray for using buzzwords).
This has been my TED talk and random brain fart. Thank you for your time.
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