We're all aware of politics - the sleaze and the scandal that makes the world go round. What if we were to extend this to the galaxy - make the galaxy go round, as it were?

I'm proposing an in-built political system that would allow players to get involved in intergalactic politics. We already have guilds, but this is something on a grander scale.

Each government in the game (including minor governments) would have their own set of politicians depending on their status.

A 'real' nation like the Itani would have a:
President/Prime Minister, Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Trade and Commerce Secretary.
Corporations such as TPG would have the above names altered to more corporate designations... ;) There would also be numerous junior members of governments - people hoping to take over from the 'big' ministers when they retire or get thrown out.

Now, this is how the proposed positions would work:

Prime Minister/President: Has the final say on matters. Can the set salaries of themself, secretaries and junior members. Sets budgets for government departments. His/her secretaries can put forward a major bill for ratification. The president then decides whether or not to go along with this, and then can throw the bill out or forward it to...

The House of Voters:
This house comprises all members of the government, junior or otherwise. When a bill is forwarded, members must vote on the bill. They may vote in favour, against or they may abstain. If a member has not voted 24 hours after the bill has been proposed, they are marked as absent. If a junior member is absent for three bills in a row, their membership is suspended and their salary frozen. If they miss another two bills, they are dismissed, but may reapply to government at a later date.
A bill is passed if it gets a majority vote and comes into effect immediately. A bill fails if it gets a minority vote, and is not passed.

Defence Secretary (DS): In charge of government's military bots. May put forward a proposition to declare war on another government. During wartime, they can form task forces and send them out to enemy-controlled sectors. In peacetime, they can form patrols and send them to any sector not controlled by another government. They may send a task force to any sector in peacetime with presidential and governmental approval. Of course, this may provoke a war...
Forming task forces and patrols requires credits.

Foreign Secretary (FS): Responsible for relations with other governments. Has contact with other governments' FSs through a message system. Can send tribute and advise other ministers to declare war. Can post public warnings not to travel to certain systems. May also bar certain nations' pilots from docking with the secretary's government's stations. Should be a diplomatic type, unless you want to inflame another nation into declaring war.

Home Secretary (HS): 'Big Brother.' Responsible for monitoring activity of a government's own players. May eject players and bar them from government-owned stations for piracy of own government/neutral/well-liked traders. Has instant access to the location of any online player from their own government. Can hire 'agents' to shadow a suspected criminal and report back on their activities.

Secretary of Trade and Commerce (STC): In charge of government's trading bots. May set up trade routes for bots; set prices of goods; set trade tariffs for own and other government players and 'purchase' new bots to send on trade routes. Profits from trading bots go into government's treasury.

Well, there's a pretty lengthy description of the major positions in government.

Other rules, to prevent serious abuse of the system, are as follows:
1) Presidents are forced to resign if they get bills rejected three times in a row. They must resign if they get 10 bills rejected in total.
2) Any major member of government including the president, must resign if they receive a vote of no confidence. Basically, a vote is held every 2 weeks by the House, on each major government member, to see if the House has confidence in their suitability for the job. Any member of government can resign at any time for their own reasons.

Now, the decisions of governments will affect all players of the game in some way, which a lot of you may think would detract from the experience. I think it adds to it, to be honest. It provides an opportunity to affect the game universe if you're a big-wig in a government, and you can have something or someone to kick against if you're out of government. Hey, you could even try assassinating the president!

What are your reactions to this proposal, and could it be implemented?

The 2nd-to-the-last sentence of your post is something you should never write in a forum. Pray you don't get the full cavity search when they come for you.

As far as gameplay goes -- games have to be focused. This is a space combat game, in which you play the pilot of a small fighter or cargo ship. Politics would be an entirely separate game from that.

Besides, I'm pretty sure being the president of an interstellar civilization isn't compatible with dogfighting pirates.

The game will not lose its focus - involvement in politics would be entirely voluntary. You can continue as you did before if you want to.

It doesn't matter if there are just 10 members on each government, it can still make decisions. Also, does the game have much focus at the moment anyway? It all seems very vague to me. Politics would give you a reason for being in the game universe.

There is a something called the Big Picture, you know? ;)

I nominate myself for Big Man in Bus.
I WILL RULE THE WORLD!!! AAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Oh, the political system would also give ministers the opportunity to offer missions to players too, I forgot that little detail. :)

There would have to be a limit set on the number of missions offered to a certain player in a day, though, and the nature of the missions too. Plus there would have to be something in it for the government setting the mission... maybe increased profits for a mining mission, or harming rivals' profits for disrupting their trade.

wylfing: didn't you watch Independence Day?

Hmmm this seems like it could VERY easily be corrupted. Sure that'd be cool, but still...it would defeat the purpose.

I tried to build in a couple of anti-corruption rules. See the bottom of my first post.
Sure, they might not work if at least half of the House of Voters is corrupt, but the chances of that being the case in a fairly large House is slim.

Corruption would encourage players to join the governments when they find that fatcat ministers have put trading tariffs up again etc. They would join the House to make sure that new tariffs cannot be passed.

Of course, some would just stop trading there...

> > I'm pretty sure being the president of an interstellar
> > civilization isn't compatible with dogfighting pirates.

> didn't you watch Independence Day?

Oh, but that was only the President of the U.S. of A. Everyone knows the President dogfights pirates on a regular basis. But the president of a confederation of planets? That's just too unbelievable.

Depends on how militaristic and brave they are, I suppose.

In the past, some national leaders led their troops from the front. Maybe it could be the same in the future.

Of course, the president would get a shiny executive transport to go with his/her position. :)

I can imagine Serco leaders being involved in battle. Maybe they'd eliminate the pirate scum to make an example of them or increase their respect in the eyes of their government's members.

wylfing smacks Captain Will with the Holy Stick of the Knowledge of Sarcasm and Irony.

It was difficult to say whether your post was supposed to be sarcastic or not, wylfing. The first part made me think 'Yeah, sarcasm.' The second part seemed to be a serious point.

I actually always wanted to do something along these lines. Not quite like you've outlined, but yes.. allow players to gain stature within the governments and organizations of their respective nations. This is a complex thing though.. there's more fundamental problem we have to address in the short term, but I agree with aspects of the idea. Delegating power over major parts of the game to the userbase is an inherently cool concept that is also utterly terrifying (to a developer) in its ability to go horribly awry.. which is why hardly anyone ever does it. But I think bits and pieces of it could be achieved safely.

tramshed puts on his pirate hat.

I actually think that the entire system could be safely implemented so long as there were adequate restrictions placed on the power of governmental figures. These would be built into the game system to prevent abuse.

Also, I have some faith in the power of democracy to stop rulers from making stupid decisions. For example, if a Home Secretary started ejecting members of their faction for no good reason, then they would lose the vote of no confidence in the House of Voters, and the next Secretary could lift the ban on the players who were unfairly ejected.

Of course, I'm sure that pirates like tramshed would get banned from every faction's stations except for Corvus Prime's. :-P