Autokrator's closing address

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Scott Alexander
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Autokrator's closing address

Post by Scott Alexander »

It has now been over three months since the last substantive post in Archipelago. Therefore, I declare official World Government support for Archipelago ended. I will leave forums open for posting, but I will no longer update maps, process Expansion Credits, or deal with proceedings of the Archipelago Senate.

Thank you to everyone who participated.

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Harvey
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Re: Autokrator's closing address

Post by Harvey »

Well, that's fair. Thank you for that.

You know what might be interesting, though? Trying to dig through this and figure out where the turning points were and why people just started abandoning things en mass. We haven't done that in a while, and, without trying to sound like it's fun when nations die, I think sifting through the ruins and trying to put together a coherent picture of history that was never that obvious when we were in the middle of it is one of the more interesting parts of this entire hobby.

Carl Jackson

Re: Autokrator's closing address

Post by Carl Jackson »

*boards the dais, then flies out*

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Scott Alexander
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Re: Autokrator's closing address

Post by Scott Alexander »

I've been thinking...not in that direction, but about whether Archipelago was doomed from the start.

One thing that struck me was how a lot of the time, Micras countries seem to be more of a reflection of their creator(s) than Archipelago countries. Like, there's something very Erik about Shireroth, no matter how much newcomers try to get rid of it, almost like it's a reflection of his personality. And so Erik has a very deep attachment to Shireroth and would be willing to fight for it. I didn't really get that here - I convinced Erik to join, and he wanted to do something based on the Tlingit Indians (it never panned out). Or to give another example, Natopia is a heck of a lot more Nathan than Merveilles was, even though Merveilles was awesome. I think people tried to hard to come up with some creative, interesting culture here rather than something that they really identified with in their bones and were going to root for.

Another thing was that there weren't really any events. Micras is shaped by things like the Elw secession and the collapse of Antica. I did a lot of conworlding around the Elw secession; Chris did some around the collapse of Antica - but these things only happened because of real out-of-character things: the Elw secession because the real Elw citizens were genuinely fed up with Shireroth, the collapse of Antica because the Antican citizens were inactive and out of ideas.

Those kinds of things also provided a reason for people to interact: for example, Shireroth interacted with Antica when it was falling both out of noble motives like helping a fellow nation, and out of others like hoping to get some of its land. Shireroth briefly considered allying with Ashkenatza because it looked like Elwynn was going to ally with Babkha. We didn't really have anything like that in Archipelago, so countries really didn't interact in meaningful ways beyond "let's start writing a story together".

I'm not sure how much my own actions might have hurt. I tried to stress that it wasn't my job to set canon behind some very weak background points, but I realize that then I did a lot of things which sounded like I was setting more canon (even though that wasn't my goal) and it sounded like at least you were put off by that; I don't know if anyone else was, or if they felt they shouldn't do something because it might go against my idea of what I wanted.

And then historically, it didn't help that three of our most active people - you, Alicorn, and Shyriath - all went away around the same time. I wouldn't want to classify anyone as a "follower", but you three were more "leaders" - you would start things, get into conflicts, and move things around instead of passively reacting. After the three of you left there weren't a lot of active leader figures and so no conflict or projects really got started and the whole thing fell apart.

PS: Would you consider it bad taste if I were to stick everything into a sub-forum called "old Archipelago" and then use this forum for the Micras Archipelago thing I'm trying (see the Straylight thread in General)?

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Octavius
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Re: Autokrator's closing address

Post by Octavius »

There's a half written epic about the collapse of the First Republic that Braden and I co-wrote in late 2007. I like to think of it as fictionalization of real micronational events. It's much more fun than coming up with things out of whole cloth.
Аїомидє Оћтавион
Hesam wrote:Trains are very efficient at making long lines of people dead, and I suppose they could also be used for transportation or something.

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Harvey
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Re: Autokrator's closing address

Post by Harvey »

I'm not sure if I agree with your assessment, Scott. But, in the general interest of not holding you up, you have whatever blessing my approval is worth to go ahead and stick all that stuff in the sub-forum and do your plan.

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Aryeztur
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Re: Autokrator's closing address

Post by Aryeztur »

As you will, Scott.
The Great King, King of Kings, King of the World

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Sadamara
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Re: Autokrator's closing address

Post by Sadamara »

Are you pressing ahead with the idea of an "Archipelago-on-Micras"? Because for what it's worth, I think that might work better.

I feel that my own unsuccessful foray into Archipelago was a victim of poor timing; by the time Carcosanne was added, a lot of people seemed to have lost interest and there was little scope for meaningful interaction. However...if Archipelago had been set on Micras, then I would very probably have stuck with it as there would always have been the possibility of interaction with "outside" elements; but on a closed world, that was never a serious option.

I hope you revisit the idea, because I really do think that a loose "confederation" of sovereign states (which are too small to survive individually) is fundamentally a sound solution to the problems facing many one-man nations.
HEM Sadamara Aptrgangr of Nidaros-Riskai
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