To understand how the Republic came about, I suppose it would be best to summarize where the idea came from and what inspired me to attempt this undertaking. To understand that, you need to understand a bit about myself.
I am an idealist, or at least in most situations. My sarcasm and cynicism may sometimes throw you off, but overall I like to view myself in an optimistic light. I have ambitions and I always try to go above and beyond, not in some ego-inflating manner, but because things of grand design and scale require that extra effort. Most often this leads to a lack of support from those around me and I get stuck on my own driving myself into the ground. Achieving the Republic is a very tall order and for me it is a very personal undertaking. Many of you know that I am a 2nd Lt in the US Air Force and a huge part of that is leadership. We get leadership pounded into us at every corner. Most of the lessons I have learned from running guilds and in RL from the AF will pop up from time to time in the Republic, but more importantly, a lot of the lessons I’ve learned from the Republic have served me very well also. It is a huge challenge to motivate folks; Its an even bigger challenge to do it for a guild (especially one that is floating in between games). I guess (and I’m admitting this openly to everyone right here, right now) that essentially the Republic is an environment of experimentation and learning. Its also about mentorship.
What we are trying to accomplish is massive. We are essentially recreating our own government, society, culture, identity, and nation of individuals with very different backgrounds coming together for whatever purpose or reason that we determine through debate, discussion, and coversation as being important to us in a communal and collective sense. The Republic isn’t only about games, its a social experiment to understand what is truly important to people. I chose the format to ensure basic freedoms in an attempt to gaurentee open debate for people to be able to say whats on their minds without the fear of an elite group of controlling leaders lashing back at them. In order to truly explore the concept of the Republic, everyone needs to be comfortable enough to say what is on their mind and understand how to communicate their ideas and ideals to the larger group.
I myself am also a social scientist. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and another in Human Geography and plan on getting a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning with a heavy focus on policy and cultural understanding. People fascinate me. How they go about achieving their goals and participating in a larger sense of society fascinates me even more. Here, in the Republic, everyone is part of something larger than themselves. Hopefully, and this is my greatest hope, the structure has been designed well enough to give people the tools and channels of communication that they will need to influence the Republic as a whole. Of course there will be those that are apathetic in the political sense and may not care about the governmental intricacies. Then there will be those that try to manipulate the structure and further still, those that have this strong desire to serve and improve things to better the Republic for others around them. The last set of folks are the ones that I am interested in. People will try to change things for the better, but they may not agree with me nor I with them. It is the debate of how people try to make things better that I am focussed in on. For myself, I want to improve my listening skills and understand how I can help to make the whole better than what it is from each day to the next. I have a strong desire to become a better leader and to do that I need to be doing, rather than simply reading about it or being lectured at. I have my flaws and of some I am aware, however, there are still many that have either not surfaced because the right situation hasn’t presented itself or some people may not wish to criticize me about it.
I truly hope others share this desire and I want to help them realize it as well. I really want people to step forward and begin offering their skills up to others to benefit from and for everyone to engage in intelligent and thoughtful debate contributing to the whole.
Could I have done this anywhere else with some other medium? Yes, of course, but on the other hand I also LOVE video games and sharing the experiences with other folks. I have met so many good friends on the internet and also wanted to create a sense of community that everyone could taken part in. I’ve seen too many crappy, half-ass, leet, fake communities that just prey on persons weaker than themselves to fill some insecure gap in their life. I want the Republic to be a positive place where everyone works together to achieve common goals rather than who is the best at x or y. I don’t want it to be an individual effort; I want it to be about the Republic being awesome at x,y,z. Of course we will recognize those who step forward and go above and beyond, but at the same time I want to celebrate everyone’s efforts no matter how large or small.
Now, these are all massive goals that I’ve outlined and by now you may have had that sense of optimistic and idealism confirmed. But that is what the Republic is about. Figuring out how to get from point A where we are at to point B, which is where we would like to be down the road. As long as we keep trying and never give up in our efforts, we will eventually reach our goals and have to set new ones. The Republic is about communal achievement and only through the efforts of us as a group will we be able to accomplish our goals. If one of us loses; we all lose. If one of us wins; we all win. That is the mantra I would like for us to not only adopt, but internalize and celebrate.
On top of the idealism and grandiose plans, I also wanted to explore various themes and add an extra layer of depth to the game itself. Game developers give us chess pieces and a board. We are the ones who play out the matches and it is up to us to make it fun in our own way. Too many people approach MMOs with the mentality that its all pre-packaged fun. MMOs these days don’t add content fast enough to satisfy the intensity that many players put into the games. By adding roleplaying elements, in-game events, and a sense of community as well as following up on these things by sharing them with other members of the larger community, we can enhance the gameplay experience and deliver a new level to the game. NPCs not alive enough for you? Well, if we inject ourselves into the game’s story and create our own arc to participate in then we can unlock an entirely new experience. NPCs are not dynamic enough to offer an infinite amount of options, however, if you add other players and give them the same roles, most often you can open up new possibilities to enhance gameplay.
All these things are why I created the Republic. I hesitate to say ‘I’ simply because it is no longer my creation. By having members vote and participate in determining the direction of the Republic, I can no longer say ‘I’ created the Republic, but now I can refer to ‘we’. We have created the Republic that we all know today. I also want to instill a level of ownership in the Republic. I want citizens to have a stake in their guild and not just through the friendships that they encounter, but through the time and effort invested in improving it. This is YOUR guild; Think even higher than that on a level that most have never even considered … Think that this is YOUR nation; your new home and think from your character’s perspective.
Citizenship in the Republic is much deeper than membership in any regular guild. I promise to look out for my fellow citizens in-game and if the need should ever arise to become serious enough, out-of-game as well. We are a community and we share an identity once we become citizens. This is what I hope to instill in everyone. A sense of ownership feeling that you have a personal stake in the nation. I encourage everyone to refer to the Republic as a nation instead of a guild. Most won’t understand and I’ll often revert back to guild in order to get on the same wavelength, but as we go out and accomplish our goals, people will begin to understand us as a nation.
Lofty goals and some idealistic and optimistic outlooks. We may never achieve the level that we seek, but at least we will be able to say that we are trying.
