1st Council election - ALL PLAYER CANDIDATES

[qan]

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VOTING HAS BEGUN

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Polls close Mar 31

VOTING GUIDE

http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthread.php?44564


NEW CANDIDATES

While voting In the interest of building a diverse group of candidates, new candidates will be accepted until March 26th.

Please post in this thread or PM me in-game to join the candidate list.




The first Council election has begun in order to fill the 9 open player slots on Council. Players have an equal vote to all staff members on the Council, as well as equal speaking time, ability to put forth new motions, etc. See this thread for more information: http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthread.php?44367



NOTE: This is where players are announcing their candidacy. This is not the vote.

As we have a limited number of candidates and many positions to fill, votes are be done in an up/down manner. Every voter will vote UP (+1), DOWN (-1) or ABSTAIN (0) for all candidates.

Anyone who wishes to run for Council may do so simply by replying to this thread before March 26th and answering the questions. You may also nominate a player for Council.

• Please don't reply to the thread unless:
  • 1) you are running for Council, OR
  • 2) you are officially nominating someone for Council.
  
  
• All extraneous posts will be moved to the main Council discussion thread.
• If you are RUNNING FOR COUNCIL: Please answer the questions below. You don't have to answer the questions exactly as given, but answers that are essentially a middle finger to the community will be moved to the discussion thread.
• If you wish to NOMINATE SOMEONE FOR COUNCIL: Please give their in-game name, ideally with a short bit of information about why you feel they'd be a good choice for Council. A player will then either accept the nomination (posting here, or talking to me in-game and having me post for them), or reject the nomination, at which point the nomination is removed from this thread. Please don't nominate people without reason, as a joke, or nominate a large number of people -- these kinds of posts will be moved to the discussion thread.

QUESTIONS FOR THOSE RUNNING FOR COUNCIL

In-game name(s):
Years playing TW, SS:
Primary arenas played:

Short TW/SS Bio:

Why choose you for Council?:

Zone issues important to you:




Example candidate post

In-game name(s): qan
Years playing TW/SS: ~13/16
Primary arenas played: Pub, Distension, misc events

Short TW/SS Bio: I began playing as a teenager when SS first came out, then dropped out when they went p2p. When I heard it'd come back under player management, I tried out a few zones, but eventually fell hard for TW's pick-up-and-play dynamics that mark it unique. A year or two later I began coding event modules, and was hired to staff as a coder, a role I've held off and on for the past decade or so.

Why choose you for Council?: I've been here when the population was pushing 700 and am still around when we're lucky to break 200. While I've quit the game more times than I can count in frustration (mostly with staff politics), I can't help but always come back, because I genuinely care about this place. And while it's not always the case, I'd like to think I listen to what everyone has to say about the running of the zone, and have reasonably well-formed opinions about the zone's rules, pub, the development cycle, and how staff is run. My weakness is that I haven't seriously leagued for about 10 years ... (Remember when TWD schedules were sent out by email?) But that's why I'm happy to count on the expertise of others on the Council to make up for the deficit.

Zone issues important to you:
- Population retention (pretty general, I know) -- focusing on/catering to the wants and needs of our core audience, the long-term players
- Fairness/equity of rules and their enforcement
- Pub (also very general)
- Preventing the misuse of staff power

[Spock!]

Here I am, Rock you like a Hurricane.

Ello All! My use name is Spock! (as you can probably tell because of my forum name) I started playing SupSpace in early 2011, and have logged few thousand hours playing since.

I started playing in Extreme Games in my early days, but gradually switched to Trench Wars because the zone seemed more in-depth and seemed to be less Spray N Pray(bigger population helped too!) I play in pub the most, flying the Weasel most often.

That being said, I also take part in TWD, flying the warbird for various squads including: Paladin, Play, and the now dissolved Animal.

So, why should people vote for me? Well, I’m very active in Pub, and I know the common issues that a hardcore pubber faces. Since this is the only online game I play, I devote a lot of time to pub and genuinely care about the game’s health and well-being. I believe that that pub is the most important part of TW, since it is the first thing a new player will sees and is where people go to hang-out in-between squad matches.

Issues:


LT’s. --- These things are just plain terrible. They just ruin the play for basers and non-basers alike. Often they group together in mega-LT’s sometimes as big as the regular basing freqs making them next-to impossible to kill. I would want to keep the lev the same, but limit the powers of the LT itself, while not removing it from the game completely. I know there are a lot of hard-core LT players out there, so I would want to make it so that these players can still have a good time while not ruining the basing (the center of pub) for all.

Edit*

LT's seem to have been reduced a good deal due to changes to lev settings, and for the most part seem to be a very manageable annoyance. That being said, I think measures should be taken to prevent the "Uber" LT's on private Frequencies that in some cases have more players than the basing freqs. These can be very hard to kill, especially when population is low or when a dedicated basing game is going on and nobody wants to hunt it.

Noob retention. --– By far the most important issue, as it it vital to the very survival of the game. Being that I am on the Trusted Players list, I get messages whenever a new player enters the zone. I always try to help the player out, give him a few hints an tricks, while warning others to take it easy on the new player. I think a training zone target ships and a real good tutorial on the ships and basing/how to that pops up when a new player comes in would help a lot. Also, an announcement for all of pub that there is a new player could help, and hopefully people would take it easy on them.


Staff making decisions without pubber input--- Well, we are having a council now, so that kind of solves that problem, but we will have to see how well Tw-Council works.


Staff Abuse of power---I myself have seen staff abuse power for own benefit or some vendetta against a certain player. I think abuse of power should have rather strict consequences, like suspension/probation if caught doing it.


Preservation of TWD---ts been harder and harder to find a squad to duel with. It seems as if TWD is dying out. I think it should be promoted more-so in pub, like advertising squads looking for players and getting the new players more used to the idea, as many of them don’t even know squads and dueling leagues even exist.


Zone Development--- Way too much content to cover. But I believe in changes that help keep the zone a bit updated/interesting without changed the game-play too much from its classic form.


I Guess that’s it.


Live Long and Prosper

Spock!

[pee pee sock]

INACTIVE; WILL NOT BE ON BALLOT UNTIL ACTIVE AGAIN


in game name (s): pee pee sock
years playing: between 8-10
primary arenas played: pub, elim, twdd, twjd, some events.
short tw/ss bio: i play this game to try and get on staff and tw council is the closest i`ll ever get to becoming staff.
why choose me for council: please choose me for council as i will do a good job.
zone issuses inportant to me: all zone issuses r inportant to me.
thank you for ur time and i look forward to being on tw council in the near future. have a nice day eh?

[Zizzo]

In-game name: Zizzo
Years playing TW/SS: since 2000-02-02
Primary arenas played: twbd, twjd, elim, bomberman, gatez

Short TW/SS Bio: Pubber and levterr for four years before founding Dudgeon and starting to base in 2004. In staff from 2006 to 2011.

Why choose you for Council?: I've been around for 14 years and I can see things from player's, staffer's and developer's perspective.

Zone issues important to you:

• moving towards ASSS (For instance, this would allow us to record every single TWD match and other cool stuff.)
• working together with other zones
• removing the resolution cap (It just doesn't make any sense anymore and now cheaters have advantage. Yes, the resolution limit is really easy to bypass with CE or any memory editor without getting caught.)

[Exalt]

In-game name(s): Exalt
Years playing TW, SS: Started as PulsatingJolt in.. 2001. Started as Exalt in 2002
Primary arenas played: TWD, Elim, Wbduel, Hockey

Short TW/SS Bio: Started dding b4 there was TWD in .?go #spoon, etc. Founding member of Quicksand. Been in every squad in existence.

Why choose you for Council?: I know the warbird community better than any1 else on this thread. I pushed for actual things like TW Amateur League back in the day b4 this game was completely dead, and we had 50 squads in every TWD division. Staff told me to set shit up, I did it along with players like Ricko, and then staff never did a thing about it, because staff can't coordinate a circle jerk right, let alone making new leagues successful or even fixing 10+ year old leagues like TWL. TWL website still sucks 15 years later. Enough said. Oh, and I didn't come from DSB or some lame-ass zone with 5 total players only to kiss-ass to get into staff like OO.OO or whatever that fgts name was. I started in Trenchwars and stayed here. I just call shit like I see it, I speak truths, and I don't kiss ass. That alone is needed by someone.

Zone issues important to you:

1. Making staff and/or those in any position of power in TW accountable. This includes players that just joined last month somehow making staff over players with actual player respect, zone knowledge, and an overall feel for the community. I don't care if you like the person or not, but players like wark/kthx or ph etc were always better staff members than a large majority of people who become staff, and the simple fact that a player like OO.OO became sysop is ridiculous. No more outsourcing, and if you have to, start them as ZH and let them earn their way to the top. Don't screw active contributing staff members over for some fgt from SVS or Powerball. There has been enough abuse of power in his game over the years to where people should be able to recognize it by now.

2. I'd say new player retention, but I doubt this is an achievable goal. This game is almost 20 years old now. It was made in 1996. Even when I tried redownloading subspace for the first time in like 3 years, I had a hard time finding it, and I knew exactly what to look for. Google Continuum (which most people will NOT do on a whim), and you'll have to go to the 2nd or 3rd page to find this game. That being said, I DO believe in CURRENT player retention, and part of doing that is keeping things as fresh as possible, as competitive as possible, and as fun as possible. There are a ton of different ways to do this.

3. Making leagues better in any possible way that is actually an achievable goal. If you can't fix the TWL website because, as people have been saying for 10+ years now, the code is garbage and unreadable, then I understand if you can't find someone with the time to create better code and/or sift through that clusterfuck to make it better. That being said, websites like TWLM are better than the actual TWL website, and it is still ridiculous that nobody can look through past seasons and see scores/averages/etc. If I want to see what scores/games/squads I played vs 10 years ago, why shouldn't I be able to do that? People in this game like looking back on their childhood/early years retrospectively so to speak. Anyway, this is just one example, but you get the idea.

4. Get rid of stupid shit like pub bux. Y r there pub bux when u can be spending time making TW Hockey League?

5. Make TW Hockey League

6. Stop saying u cannot make TW Hockey League bcuz staff cannot coordinate themselves

7. Staff stop being so uncoordinated noobs

8. I do actually legitimately give a shit about this game, this zone, and it's players. I am unbiased in every way when it comes to important things such as this. I may have talked shit to a lot of people in the past, but I am pretty dedicated to things like making this zone better when I actually have an outlet to speak my opinions, and I take this shit seriously if you can't tell by the posts in this thread. I think this is probably one of the best ideas I've seen staff come up with in a very, very, very long time, and I am all in with this.

9. I don't expect to win at all, because there are a lot of players that dislike me, and there are a lot of fgts named megaman89, but even with that being said, I'm throwing my name in to set an example for other people, and hopefully people will take this seriously. I don't find it funny when you guys jokingly add your name and say "vote 4 meh giuyz bcuz I dunt give a fuk." This is actually something that seems important. That being said, I've asked other players in TW that I think would be good fits to add their names to the ballot. It means I'll most likely lose, because I told people about this that I know are much more popular than me, but I also know they will have legitimate ideas and they will want to make the game better as much as I do. Therefore, feel free to downvote me or whatever, but take the other people seriously that actually show they give a fuck.

10. Here's the thing that I really want people to understand here: This player Council idea has the potential to legitimately be the best idea that staff have come up with in over a decade, probably even since TWD was first created and made Trenchwars the best zone by far in all of subspace. This idea has the POTENTIAL to be powerful in that players that truly care, truly give a shit, truly WANT and CAN get things done in this zone are voted in, and they work together to legitimately make this zone better.

What I mean is, what my ultimate goal would be in joining the council, or assuming that I do not make it, other people who get voted into the council's goal, is to brainstorm and create a revolutionary new idea to jumpstart trenchwars back into making ALL the old players want to be active again. The best example I can think of in the past of something so powerful as this was TWD. Before there was TWD, the only way to play DD/JD/BD was to find a staff member to host the game for you in a private arena like .?go #spoon. While those days were also fun, it left a LOT to be desired, and TWL was once a year back then, not every winter and summer like it is now. Anyways, when TWD was created, the population jumped to 700+ people easily at peak times, sometimes 1000's. It was the golden age of Trenchwars. TWD alone did that. Now... we've had TWD for so long that the novelty and fun of it wore off in a lot of ways, but one simple thing like that drastically changed this zone for the better. I truly believe there are more innovations out there that can be legitimately done that can have the same impact as TWD did back in 2002. My goal and my hope for this Council is for everyone to find out what that innovation is, and to GET IT DONE. The power structure of staff has been written about by people like demonic/qan/ephemeral that showed how impossible it seems to be for any staff members to coordinate themselves into creating things. Demonic showed us before how she wanted to create TW Hockey League, and while it was a great idea that everyone would have loved, it fell through due to coordination (or lack thereof) issues, along with egos being tossed around.

I hope this council is able to drop the egos at the door. Drop the old hatreds, old bias', old elitist thinking of "that player is a newb, he started in 2010 and I stared in 1999, I'll never listen to anything that pub newb says" way of thinking. I hope all of that shit gets dropped at the very door, and everyone learns to work together as a team and to really get things done. The ONLY way this could happen is if people who truly give a fuck are added into this council, and the ONLY way that happens is if players take responsibility and vote in only those that truly show they care. I know I care and have stated so over and over again, but if I don't get in, I want it to be clear that I want those who also care as much as I do about this thing DO get voted in. It only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch, so guys... please take responsibility in who you end up voting for and do this thing the right way. Please. Do it for the sake of Trenchwars if for nothing else. Do it because you don't want to see this game die. Do it because you want this zone to get better. Do it because you want to have fun again, and because you want fresh, hew, innovative things happening. I know there will always be jackasses that simply don't give a shit and will try to make a mockery of this thing, but that's why we have to all make sure those type of players have no access to this Council. Please do the right thing guys. I know none of you want to see this game continue to die like it has been any more than I do.

Thanks.

[Wazzaaa.nl]

In-game name(s): Wazzaaa.NL
Years playing TW, SS: First played in 2005, very active since last 5 years
Primary arenas played: Public, events, twdd, twbd and events

Short TW/SS Bio: Mostly active in public, did lots of squadding from lt squads to pro wb squads and basesquads
Status: 24/7 online

Why choose you for Council?:
I think everyone here knows TW faces all kind of problems. But most of the people forgot how important public is to the zone.
Public is the doormat of Trenchwars, so we need to fix this first. I'm probably the most active pubber around here and want to make the best of it.
I come with a new and fresh look on issues, that's what we need if we want new blood.

Zone issues important to you:

Public/ The doormat of TW
Fixing map
Newbfriendly issues
Getting pubbers, new blood into twd

Events
Coordinated events and marathons
More active ZH's, also in Europe times
Cash events

Other
I would stimulate working with other zones
More TW Entertainment like TW Radio
Better focus and planning on promotion of the game
Everything to boost TW population!

[Weak]

In-game name(s): Weak
Years playing TW, SS: 9-10 years
Primary arenas played: Pub, wbduel/javduel , twdd/twjd, TWL
Short TW/SS Bio: I've been playing this game for quite some time, not as long as some, and much longer than others. I've been on squads with many different people, retired or active. I really enjoy talking with old friends and even making new ones.
Why choose you for Council?: When I first started playing this game, I did it just for kicks and to mess around. I would always troll around and just stir up trouble with my quicksand buddies or whoever. This game because more than just a game to me, I made some really good friends on here and I decided that I wanted to help out the zone instead of being a cancer to it. However, due to my past trouble, joining staff was just not an option, since no one took me or anything I said seriously. I'm not the only one like this, it's happened to many of us, and I figured that if we can finally have our ACTUAL voice and not just our past speak for the greater good, why not? I've seen great things from staff but also some very terrible behavior aswell. To sum it all up: I want to actually help this game and give voice to those who feel like they don't get to speak their mind because no one will take them or their opinions seriously.

Zone issues important to you:

Events:
There's many times where there are many people online and the games being hosted are not because they are the most popular, but just because the person hosting (or a group of friends) want to play a specific event.

TWD:
This is a vague topic in the sense that roster limits/current format of 3v3 is getting a very mixed result. Also being able to make twd more friendly for new players since it seems that they mainly stick to pub and we need to find a better way to get them into TWD and actually keep them interested

Staff:
Too many times I've seen or personally experienced staff abusing/expressing bias towards an individual/group

[beam]

I'd like to nominate Beam.


In-game name(s): Beam
Years playing TW, SS: 1998
Primary arenas played: TWLD, TWLJ, TWLB, and ?go base (shark only)


Zone issues important to Beam: None. But he will shoot down all the terrible ideas all the other Council members will suggest, providing critical analysis and a litmus test as to whether their plan's goal will accomplish anything. He will be the Senate to the rest of the Council's Congress. Or something.

Beam isn't afraid to tell people what he really thinks and will cut through the red-tape and politics that have bogged down an inept and do-nothing staff that has run this game into the ground.

Beam is highly resistant to conformity and will provide a 2nd member of the council the courage to stand-up and challenge the majority consensus on important issues, as proven by the Ashe experiment, stating thusly:

Asch also found that having one of the confederates give the correct answer while the rest of the confederates gave the incorrect answer dramatically lowered conformity. In this situation, just five to ten percent of the participants conformed to the rest of the group. Later studies have also supported this finding (Morris & Miller, 1975), suggesting that having social support is an important tool in combating conformity.

Beam isn't the Council Member people want, but he's the member the council NEEDS.

i accept

[Orthodoxy]

INACTIVE; WILL NOT BE ON BALLOT UNTIL ACTIVE AGAIN

In-game name(s): smiidu, Orthodoxy, Lev and Let Lev, and one other prior to that that I can't remember anymore. heh


Years playing TW, SS: Since 2001, at least. Started in DSB, then came to TW with jaunts over to EG now and then.


Primary arenas played: Pub (best thing going!), some Elim and Wbduel when boredom reaches critical levels, as well as any other arenas ppl invite me to.

Short TW/SS Bio: Blah blah blah...been on an absurd number of squads, a brief stint as zh but the politics was too much for this one, and otherwise I just try to help new players in pub, which is why I was asked to join staff in the first place and was all I really wanted to do anyway. On my own volition, I have resumed this task as well as trying to keep chat civil in pub.

Why choose you for Council?: Because I think outside of the box. Waaaay outside the box. (What is this box you speak of?) If we want to revitalize this game, we can't just do the same old things again and think things will turn out differently. We need a serious shake-up from the roots up and I'm just the sort to do it. Also, there are only nine applicants currently. Someone needs to lose.

Zone issues important to you: Getting the game's reputation and population up again so we can get back to the days of three and four pubs running most of the time as well as basing games and so forth. Those were good times. I'd love to see it again and there's no reason it shouldn't happen.

[Star Fox]

In-game name(s): Star Fox
Years playing TW, SS: Since '97 baby
Primary arenas played: Events, elim/wbduel/javduel, twdd, whatever else

Short TW/SS Bio: I've been around after 15+ years; I'm one of the best wb duelers in the game. But most importantly, I love events. They're why I play. Been on a lot of squads, been on staff as a mod for a bit. I also WB 1-handed. Really, I do.

Why choose you for Council?:
Rather than a bunch of platitudes, how about I just expound on my SS/TW philosophy a bit.

While I think it's important to have some newer players on council too, my longer tenure means I've seen what does and doesn't work, and what people do and don't like. There's a fine balance to be struck when weighing everyone's opinions, and while you can't please everyone, you can see both sides of the picture. I've seen it from the staff side and from the non-staff side, and the bickering is so bad it disgusts me. It's like watching a political debate, where neither side is willing to budge an inch and poop is just being flung everywhere until the end of time. Nothing ever really gets done because it's like an endless filibuster, until some senior staffer finally just says fuck everyone else and makes a change that people may or may not like, then it either gets changed back really quickly which makes staff look indecisive, or it stays the way it is and everyone rages.

Having seen both sides, I think we all really need to stop acting like 10 year olds and come together on things, or this game is dead. This council is a good start. I think are a few very serious key points that do not necessarily conflict with each other (we can focus on them all without screwing any of them up):

-Keeping pub fresh, interesting, populated, and friendly to new players (if you're a 10+ year vet and being a shitlord to newbies, you're an idiot and don't ever, ever complain about the game dying)
-Keep the leagues going without enforcing any STUPID TECHNICALITIES on people (I'm looking at you here, staffers); after all, it's really not THAT serious
-Always have something else to do; events, hockey, base, whatever. I know for me personally, if there are no dds, elim/wbduel is empty, and no events are going on, I will log off right away. If there is something going on, it's easy to get hooked and play all day. I don't think I'm alone here--but I realize we have limited staff available for this
-Akin to the above, bring back things like TW radio, have a twitch stream for TWL (random people passing by just might find it interesting enough to give the game a go), etc. Get creative!

In short, no part of TW can be neglected. Many vets are worried primarily about leagues and say to hell with everyone else, some don't care about leagues at all, and some don't care about events at all. But I think a proper balance can be struck.

??? I'm going to bed. Vote for me!

[Amerie]

(adding Sleepyjoe's candicacy post for him because his account hasn't been approved yet)


In-game name(s): sleepyjoe

Years playing TW, SS: 4 months

Primary arenas played: Pub

Short TW/SS Bio: Pretty sure nobody cares, since nobody knows me.

Why choose you for Council?: I see some mention of staff politics and long game tenure in this thread. There is no question that the old timers are an important foundation of the game. At the same time, TWs problems are not really that complicated: playerbase size.

Any game dies when the players leave, and TW/SS is no longer the newest game, commercially, marketed, sponsored or anything like that. You can't play it on a mobile device, so there are just fewer people aware of it.

Observe search trends for "Subspace Continuum" vs "Trench wars" from 2005 on. Note the steady decline in both. The later trench wars popularity appears to be from searches for "star wars trench". Most searches are from North America.

http://www.google.com/trends/explore...0trench%20wars

I will lead a MULTI-PRONGED marketing WAR against all other online multiplayer games.

Zone issues important to you: Playerbase. The only way to increase playerbase will be a long-term, continuous marketing effort. While issues like LTs and the popularity of basing in pub are important issues, they are less important than the playerbase which creates everything. It is only the thoughts of the players which keep this game alive. Vote sleepyjoe.

[qan]

NOTE: Posting for a candidate. Potential candidates, I will interview you in-game and post for you if you prefer.



In-game name(s): iPad / Ray Allen

Years playing TW, SS: 6-7

Primary arenas played: TWD, events, elim

Short TW/SS Bio: He watched his brother jaa/tragiK play it as he was growing up, and soon he was playing himself, TWDing in starter squads like Dependency and GT. Now he is capping for Ambush and working hard to keep squad activity going.

Why choose you for Council?: He makes a lot of effort into creating activity w/ many squads (e.g., Rumbling Thunder, *MAGMA*, etc.), and is willing to work with fellow members to solve problems.

Zone issues important to you: Lack of TWD squad activity, elim tweaks.

[Drosophila]

In-game name(s): Drosophila


Years playing / Short TW/SS Bio: I started subspace back in '97; alpha zone of course and then Chaos. I've been fairly active in TW pub over the last six years.


Primary arenas played: Pub, ?go base, Dist, events


Why choose you for Council?: I'm a professor and I have been systematically analyzing the public stats for years. It started out of self interest in seeing how I was doing over time. During the course of doing this, I have learned a lot about the population structure in pub. In addition, I have also been following the forums for several years so I'm familiar with many of the long standing issues.


Zone issues important to you:
I think the single biggest problem in TW is 'Crib Death'. On average it appears 10 to 20 truly new people try Pub each week. Once a person has played 40 hrs, they tend to stick around for several years. The issue is only a small percentage of people make it to 40 hrs.

I think the solution to this problem comes in 3 parts.
1. Resolve issues with ship balance in pub in way that finds a compromise between basers and LTers: we need to get our house in order.
2. Do a cosmetic makeup of the TW home page that makes the game more appealing to new players: we need to put out a better welcome mat.
3. Put together a short users guide for new players, along the lines of Rab's guide to basing: we need to explain why TW is fun.

In the end nothing would make me happier than to see SS last another 17 years.

[Oranje]

NOMINATION


In-game name(s): cres / crescent seal

Years playing TW, SS: lots

Primary arenas played: TWD/TWL

Short TW/SS Bio in a few words: NC17, pro, bff with Sir spider, we all know about cres and roxxkat's sister, syne, potenza, savanger, wolf, practically already a boss in tw

Why choose you for Council?: self explanatory

Zone issues important to you: all the important things

Cres declines.

[Mango.]

In-game name(s): Mango. , oid , Sanford , Originally "mangodood"
Years playing TW, SS: 10 at least, I use aliases: "oid" (mostly in hyperspace), and most famously in tw: "Mango." Have 13k+ hours on mango, 11k+ on oid... if that means shit.
Primary arenas played: PUB, BASE, TWBD, TWJD, TWDD, events, everything ok. TW is my shit.

Short TW/SS Bio: I played TW forever, its my first and last zone. I play HS under the name oid, but not really right now. I've played in many BD squads, a few DD and JD squads. I played league a couple games, namely in LEGO, but never could play all out because of jobs and real life shit.

Why choose you for Council?: I want to make trench wars a homely place for everybody. I think any random internet folk should be able to join the zone and jive along with out current system, but that doesn't happen many times. Personalities clash, some folks have a naturally obscene vocabulary. Staffers are too concentrated on the current strict rules and policies of the zone, they don't pay any attention to the affects and consequences those rules have on the random new player, who has no previous knowledge of these rules.

These rules are NOT simply defined. They are NOT set in stone. Different mods have vastly different rules. The punishments for breaking these rules are even more diverse, its up to the individual staff member to come up with their own punishments now. Some folks like Azov and Rudy in the past are extremely overzealous in enforcing these rules. Its their singular job to enforce and punish people for simply saying the wrong word.
This is ridiculous and has to stop.

Some of you may think im just a racist bigot. I don't give a shit about race, honestly. But anybody should have the right to express any opinion they have, and type any word they feel like typing. This is the fucking internet, its not the 4th grade social. Words do not hurt people. We simply need freedom to express ourselves in any way we want. If I wanna call somebody a "n word" as an insult, why should that matter? If it offends you then it means that YOU are the racist, since you think that they are somehow inferior.

Words should not hurt anybody. They are a means of expression. This is the 21st century. We should be able to call people whatever we want. the "N word" (since im not allowed to say it on the forums, because of some ridiculous archaic rule) rarely even applies to a black person, it rarely carries "racist" connotation. Even "racism" is becoming dated. If you really believe that all races are equal, then why do we needlessly protect "minorities" (even though whites are the real minority) with these preposterous racism punishments.

Countless times I have seen new players slip out the ever so common "n-word" and get warned for it. Confused and angered, and not liking to be told what to do by some random internet nerd, they continue to use the word even more, since nobody likes to be told what to do. These new players are banned for complete bullshit, for a bullshit rule that helps nobody.

This is what I stand for: Free speech. We should be able to say whatever the fuck we want. This is the internet for godsakes. If somebody doesn't like it they can ?ignore easy enough.
But what about racism? harassment? users who disagree with .... well disagreeable text, can easily ?ignore the user that creates such disagreeable text. Words shouldn't hurt any reasonable person. As such, text should most definitely not offend any person. This is the internet, theres worse things than the "N word" and other racial slurs. Text means nothing in reality.
To put it simply, I stand for free speech. Its preposterous that we don't have it here on an unregulated internet spaceship game. Children used to play this, but we aren't children anymore. Most of the population has grown up with this game and already knows the deal. Text is just that, text. It cannot harm anybody in any way whatsoever. Why in the FUCK should a user be punished for something thats easily prevented by another user. Instead of punishing the supposed "offender
", the defender should be more well informed on their rights as a spaceship pilot, and they should be informed on how to ?ignore the supposed offending user if they are that oversensitive about internet text.


Zone issues important to you: Policy, Pub settings, Events, divisions and to some extent leagues.
Racism policy is what it is, it probably wont change from what I have to say, since I've said a lot in the past and its still mostly the same. But, I will continue to voice my opinion, nothing can stop that.
Pub settings, people who haven't barely ever played pub are in charge of changing pub settings, this is dumb as fuck. In my opinion we need to revert settings back to the golden days of TW. Weasels and leviathans have been completely raped. Blue bombs hardly do any damage. Its like a few particularly bitchy staffers played pub for 5 minutes and got raped by lev and wzl because they didnt know what the fuck they were doing, and then overzealously decided to nerf wzl and lev in response. I think blue bombs should be as powerful as theyve always been, and weasels should be brought back to the more mobile versions that they were a couple years ago (like the ones in ?go base).

Racism policy is something I shouldn't really comment on, but I dont give a fuck. Its silly how a staffer decides to ban/silence a player before the complainant is informed to simply ?ignore the "offending" user. If somebody has a problem with what somebody else has to say, they have the ability to ?ignore that player. Staff intervention should rarely be required.

I'm not "racist." This term is thrown around far too much, generally to discredit anybody of any valid point they have made. Racism is irrelevant in a fucking video game.

Really, who gives a shit? We're here to blow up spaceships. Black, white, chinese, mexican... it doesn't matter. Race has absolutely nothing to do with how well you fly a motherfucking spaceship.


Elect me for council. I have a real voice that won't be hindered by new players and old staffers grasping to outdated policies that limit the player's right to express themselves.
I will not stand for these injustices.
I also seek to restore TW pub to the grandeur that it once possessed. Too many ill educated staffers have been in charge of pub settings for the past few years. They've turned pub stale. Pure pub a few years ago was much better than current pub settings. We need to bring some excitement and incentive back to TW pub.



Thank you all,
Mango. out.