Recent developments and future courses of action

Wherein the great gods of the A-Team will grace you with information and knowledge.
Post Reply
User avatar
Marty
Posts: 221
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2020 10:10 am
XP: 18
Trait(s): Technical Mastery
Discord username: Martinulus#9514

Recent developments and future courses of action

Post by Marty »

We'd rather not have had to make this announcement, but unfortunately, things have hit a bit of a rough patch for the round currently. Before we move on to what we'll actually be doing, we'd like to first give you an honest account of the issues we're facing at the moment.

It should not come as a surprise to any of you that there is a bit of an imbalance when it comes to the composition of the parties. The Tories have struggled and seem demoralised by their inability to find the right way forward. On the other hand, Labour players have raised concerns that the lack of a viable opposition is demotivating them. In part, this is due to flaws in the setup of the round: while the Tories did do better in the 2001 election, this was largely put down to Blair's impopularity. If you then take away Blair and have a generally competent government, Labour quickly reassumes its old early 2000s trajectory.

That would, in and of itself, be very hard for an equally-matched Conservative Party to dent. Unfortunately, we also have to face that the Tories are both quantitatively and qualitatively weaker than the government. We've done our best to help them where we can, and to signal to them in many different ways where things keep going wrong for them, but it doesn't quite seem enough. And this is a consistent pattern: for rounds, the Conservatives have been prone to infighting, volatile leadership situations and (barring the eventuality of a war) electoral malaise. Ultimately the reason for this must, we think, be sought in the composition of those parties.

The logical solution to this situation, you'd think, would be to ask a number of solid quality players to switch parties to help the team in blue. We have sounded out the possibility. However, all the players we have sounded out reveal no inclination whatsoever to join the Tories. And here's the thing - not just because they don't want to or want to stay where they are, but actively because they view the atmosphere in the Conservative Party as toxic. We know this is a harsh thing to say of anyone, especially those whom we have played alongside for quite some time, but we cannot escape the fact that they have a point. The decay in the Tory player numbers, especially among quality or promising players, has not just been due to people passively drifting away but also due to a variety of grudges, vendettas and fights that have left some of them with no choice but to leave the Conservative Party. The people involved know who they are - not least because at the time, we intervened to express our concern at the way people treat other players.

If the game is to survive, this needs to stop. No party can survive the kind of animosity we've seen, and no game can survive with one party regularly disabling itself in such petty feuds. To all of those involved - again, you know who you are -, we say this: you're welcome here at PolUK. But this game thrives and has always thrived on a welcoming community where IC actions did not impact OOC relations. You dick eachother over, and you laugh about it afterwards. Any hint that this is not the case scares away both experienced and newer players. Speaking of which, this game has also thrived on its willingness to help people realise and improve upon their mistakes. Both marks of quality have not been overly clearly present in this round's, or any recent round's Conservative Party. Again, it's harsh to say this - but it's hard not to attribute this to some among the core of people usually playing that particular party. While natural core teams are generally healthy, they risk stopping to be so when the people involved engage in some of the behaviours we've seen. We fear that some of that behaviour is actually exacerbated by certain combinations of players. We'll reiterate this: we don't care who started it - this animosity and feuding that sometimes spans rounds is starting to hurt the game.

So, we're at catch-22. The Tories need help, but aren't getting any because none of the players you'd want to do so would want to poke that particular wasps' nest. All the same, we need to shuffle the deck. That's why we're calling a pause of the current round in order to ensure this. That means we'll have to fix the personal and cultural problems the Tory Party is facing. To do that, we need some Tories to go to Labour and some Labour players to go Tory. We reiterate again: wherever it is, whoever started it, the kind of behaviour we've seen must stop. It's unhelpful, (self-)destructive and contrary to everything that PolUK has stood for in the past 19 years. To facilitate this, we believe we need to shuffle the teams.

Provided that the forced reshuffling of the deck is not an acceptable course for you guys, then the alternative option is to restart. The A-Team has already developed a new scenario, taking place in 2015 with a Labour majority government.

If we are being honest, we have to say that it is our preference to restart with a new, more evenly-balanced scenario giving everyone the chance to start over, giving us a chance to rebalance the teams and reshuffle the deck, and to introduce some serious reforms to the mechanics of the game. If this is the option we choose to take, in consultation with the players, then we will allow for a carry-over of some or all of the earned XP that players have accrued during this round. While this is not in keeping with the tradition of Politics UK, we believe that, since this round was so short and such a failure, and since many players have put a great deal of effort into the first parts of this round for which we believe they deserve credit, it is fair to allow a carry-over to occur. Finally, should we determine that we want to move forward with a restart, then we will engage in a relatively quick turnover time and lead almost directly into a new round.

We hope that we will not have to exercise a heavy hand in reshuffling the deck of players. We hope that the players will see, as we do, that the current situation cannot carry on. A toxic environment in any party is a toxic environment for our game and whether we like it or not, it bleeds out into the wider community and causes severe problems. Our opinion is that it is better that these things be sorted out naturally by the player base, but that it is our responsibility, as stewards of the game, to ensure that a solution is found. Should we be forced to, we will have to consider a much more direct role in pulling the cliques apart. I hope and trust that we won't have to do that.

On a personal note: two of us (Barclay and Marty) have played and admined PolUK for the better part of fifteen years. During that time, like many of you, we've grown attached to the game and its standards of quality, friendliness and a realistic experience. We've witnessed PolUK, sometimes almost, sometimes actually, closing down, and those are not memories we care to revisit. Take it from us old-timers on the A-team that PolUK is way more fun without all the drama, tinker tailor soldier c*nt and fooling around (though, we should hasten to add, the game has always had a subtly lighthearted side). We see it as our mission, as the A-team, to champion the best of PolUK, the qualities that have made it the best political simulation and the most welcoming communities on the web. PolUK, at its best, is fun, engaging and can teach you skills that will be useful in many ways. Whatever the course of action we choose to take, know that we will keep trying to restore some of that old shine. We'll be looking to introduce some new features that might help with that.

So, this was not a fun announcement to write. But we felt we had to raise some of these issues honestly. Please help us work things out, so we can get back to the game we love sooner, rather than later.

Please contact any of us if you need clarification.

The A-team:
Barclay, Ben, Blakesley and Marty
Dr. Marty of the A-team
Technical Wizard
Education and Children, Health and Social Security, Environment and Energy, Constitutional Affairs
Scenarios
Conservative Party advisor
Post Reply

Return to “Announcements”