Simulation - Email & Game Mechanics
The sim starts, the world stops
Once a simulation begins, the outside world ceases to impact on the simulation world. In other words, events in the simulation take precedence over "real-life" events and an event that occurs during simulation time in the real world which would effect a simulation character do not take place. This doesn't infer that the rest of the world stops or that you can't take ideas from the outside world and incorporate them into the simulation, but the course of a simulation may run very differently.
Every simulation begins with the release of a simulation scenario. The scenario sets the general mood for the simulation, provides some background information and usually includes some late-breaking news which may affect your character and to which various teams can respond. Your participation in the simulation should definitely not be limited to or based on the scenario, which provides only the initial impetus to gameplay. An understanding of your role is thus vital to engaging others in the sim.
A properly prepared roleprofile sets out a range of ideas, aims and motivations which help to set your role's agenda. Once these concepts have been determined, the ideas must be translated into action in the simulation. Most frequently, this action takes place in the form of interaction with the teams in a simulation. This action takes place in two fundamental forms:
- active - by initiating certain tactics and strategies to fulfil your aims
- re-active - in response to the scenario, to events released by control, or by actions and/or correspondence received from other teams
In addition to this you can act within your own sphere, eg by releasing news of internal political or social events to the media. Not every event or action need be headline news, many can simply be useful in developing and roleplaying a complex character and adding further realism to your role.
To all these ends three factors are crucial:
- communication - to interact with other roles you must communicate (note - this implies a two-way flow of ideas)
- information - without information most of your plans and goals will be frustrated, you may find yourself isolated and you will be unable to communicate if you aren't on the same wavelength as others
- publication - if no-one knows about an event, it almost didn't happen; to this end, effective use of media outlets is vital and will be discussed further
Keeping this in mind, a simulation is more about diplomacy and negotiation than it is about bombs and kidnapping - the latter have neither purpose nor effect without the former.
Don't limit yourself to email as your only form of communication. Good teams also make use of online chats (which are unmarked, unmonitored and can be informal). The most effective teams also talk to others on the telephone and organise meetings in person. Often you can take advantage of making a personal impression to push your agenda when lobbying by email is rejected.
In playing a role in the simulation, you also need to consider a number of basic elements in emailing. Depending on who you are and whom you are addressing, your manner may vary from being formal to semi-formal (but vary rarely informal). All email is marked and stepping out of your role to make comments is not recommended. Similarly, whilst you may be playing "in character" a certain level of etiquette is required - insults which are out of character will be marked very poorly. A number of sample emails are reproduced as a guideline.
In roleplaying you may end up immersing yourself in your role and become very identified with the character you are playing. This can be effective to a point, but make a point of stepping back occasionally to gain a broader perspective of your situation.
We would like all players to be active in the simulation and live up to their real-life counterparts. This won't always happen. Regardless of moderation some players might be outplayed to such a degree that a simulation will diverge from "reality" as you may watch it on television. We put one example to all players for your consideration: Some time ago, players for Arafat and Rabin in a simulation decided to begin secret peace talks. The consensus of control (this was several years ago) was that this was rather odd, and quite unlikely, but, being a simulation, the process as not interfered with. Some six months later, in real-life, news of the Oslo peace accords were publicised.
Finally, in order to moderate action in a simulation, you may need control approval before you can act.
There's no control like self-control
Ideally, a simulation requires minimal controlling because teams should moderate their own actions according to reason, commonsense and the counter-balance of other teams. Unfortunately, the intensity of roleplay in the simulation sometimes requires moderation (you'd be surprised how some people can argue a nuclear bomb at the Superbowl to be "reasonable"...). To this end, a number of actions require control approval. These include actions:
- which affect another player (eg cross-border raids, bombings, stealing documents)
- which might be described as extraordinary (eg large resource discoveries, troop mobilisations)
In addition to this, it is prudent to keep control notified of any security measures you are taking and to explain "odd" gameplay if there is a purpose to it.
Thus, you don't need to notify control to talk to others, to take normal, day-to-day actions, or to tie your shoelaces. A good rule to follow is if you would want another player to ask permission to do something that you are about to do, check with control first.
Requests for permission should:
- be clearly labelled in the subject-line with capitals, eg, REQUEST - HIJACKING
- be appropriate to your circumstance in the simulation and the role you are playing
- contain reasoning for your action
- contain a detailed description for your action - how you propose to carry it out and possible results (which may or may not be taken into account in a reply by control)
Note that you will not receive permission to kill another role in the simulation.
You will also have to accept that not every request will be approved, your request may be modified or your plan may be approved but fail abysmally. This is much like real life and may be the result of an unrealistic request, because of security measures or espionage carried out by another team or simply because unexpected events happen in life - things rarely go the way we planned them - and you are expected to cope with unexpected, difficult circumstances (and marked according to how you cope, not how you complain). Please realise that control is not a fellow player in the simulation - controllers are not part of the playing field and will not enter into lengthy debates about why this or that action should/shouldn't be allowed.
In a simulation, control is also available for advice and guidance. This doesn't mean that control will do your work or research for you, but you may approach a controller for advice. At the same time, please be aware that requests are only answered if sent in writing and mailed to control, not to individual controllers.
To add a further, random element to the simulation, certain emails and requests may also be leaked to other teams on occasion (to simulate real-life information leaks) so do not assume that any plan is foolproof.
Publish or perish
How is information generally broadcast or transmitted? Certainly, specialist information resources exist, and the internet has gone a long way in making the world smaller, but the media remains the predominant force for the relaying of information to a mass audience. Consider the spread and importance of PR and spin doctors in every popular walk of life, and even moreso in the field of politics and elections.
The simulation operates similarly, with the provision of one or more media roles. While much of your activity will involve mailing fellow teams, to reach a worldwide audience, one must have that message relayed through the press. To this end only the media and control are permitted to mail to "all" in the simulation. This mimicks the real-life situation where smaller groups must often struggle to have their story broadcast and the world at large cares little about a situation unless they have heard about it.
Teams playing fringe groups may find it particularly difficult to gain more than a token response from the American president, but every role will have to learn to effectively play the media to gain attention and thus responses from other teams (without communication you virtually don't exist).
To this end, you should develop strategies to promote and publicise your cause. Interest must not only be generated in your agenda, you have to work to maintain that interest or risk becoming "yesterday's news". You'll quickly find that even terrorist bombings lose front-page impact when they become too frequent and bigger is not always better.