Right now there are just a lot of rough ideas in my head. The only one I’ve put more than a few minutes of thought into was the one I mentioned above. Right now I’m putting 100% of my time and focus into getting more work done on The People’s House, but once that gets closer to release I’ll likely be putting out a lot of my next ideas.
In the future, I may also be releasing a Patreon so I’d likely be doing a lot of polls and feedback there if people end up deciding to support in that way. As of right now, I don’t even have a time period picked out for my next project. I’m doing my best to stay focused on one project at a time so I can hopefully get something I write published!
I’ll have to consider it. As of right now, the Asian summit consists of China, South Korea, and Japan, which are all three incredibly important players in the region in terms of foreign affairs. As I’m limiting the number of nations that you’re able to visit at each summit to three (with the exception of the Middle East because of Israel/Palestine), I’d have to cut one of those other three nations from the summit.
And speaking of international summits, do you think that today’s American summit will be able to influence the development of foreign policy in your political universe? (at least in what refers to the American continent and the internal policies that we could expand with other nations)
I also recently saw a video that discusses the question Can the United States continue to police the world? And one of the factors would be the increase of pro-American politicians in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan as well as the beginning of more direct rapprochement with the United States by Vietnam and Indonesia due to fear of China and more now with what It happens in Eastern Europe.
And also if your administration is corrupt, that gives you more chances of being a president with authoritarian tendencies within American standards?
By “today’s American summit” do you mean the one that the MC will go on later in the story? If so, I’d also ask that you elaborate more on what you mean by influencing the “development of foreign policy.”
If you mean development in the sense of altering current foreign policy, then yes. Each region of the world that you go to, aside from Western Europe as of right now (this is just a standard summit to pretty much maintain the status quo), will come with a major policy decision to either keep with current foreign policy or break away from it.
Not entirely sure if I understand this question, but from my understanding of it, yes. The more corrupt choices you go with will allow you to become a far more authoritarian President.
If they could be trade agreements or mutual defense expenses between one region and another. Also the possibility that developing nations begin to take more assertive roles in the international community Or aspire to be a world power
As of right now, with where my storyline is plotted, there will not be a great focus on other nations’ relations with one another if they don’t involve the U.S. I’m not an international relations scholar, so the area isn’t my specialty.
Because of that, there likely will also not be much of a focus on whether or not some developing nations begin taking greater roles or work towards becoming a world power. While there may be some comments made off-hand about it, it is just not the main focus of this story.
It’s more possible that something like this comes up when it comes time for the chapter on war, as a nation working to become a world power by force could very easily spark a conflict.
Budget distribution can be a important issues as every branch of the government will try to get more money and have different effects on the country overall. Eg more money to NASA further makes more influence in setting policies regarding weapons in space ,space exploration and military edge over other countries. And can be a crucial tool in winning wars and spying on the enemy and helping allies
Also while I like the expanded background choices not all places in the US are equal. For example the only thing that could propel a maverick Republican mayor of Portland straight to the Presidency is if he or she could do what their Democratic predecessors could not, which in the case of Portland is not cutting taxes and balancing the budget but tackling homelessness and the associated petty crime wave, overcoming a lot of Nimby-ism and probably making the city quite a bit more dense while increasing quality of life for the majority of its residents.
Theoretically that would take a unique coalition of younger voters, particularly young parents, small and mid-sized business, the big developers and crucially the Asian American community. It would be, in the current US political environment a highly unusual coalition, but then politics does make for strange bedfellows on occasion. It would theoretically be opposed by a lot of big business, minus those developers, conservationists and the nimby’s including a lot of wealthy liberals.
While not quite, New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco Portland is already wealthy enough that the budget is a secondary concern.
Depends what you want to replace it with. Some Republicans in places like California are already in favour of things alternative voting. Proportional representation certainly isn’t happening anytime soon.
Besides even if you get your constitutional amendments through the Senate you probably won’t see them become reality during your own presidency anyway. Just don’t be dumb enough to include specific expiration dates, like with the ERA.
That said, one reform that could make the Senate more manageable is to reduce the filibuster to the talking filibuster again.
For the Maverick Republican path frame it something like “protecting the quintessential nature and character of an uniquely American institution that once made the US Senate the greatest deliberative body in history”.
Hurray to the 4th official Writer’s Diary for my upcoming political fiction game, The People’s House! Feel free to look at the first post here to learn more about my story and play the demo.
First of all, I wanted to stress how great of a week this has been for writing. In this past week, the word count has skyrocketed and I’m finally really able to get into writing Chapter 2 and fleshing out my ideas for the story as you try to fight your legislation through both chambers. I am also happy to have brought on two people that will be helping me out with beta testing so that when the time does come to update the demo, there will ideally be no game-breaking bugs.
The Updates
As always, huge bug fixes to the story. I’ve fixed even more typos and coding bugs. I’m really thankful for my bug testers who were given the updated version of this demo a few days ago and have already helped me out tremendously.
The first Cabinet meeting and Congressional Leadership meeting have been written! All nine different legislation focuses have their own unique dialogue, versions of the bill, and all will impact your relationship with your Vice President, your party, and the opposition party depending on what you go with
With that update, I’ve also decided to swap out the centrist focus of balancing the budget, and instead am replacing it with education. Since I’m adding in a budgeting system for this or the next chapter, there really would be no point in having legislation to change the budget twice.
I’ve also gone back in and added a few more scenes into earlier chapters. Some smaller ones like picking out “the button” and expanded the scene where your spouse talks about taking on a cause they’re passionate about after a suggestion.
I’ve also completely rewritten the scene at the end of your first day and I’m pretty proud of it. People mentioned that they really liked moments in my writing where the MC takes a step back and acknowledges the insane reality of managing a nation of 300 million (probably closer to around 450-500 million by the time the story takes place). If you’re a fan of that concept like I am, I really think you’ll enjoy this new scene when you get to experience it.
The scene and coding for whether or not your first bill passes is written! You’ll have the opportunity to spend your own money to lobby Congress, and whether or not the bill passes depends on your party, the party of your Vice President, and if you can get it through committee.
A scandalous affair is in the works! A certain staffer from the White House Office of Communications might catch your eye
Finally, a new character from Congress is introduced to the story. As usual, I won’t say too much and spoil it for you.
Updated Word Count : 60,000 words (!!!)
Progress Update: 15% → 17%
This week, by far, is the biggest one for progress regarding actually getting things written. In just a little over 7 days, the length of the story has almost doubled from 33,000 words last week to about 60,000 as of this posting. Bringing on two bug testers has dramatically helped with that progress as I no longer need to spend hours each day bug testing – I can just get right into actually writing the story.
Well… headcanon my mc already married up with a sexy Korean American boy, so that is not the kinda scandal that is going to get him. Besides his husband probably has a still living tiger mom and my mc likes to keep on living, thank you very much. Besides gay men already have a media problem with being stereotyped as unusually promiscuous and I’d like to avoid playing into that…this time around.
That being said the hypothetical revive Portland coalition by necessity included a lot of big developers and looking at Japanese and South Korean urban politics when you do mega-developments fast with those guys on board…even if it worked out for the better there tend to be a lot of white collar crimes involved. Again, headcanon but if there is any scandal that would impact my mc as president that is connected to his past it would probably be connected to one of those developers.
Machiavelli’s advice that could apply in this story even if we need to resort to corruption to meet the objectives of both administrations or re-election:
The well-known End that justifies all means. Machiavelli expresses that this only works if the end is a shared greater good and with the previous definition it is the most accurate to the Machiavellian act but if it is in pursuit of a selfish goal then it would not be a Machiavellian act but an evil act of a villain and tyrant. So if you have to resort to bribery, lies, or intimidation to safeguard your nation, don’t hesitate to take the lesser evil for the greater good.
Being virtuous is more important than luck. The virtue defined by Machiavelli is that person who has the necessary gifts to form his power through connections as well as to expand it. It is also the ability to know when to act and when not to leave room for luck to define your government, life or in war most of the time at least. You must be the master of your own destiny.
Have a proper use of your cruelty. Sometimes when the time calls for it, you need to show your most evil face before your peers and subordinates to safeguard the order and the nation that the ruler has under his responsibility and avoid falling into chaos. This brings us to the next tip.
It is better to be feared than to be loved. what does this mean? I have a question for you, who is more feared? The merciful ruler or the just ruler?
The merciful rulers are usually more naive characters than the just ones since the latter have enough malice in their virtue (which in this case in my country is used as a synonym for being the possessor of the knowledge of evil that another human being can do to you) You apply the Mexican term of malice a lot in this advice from Machiavelli. For example yesterday I saw this when I was warned not to give my money to any bum on the street who begs me as sometimes some don’t look so needy or can even be rude behind your back when they don’t give them something. Or when my parents recommend not talking outside the house the times we have to go on a trip, since there is the possibility that a criminal will take advantage of our absence to rob our house.
Going back to Machiavelli, he expresses that people are usually selfish and that they tend to be more treacherous with merciful rulers than with the just ones, since the latter do not hesitate to punish treason or abhorrent acts dictated by the law of the ruler for what his followers I’ll think twice before doing anything behind your back.
The game of appearances is important in the game of power. Hiding the limits of your scruples makes your enemy underestimate you and thereby only attack the mask you wear before many around you and emerge victorious in a military or rhetorical confrontation.
And lastly, don’t waste your time trying to free a people who choose slavery. They are those people who do not want to be more than they can be and do not want to use their full potential. These people will feel uncomfortable when they want to change their comfort zone to one where they now hold them accountable for their actions or punish them for being mediocre. Don’t waste your time with these people.
What do you think? In what ways do you think these tips from Machiavelli can be applied to this WIP thread?
