16-11-2025, 03:10 AM
I'll put this at the start before even beginning: I am sure I will write for far too long, and yet I will leave things out and come back to revise, but for now...
I first began playing Particracy sometime around 2017. At the time, I had just begun my undergrad, and in between partying, travelling, and occasionally picking up a gig, I found myself with a lot of time to sit around reading, writing, and indeed, playing games from time to time.
I had always had an interest in politics, which I largely associate with my parents. Here in Canada, at age 14, I joined the New Democratic Party and really quickly ascended the provincial party’s youth organization, but became disillusioned and allowed my party membership to lapse by 2016 . I went on to study politics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This is all to say that my interest in politics has always been a major fixture of my life, and that bleeds into all my interests and preferences, such as in the films I watch, books I read, or indeed, games I play.
The first political simulation game I can remember playing was Democracy 3. I found how easy it was to create a perfectly utopian society (by its metrics) through social democratic policies to be the perfect confirmation bias for my real-world left liberal/social democratic politics. However, I was very bored by the absence of actual politicking – why can I pass policies without having to have a vote in parliament? Why are elections in parliamentary countries decided by popular vote? Why is my power almost totalitarian, even if I only win 50.1% of the vote? Why don't I have to campaign?
This led me to Google “political party games” or “political party simulation,” or something similar. I had tried Nationstates and Cyber Nations before at a much younger age (13 or so?), but was never interested enough to stick around. Somehow, I stumbled across Particracy for the first time. I remember looking through a few countries, reading the cultural protocols, and ultimately deciding to start in Yingdala (then Indrala), which was, as far as I could tell at first, the only Asian-inspired country in the game – being of Asian heritage myself, this was more appealing to me. I couldn’t think of a good username, so I thought I may as well name it after my party leader (after seeing that most party pages listed their party leaders) so I used the fantasynamegenerators.com generator for Chinese names, picked Wu Hán, and used that as both my username, and the name of my first party’s founding leader.
Joining Indrala led me to a fateful meeting with James. Frankly, I would not still be playing the game today if not for my earliest interactions with him, much less our continued collaborations and conversations over the years. Initially, we just played the game without communicating, and he pulled the tricks one would typically deploy when an upstart noob starts messing with your plans for a country (early elections, treaties, etc.). However, I found the struggle against him and his party to be really exciting and fresh. I remember I was on a trip with friends to a lake house in the Okanagan the week after I first joined, yet I found myself checking the game every spare minute I could on my phone – in the bathroom, in the car, before bed and when first waking up – to see if my bills had passed, or to see how my party fared in the elections, and so on.
Eventually, I think I was enough of a thorn in James’ side that he reached out through the in-game messenger and sent the Discord link. Here’s our earliest private conversation:
![[Image: chat1.png]](https://i.ibb.co/7JwbDhM8/chat1.png)
In these messages there is the seed of something which became a running theme throughout my long time in Indrala – comparisons to Liu Che. Early on, this meant nothing to me — why should I care that some guy once played in this country before? What does that have to do with how I want to play the game? Moreover, why do people keep saying that Liu Che was better than me? Why do people keep wishing that Indrala was run by Liu Che, and not by me?
Eventually, and perhaps partially out of insecurity from these early conversations and comparisons, I checked his old posts on the forum and was blown away. The narrative style was completely unlike anything I had expected for a game grounded in liberal democracy; his utilization of and understanding of Confucianism and imperial Chinese state theory in creating a completely original country, anachronistic and yet modern enough to interact with others in the game, thoroughly impressed me. Whereas I originally came to the game wanting to play out my own political beliefs (as with Democracy 3), I shifted thereafter towards wanting to play out storylines, culturally-inspired political systems, and so on. This even led me to clash with James at the time – he wanted a simple restoration of the monarchy, I wanted the new Emperor to gain the Mandate of Heaven the right way! So began my first real story arc, abstracted from simply reporting on the ups and downs of the game’s electoral politics – the rise of the Sun Clan and establishment of the Yu Dynasty. My dynasty, which I wholly controlled, would rule Yingdala for roughly 400 years, and finally earned me the praise of being, if not as good as Liu Che, then at least “like Liu Che.” In his brief return to the game, he was kind enough to commend me:
![[Image: liu-chat.png]](https://i.ibb.co/9QwJbtj/liu-chat.png)
Here, I also began to play with two former players, one older and one newer than I: Ryouta/Zongxian and Mugglemuffins, respectively. Both of these players were incredibly friendly, generous with their time and contributions, and fun to play and chat with. Ryouta, whose work spanned many countries but is primarily associated with thousands of years of work in Dankuk (now Baeguk), brought with him a great deal of experience and knowledge of the lore, but he was also a very good storyteller, he was funny, and he was easy to work with; Mugglemuffins was, until then, the only other player I had interacted with who was of Asian heritage, and the two of us would often commiserate about how Asian-inspired nations were depicted by players in the game at that point, or share our disappointment generally with how most of the permanently “third world countries” in the game were always countries that were majority Asian, African, or Indigenous, while the strongest were German/Nordic or otherwise European. This was also a period in the game where moderation was a bit laissez-faire with respect to, generously, “edgy” humour; I remember being called a “chink” by a player in a Discord message, particularly after relaying a personal experience I had of being subjected to a hate crime in real life in the public Discord server. This experience didn’t cause me to withdraw from the game overall, but definitely began a trend which I think continues to this day wherein I prefer to play with players I’m already familiar with and have established a certain relationship with – and understanding of their real-world morals/ethics/beliefs.
A few other players came through Yingdala during my time, though it’s hard to remember exactly who and when… I think I had my first in-game interaction with Pragma during this time, when she played as a party there. Zanz also played for a brief time as an ultranationalist, enraged that I would dilute the pure blood of the Yu Dynasty by marrying a Jelbic noble; I found his writing both funny and dynamic. During this period, I also played at times in Dalibor and Kimlien. I stopped playing in Yingdala in 2019, which coincided with taking a hiatus from the game over grievances with the game's community, the specifics of which were listed in a post I made at the time, but which is now lost.
After returning from my hiatus in 2020, coinciding with the COVID lockdowns, I played in Seko, following Ryouta north (as he had returned to Dankuk in my absence). There I worked to rename the country (from Sekowo to Seko), work on its history, and implement a political system, through the "Liberation Movement," which more broadly reflected where my politics were at the time (libertarian socialist/Marxist humanist/eco-socialist/cosmopolitan/engaged buddhist/more big words). This was a decent period, albeit one I found a bit boring for lack of collaborators, but it was ultimately unravelled by a longtime player there who was active only on the mechanics side. I think this was my first and last attempt to really try to implement a political order similar to my "ideal world." I largely played alone, though I recall James and Ryouta coming through (primarily to help bolster my power against other non-RPing parties). It was also around this time (and I think coinciding with my flight from Seko) that I reunited with James and Pragma in Jakania, playing the moderate Ahmadist Birlik movement, led by the "Bulldog of Bahçeleri," Ayleen Basri. This was a fun, albeit short, return to the sort of character-driven RP that I loved in Yingdala, and it cemented a good collaborative relationship with James and Pragma that would pay dividends later on. Around this time, I also returned to Hanzen, where I further expanded on the Udomprecha dynasty first started by Mugglemuffins, and had a brief stint in Dankuk as Ecoco. Then I took another hiatus in 2021 until 2023.
In 2023, I began playing in Cildania in what was, aside from my time in Yingdala, the most fun and memorable time I had in the game. I really feel that it was a collection of great players who somehow all shared an almost identical vision, working at their very best: James, Pragma, Kubrick, Zanz, and myself, along with Journey and Rex at times (two players I had not interacted with much prior). Around this time, however, I experienced a family emergency in combination with stress from beginning grad school and moving across the country, and I simply went inactive; the RP largely fell apart thereafter – not taking credit, but just observing – and I regret not being able to complete the RP arc with my fellow players as I had wished, as I think it is among the best the game had seen (though, of course, I am biased).
I'm going to transition here to directly answering a few of the prompts I provided, as I fear I may be leaving some things out:
I think I've mentioned much of this above, but a few points:
It has definitely changed a lot, I think largely because it has gotten smaller, but also because I think a lot of the major long-term players in the community have gotten older and have evolved from the "edgier" mode of communicating that predominated the community in earlier times (at least, from my experience, since 2017). Overall, I think it's less antagonistic and angry.
It's extremely hard to explicate the influence of Particracy on my interests/worldview/writing, as I played it over the course of a very intellectually formative time (undergrad through to grad school). I think in a more meta sense, it has really given me an interest in online communities, and their broader political implications...
Honestly, I think it's very sad – and it has hit me harder than I thought it would, for all the jokes throughout the years of PT inevitably shutting down, the reality sucks. I share Zanz' frustration with Wouter's seemingly spiteful and cruel decision to simply delete the old forum, and all the contributions from countless people over the years that it contained, when he could have simply transferred it to Greek or some other member of the community, or at least extend its life just long enough for us to archive it.
Not to sound too sappy, but what I hope is remembered are the human connections – the time spent working with real people from different walks of life, and from all over, on exchanging stories to entertain each other. It's something special and unique, especially in a world subject more and more to the demands of the attention economy.
I first began playing Particracy sometime around 2017. At the time, I had just begun my undergrad, and in between partying, travelling, and occasionally picking up a gig, I found myself with a lot of time to sit around reading, writing, and indeed, playing games from time to time.
I had always had an interest in politics, which I largely associate with my parents. Here in Canada, at age 14, I joined the New Democratic Party and really quickly ascended the provincial party’s youth organization, but became disillusioned and allowed my party membership to lapse by 2016 . I went on to study politics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This is all to say that my interest in politics has always been a major fixture of my life, and that bleeds into all my interests and preferences, such as in the films I watch, books I read, or indeed, games I play.
The first political simulation game I can remember playing was Democracy 3. I found how easy it was to create a perfectly utopian society (by its metrics) through social democratic policies to be the perfect confirmation bias for my real-world left liberal/social democratic politics. However, I was very bored by the absence of actual politicking – why can I pass policies without having to have a vote in parliament? Why are elections in parliamentary countries decided by popular vote? Why is my power almost totalitarian, even if I only win 50.1% of the vote? Why don't I have to campaign?
This led me to Google “political party games” or “political party simulation,” or something similar. I had tried Nationstates and Cyber Nations before at a much younger age (13 or so?), but was never interested enough to stick around. Somehow, I stumbled across Particracy for the first time. I remember looking through a few countries, reading the cultural protocols, and ultimately deciding to start in Yingdala (then Indrala), which was, as far as I could tell at first, the only Asian-inspired country in the game – being of Asian heritage myself, this was more appealing to me. I couldn’t think of a good username, so I thought I may as well name it after my party leader (after seeing that most party pages listed their party leaders) so I used the fantasynamegenerators.com generator for Chinese names, picked Wu Hán, and used that as both my username, and the name of my first party’s founding leader.
Joining Indrala led me to a fateful meeting with James. Frankly, I would not still be playing the game today if not for my earliest interactions with him, much less our continued collaborations and conversations over the years. Initially, we just played the game without communicating, and he pulled the tricks one would typically deploy when an upstart noob starts messing with your plans for a country (early elections, treaties, etc.). However, I found the struggle against him and his party to be really exciting and fresh. I remember I was on a trip with friends to a lake house in the Okanagan the week after I first joined, yet I found myself checking the game every spare minute I could on my phone – in the bathroom, in the car, before bed and when first waking up – to see if my bills had passed, or to see how my party fared in the elections, and so on.
Eventually, I think I was enough of a thorn in James’ side that he reached out through the in-game messenger and sent the Discord link. Here’s our earliest private conversation:
In these messages there is the seed of something which became a running theme throughout my long time in Indrala – comparisons to Liu Che. Early on, this meant nothing to me — why should I care that some guy once played in this country before? What does that have to do with how I want to play the game? Moreover, why do people keep saying that Liu Che was better than me? Why do people keep wishing that Indrala was run by Liu Che, and not by me?
Eventually, and perhaps partially out of insecurity from these early conversations and comparisons, I checked his old posts on the forum and was blown away. The narrative style was completely unlike anything I had expected for a game grounded in liberal democracy; his utilization of and understanding of Confucianism and imperial Chinese state theory in creating a completely original country, anachronistic and yet modern enough to interact with others in the game, thoroughly impressed me. Whereas I originally came to the game wanting to play out my own political beliefs (as with Democracy 3), I shifted thereafter towards wanting to play out storylines, culturally-inspired political systems, and so on. This even led me to clash with James at the time – he wanted a simple restoration of the monarchy, I wanted the new Emperor to gain the Mandate of Heaven the right way! So began my first real story arc, abstracted from simply reporting on the ups and downs of the game’s electoral politics – the rise of the Sun Clan and establishment of the Yu Dynasty. My dynasty, which I wholly controlled, would rule Yingdala for roughly 400 years, and finally earned me the praise of being, if not as good as Liu Che, then at least “like Liu Che.” In his brief return to the game, he was kind enough to commend me:
Here, I also began to play with two former players, one older and one newer than I: Ryouta/Zongxian and Mugglemuffins, respectively. Both of these players were incredibly friendly, generous with their time and contributions, and fun to play and chat with. Ryouta, whose work spanned many countries but is primarily associated with thousands of years of work in Dankuk (now Baeguk), brought with him a great deal of experience and knowledge of the lore, but he was also a very good storyteller, he was funny, and he was easy to work with; Mugglemuffins was, until then, the only other player I had interacted with who was of Asian heritage, and the two of us would often commiserate about how Asian-inspired nations were depicted by players in the game at that point, or share our disappointment generally with how most of the permanently “third world countries” in the game were always countries that were majority Asian, African, or Indigenous, while the strongest were German/Nordic or otherwise European. This was also a period in the game where moderation was a bit laissez-faire with respect to, generously, “edgy” humour; I remember being called a “chink” by a player in a Discord message, particularly after relaying a personal experience I had of being subjected to a hate crime in real life in the public Discord server. This experience didn’t cause me to withdraw from the game overall, but definitely began a trend which I think continues to this day wherein I prefer to play with players I’m already familiar with and have established a certain relationship with – and understanding of their real-world morals/ethics/beliefs.
A few other players came through Yingdala during my time, though it’s hard to remember exactly who and when… I think I had my first in-game interaction with Pragma during this time, when she played as a party there. Zanz also played for a brief time as an ultranationalist, enraged that I would dilute the pure blood of the Yu Dynasty by marrying a Jelbic noble; I found his writing both funny and dynamic. During this period, I also played at times in Dalibor and Kimlien. I stopped playing in Yingdala in 2019, which coincided with taking a hiatus from the game over grievances with the game's community, the specifics of which were listed in a post I made at the time, but which is now lost.
After returning from my hiatus in 2020, coinciding with the COVID lockdowns, I played in Seko, following Ryouta north (as he had returned to Dankuk in my absence). There I worked to rename the country (from Sekowo to Seko), work on its history, and implement a political system, through the "Liberation Movement," which more broadly reflected where my politics were at the time (libertarian socialist/Marxist humanist/eco-socialist/cosmopolitan/engaged buddhist/more big words). This was a decent period, albeit one I found a bit boring for lack of collaborators, but it was ultimately unravelled by a longtime player there who was active only on the mechanics side. I think this was my first and last attempt to really try to implement a political order similar to my "ideal world." I largely played alone, though I recall James and Ryouta coming through (primarily to help bolster my power against other non-RPing parties). It was also around this time (and I think coinciding with my flight from Seko) that I reunited with James and Pragma in Jakania, playing the moderate Ahmadist Birlik movement, led by the "Bulldog of Bahçeleri," Ayleen Basri. This was a fun, albeit short, return to the sort of character-driven RP that I loved in Yingdala, and it cemented a good collaborative relationship with James and Pragma that would pay dividends later on. Around this time, I also returned to Hanzen, where I further expanded on the Udomprecha dynasty first started by Mugglemuffins, and had a brief stint in Dankuk as Ecoco. Then I took another hiatus in 2021 until 2023.
In 2023, I began playing in Cildania in what was, aside from my time in Yingdala, the most fun and memorable time I had in the game. I really feel that it was a collection of great players who somehow all shared an almost identical vision, working at their very best: James, Pragma, Kubrick, Zanz, and myself, along with Journey and Rex at times (two players I had not interacted with much prior). Around this time, however, I experienced a family emergency in combination with stress from beginning grad school and moving across the country, and I simply went inactive; the RP largely fell apart thereafter – not taking credit, but just observing – and I regret not being able to complete the RP arc with my fellow players as I had wished, as I think it is among the best the game had seen (though, of course, I am biased).
I'm going to transition here to directly answering a few of the prompts I provided, as I fear I may be leaving some things out:
Quote:What was your most memorable RP experience or arc? Did you help shape any regions, lore, or political systems that you’re proud of?
I think I've mentioned much of this above, but a few points:
- In Seko, I: renamed the country and most of its cities; consolidated its culture; made its pre-game history cohesive with the region
- In Cildania, I: created the Principality system and much of the "nuts and bolts" of the political system for our time there
- In Dalibor, I: laid the foundation for its current status at the global crime hotspot, and; created the "Dalibor City/Outlands" distinction (though frankly, Ryouta and James deserve most of the credit for taking some of my ideas and developing them much better than I had)
Quote:What do you think your biggest impact/legacy has been on the game and the community (if any)?I think I had one big impact, and a few much smaller ones:
- I have long taken credit, for better or worse, for the introduction of distinct branded newspapers, the inclusion of banner images on posts, and the wider use of images/logos more generally. I cannot remember this practice existing before me (and if it had, it was at a much smaller scale). When I joined, all the forum topics for national news were named after specific publications (e.g., "Consortium of Indralan Journalists," rather than just "Yingdala"), and I remember pushing for the change to simply have them named after the country in reflection of what I was doing and the trend I started. Early on, players praised and began emulating the visual style of my posts, if nothing else, and that was a boost to my confidence as it relates to posting on the forum.
- I think a lot of my impact is by proxy, through consulting and discussing things with other players, especially James – I appreciate the messages I have often gotten in the past, through to today, from players I hardly interact with, asking for my feedback on their proposed historical or cultural changes, as of course it feels good to have your opinion and knowledge valued by others.
- I was a big advocate for renaming "third world countries" to "Forum-based countries," a change I was finally able to get through with James' help.
Quote:Who were some of the players or moderators who had the biggest impact on you? What were your most memorable interactions, collaborations, or rivalries?I think I've mentioned a fair number above (and I will likely revisit this section upon greater reflection, as I know I am leaving people out), but to expand:
- James: Undoubtedly the player I have collaborated with the most, in RP and behind the scenes. While we definitely both grind each other's gears from time to time, I think we have had a very productive relationship for practically the entire time I've played this game, and I value and appreciate the time we have spent together, and what we've contributed to the game through working together.
- Ryouta: Aside from James, this was probably the player I had collaborated with most, and also just had a great time talking to. He was always very kind and helpful, and a great player to bounce ideas off of.
- Liu Che: I've only interacted with him a few times over the years, but his RP left a very strong impression on me, and comparisons of myself to him were a big part of my experience playing the game and interacting with the community, upon reflection. When we did collaborate or chat, he was always very supportive, generous, and thoughtful.
- Zanz: My history of playing with Zanz is actually rather limited (until late), but he's someone whom I've definitely talked to a lot over the years OOC, debating his milquetoast liberal politics to no end. Nevertheless, I think in my (relatively shorter) time interacting with him, I've observed him become a much more empathetic and considerate member of the community. I think there are very few other players, for instance, who think about and take their responsibility as an older member of the community as seriously as Zanz, and I respect him for that.
- Pragma: Another great collaborator, and someone with whom I've had memorable, meaningful OOC conversations. I think I really gained my greatest respect for Pragma as a player during our time in Cildania when, as Zanz mentioned in his post above, she truly was a major linchpin for roleplay. Even when she stabs you in the back (as she did James and I during Cildanian coalition negotiations...) she does so in a way that you must respect, because it contributes so much to the story.
- Polites: My interactions with Polites through the years have been very few and far between, but I respect the massive amount of work and detail he has added to the PT game world – it simply wouldn't be the same without his work.
- Louis: Though, upon reflection, we've never actually RP'd together (or so I believe?), we've often interacted with each other's RP from afar, and he's always been very kind and accommodating. Hopefully, without coming across as patronizing, he's also probably the first player I've really observed "growing up" through the game, which makes me have a certain affection for him, even if our IC interactions are limited.
- Maxington: While we haven't interacted much throughout the years, his antagonism towards Yingdala militarily (and that of the other "Northern Alliance" players at the time, which I believe included Farsun and Vesica) in my early years playing the game was formative, both in pushing me to make greater diplomatic connections with other countries and concerning myself with geopolitics, as well as making me generally adverse to military RP.
Quote:How did the community culture evolve during your time within it?
It has definitely changed a lot, I think largely because it has gotten smaller, but also because I think a lot of the major long-term players in the community have gotten older and have evolved from the "edgier" mode of communicating that predominated the community in earlier times (at least, from my experience, since 2017). Overall, I think it's less antagonistic and angry.
Quote:How did Particracy influence your interests, writing, or worldview?
It's extremely hard to explicate the influence of Particracy on my interests/worldview/writing, as I played it over the course of a very intellectually formative time (undergrad through to grad school). I think in a more meta sense, it has really given me an interest in online communities, and their broader political implications...
Quote:How do you feel about the end of Particracy Classic — and what do you hope remains remembered?
Honestly, I think it's very sad – and it has hit me harder than I thought it would, for all the jokes throughout the years of PT inevitably shutting down, the reality sucks. I share Zanz' frustration with Wouter's seemingly spiteful and cruel decision to simply delete the old forum, and all the contributions from countless people over the years that it contained, when he could have simply transferred it to Greek or some other member of the community, or at least extend its life just long enough for us to archive it.
Not to sound too sappy, but what I hope is remembered are the human connections – the time spent working with real people from different walks of life, and from all over, on exchanging stories to entertain each other. It's something special and unique, especially in a world subject more and more to the demands of the attention economy.
"Everything's computer!" – President Donald John Trump ✝️
wuhan.particracy@gmail.com
wuhan.particracy@gmail.com