Player's History of Particracy Classic

[Kubrick]

How and when did you discover Particracy? How old were you and where were you in life around that time (to the extent you are comfortable sharing)?

The Total War Center forums, where I was intermittently active due to my long obsession with historical Total War games, had a sub-section called You Are The Senate. This turned out to be an interactive roleplaying game between a dozen, at times even two dozen, players that would pretend to be Roman senators. There was a central save file of Rome: Total War with usually a mod slapped on it that made the game a bit more historical. The save file would be passed between players in certain roles, the Quaestor (Roman finance minister) would get it to hire new troops, select a few buildings to construct, etc. and then it would pass on to the Consul (big chief) for example to fight a battle. All of this was written down as an AAR from an IC perspective of that bureaucrat and once in a while we'd elect new people to the posts. The forum sections were all kinds of different places, much like we have here, like a senator's villa, the senate floor for debates, an alley to scheme in, it goes on and on.

This is where I met Farsun, and another player I still occasionally talk to. Farsun told us about Particracy, and how he was a communist party in Dorvik and that it was pretty fun, a bit like YATS but less dependant on other people. Sounded all good to us, so in 2011 I joined Particracy. I was in my late teens, did not have a solid grasp on politics at all, didn't do well in school, and certainly was a lot worse at English. I do remember being very surprised to find out that Farsun was a former moderator on Particracy, as he got in trouble every so often in YATS. (I later found out Zanz was also a mod with him, so that explained a lot - some serious low standards if they put that guy in the mod seat).

What country did you first play in? What was your earliest experience with the forum? What were your first impressions, generally?

Farsun lured us to Dorvik, where we played for a few weeks. My first party was a monarchist right-wing movement, very Prussian with a focus on the military and hopefully bringing the King back and uniting Dorvik with Dundorf. After a while the other friend quit playing, I got a bit bored and eventually deactivated but Farsun did tell me about a nation that had the Dutch culture and as a Dutch person that intrigued me. However, there was a catch! It had also been designated as a Jelbic nation, some weird conlanguage that certainly wasn't going to be useful to the game. Matter of fact, I think when I first made a new party the goal was to slowly see if we could get rid of Jelbic and just focus on the Dutch part.

En fin, this country turned out to be Vanuku and for a long time I would roleplay solely as Dutch parties. A fascist state was founded, which eventually collapsed, then I made this Imperial Confederation thing with elected emperors, which I now look back upon and think that was some atrocious writing and world-building. But what can you do. At some point a few players organised the Augustan Empire and then it being absolutely destroyed by Temrkai H'án. The greatest conqueror that ever lived. This roleplay and the way people tried to involve me, let me do my own thing, and helped me along as well really showed me that there was more to this weirdo community and that Jelbic was actually pretty cool. I did a slow transition to make Jelbic a bigger part of the Vanuku I was representing, first by giving the Princes dual names like Arend-Heijtri and Laurens-Wrntukai and slowly making it all more and more Jelbic up until a certain point (I'd say five or so years ago) where the Vanukeaans part (the Dutch) was mostly considered a dead language in Wrnuke.

The forum was a different place for me. It was very hostile and toxic in my eyes and I often avoided it, mostly used it to post my RP writing. At times I would engage in discussions, but then always kind of abandon it when they became increasingly hostile. Fallacies were definitely a powerful tool on the Classic forum. I also had terrible opinions back then, so I'm glad I didn't engage that much. Not that I was a raging racist like Zanz (he probably still is btw), but more that I pulled all my takes from the gut - definitely susceptible to populism at that time.

What was your most memorable RP experience or arc? Did you help shape any regions, lore, or political systems that you’re proud of?

My favourite arc was without a doubt the legendary Sbtlshjogad. I won't waste too many words on it, because Zanz has described it beautifully already. This was basically the best creative writing exercise I have ever done. Reddy made up challenges, we'd respond to them, the readers voted in the end. It was great to have to study steppe camels for specific things (I wrote about camel mane braiding for example) and find loopholes in the challenges to remain the morally just character my prince was supposed to represent.

The Jelbic thing in general is I think something I'm very proud to have been a part of, from the cultural aspect to making up new words (which I still do at times). We shared that with some great people, like Reddy, and some terrible, like Zanz. But IdioC returning from his long slumber and being impressed at how we had expended upon Jelbic is one of my best memories there, he was surprised it was still even going and gave his personal approval to everything we had done with it. In that same corner I am content with what I have done with Vanuku, that weird Jelbic monarchist corner, a vague mix between fierce traditionalism and western power and with me always willing to be The Bad Guy in scenarios that needed one.

As for specific times I remember as being very enjoyable, I mentioned Temrkai's War before, I cannot remember which players were involved in that (besides Polites and Reddy obviously) but I wish I could call them out by name to thank them for how they dragged me along back then. (edited in later After seeing Polites posting about Selucia I also want to mention that, our take on how a modern day Roman republic would go while basically re-enacting parts of the plot from HBO's Rome was amazing, especially with Reddy and Aquinas there too once we got going. New Endralon (if that's the Romanian nation) comes to mind as well, where I played a lunatic former general who based his entire party on conspiracy theories and kept framing Jamescfm's party as lizard people. After that we had a ton of fun in Rildanor too, with different scions of the royal family vying for power and Zanz's weirdo eventually killing himself with his auto asphyxiation fetish.

In recent years Cildania has been the crème de la crème of roleplay on Particracy for me. All very interesting parties, with me starting as a neo-fascist movement committing acts of terrorism on Beiteynu's behalf to then transforming into a national conservative populist party under Dumniku Zammit-Barca (the King Pin of Qart-Qildar). I had a lot of time back then so I was pumping out news posts and bills, Jamescfm and Wu Han also had no lives, Zanz pretended to have a life but then still joined to make the Fish Hook and Pragma was a great steady force as well. Some other people were there too, including a random player, and someone who's name I have forgotten. What I liked the most here is that we all started using each other's newspaper templates and writing in the styles of that news outlet. Cildania truly felt alive, articles about sports, food, interviews with local lunatics, then some politics posts, the constant stream of news about the mafia shooting each other. When I scrolled through that news thread in those days it felt as a real country going through a turbulent time.

What do you think your biggest impact/legacy has been on the game and the community (if any)?

I don't think I have made any big impacts, I'm just glad I was allowed to participate in so many great Particracy projects like the world wars, the Jelbic cultural revolution, and the little countries where we had fun together with some of the gang. My legacy will probably always be Vanuku, and I'm content with that, I like Vanuku.

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 have forgotten more names than I have remembered, it's vague when you have to think about almost 15 years ago and who you were talking to back then. But to those I remember:

• Zanz, my Jelbic brother from another mother
  
• Reddy, who was game for everything I ever proposed
  
• Sisyphus, who was my mortal enemy and then my favourite Vanuku co-player
  
• Aquinas, who 'saved' the game with his tenure as mod
  
• Farsun, who brought me here
  
• Pragma, who I can always bully without feeling bad
  
• Polites, who is the grand architect behind PT's lore making some sense
  
• PaleRyder, who was always willing to RP wars
  
• LiuChe, who was my eternal ally
  
• Jamescfm, who made cool frosty memes
  

Wu has been omitted because he didn't mention me.

In the big 2025 I am very happy to be writing and roleplaying a lot with Mbites and GreekIdiot, who are great guys and very open to whatever weird storyline we come up with together.

How did the community culture evolve during your time within it?

That Classic forum in like 2011-2014 felt like a terrible place to be at times. So many absolute cunts in that old community that would just attack each other over the weirdest shit. I am not even going to honour their memory by naming some of them, but people that were around in those years will know some of the people I am describing.

Nowadays I do think the vibe is a lot better, though it is a small community and some people can be more visible (say too visible) at times. The writing and roleplay has taken some different turns too, where we no longer have nations spawning ten aircraft carriers but we do still see vastly unrealistic scenarios. At times I don't enjoy that, but if people do then that's their prerogative.

How did Particracy influence your interests, writing, or worldview?

Some things written by people I looked up to at the time have let me to reconsider a lot of my political positions, I became far more open to read about things and as such formed a more realistic political point of view. When I came to Particracy in 2011 I think I was a bit of a conservative liberal, people shouldn't moan so much, just work for your money and leave me alone with your weird woke nonsense (though I don't think woke existed back then). Nowadays I'm very much a centrist or social liberal, though I did join the (mostly) conservative liberal party in my home country. I am very proud to represent its socially progressive flank.

My English vastly improved here too, and writing that many articles must have helped my writing in some ways too.

How do you feel about the end of Particracy Classic — and what do you hope remains remembered?

The sudden end of Classic is a tragedy, as when the forum would pop up a few times I worked hard to salvage some Jelbic things. Sadly, so much is lost which to projects like the Jelbic language and culture can be extremely damaging. So I feel rather negatively about how it ended.

I hope people remember the good and bad from Classic, and I hope to see some kind of election mechanic make an appearance in the Legacy edition too.

- kubs