Player's History of Particracy Classic

[Wu Han]

Hi all,

As I've been on hiatus from Particracy for roughly six months, I was late to the news that Wouter regrettably decided to permanently shut down the original Particracy Classic game and forum sites. As someone who has been part of this community for nearly a decade, I've found myself feeling rather nostalgic for the times shared with so many over such a long period of time, as well as sadness that many of these memories will fade with time, particularly given the loss of the forum (and the collective contributions of countless players over the years). 

As is painfully obvious, the loss of the forum also means the loss of countless posts, roleplays, debates, and moments that shaped our shared history. However, while the original server may be gone, our stories and memories remain. To help preserve that collective memory, I’d like to propose A Player’s History of Particracy Classic, a community-led effort to document the out-of-character history of the game and the players (past and present) who made it what it was.

This isn’t meant to be formal or comprehensive (though such an approach is not discouraged), but simply a space for players to share their personal stories: how you discovered the game, what you loved about it, what you learned from it, and what it meant to you to be part of the community (if anything lol). As I hope these are personal reflections on the game and your time in it, I don't wish to dictate a specific format; you can write as little or as much as you like — a short reflection, a timeline, an essay, etc. Nevertheless, to help get ideas flowing, here are some prompts you might consider:

1. 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)? 
   
2. What country did you first play in? What was your earliest experience with the forum? What were your first impressions, generally?
   
3. What was your most memorable RP experience or arc? Did you help shape any regions, lore, or political systems that you’re proud of?
   
4. What do you think your biggest impact/legacy has been on the game and the community (if any)?
   
5. Who were some of the players or moderators who had the biggest impact on you? What were your most memorable interactions, collaborations, or rivalries?
   
6. How did the community culture evolve during your time within it?
   
7. How did Particracy influence your interests, writing, or worldview?
   
8. How do you feel about the end of Particracy Classic — and what do you hope remains remembered?
   

I hope that you will consider contributing to this project, so that we might be able to preserve, in our own words, the ephemeral history of our time together. Platforms vanish, taking with them years of human creativity and connection, but the continuation of this project in the form of Particracy Legacy suggests to me, at least, that the connections we've shared persist beyond digital impermanence.

[Wu Han]

Player Histories:

• Zanz (2005–)
  
• Doc (2007–)
  
• Polites (2007–)
  
• Kubrick (2011–)
  
• Mbites (2015–)
  
• Aethan (2016–)
  
• Pragma (2016–)
  
• Jamescfm (2016–)
  
• Wu Han (2017–)
  
• Louis (2017–)
  
• Dannypk (2017–)
  
• Liukupukk1 (2020–)
  
• Elena1012 (2022–)
  

[Zanz]

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)?

I played NationStates first when I was around 11 or 12 years old, and discovered Particracy I think via online searches for similar type games. I don't remember precisely at this point, but I would have been around 13-14 or so, so between 2005 and 2006. Generally speaking I was very online at that point in my life overall - MySpace in particular was big, I was chatting a lot with RL friends online anyway, and I was interested in politics very broadly, so the community around the PT forum (no IRC or Discord until much later) felt like a natural fit. I know for certain that Greek was playing when I first joined, but otherwise I think pretty much everyone from that era is largely gone.

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

I first played in Sekowo (now Seko) where another quite established player (Imperium) was playing an Aretist dictatorship and I, a 13 year old edgelord, found it fascinating. The user was OOCly not at all interested in sharing power with a noob and used several in game tricks (treaty locking, constant early elections) to keep power himself - those things were very common at the time. He was very welcoming as a player, though, and encouraged me to move to Solentia where Aretism had fallen to normal parties (ICly, OOCly they just lost elections to players not interested in RP) and play as a "normal" party that actually was a secret Aretist party set to take back power there once I could.

I moved to Solentia and played my first "real" party, the Conservative Party of Solentia (check out that bad ass party logo) with every intention of playing a secret Aretist, but I very quickly instead got engaged with the parties there in Solentia who were playing it as a normal multiparty American-ish style democracy (the Bailenist Republic of Solentia, which became the less one-player dominated Federal Republic of Solentia). Aretism and the various movements that had spawned it (Panterranism, Archonism, Nuncirism) were all still in play in a few other places (most notably Quanzar, now Istalia) but I left that general edgy-ness mostly behind.

I remember very little IC from the first forum, the Takeforum. I remember a ton OOC, where there was all the normal OOC nonsense we have today in Discord but at a slower-ish pace in dedicated OOC threads. It was very formative for me to see older kids and young adults discussing politics and talking shit to one another. My parents probably would not have approved, but I have no idea how I would have gotten that sort of political outlet without PT.

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

This is quite, quite difficult for me. I have played this game way too long. Apologies if this gets very niche, many here won't have a clue what I'm referring to, but in the off chance somebody Googles this someday and finds me bringing it up to be nostalgic, I will feel happy that I wrote it out.

• Solentia
  • My entire time in the Federal Republic was absolutely some of the most fun I had in PT. There was one player there controlling the Federal Independent Party who had previously been alone in Solentia and then got mobbed by like six of us in short order. It was chaotic and all the RP was done on the actual game site - nothing on the forum whatsoever. My party's first leader was a great ally to the FIP and helped that player maintain control very briefly, but as relations with him and me soured OOC I killed off that party leader in a limo accident and turned on him, putting in power a Thatcher-inspired extremist that he absolutely hated. She was my first successful run for HoS anywhere, and it was absolutely a blast to blend IC and OOC spite in the way that I have found only possible in PT over the years.
    
  • Much later (the Federal Republic lasted like 900 in game years which was crazy long for this period of PT) I worked with another long term player in Solentia (who later rejoined me in Telamon where we played a sort of Game of Thrones style 5 kingdoms with one High King) worked out this elaborate Supreme Court system where players could nominate justices and we had full on trials in the game debate section. My Supreme President Helen Brown nominated the first Justices. It was wildly nerdy and I loved it.
    
  • Kind of cheating because it's not really Solentia but a player who was the main Nuncirist player continued playing in Quanzar just to Solentia's south and he was effectively ICly and OOCly at war with the Istalian players (a group of Italians who were friends in real life and effectively refused to speak English at ALL in game) who really wanted Quanzar to be Istalia. I worked with that player OOCly to continue support for Quanzar and we came up with an IC backstory that led to the establishment of the House of Kansar, a Quanzari noble exile family in Solentia who sought to first establish rule in Solentia and then invade Istalia, where he had fought and lost. I played the Kansars in Solentia and they were eventually banned - by my own Supreme Court :'( - as anti-Republican and I went into exile in the then-vacant Telamon. The Kansars landed on the island of Migadon, named it New Majatra, and proclaimed themselves High Kings of Telamon, and Kings in Exile of Solentia and Quanzar. This name (Kansar) was the name I later did most of my wiki work under, and the emblem of the house (a dog on a purple field with yellow cross and five stars for the five kingdoms of Telamon) was my forum avatar from then on. It was just very cool to see the way this kind of OOC/IC planning worked itself out over time into what it became.
    
• Jelbe
  • Obviously this has been the vast bulk of my efforts ICly in game. Like most, the Jelbic language drove me away at first but the player who had created it, IdioC, was very kind to me OOCly and took me under his wing and helped get my feet under me. I don't explicitly know why Jelbe spoke to me so thoroughly, but at a certain point I had found myself with IdioC gone, Kubrick in Vanuku doing Jelbic work, Polites helping with the language, Dynastia in Deltaria helping with RP ideas, and I was a pivotal player in the Terran World War where we finally took down a player who had absolutely dominated the world largely out of OOC force of will, PaleRider in Zardugal. The language ended up being the thing I most committed to in Jelbe - I would RP here and there but to be honest Reddy did much more of the actual RP over the long term - I just built lots of words. Drop vowels, ask yourself if someone could pronounce it - if so, drop consonants too, repeat. I have found that the fact that Jelbic survived even after all this, and on occasion has drawn in interested players, to be very rewarding. IdioC came back for a while (for the Inquisition) and approved of our work in years of his absence, and that was just so cool.
    
• Sbtlshjogad
  • An entirely first person, un-fixed-outcome RP that Kubrick and I did where the Jelbek H'an and the Vanukese prince undertook a series of steppe challenges to determine who would be named Protector of the Jelbic Peoples and thereby ruler of both Vanuku and Jelbe. Reddy prepared the challenges but did not tell us what they would be first, we learned as we went. There was a forum poll to let other players vote on who won - and we honored the vote. Kubrick cheated.
    
• The Great Terran War
  • As mentioned above, I played a relatively minor role ICly in the Great Terran War, but I consider myself out-and-out the primary organizer of it, and it was one of the coolest RPs I ever saw done in PT, so I really was quite proud of it. Somehow, we wrangled like 10-20 active RPers into a worldwide, multifront, entirely pre-arranged RP where everybody sorted out the details as we went but everyone knew where we were headed. The planning thread was absolutely massive, each player who was RPing had to get a consent bill passed OOCly in their respective nations so that even if they lost power in game they could still RP the story to its conclusion - it was truly amazing that it worked and it worked with almost no hitches. This was also something that several players who are still around (Kubs, Doc, Brad, I believe Max and Axxell) participated in, and some who are only recently-ish departed but whom I consider some of the best RPers we've had (LiuChe, Jalal, Polites) played a part it - it was just such a cool blend of the right players at the right moment. It led to the establishment of the World Congress (which was the whole motivation for the RP) which itself spawned some very cool RP later down the line. It was cool to be part of establishing the way that worked.
    
• Rildanor
  • I see this time as sort of the first part of my second wave of RP. James, Kubrick, and a very new Louis were doing very character driven RP in Rildanor and I joined to play Jean Badouin, a troubled, troubled man. Rest in peace, JB. Playing with James and Louis (and my old pal Kubs) was refreshing and honestly the newer style of the RP (character focused as opposed to party focused) is 100% more my speed (which came up again in Cildania). I loved experimenting with the way that personal failings and vendettas intersect with power and lead to a shit world.
    
• Cildania
  • My first real interaction with AI. James, Pragma, Wu, and Kubrick were all in together doing another character-heavy show and Greek was chiming in from abroad, others were here and there contributing as well. The squad was struggling with a player who did not want to RP and who was continuously winning enough seats in elections to block what they were trying to do ICly, so I figured I could join and try to split his electorate. I generated an AI image that became A. "Fish Hook" Azzara and couldn't not play the part. In my head canon Fish Hook never existed, he was purely an AI generated politician who his party cleverly pretended existed to win votes. The Fishermans' Faction was itself quite weak but Fish Hook was incredibly popular - he led three consecutive cabinets and was the longest serving PM in Jacobean Cildania, way longer than that wanker Alagona. This was some of the coolest RP I ever was involved in. Everybody was active, everybody was rolling with punches. Things got weird. I think this was truly the best example I've ever seen of what PT Classic could be when things fit together in one country.
    

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

Another tough one. I think my legacy is unfortunately quite mixed. I did a lot of positive things - I like to think I was closely involved in some of the better RP stories that emerged over the years, I have served variously as moderator and admin in both Classic and now Legacy, I created the IRC (though jury is out on if that was ultimately positive) which changed the way players interacted, and I am finding now that I serve as an important (though far from sole) source of historical knowledge for the community as a whole.

But I also was involved in some very significant negative events in the game's history. We've always had drama, but there was a particular period of acrimony where I became a mod (as TheNewGuy, we used anonymous accounts for modding at that time) and I engaged in bad behavior alongside Farsun (my co-mod, we read the private messages of other players and used that to try to gain OOC and IC advantage, and we both tolerated and engaged in what I now consider bullying of specific players on the IRC). My memory of the exact order of events is hazy, but I resigned as mod after it was found that I was TheNewGuy, and Farsun did not resign, but instead challenged the head mod at the time, Amazeroth, that wouter needed to be the one to remove mods. Wouter was (as ever) largely absent, and Farsun seized the moderation account (it was shared at the time) by changing the password so that Amazeroth was locked out. This lead to wouter acting - he unilaterally reset the mod password, locked out Amazeroth AND Farsun, and asked IdioC (a previous mod who was very well respected and who had been a mod long before) to sort out just what in the actual fuck was going on. This was the "Inquisition". I'll discuss that a bit more below. But I regret the role I played in all of that, especially the bullying (sorry to Julia).

I also regret that I could not navigate the incredibly toxic later period where Aquinas was removed as mod, accused of absolutely deplorable things with no evidence, and more-or-less left out to dry by people that he had thought he could trust. That entire affair changed my relationships with Aquinas, with Reddy, and with several other players who are fortunately for us now gone - I did my best during the time, and I do not regret how I acquitted myself, but I wish that the outcome had been different, nonetheless, and I know that my actions in that entire period are a big part of how the community is arrayed today.

Anyway - I write in Jelbic sometimes, so that evens it out I guess?

Who were some of the players or moderators who had the biggest impact on you? What were your most memorable interactions, collaborations, or rivalries?

• Players:
  • Kubrick (Brnfi)
    
  • Jalal (the single finest RPer this game ever knew).
    
  • Polites (Truly did more for culture and continuity in game than anyone, it's not close)
    
  • Dynastia (bad influence on me OOCly, but literally one of the funniest RPers)
    
  • Jim cool frosty memes (Probably the closest to me in general spirit toward the game as a game, though it pains me to admit)
    
  • Pragma (The linchpin of all of the best recent RP I engaged in, she has always got a clever story idea and is adept at rolling with all our batshit)
    
  • WiseWu (Particularly our work to try to restore Hanzen in SoDo, I have found him to be incredibly thoughtful and very funny in his RP)
    
  • Farsun (His tenure and my own overlap almost entirely, and the role he played in Dorvik over time was impactful on RP across Terra even if indirectly)
    
  • Imperium (discussed above, my first interaction w/ the community)
    
  • The player behind the FIP in Solentia (frenemy)
    
  • The OG Istalians > (literally the most frustrating players)
    
  • SiggonKristov (Siggon was an icon)
    
  • Louis (my child, my boy)
    
  • EEL (brought out the best in GreekIdiot)
    
  • GreekIdiot (go code)
    
  • PALERIDER (the closest I came to having a nemesis)
• Mods
  • IdioC (Jelbic, and also the Inquisition)
    
  • Darvian (who saw potential in me when I was very new and who started preparing me for modding even though I wouldn't become a mod until years later)
    
  • Amazeroth (right-wrong-or-otherwise probably the most relevant moderator period in the full period I played. His solo reign was years long and had terrible waits for basic admin. He made Farsun and I mods, and in so doing blew up the game - also Austrian I think?).
    
  • Farsun (see above)
    
  • Aquinas (Brought sanity back to the community almost singlehandedly with a ruleset and approach that I still maintain were the best we had)
    
  • Mbites (Austocracy!)

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

It's both changed dramatically and very little. It's very weird. The game has seemed to cycle through a new set of early-teens players over time, with some few lasting long enough to become middle aged with the community. This has led to a very weird community that I find very difficult to even being categorizing or describing. Some people I consider close friends are from my time in PT, though I've never met any of them in real life. I've also caused real pain to people in real life through my involvement in some of the drama this game seems to continually attract. I both love it and hate it - I think my attraction to PT is very similar to the reason people love soap operas - except I play a part in this one, too.

I do think there was a very clear delineating mark though, at least for me personally, with the Inquisition I mentioned above. I resigned as mod but lingered as Zanz and I was more or less just an OOC asshole for several years. I can't speak for others but I feel like pretty much everyone was in that mode for quite a while. IdioC investigated what had occurred, found that myself, Farsun, Amazeroth, and many players in the community at large had all been incredibly cruel to one another and really had no business interacting with one another by choice. I entirely agree with his findings. In frustration, he unilaterally rescinded the game rules that were in effect at the time (He had written them, the "Pax Cynica") and effectively declared the community un-moddable. Nevertheless, we persisted. We probably should have all stepped away. Some people did. But enough of us stayed, and with axes to grind, that later, when Aquinas served as mod and had the audacity to expect us to follow rules again, we treated him as though he were the source of our problems. He was bullied, doxxed, and accused of horrible things with no evidence. I really see all of that as the darkest time in our community. I am glad that we have moved on, but I still think about it a lot, myself.

The times thereafter were no less fraught with drama for drama's sake, though I was less active for much of it. There were intervening mods, but eventually Farsun retook the moderatorship when Vesica went AWOL (I believe, though he could probably confirm, by just trying a mod password that had previously worked and finding that it still worked, jfc), despite having been banned from the role. Eventually this solo reign ended with wouter returning and naming GreekIdiot moderator, and we entered into the period we are in now.

I have felt that this period has been notably different. There are still spats, and some of us older folks still have the occasional stab at each other, but largely the moderation has focused especially on stopping bullying much more proactively than it once did. That's not to say it's perfect, it's a work in progress, but I do think we're more welcoming to newer players now than at any point since pre-Amazeroth. I think that's something to be proud of and to continue to work at.

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

Because PT has been such a long-running theme in my life, it's very difficult for me to say. I joined as an American-style 13 year old Ron Paul Libertarian. I swung wildly to flirting with outright communism, at least in some part because of the way I saw it played here. As I've aged and especially as I've become inordinately wealthy (get wrekt kids) I've moderated much to the center (center left by the American measure, probably center right by the European). It's impossible to know how much of that would have happened in this way had I never heard of PT.

I do know that my experiences on PT have made me a much more empathizing human being, though it took me a longer time to get there than I am proud of. I was an active /b/ user when I joined, and generally speaking just a troll. I learned how to be a much more mature member of an online community over time in PT, and that has served me well in a real world that is more and more moving online generally.

PT has also made me remarkably skeptical of everyone younger than me. You kids writing posts on mobile phones are insane (and you could never make a post like this) - I have never gotten it. This is a game about writing stories and reading stories - how is mobile technology conducive to that? I have the same feelings toward our expanding use of AI - I see the allure of reading posts summarized by a machine into a sentence or two, it's much faster - but I simply have never found it to be even near as good as reading the actual post. I don't really know where I'm going with this portion, yelling at clouds, but it does shape my view toward those younger than me and toward AI and technology in general, so I couldn't leave it out.

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

This part I hope wouter Googles and finds years from now: I am incredibly frustrated by the death of Particracy Classic. You could have exported the forum and shared it with us, could have stood the forum up long enough for us to archive it ourselves, could have let us save years and years of real people's passion and wit and intelligence, and you instead opted to leave us with nothing but what we had scraped together in fear that you would eventually do it. Your actions were incredibly cruel, even allowing for that we were a shit community and your name had been tied to it. If you knew you were going to kill it years ago, you should have killed it then so we could have funneled our energies elsewhere. We survive in spite of you, and I do spite you.

To me the most important thing to be remembered are the stories we wrote. Clicking buttons and documenting elections was a high, and reacting to those elections was always both a challenge and a curse, but the real value of this game is in preserving the act of writing for one another. I write to make a few specific people laugh, or to try to make newer players want to try a new way of playing. I remain in the admin team because I want to encourage a place where people can come and engage in dumb made up stories about strongmen and train crashes. I hope that sort of thing remains.

Thanks for starting this Wu. I hope others share too. I hope as well that I have not offended anyone I have named by naming them, all shared here is my (fading) memories and opinion - and is obviously potentially entirely wrong. Please feel free to correct me. I also hope I have not offended if I have left a name off - I am old, and this is long, and I am tired.

Zanz

[Mbites]

I'm going to be extremely lazy and will simply continue the trend of answering the offered questions by Wu (thanks for initiating this) and will just copy Zanz' format.

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)?

Something that is going to come up a lot is that Zanz and my story with this game have strong similarities in some parts. It starts with age, even though he started even younger than me. Back in May? April? Something along those lines in 2015, when I was 14, I started playing this game after looking endlessly for a political simulation game that tickled that sweet spot about leading a party. The "mechanics" of the game intrigued me together with the aspects of Roleplay (which I ironically discovered quite a bit later, I was one of those non Roleplayers for the first two months of playing and havent even created a Forum account before my first good ol' reactivation request.) Anyways, I also came here by someone on NationStates suggesting it, seems like there is a dangerous pipeline there. I expect foul play. In any case, I was just some weirdo kid with deficits in social skills and with isle-talents in history, geography and other stuff that makes you really like politics as a field. Additionally like many of the past two generations 1990-2000, I was an Edgelord with too much internet access for my own good and I too was roaming the infamous /b/ during highschool classes. Retrospectively, it was a funny coincidence that I also joined Austria's (where I am from) Socialist Youth, the social-democratic party of austria's "forward" organization in the same month as I joined Particracy.

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

I think like most player's I was drawn to the country that had my native language (in my case german)  as its primary culture, which for me led to Dundorf which at that point was in one of its eternal "Dundorfian Democratic Republic" phases with the GDR original gangster "Berlioz" being an absolute ignorant chad and ignoring RP left and right. It also was were I dabbled in my first few forum posts mostly *indirectly* supported by another german-speaking (iirc) user called Revionx. I rp'd my first few rounds of domestic politics with him, which mostly consisted of our politicians verbally slapping each other via the respective media. Since I started my Particracy journey with a friend of mine which I originally got to know by my even earlier Roleplay experiences in World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3 (the guy who is playing in Zardugal) I usually stuck with him and we limited ourselves mostly to Dundorf. We thought that the even by 2015 standards old forum was clanky, the community odd to navigate because of years of knowledge transfer and summarily speaking it was very overwhelming for us at first.

My first experience with Particracy concludes here when I started to realize that Berlioz was being extremely gaming and abusing mechanics to always win elections, meaning we always stuck with a borderline socialist dictatorship which got boring very quickly. This caused me to look outward and take my first steps out of Dundorf, which made me end up in Narikaton & Darnussia, a step which would ultimately lead to Thallerism and my feared return in 2023.

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

Hmn, this is actually a tough question. I think many experiences during 2015 - because they were my first-  were very memorable. I especially appreciate many instances where I actually created a lot of bad RP and older players helped me out. It was a weird situation because despite being quite experienced when it came to Roleplay for my age, I totally sucked rping with the forum style and my stories were very short and not thought-through at all, they were more vehicles to troll around and be edgy; this led to older players warning me/approaching me with a certain degree of passive-aggressiveness; this very quickly turned into me sucking up all knowledge they've offered me when they realized that I am actually a reasonable person that really didnt want to destroy their immersion or stories. This marks the point where I slowly start to become someone who cares about this world and this community.

So to actually answer this question and get specific: When I joined Narikaton & Darnussia it barely had 8 pages of articles, when I left classic for a longer hiatus in 2020 it had like ~20 ish pages, many of those posts were mine, and my consistent presence there in Roleplay and In-game very likely shaped the nation by 1) attracting others and 2) *sigh* inventing Thallerism. I can't say I am proud of Thallerism, but at the end of the day I hold many good memories of it. There was a lot of Ingame-RP and forum RP tied to it, A LOT of players - even oldies like Polites and Reddy participated, fuck you Zanz - went along with it and just embraced its absolute silly edgyness. Both Domesticly in ND and around the world player's have tried to mantle the sillyness in actually good Roleplay, especially mentioned oldies and due to my inherent connectedness to the "ideology" I've observed and read a lot of storylines which shaped my modern roleplay style of today, a style I do consider creative (without wanting to push my own ego too much). In this time we've had invasions, wars, very exciting and interesting election cycles which decided fates of entire nations within one election and the state-form. Foreign relations were tied to the victory or defeat of Thallerism and it had - despite the explicit scepticism and wishes of some - quite the impact of this game. Many critics of my person and my Roleplay of the time have admitted publicly or to me in DM's that the rise of Thallerism and its consistent threat to the status-quo caused them to have fun and that in retrospect "Thallerism reminds them of a time when the game was more fun." (It was said at a dying stage of Classic.) Honestly while I am writing memories of the time keep coming back to me and I'd like to endlessly tell you guys what kind of shit we did during the days when Thallerism was promoted/rp'd by like 15 players at the same time but we need to move on.

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

Aside of Thallerism; I think my early days werent really impactful for the community.
Though, I did create the first "classic" Discord back in the day (2016) and chatted hours on end with the players back then. I think since I am at the end of the day a sociable person, I tended to spark some activity, at least socially. I'd also like to say that this is were my darkest days as a part of the community were occuring; I was trolling around like crazy and I had a lot of negative run-ins with Aquinas in which I treated them quite unfairly. I've let bad elements within the community fester and freely roam around which led to a space in which borderline-bullying attitude was the norm. I've tried to take these experiences and learn from them as one should generally do. The reflection on those events influences my style of Moderation/Administration and this ties perfectly into what my biggest impact on the community is: I'm simply there for it, people can approach me when they have issues and that I will have an open ear.

Who were some of the players or moderators who had the biggest impact on you? What were your most memorable interactions, collaborations, or rivalries?

For this I'm going to interpret "impact" very broadly.

(In no particular order)
-Revionx
Most of you dont know the guy, neither do I really, but he showed me the forums and took the time/had the patience to explain lots to me. Thanks for that pal; If you're around under a different pseudonym: I hope you're doing well.

-Lelder1 (Louis/Luis/Lewis??? Cant remember)
This legend and I had a lot of engaging times with each other playing in N&D, they fought me for every centimeter of Thallerism I established and I thank them for it, it was so much fun.

-Pragma
Trolled me lots.

-Maxington/Imp
One of my first international encounters in Roleplay, taught me a lot about how shit works, exploring different perspectives and effects of events for roleplay purposes and how to build them into a story. He also was a powerplayer but the uboat destroying my prisoner camps in Narikaton was pretty amusing.

-Farsun
Taught me enormous amounts about ingame (Dundorfian) Lore, the community and military-stuff. We've had some good stories, we've had disagreements and negative encounters but I damn it I respect your dedication.

-Zanz
When I played this game as a teen Zanz and I rarely had any actual Roleplay-situation with each other but he chatted loads on the discord and so did I, we've had annoyingly long debates about political topics which back in the day also often revolved around "Wokeness" or back then we said "SJW" but they were very productive and gave me stuff to think about or rather stuff I reflected and connected to years later, stuff that as I already said resonated with me, he's been an influence to me about "not being a total douchebag." Thanks for that.

-Vesica
Idk, I remember him from my beginner-days and he's been incredibly kind and patient in the past, that really stuck with me.

-Polites
OG Knowledge fountain

-Jalal
Awesome Roleplayer, creative mastermind

And honestly probably ten more people I cant really remember right now.

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

Well, honestly, It got immensely better. It still has its toxic sides sometimes especially when the oldies start to throw shit or are trying to be smug but at the end of the day when I played as a teen this place was a dickhead-sandbox as I've already mentioned before the times were rougher and the language was too, I dont really miss those aspects but I miss the larger playerbase of course, back then with a hundred active players it was a very different time. Legacy and Classic are hard to compare otherwise as the game aspect did make a fundamental difference back in the day. I can't really speak about "recent" changes so much due to the fact that I've not been active around 2020 to 2023 aside of a few joke-ish turn-ups for two days.

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

Particracy was more of a strengthening of the interests I already had; My writing got incomparable better due to Particracy, just due to practice as well as critical and positive inputs from members of the community. My worldview has probably been influenced to a degree, it made me less ignorant on issues I've not connection with due to my material reality but at the end of the day this question isn't as strong a deal for me as others.

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

It feels a little weird, the game accompanied me for a lot of very trying but also very exciting times of life, I've spent lots of time on it and I've grown due to it/with it/parallel to it. It's somewhat part of my childhood and I'll treasure the memories of it probably well into my even balder years. Thanks Particracy for being what you are, it's been a very fun ride but all things have to end someday my dear Classic. Can't pinpoint what should be remembered, but I hope that everyone tries to embrace the most fun memories of Classic or the most thoughtful ones.

I'm getting tired no more writey in this post for me, this is getting zanz level sermon length and thats bad.

[Doc]

Hello,

My History of this game is probably a bit different than a lot of folks', simply because I've played it so long but spent much of that time completely disconnected from much of the at the time OOC back and forth going on in the forums. I never really felt that I knew what most of those people were talking about. They all seemed like they were good friends, and I was never really part of the club, and so I just stuck to writing in Kalistan and looking for opportunities to play with my country's neighbors as much as possible, but staying well away from a lot of the stuff that people said was toxic at the time: A lot of the things the older players look back on and say this or that was bad, I really don't know a lot about. Here's the questions

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)?

I started playing PT in I think 2008, or maybe 2007. I had been looking for online government sims, had played a yahoo groups based one for a little while, but wanted a more International type one. So I probably did a yahoo search for online government sims, and PT popped up. I logged in, went to Saridan for my first country, and promptly didn't know how to do anything, how to get votes, how to write bills, nothing... And literally nobody was interested in telling me how to do that. I could see others doing it, and I could see my positions changing as I voted on other people's bills, Trial and error, and I found out the difference between a resolution and and an actual bill, started making bills, and in a few months, I decided that Saridan was probably never gonna go for any of the socialist things I wanted to do, so I moved to Kalistan, and met a really helpful and friendly player there who had been playing probably since the beginning named Pentalarc. He brought me into a number of the RPing aspects of the game and I've been there since, with a couple brief moves to Mordusia, Telamon, Lourenne and Gaduridos. I also played in Badara for a little bit to try something new. But ultimately, I just went back to Kalistan. I was probably 32 when I started playing PT.

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

As above, I first started playing in Saridan. My first experience with the forum was after the old old forum ended and the new one was just getting going. Once the new one was up, I think it must have been 2009, it took a while to start using it, but Pentalarc was doing RPs there around what he called the 4th Crisis, and I was a junior partner in that whole thing, so I stopped RPing, for the most part in the Classic nation's page and started using the forums. There were always so much stuff going on there, it really was overwhelming, and never really felt all that welcoming to outsiders, so I just sort of stuck with our country's newspaper, and mostly missed much of the history of PT, none of which made any sense to me, none of which even concerned or mentioned or interacted in any way with Kalistan (because it was mostly groups of friends just playing with one another, it felt like, in the same space that I happened to be playing. Some of that took a long time to go away) And a lot of the banter that takes place on Discord now took place in the forum, and I really didn't have a lot of frame of reference for any of it, didn't understand what most of them were talking about most of the time, and didn't really have a lot of incentive to participate in it.

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

There are a few arcs that I am very proud of. I was very happy to work with Liu around the invasion of Kalistan as part of the Terran War. That one was so well planned out, and it was, I think a great story. I never felt like Liu was trying to powerplay. Liu was very willing to communicate, and work out ideas so they came out in a way we both could live with, and tell a larger story too. That was a lot of fun. And Kalistan was not originally supposed to even be a part of that--I came to it late because I didn't know it was even happening until the last minute and decided to join it. Luckily, Liu Che worked with me and I had a great time.

There were some other ones. I worked with I think it was Hepburn in Valruzia on their Valruzian Beatles arc. The idea was for a British invasion of sorts, where the Beat Brothers were gonna come and become megastars in Kalistan. They founded a record label in Kalistan named VMI, or Valruzian Music Industry, the Valruzian Beatles had a whole arc, and then when Valruzia had moved on to other things, and Kalistan kept making music, Kalistan ended up nationalizing VMI, changing its name to KMI, and beginning Kalistan's first record label. I owe so much of my subsequent articles to that arc, I can't even tell you what a difference that made in the cultural history of Kalistan.

Pentalarc, while he still played the game, kept the Monarchy going, in name only. I got to Kalistan in 2591, and because Pentalarc was so into the lore around the monarchy, but he eventually quit playing, I kept almost everything in tact, hoping he would return to Kalistan. He never did, so I wrote him and asked if it was ok if I abolish the monarchy, and he agreed, and the monarchy went vacant in I think 4053. But I still had access to much of the lore when I decided I was bored playing as the Socialist Party: Others had commented about how the Socialists wanted everything to remain exactly as it was, which was true, because I liked how it was, and so to bring RP more in line with the way I played the Party, I abolished the SP, and reinstituted the Monarchy. That was fun then to try to develop what was, in essence a constitutional figurehead monarchy that nobody who came to Kalistan wanted to play with at all: they'd come in, do everything EXCEPT ask the monarch about which laws should pass, and then leave, and I'd have to fix everything when they left, but that got old, so I abolished the monarchy once more for about a hundred or so years, and the re-established it as an absolute monarchy as soon as I could so I didn't have to deal with republican parties coming in and completely disregarding, or sidestepping the monarch. Turns out, soon afterward, the nationmaster concept was installed, and then the game collapsed, and it was not a problem anymore.

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

I'd say Kalistan's biggest legacy on this community is to be the place where things do not really change. I have resisted change during Classic, and now even more so. As a result, I also get to do something I think I am pretty suited to do, though I know that it annoys a lot of players: I have a lot of institutional memory about this game, and about its history. Especially as it regards my neck of the woods. Others do too, and I think combined, that sort of memory creates some continuity with the past. I am a fairly good archiver and a fairly good researcher, and can find links to the past, and I also was lucky enough to get the chance to save all of Kalistan's archive, most of which is accurately dated, so there are a lot of world events in there that would have been lost to all memory otherwise.

Kalistan has regrettably had very little influence on the game or the community outside that. I wish that were not so, but I am afraid it is. I don't tend to do well with cliques, and we can see the examples of cliques and groups of actual friends moving about the game, raising up whole parts of Terra and putting their mark on world events for nearly 20 years, when Kalistan has been content to do posts about music, talk about how good we are at the few things we actually try to do, and write posts about drugs, most of which never get read by anyone except me. Certainly nothing compared to the global RPs which fill our collective memories of this game that involve the same groups of players over and over again.

Who were some of the players or moderators who had the biggest impact on you? What were your most memorable interactions, collaborations, or rivalries?

• Pentalarc certainly had a massive influence on how I play this game. There was another player in Kalistan, a super early adopter (like in the very first set) who played a party called the Pansexual Peace Party. I don't remember their name, but they were also very helpful in helping me kind of figure out how to play this game and build coalitions and such.
  
• Siggon in Lodamun was always very inspirational and they left a lot of tools which I have used countless times in my own economic RP.
  
• I got along really well with Hepburn, I like to think.
  
• I liked Gabriel-- A lot of their RP was strange, but they were always interested in what I was doing and always tried to include me in what they were working on.
  
• LiuChe, Gotta give props to them for excellent RP
  
• I'd say Farsun- He and I don't agree on most things, and I am fairly certain I trigger that dude, but also the job of moderator sucks and everyone used to get after him for making that decision or this one when they asked him to, and maybe there's some argument, but I always kind of had a grudging respect for him, because he put up with a lot of bullshit from a lot of people and I'd say I kind of sympathized with him, and tried to not always be that guy who fucked with him all the time. I never knew about all the behind the scenes bullshit that Zanz talked about, because I wasn't part of the group that knew about things like that.
  
• I liked and respected Chitin's participation in Kalistan, and was so glad that he was willing to play with Kalistan as it was. I feel the same thing about James, though I am fairly certain that James spent a good portion of time both in Kalistan and then especially after leaving Kalistan just pissed that I existed.
  

Of the folks still currently active

• I appreciate Aethan for including me in things he's doing in Valruzia.
  
• Imperial is willing to work with me
  
• Weimarska helped me tell the story of an expansionistic Empire in Gaduridos
  
• I like Louis' RP and envy Louis' popularity and the ease with which he can do things in this community that there would be no way I could. It's envy, not jealousy: I would like to have that too.
  
• Greek and MBites both put up with a lot from me that I don't think others tolerate. We've had some disagreements, but I value you.
  
• I wish Alaskan and Vesica were still around. As much weird things as I wanted to do in Kalistan, especially Vesica always saw that as an opportunity to be a little weird too, and would always want to join in. I appreciate that.
  
• I do like Hyraemous, Facts and Lig, and Brad too. I've had positive interactions with those players, and we've had some opportunities to cooperate recently. That's fun.
  

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

It has evolved because it got smaller. There are fewer cliques. Still as many outsiders, I think, but fewer player groups who just like RPing with one another.

It also got younger I think. There were a lot of people my age when I started playing. Now there are just a few of us dinosaurs still around. In this way, I'd say the community has also grown more coarse: the younger generations have a different brand of humor than people my age did. Insults and what I would consider to be just straight up disrespectful discussion, which all falls under the definition of "banter" now is taken as a just the way we speak to one another. I definitely think that is a change in our culture as a community, I am fairly certain it has alienated more than one player, has alienated me on a number of occasions, and there doesn't seem to be any desire to really do anything about it, so I guess I am just the old guy who didn't get with the program. It's kind of sad to see actually. I kind of fear what this place will be like if and when we attract a whole new crop of perpetually online folks who like to talk about nazis and sexual assault as if its a joke, and who just ignore the polite reminders by hands off community moderators because they are part of a culture of "Come on: Its funny because I declare it so and who are you to censor me? And besides, its all just banter anyway..." I think that's where its headed, and kind of makes me not want to really open the community to a whole bunch of gen alpha brainrot lords...

I also think, on the positive side, we don't really have a way to game the game anymore. In this sense, the death of the PT Classic mechanic was the best thing that could have happened to this community. If I ever did participate in the OOC discussions on the old forums, it was to point out how the game mechanic was just plain broken in like 50 different ways, and in ways that allowed players to come into a country, essentially nation raid it, game the algorithm and not RP in line with what their Party was doing. They'd get a slim majority, take over power for everything and change all the laws, without RPing any sort of civil disorder around that, ignore all RP from those who tried, and more or less just grief random countries, because they are either trolls or they don't like how YOU've been playing there and decide that they want the country to look completely different. You'd get people wanting to cosplay some nazi racist shit in a nation that never actively supported that in the past, and they'd be able to do it because they knew how to get majorities in the elections. I'd complain about that and of course others would respond that I was just bitching about it. Or about the monetary system. I still get made fun of about pointing out how unrealistic that was. I'm glad that mechanic is dead and now its all RP, because at least people have to RP the changes they want to make rather than simply getting to come manipulate an election and then just doing it all just to mess up the country.

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

For better or worse, I have interacted with communities in this world I never would have otherwise. I've learned an awful lot from that interaction, both good and bad, about the people in the world. I definitely think my writing has become more systematic over the years: I have found that if I don't spell something out, and then refer to it later, I will get called on it, mostly by folks who do not think I should have been able to do something. It is nice to have posts I can link then to show that, yes, I did do something that informs my current RP, and yes, repeatedly, and yes, nobody had any problem with that at the time, so that no matter what, folks can't accuse me of godmodding. It also allows me to learn things about things I didn't know anything about. Though my fusion RP arc got squashed about 25 posts and several months into it, and had to be essentially retconned when someone decided to finally read what I had written about it, I still learned how fusion worked, the things that were necessary for it to do so, and what the practical application of that theory could look like. I heard about fusion on the radio while driving the bus around town, found it inspiring what they were doing with it in California, and got the opportunity to research it and write extensively about it for Kalistan. This was a very rewarding experience for me, even though it was later ruled that I should have never done it in the first place.

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

I'm glad its gone. I wish we had access to the old newspapers. But, I am optimistic for its continuation in Legacy, and I hope that Kalistan's history remains remembered. Not only just as ourselves, but also in the context of wider world events. Other stuff is always going on around Seleya, most of it goes wide around Seleya. But I'm glad we can still observe it, and sometimes get to play a tangential role in it, and I'm glad we can comment on it in our nations: Never being one of the movers or shakers of the world allows us a certain objectivity that others do not have because their goal is to write the history of the planet with their name in it on every page, while I'm content to just have a book called Kalsitan.

[Wu Han]

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:



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:

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)
  

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.
  

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. 
  

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.

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...

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.

[Elena1012]

Alrighty uh, my turn I guess for this stuff. Admittedly I feel like I won't have as much to say compared to the oldies (Doc, Zanz, Mbites and Wu) but meh. 

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)?

So- i want to say it was around late summer of 2022 that I first discovered Particracy. I was a bored 15 year older googling political games (since I recently got bored of Nation States) and lo and behold, PT showed up. Which leads to the 2nd question.

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

Admittedly, this one is a bit embarrassing since it shows my (continued) nature of incompetence, but my very first nation was Dankuk. I (somehow) lost my login information on the very first day and made another account, only for the player there to inform me that doing so was frowned upon and a rule break, so 15 year old me, in her infinite wisdom decided to just not play the game for a few months. I got reinvited by a friend from Nation States to go join Rutania and that lasted a month or two before everyone left and I forgot entirely about PT again. Until around mid 2023, where me and a friend joined PT once again, and went to Kundrati, and stayed indefinitely in the community (albeit in a bubble).

It wouldn't be until late 2023 that our favorite banana, Greek, helped me figure out how to use the forum (since before it, I never even knew it existed, let alone how to use it). Being my first time using an Internet forum in such a way, my impressions were quite generous.

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

Gah, that's a hard one. I'd have to say either Alduria or Xsampa have been my most memorable. Alduria got me into actually RPing in a decent quality and I do still hold find memories of Alduria. However, let's face it. Everyone knows me as the weirdo in Xsampa. Being in Xsampa since the start of 2024, I like to think I've shaped Xsampa alot, and I'm very proud of myself for that. Admittedly, I can't recall everything from the old forum, but Xsampa (Formerly Utembo) didn't really have much going for it. The wiki hardly had much, there were a handful of cities, and the nation was hardly relevant to the world when I was given control of Xsampa. One year later, Xsampa is relevant, it has a relatively coherent history, it's participated in several RP arcs (Le Cefard my beloved), and it has coherent lore. I like to believe I've done a semi decent job with Xsampa.

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

Honestly, I'd probably have to say my biggest impact on the game is working on Xsampa. As for the community, I don't know to be quite honest. I can't think of much to say without sounding bleh.

Who were some of the players or moderators who had the biggest impact on you? What were your most memorable interactions, collaborations, or rivalries?

Aaaaa

I suck with words, but hey at least I'll try.

Greek, for starters. Not only did he help me learn how to use the forum back then, but he's always been up for an arc or been there to help and give feedback. Sure, it doesn't seem like alot but he's a sort of stable positive feedback for the community. Between nuking me to helping me out in Gaduridos, I'd say Greek has been very influential and has had a very big impact on me.

Louis. From Alduria to now, Louis has always been there to provide feedback, engage nations, or just be awesome. Like Greek, he's pretty much always been down for an arc, no matter what. Whether it was me in Alduria trying to make my RP good or to today in NEK, Louis has consistently been there to provide feedback and advice for RP. 

Hyrae. One of the (unfortunate) souls to join Kundrati. I'd like to say he's been an impact, simply because he tolerated my shenanigans in Kundrati before I learned how the forum work. Whether it would be a copious addiction to making new parties, porting dumb ideologies or just normal politicking, he's been down for everything and rolled with everything.

In terms of collaboration, I gotta say Doc at the top of that list. Collaborating with Doc with Kalistan and Gaduridos was incredibly smooth and it was enjoyable. Fun RP. Would've loved to stayed in Gaduridos and continued collaboration there but alas, rule changes happened and Mbites evicted me from Gaduridos (but like in a good way, praise the Austrocracy).

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

I'm going to be honest. When I first joined the community (and opened up to the wider community), the atmosphere (and subsequently culture) felt, at least to me, very restrictive. Or rather, it felt as if everyone was in a bid to one up another and hesitant to do anything for the sake of fun. It felt.. authoritative? Perhaps that's not the right word, but it felt very claustrophobic. Now however? I like to say we're in a soft Renaissance. The rankings are gone, so no one is forced to do posts they don't want to do, and there's less blood in the air. The community feels more closer, more friendly, more relaxed and generally mellow. It feels more like a game than a simulation. We can freely joke, take shots at one another, even do the occasional dumb post.

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

I'd say PT has definitely gotten me more interested in politics as a whole. Beyond a surface level interpretation. I like to think it's helped me mellow out with how I interpret politics as well. In terms of writing, I think it's also helped. Both since it acts as a form of practice for good writing (no doubt if i write a crappy post, i expect Svet to slam it), and simply because i get more joy out of PT by being more detailed (when applicable) to posts i write, which required a basic level of competency at writing.

In terms of worldview however, I think PT has helped me in finding a community where I can say i fit in. At the end of the day, we're all nerds with a niche interest in politics. That's quite rare to the wider world, and simply being apart of this community has been quite helpful for finding a community. 

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

Honestly, I feel conflicted on Classic. I liked it, but it also did have it's flaws. Immense flaws (cough cough election mechanic). Admittedly, I think what upsets me the most was the lack of communication. Not between the community and the mods, but with Wouter. During my tenure as a mod (before I got Union Busted™), it kind of opened my eyes to the fact that the game was on life support. Click a wrong button? Congrats, it's shit itself for 30 minutes. Server went down? You best pray to a God cause Wouter only accepts pigeon carriers. I understand that people have lives, and that people move on from hobbies and interests. I understand that, no doubt. But I don't think it can justify Wouter essentially leaving the community, with zero communication whatsoever and leaving it up to us (the collective community) to keep it alive. I'm simultaneously glad he didn't kill the game and leave since then, none of us would be here. But still. Zero communication from Wouter, is what I'd say was my biggest disappointment about Classic. At least even a few more messages to the Mods or Greek would've gone a long ways for the community, and the game.

[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

[Louis]

1.

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)? 

So I started looking for online political sims back in 2015, just as the 2016 presidential election was gearing up. I had found Nation States, but I wasn't really into it. After playing for some time, I ended up running into Particracy in 2017. At that point, I was 16. I really didn't know what I was getting into. Being educated on Internet safety and whatnot, I was honestly kinda nervous to join the game. But I was really into politics and needed to share that enjoyment, so I said, why not?

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

I first landed in Rildanor. It's kinda funny because when I was choosing a nation, I was between Rildanor and Dundorf. The one I chose really altered the way I played the game. I didn't know what I was doing haha. I didn't know to make bills, I didn't know how to change my party color, and I didn't know I had to RP "in french". It was genuinely like an ancient world to me--the game part that is. However, I think I lucked out because I had the most amazing team to help introduce me to the game. When in Rildanor.... Kubs, Zanz, I think Pragma? we're playing in Rildanor as royalist parties and we're engaging in a very kinky and hilarious arc when I started. Zanz basically adopted me and showed me the way of the game (more on this later). But man I did not understand the forums. I thought I was coding haha, but after getting used to it for a while, it wasn't bad at all. I still look back at my first posts and I die of cringe.

3. 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 at this rate I'm the Canrille guy. So the reason why I was so invested in the French nations back when I started was because I was actually taking French classes in high school. So to me, it was like an avenue to practice my French but also immerse myself in the culture in a different way. Now, my greatest achievement has always been and will be Lourenne. I mean I spent 8 years there. When I left Rildanor, I jumped to Kanjor briefly and then went to Lourenne. Lourenne was a backwater honestly. Very little RP, confusing culture, no major RP arcs. When I jumped in, I made it into one of the most recognizable nations ever. Not just Lourenne itself, but Canrille in general. Back then, they were just random empty extra French nations that nobody really played, but I feel like over my time, I helped that loneliness and obscurity just a bit.

Another experience I loved was the 2018-2019 era of RP. I RPed with some amazing people in different countries. At one point, we had someone playing in Dankuk, Yingadala, Kalistan, Baltusia, Lourenne, Kazulia, and Lodamun. So the whole region was just so vibrant, full of wonderful RPers and different arcs to engage with. I learned a lot during this time and took inspiration from so many people. I think I really helped change the political vibes a lot in the east and the north. The Northern Council RP I engaged in was also so much to do, even though it was sometimes controversial due to the sheer power coveyed by it. 

To a more vulnerable, no-so-proud moment... Back in 2020-2021? I'm not so sure about the dates. I was involved in a large plagiarism scandal that basically rewired the community quite a bit. I was in college at this point, about 19 ish years old. Pandemic was in full swing. The game was reaching it's peak. There was so much activity. So many things to follow and so much to read. It got to the point where I couldn't keep up anymore. I couldn't balance my college with my ambitions for PT. So I started copying IRL articles and just switching around the names to get a post out quickly. When I reflect about it these days, I feel like a lot of it was based in FOMO and not being able to do what other players do in such short time. All of it came to light for the better and the community had a large switch from them. I apologized deeply to the community back then and was largely forgiven... But it still eats at me extremely to this day. I see it as such a disrespect to what this game is and a large slap in the face to the efforts by other players. It was not my greatest moment and to this day, continues to haunt me. I know we're very much past that situation and have moved on, but I haven't. It's not so much that I mentally can't, but I have tried to do so much to atone for it and to improve the community. I began to take writing intense courses in classes and even watched you tube videos to get inspiration on creative writing. I took political classes in the last years of college as well as International relations courses to help me, not only with my career, but to help me with PT as well. 

I think my proudest moment is not my RP, but my growth. I made mistakes. I learned from them. I tried to improve. And to this day, my most important personal task is to use what I know to help other RPers be successful. I think I've gone a long way since then and my goal hasn't changed. Now as game master, and with a new game upcoming, I will take what I learned in classic and make a legacy for myself as someone who encourages growth and is there for help. (pun intended). 

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

As I said above, I think it's my ability to help others and encourage them on their own path. I am a teacher IRL, so a lot of this comes naturally to me. I have always wanted to be a helping hand. That voice on your shoulder telling you to keep going. I take pride in that. I love being that voice of reason and calm. I think I've helped several RPers in the past years go beyond what they can do... And it brings me joy seeing that in their every day posts. There will be a time in the future where I might just jump into an advisory time, but I've enjoyed being a part of people's RP and will continue to do so.

5. Who were some of the players or moderators who had the biggest impact on you? What were your most memorable interactions, collaborations, or rivalries?

Like I said above, there were many players that I started the game with, others I played with through different arcs, and collaborations that were really awesome.

Zanz - This is my father. He is the one who helped me with everything when I started the game. He guided me through so much and showed me so much. I still view him as the old man who helped me go along with PT. Think Gandalf and Frodo. He really meant so much to me when I first started. Not to be a creep, but when we all moved on to different countries from Rildanor, I continued to name my parties after his in Rildanor. He was, and still is, very inspiring and a huge community voice. I know he's not as active with RP, but I still cherish those moments we spent in Rildanor. He was my helping hand.. And I'm glad he still is to a lot of new players today.


Farsun - Despite anything that went on, I still had a lot of great moments RPing with Farsun. We worked together a lot especially when we RPed the Northern Council. Back then, the NC was very cliquey I must admit... With several great RPers. So being able to be a leader of that RP showed that they at least respected what I put out at the time, even as a new RPer. I think we had our great moments and I think about them from time to time.

Greek - I'm not going to go to deep on this one since I think we all know why. He is by far one of the greatest people I've ever RPed with. I think we share the same braincell honestly. Such a nice guy... Who always knows what I want to say and what I think. Now my co-master with Legacy. I can type paragraphs and paragraphs, but we all know we don't want that haha. Nothing but pure appreciation and gratitude for this banana. I'm so excited to see what he has in store. He's like the savior to me. I look up to this guy and his great attitude. I'm glad he's by my side.

Imperialpearl/Max - I think looking back at our RP... We we're awesome at what we did haha. When he was in Kazulia and I was in Lourenne, he was extremely helpful and helped "unlock" a different side of RP for me. I was very kiddish with my noob RP. But, Imperial helped me with post formats and showed me the how-tos for greater storytelling. I appreciate those moments with him... Even when we just memed around in the discord server.

Wu Han - Anytime I see a post from him I rejoice haha. Wu is definitely one of those RPers that you just have to read. He also started the great evolution of post aesthetics, which I happily followed and evolved from him. Wu and I started roughly at the same time, so I think of him as like my sibling. My more nature and level-headed sibling. We didn't RP together in one nation I think, but we have had cooperation on several arcs tho. His time in Yingdala while I was in Lourenne is my favorite. He's such a bright guy with a lot of great things to say. I'm glad he's still around to this day, despite it all. 

Jamescfm - Another guy who I see as a "sibling".. but James actually kinda scares me. Not because he's a mean person, but because he has big brain. So articulate, scarily eloquent, and an overall great RPer. I love his posts similarly and his openness. My favorite moment with him actually isn't in PT, but in Minecraft. I kid you not, I would stay awake for so long with James on our PT Minecraft server years ago. I used to look forward all day just to play Minecraft with James--Doc and Chitin too. He's just a cool guy... Frosty and memey as well.

Kubs/Pragma - Stanislas and Mommy. Stanislas was the name of kub's IG character when we first played in Rildanor. It was also so funny to me for no reason . Kubs is like the uncle who shows up every 6 months and then leaves, but the time he spends with you is the best. He was one of those initial voices I first heard when I started the game. I'm happy to say I'm still RPing closely with him today. Pragma I've always had huge respect for. The original mommy. I say that because her RP is always fun to engage with and hilarious. Anytime she's around, things get fun. 

Hepburn/falloutfan - Another one of my "siblings" that isn't around anymore. We would spend days talking on vc in an old discord I had. Really awesome guy and awesome RP. He had so many ideas that just weren't made possible. I wish he hadn't left, he has so much potential with his ideas and his community leadership. Miss that guy.

Doc- Honestly the most upfront and most dedicated player I've seen. We go way back, Kalistan and Lourenne, and we engaged in so many fun arcs and storylines. Kalistan was honestly the best partner to have around as Lourenne. I could always rely on Doc and vice versa. It's fun to have a more rival experience with him now, but back in the day we had so much fun with the arts, music, and political RP.

Hex, Journi, Weim - I refer to them mentally as the Gaduridos considering crew. Everyone in this group is awesome. With hex being gone, it breaks my heart, he was so good at what he did and so excited about the game. Journi and Weim though. Newer players that I've had the great opportunity to RP with. These people are just amazing. So adaptable, open, kind, creative and just overall great RPers. I've had great arcs with them in the past years or so and it's excited me anytime I can go to them for anything. 

Lewiselder / Fin - So there was these two player, Lewis and I think it was Fin (?) older in the community. These guys were mods back then and helped me navigate the game a lot. They were given a lot of hate sometimes for many reasons, but I looked up to them. It might've been my youth and inexperience but they were nice guys why were just doing what they could. I had the opportunity to work with them briefly and they were great.

A shout-out to Lig, Hyrae, Svet and others for their commitment as well. I appreciate you guys all and thank you all for your individual contributions and your openness in the game. You guys are awesome 

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

I think the community has had so many evolutions. At someone who has been around and seen a lot, it's been quite the change. We went from being a larger community to something not so large. I've seen PT reach it's peak and it's death. Currently, I think we have the best version. We're all so open to anything and open to try new things. I think one of the things that changed the community, and something I take personal responsibility for as a game leader at the time, was to eliminate the rankings. I believe it was the best think to happen to this game. We've seen a variety of RP, not just economy and military ones, come from this. We're still learning to break off the shackles, but we've come so far from that since.

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

I mean to this day, PT has affected all parts of my life. I mean, I decided to become a teacher IRL and I feel like I practice those skills in the game. I took so many history and political courses in college because of my love for this game. I'm going into grad school soon and already know that my writing is so good. I'm so ready to take on whatever is ahead of me.... But when I think about it.... As I go on in my career and education, I think about all the people and experiences in PT I've encountered... And I take them with me. The perspectives and experiences I've learned about in this community have made me a better person all round. And I'm so thankful for that. At the end of the day, we're just people on a rock playing a game, but to me it's so much more than that. It's human connection, human experiences, and human creativity that makes this game all more special.

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

Don't be sad that it's over, be happy that it happened. It's bittersweet for me. So many memories, posts, and moments gone. But at the same time, I think we have something great right now. Something that's going to be amazing in the future. I think we will all have classic in our hearts. It's the thing that brings us together as a community. As we near the legacy stage, I think we've got all we need. We can forget the past, but we can all embrace the future together.

[Aethan]

It's really interesting to read everyone's insights and experiences here in our little community, so I'll also drop mine, although I'm not the best with not-RP words

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)?

I joined in late 2016, when I started college. I've always been interested in politics, both national and international, and I was looking for exactly this kind of game, online and political simulator. Can't remember exactly how I found PT but I'm glad I did.
 
What country did you first play in? What was your earliest experience with the forum? What were your first impressions, generally?

• My very first country was Selucia, under the In Marea party. I spent most of my time in the game in Selucia, basically on and off, first under In Marea, then COSIRA, and so on. Afterwards, I also spent my time for brief times in Istalia with Axxell and in Kalopia with Luz.
  

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

• With Axxell, we had the brief but intense RP about the Alarian independence movement and the constitution of the Union of Quanzar and Alaria.
  
• As most of my time was spent in Selucia, along (and with great work of) Polites, we constituted most of its modern lore, including the restoration of the islands' names, the distribution of its government cabinet names, the regional flags as I designed, etc. Basically everything from the Seventh Selucian Republic (4236) until the end of the Tenth Republic (4799), and then again the Eleventh Republic (4799-5033).
  

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

I'm not a man known for being able to detect this kind of facts, but as it happens, and although I guess it's unknown for most players, is the big RP I did in Selucia back in the day, which I'm pretty proud of.Besides, I was also pretty much a wiki guy, being an admin of the old wiki and battling on and off with james as the second largest contributor (Polites is simply just impossible to beat)

Who were some of the players or moderators who had the biggest impact on you? What were your most memorable interactions, collaborations, or rivalries?

As I was pretty much on my own, I have to recognize that I didn't interact much with other players in PT classic, mostly from time to time through the forums. The closest one I had was Polites and then Axxell but as said, it has not been until this my return to this server that I'm interacting more with the rest of players.As of now, I’ve grown much closer to some players, including Zanz, MBites, Greek, Nick or Doc, but I’m just happy to RP and interact with basically all the playerswe now have on the discord and the forum. 

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

I remember that, to be honest, the community back when I joined was a bit "toxic" or at least there was a lot of discussion and misunderstandings. I believe that the discord server did wonders – but also made some things worse somehow – for the community. As said, it is now when I've got more engaged in the community, and I'm thankful for it

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

I've always liked politics since I was very young – I can remember being 15 and already checking which parties would I vote for in the elections, and then being so excited when we had early elections called at the time because it meant I was then *able* to vote. In the community, I've found like-minded where I can also learn from different viewpoints and also being taught about how politics work in different countries in a way that I think has no price. While there are sometimes heated discussions in this community, PT has helped me with my English, my way of thinking and writing, and also expanding my political views and knowledge.

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

When I think about it, I think it's pretty sad because in the same way it helped me at the time, I think it would have served the same purpose for many others. However, what truly makes PT is the community, and that's what I'm hoping to keep.