Player's History of Particracy Classic

[Svetlana]

• 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)?

Unlike the rest of you guys, I wasn't that actively engaged in 'Nations States' type of simulators, I had tried some but they always felt extremely bland and most of the times they were extremely uptight for no reason so I mostly resorted to doing stuff like model UN, student governments, etc throughout my teenage years. Funnily enough it was Weim who showed me particracy, it was during a VERY heated debate that she hit me up with "Hey svet, wanna come play Particracy?" and it immediately intrigued me because back in Uni we had just recently discussed the topic of parliamentary systems degrading from 'popular democracy' to 'autocratic particracy'. Anyways before I lose myself, I was 22 years old at the time Weim invited me to join and I had just freshly dissolved my university's student government because the entire legislative body became radicalized which led to fights between my center left party the Utopian Student's Social Party (that's where the idea of Utopianism came from) and the conservative Union for Common Sense. So particracy just so happened to be something that I wanted to explore since it was recommended by one of my favorite online friends.

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

So the first country I joined was Kundrati, it was where most of the people I knew were located Aren, Weim, and Starfruit, and I was feeling a bit silly back then and decided to form the Party for Harmony and Peace which was mostly a joke party that I RPed as being some tech feminist nutjobs that was meant to stand out among the more "tame" parties in Kundrati. My first impression of the community? It looked like a dictatorship to me, people competing agaisnt each other like it was something that affects their IRL lives, the rankings making players post just for the sake of improving their rank, also people were way too scared of Auditorium and Dorvik which I didn't understand especially when Kundrati was basically being treated like some second degree nation by Dorvik and the government didn't even bother standing up to him back then.i kept saying stuff like "Why are we so afraid of Dorvik? There's plenty of people we don't have to fear them." In that moment I immediately knew that the community desperately needed to loosen up a little and just RP for the sake of fun and whimsy which ties nicely with the next question.

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

Honestly, I consider every nation that I was in as my babies especially if I was the only player back then, but the most memorable RP experience was definitely Nadiya/Trigunia. The sole reason I joined Trigunia back then was that I accidentally glanced at the Nation's forum thread and saw how it was basically a carbon copy of Russia with the overuse of Putin, dictatorships, propaganda, conservatism, hyper focus on the use of Russians instead of using the other ethnicities making up the country (notably the Ukrainians), and useless militarism and that immediately made me want to join it just loosen up it up. Trigunia was also the first country where I was by myself for the first time and given free reign over it, most of you might remember when I first state the whole matriarchy system in Trigunia, and the only reason I started it was simply because I refused to use male east European politicians and instead preferred to use women instead. What followed were glorious months of me cooking up a lot of bullshit like prohibiting men from running in politics, focusing on the use of more non Russian politicians from Ukraine and Belarus, actually develop the country by pushing it toward adopting pacifistic and genuine friendships with countries across terra and Keris. This of course earned me a lot of warnings from Farsun who didn't like at all how I was "butchering" the country and I responded back by being even more petty and standing my ground because 1) I hate it when another person tries to belittle me by dismissing my opinions because I'm a "newbie" and 2) him trying to act so though and dictatorial just made me double down even more since PT desperately needed a break from all seriousness. When another player joined Trigunia and RPed a conservative patriarchal party as a direct reaction to my matriarchist ultra woke republicanism, I was extremely happy especially since it was a new player and I wanted to make sure he felt accepted and welcomed so I coordinated an arc with him which ended the first Utopianist era and we parted on good terms before he got suspiciously banned for no reason after my departure from Trigunia to Valruzia. I don't know if I helped or even played a role in changing the systems of countries I controlled, I'm not going to lie, I always saw my RP being dismissed and brushed under the rug by almost every person that joined after me back then and that greatly impacted the perception I had of my own RP since it was always brushed off as "too silly" or "just newbie bullshit" so eh. The works that I'm most proud of are definitely Nadiya/Trigunia and Aldegar because those two nations were the first ones where I had settled long term and poured my sweat and tears into them.

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

This should probably be a Pub post but I have to mention my babygirl Greek, even tho I call him names and "hate" on him from time to time. He was the first guy that reached out to me when I first joined Trigunia and we immediately clicked, he was such a chill guy during an era of the community that was extremely uptight and rigid, we collaborated on a lot of stuff especially the Second Malivian War where my international RP capabilities were first put to the test but he was still there to guide me and make stuff more easy to understand. There's Weim she's one of my day ones in PT, we collaborated on so many arcs together like the democracy arc in Yingdala, Seko, Kundrati, Beiteynu, etc she's just a blast to RP with and a really nice gal, but she's still an American so that's an automatic zero on the Svet friendship chart! Personally I think that I get along with everyone since I never take stuff personally and I'm always laid back when it comes to PT because I strictly see it as a game and nothing more so why let it bother me and pull me when I can just follow the current and do my own silly stuff to keep the whimsical spirit alive

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

The community has definitely become way more chill compared to when I first joined it back in 2023 and that's for the better, the abolition of the rankings and change in the mod team definitely shattered what remained of what I liked to call "the RP dictatorship", people began to write posts for fun but the ghosts of the rankings still persisted since players were still meta posting to try and make their country the world hegemon or something and I always found that absurd especially when most resorted to "hard" power to project influence, like why even bother writing posts when you feel pressured to do so just so your country remained relevant? I still feel that people continue pressuring themselves to write, and I'm one of those but to a minor extent, I just need everyone to put down their keyboards and go touch some grass instead of forcing themselves to post post post as if the earth is gonna implode tomorrow.

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

Other than making realize that there's other people like me that are politics nerds, PT didn't influence my interests that much because I was actually bending my RPs according to my own interests and stuff I wanted to try out. I won't deny that PT did help me in managing my creative flow in a more healthy way to avoid instant burn out but also improve my writing style when it comes to news reports type of stuff, I mean I used to write fanfics on a weekly basis in AO3 but it was mostly stories and not summaries of events that happened in a fictional nation so there's that and the fact that I learned how to use digital art tools on my phone just to make sick designs and torment Imp with my far superior skills (I know you're reading this, your PC assisted designs will never match my hand drawn ones!)

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

I didn't care that much about the end of Classic because I was already used to rulling nations by myself by the time Classic died and I was glad that PT was getting a much needed upgrade. I do hope that my silly political parties will be remembered in both Classic, Legacy, and Reborn because I'm such a talented, beautiful, rich, and able bodied person unlike Zanz. Also this community is the best one on the internet and I hope that it remains the same forever, I'll always be here anyways in case people need me to become Admin and rule with a pure heart filled with kindness.