Error, Theft, and Morality

Day 1,603, 13:20 • Published in Canada Canada • by Sperry
Dum Spiro Spero


Whole 'lotta this going on around eCanada lately...

5 days into office, Trent is still getting his feel for the presidency. Up to yesterday, his term had been fairly standar😛 foreign affairs work, a calm Congress, and a growing quiet from both Rolo and the EPC that allowed our CP some breathing room. He has been kind enough to bring back the practice of daily articles, which not every CP manages to do. All good points for Trent.

But today brought the storm that Trent was hoping he wouldn't run into. Two moves, both at our old friends the UK, have brought on a heapload of criticism and turned up the "Impeach" word more than once.

First, Trent opened a Declaration of War against the United Kingdom. Most players have chalked this up to a newbie presidential error. And in many ways, it is. Trent slipped in a similar way that most presidents slip in their first (or fourth) turn around the block: he made a move that, at first sight, is entirely practical and sound. Going to war with Britain comes with the daily salad here in Canada. It's sort of what we do.

At a deeper level, however, the Declaration of War is a mechanical option. An expensive mechanical option. The move, since it has now been approved by Congress, will cost Canada a few hundred Gold. Quite the pretty penny, given the value of Gold in the game.

But this isn't really a newbie mistake: new players wouldn't really know what the DoW was, let alone take this as a standard step in war - we haven't seen a vote like this in many, many months. But as Trent himself has said, this is how the game was played back in his day. Trent's been around for a long time: over 3 years. Many of us oldies know the rules, and most of us know them very well. But from time to time, as we find now with Trent, there's a gap between former mechanics and current reality. And so we pay the price for assuming we knew what was what.



Slipping up is fine. Worse mistakes have been made by players who ought to have known better, who have claimed that it was "all part of the plan" or that "we were screwed no matter what." The vote has been made, Congress and the President both have made a very pricey error. This is why we hold monthly elections, and not elections for life. President, not Praetor.

You might have noticed the media (the ONE media) has started to pay attention to Canada.

Which leads me to mistake #2.

Once again, Trent has been very forward about his actions here: noticing an Org that was being a pest, Trent found a mechanical loophole that allowed him to access the Organization. He played around slightly, and after ONE caught on (as they are apt to doing), offered to turn back the Org that he had accessed.

That Trent could access the Org is not his fault. That the Admins and a past President left several eUK Government Orgs on our official list is their sin, not Trent's. And while having a bit of fun with the enemy's newspaper is entertaining and mostly harmless, it comes at a very bad time.


"It's not about integrity...It's a simple prank...If you want to make it about integrity then Trent has the integrity not to have folded the org."

Canada's international reputation is, in a word, poor. ONE (not to mention our allies) has plenty of reason to look on Canada as a morally questionable nation. This should not be our national goal. Indeed, given our history, this should be the sort of choice that we avoid. It's true, Trent isn't a demon for meddling with Orgs. But by "only" pranking and taking the lulzy, simple road, we don't earn any points.

There's a difference between not being a thief, and having integrity. "Rightfully ours" doesn't justify a move that embarrasses Canada at home and abroad, and shifts our attention to something that we should be better than.

Canada is a nation that has the ability to act with integrity. We have the potential to earn the respect of friends and foes alike. But unless we act on that potential, we will continue to upset other players and limit our pool of resources to the pots and the kettles. Personally, I'm hoping for something better than that.