Apathy

A Legacy Worth Being Apathetic About

Anyone with two eyes can clearly see that I am not UBM, the official world 51 blogger, but I was one of those guys who was in Apathy from start to up to only a few days ago. As their main Diplomat/Assistant Diplomat (I switched on and off), I got a unique view at how it all played out. So, for all you folks out there scratching your heads as to why Apathy fell in the end and all that other stuff, I am here to answer, in the most unbiased way I can, what happened.

Apathy began almost a year ago. The forum topic, which is several hundred posts long, is a testament to the amount of interest the TW community put into the concept of the ‘Apathetic Tribe’. However, as I will later explain, the name wasn’t just for show.

Players poured in from around the globe. The cream of the crop, many were, and many more were more than qualified in their own sectors of business. In this field of growth, I was mainly absent until the end when I decided that it would be in my best interests to have some fun and join a new world… an activity I have not done since I started one of the first church worlds back when the concept of the Church first began. The whole evolution of Apathy from then on was straight-forward. Everyone started in the South East, a good position, centered around K55. Although the tribe was small and spread out a bit, it still became a key core part.

Now, as for the aristocracy, it was all H0lly for the first week or so I believe. Then other members came forward to take their respective spots. Grawler, known to most of you, became a baron early on. Other important people joined on-board during the first month or so of operation, me being one of the last as ‘Assistant Diplomat’.

Also during that first month, sides formed up quite quickly. We were faced with several groups wanting to see our demise as we grew up to first place… a rank we held until the bitter end. These waring bands were actually held at bay by an ingenious handling of support, diplomacy (that task being quite evenly divided for most of the time between me and H0llygh0st), and PnP. Although I stayed out of the latter, I did experience a large amount of diplomatic heat as I was the official drafter of the agreements. After H0lly or I were contacted or contacted a party, they would agree to hear our terms. Once both sides were pretty much in agreement, I would draft up one of these nice little agreements and send it to either the diplomat involved or to H0lly to be sent to that diplomat. Through this manner, we secured many very secure NAPs and a few allies.

To be honest, I have long forgotten the names of parties involved due to my own real life challenges and stress, so bear with me on much of this.

Now, as time went on, H0lly had to return to his own real life more and more and the need came for a new leader to step up to the throne. By this time we were deep in our wars with surrounding parties. Against our foes we had raised a pretty strong force, but, as later events revealed, we had not raised sufficient bureaucratic organization. Effectively, the tribe was crippled from the inside… After employing teams, that organization was ripped up and revised in larger K-based teams… which were quite ineffective (that ineffectiveness was the last straw that brought it down, after Landorain, to his frustration, realized that only one or two people even joined in on a very straight-forward and wise OP he had ORDERED to be completed). This power-shift resonated up as H0lly stepped down to be a Diplomat with me. H0lly’s decision to place the able Grawler in command was a fateful one.

Now, before I go on, let me talk a bit about the differences in leaders you generally encounter. The main stereotype of leader you will find is the TW Vet. Vets are generally hardened players who have gone through the whole ‘learn-by-playing’ thing. I believe Grawler and H0lly were both under that category. The second most popular set is the Real-Life Vet or Leader. These folks hold some form of position in real life that has given them the skills needed to lead. They apply these skills as time goes on. The third main set is the Educated Leader. This generally is a person who takes his or her education and knowledge and use it to delve into and understand the mechanisms of leadership. Whether or not they are experienced, they often end up being either ‘sink or swim’ leaders, based generally on their knowledge and their traits. There is then a minority that is made up of new players who are given the responsibility of leadership. I will not delve into that area.

Another thing you should know is about personalities and social relationships. H0llygh0st, as many of you know, is a very social individual. You could chat with H0lly about anything. Many of you remember Kustard King. He also is a very social person… I once had a poetry competition with him.

Then there are social moderates like me. Folks who generally stay out of the spotlight and stay behind the camera or such. When needed, they step out to lead, but often they end up going back behind the camera when their job is done.

Then, there are folks like Grawler. Grawler is a very nice person once you get to meet him. I once got him to judge a few graphics for me for a graphics contest… that being after I chatted with him for a while. It’s not that he is socially incapable, but that he simply by human nature does not wish to always be shoved in the spotlight. Being baron, he was perfectly able to lead while not being shoved in the eyes of every hawk in the sky. H0lly and others thrived in that attention- posting PnPs, commenting, conducting diplomacy, giving mass mails. The Grawler regime was not much like that. For the two or so weeks that he held power, the mass mail rate dropped drastically. In addition, I could start to see that Apathy was beginning to decline.

The way to tell when a government shall decline is simple. Look to the people and ask them what they believe in. If they believe in the leader, then it is in good shape, if they believe in the tribe or government as a whole, then it is in fair shape, but if they believe in living until next week, then it shall fall soon. People grow continually more frustrated, on both ends of the scepter, and as time goes on the people gradually shift towards individualism instead of cooperation.

So, the job of leadership flipped back to H0lly, who at that time was hardly able to take the role as for his real-life obligations. From what I heard, the moments before this switch held PnPs mocking Grawler heavily.

As for that last great week, I guess the decline could be said to have originated with Landorain’s OP plan. We were to fake a number of enemy villages using a certain list we were given… the people doing this was his K55 section. So the days went by, and poor Lando counted only one or two people who completed his OP… and even those were off-time and all sorts of things. So, he got angry and said that there was indeed an issue.

I guess it’s sort of like the brakes in your car. Use by use, they wear down and deteriorate. Apathy declined so slowly it was hardly noticeable at first. In one day, one could not differentiate between the health of the government. It then grew exponentially until the final crash, when more than half of the members left in one day.

There were several factors behind the crash that have been identified or proposed by various parties. In general, they are as follows.

1. Failure of Communication between Gov’t and People.
2. Failure of Gov’t to maintain stable figurehead/leader.
3. Failure of the People to listen and work with the gov’t and team.
4. The oppressive nature of several fronts and wars.
5. The diplomatic solitude of Apathy as a whole.
6. The disregard for organization issues within Apathy.
7. The failure to fix those said issues.

These seven points are only the tip of the iceburg of theories and complaints on Apathy. I will neither support or deny all of those points, but I will say that some of them are well based and others may just be opinions driven because of strife between the government and the people.

As a whole, Apathy was a beautiful example of  what I call the ‘Government Bubble Effect’. In that said effect, the government effectively shuts down due to a long-standing issue, if you will, the ‘purple elephant in the corner of the room’. Due to the fact that the Regime failed to either maintain their power steady and complete under one figure or cleanly hand it over in entirety; as well as issues with players and individualism vs. teamwork, Apathy simply curled up and shut down and is now in the ramshackle state that it is now.

If you, the reader, has any questions or comments on my writing or want to add details to it that I missed, feel free to do so. I am always welcome to criticism (constructive is best) as well as assistance… for my memory isn’t all that good.

Samulis is the World 9 Blogger for the TW Blog. He also plays on world 51 and served as a Diplomat in Apathy.