Essay: Culture "Completion"

Bill3000 · Post by **Bill3000** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:45 pm

Culture "Completion" 
 
By Bill Dusch 
 
<blockquote>Quote:<hr> This is a topic that has been bothering me for a long time, but I never got to write about, so let me write about this here. 
 
Previously, in nations, such as here in Shireroth, but not just that - a great example would be Treesia, there would be a problem. These nations, as you know, eventually had/has activity problems; they are both cultural nations, as you know. But they had also had standstills. They point to the same excuse as to why they are inactive - they feel that their culture is "complete", that thus they are bored and have nothing else to do. 
 
I believe that is simply, a load of crap. Cultures can't be completed, and if it can be completed, it's a dead culture. Cultures, first of all, are supposed to be fluid. They change with the times because the situation for the world constantly changes. A simple example of this? The Apollo Sector. Control of Destiny 1 was originally supposed to be a game that occured in the present. Yes, it never was finished in the same era (nor is it still finished), but this is an example. Thus we created CoD2 and CoD3, each appearing in eras that would exist later on as we went through micronations. The point is that culture evolves, and should evolve, as nations change. It's part of the reason why I support historical influence instead of simply preserving what is already there - times change and as such culture will change. 
 
Even if you just focus on one time period, you don't have to stick to the "completed" excuse. There's still plenty that can be done. A historical timeline is just the beginning of culture. You can create stories from different viewpoints, describe how certain villages or cities were like at different time periods and their own histories, make fictional documents or maps, or even games based on those time periods of more insignificant people during that time period. (Which is what I tend to do for plenty of my games) There are plenty of things that you can do than simply sticking to a historical timeline - I myself have only stuck to timelines to be just the beginning, as a "rough draft", per se, of the fictional history. 
 
Thus, if you are bored with what you are working with? Work with a different era, or a different place than Brookshire, or somesort. There's plenty that you can do without getting bored; you can create games or currency or former speeches by people. Even make some in-jokes based on fictional history, or do a roleplaying session based on the history. This isn't just with history, of course - this is with religion too. And with religion, you can go further, because you can constantly expand to different aspects of the religion, different focuses. Create different sects, different "truths", analyizing the truths themselves, et cetera. It's more than just creating a god list and writing what is planned for the apocolypse and such. 
 
What I'm saying is that there is plenty to focus on up to the point where it can last an entire lifetime. Of course there's also the point of conlangs, but even that - we don't have a completed conlang out of all of the ones we have made, because we don't have vocabulary for every word that is needed for a conversation (I remember that there was a list somewhere that showed the very basic words that would be needed for a language. Roughly 700 or so, I beleive.) Then there's also the evolution of the language, because languages are also not static - create langauges that evolve from that one language into dialects and whatnot. 
 
Thus, you have no reason to be bored with culture - if you feel you have nothing to do, try to imagine something else that you can do for your nation.<hr></blockquote>

<center>Bill Dusch - Archon of Soloralism 
Pissing off Micras, one nation at a time 
Proud to be Apollonian 
<script language="Javascript">
var txtList = new Array()
txtList[txtList.length]="'Whoa! You're in...college now? You got...older! I guess that's what happens when time passes, but still...' - Scott Siskind";
txtList[txtList.length]="'The Hindenburg Uncertainty Principle, by contrast states that before you get on a blimp, you can never be certain whether it's going to catch on fire or not' - Scott Siskind";
txtList[txtList.length]="Why do I need some cheese?";
txtList[txtList.length]="'me to. well almost, we have to worship the living god, Bill3000.' - Hubert";
txtList[txtList.length]="'Y'know what? I am never going to get out of micronations. I think I need to be assassinated or something.' - Jason Steffke";
txtList[txtList.length]="'Bill, you are STILL young and stupid.' - Jason Steffke, Control of Destiny 1";
txtList[txtList.length]="I think we've gotta promote you. You now have slightly more diplomatic skills than a random rock. - Sirithil nos Feanor, to Bill Dusch";
txtList[txtList.length]="'Wow. I'm this close to admitting you're no longer young and stupid.' - Scott Siskind, to Bill";
txtList[txtList.length]="'ow! I've been thrwappen! Now I have a sudden urge to enter politics...' - Gryphon the Pure, after being hit by a shard of Pure Mischief";
txtList[txtList.length]="'I could probably date Hypatia's Mom. Now THAT'S scary.' - Ryan Caruso"; j=parseInt(Math.random()*txtList.length);
j=(isNaN(j))?0:j;
document.write(txtList[j]);
</script></center>

Trevon Andarosel · Post by **Trevon Andarosel** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 4:26 am

Wow, I agree with you <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/eek.gif ALT=":eek"> 
 
The problems, however, is that the more developed a culture is, the more complex new projects will be, and not only because it has to compatible with all the existing stuff. 
 
As you pointed out in your essay, first the fundaments are laid, a timeline, the base of a religion. Those are the easy projects, that also show the most progress. However, the higher you build on these basic building blocks, the more effort you have to put into it, while at the same time the progress is less (This is an economic law, I don't know how it is exactly called in English, though). 
It is less effort to make a timeline than to write historical fiction (or should I say fictional history fiction?). It is easier to work out the fundamentals of a pantheon than to write a bible. It is easier to draw up a flag than to compose a national anthem. Easier to write fiction than to write a computer game. Etc, etc.

The storyteller of Ex, <A href="http://www.umbagollah.com">Umbagollah</a> 
<A href="http://pub66.ezboard.com/brepublicofist ... nistani</a> Chaocrat 
 
Ilotim parduvilin cerilis irauvisin irilis Every end is a new beginning

Micronational Cartography Society

Essay: Culture "Completion"

Essay: Culture "Completion"

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