Originally I was going to write a book about this in game but I really doubt I'll ever get around to it. Some people have mentioned not knowing enough about politics recently so I decided to jot down a few things I think could be helpful. I focused mostly on elections but I may write some more about what to do after elections in the future.

First, nobody cares about politics. People do have their pet issues that matter to them a great deal but generally these are not enough to motivate sustained interest in political processes.

If you think you want to run for office, do a simple check to be sure its something that you're genuinely interested in. Contesting on a whim and then finding out you hate the job will make you and your electorate unhappy.

If you do decide that running for office is what you want to do, do it. You're not doing anyone a favour by not getting involved. Also, you're robbing yourself of what could be a very enjoyable experience.

Take the time to build a platform for your campaign. Popularity and general likeability will be enough to win elections but having a list of bullet point issues that you can show and explain to people will still go a long ways towards locking in your victory.

Invariably, most people won't vote for you if you're loudly, repetitively and overly critical of past leaders or the condition of your organisation. No one likes having their efforts devalued out of hand, whether its the people who served under the previous administration or the quiet guildrank three who does his best to train novices to make the guild better.

The timing of your contestation has to be right. This is not out of your control. If you feel like you want to contest but don't think the time is quite right there are many things you can do to change that. Become more visible, make people happy you're around. I initially typed out 'speak up more' but decided against that. You don't necessarily have to say anything. In fact, a lot of talking about how great you are or how much you want to help may end up working against you. Instead, focus on making yourself a desirable presence generally.

The incumbent will have an edge on you as people like voting for the people already in office more than they like big changeups in leadership. This isn't nearly as insurmountable as you may think though. Unless you live in Utah. But you don't because we're talking about Lusternia.

Going back to the first point, people won't be interested in voting for you much if you're passionate about city/commune cartel reform. No one cares about that. You may think they should but you're likely wrong, irrelevant or a mixture of both. However, if people find you an appealing person who is very likeable and appears to be helpful, they'll be more inclined to vote for you and trust your judgement on those darn cartels.

Don't rush blindly into an election. Find out what your electorate cares about, what they do often, what they hate most of all and adapt your presentation accordingly. For instance, people may be very concerned about power rations but you rarely think about them. Instead, your primary concerns are the lack of able fighters in your city. It would be in your best interest to make power rations a personal concern. Talk to people about power rations, talk about how the rations would be improved if a few general changes were made. Don't be overbearing about the matter either. Definitely do not promise to abolish power ration laws should you be elected. You will likely find that the very people who complained about power rations end up not voting for you simply because your ideas are too radical.

Along those lines but deserving of seperate mention, the majority of people don't want big changes. They want the status quo to be improved upon fairly slowly. Massive upheavals in the laws or customs of your organisation will only upset people.

Have a vision. Provide goals and suggest at ways to achieve them. This is the other half of the "don't be negative" dictum. Its far easier to garner votes by using positive energy rather than shaming people into voting for you.

Respond to questions but don't stress over being very specific in your answers. You don't always know what you'll end up doing about enemying procedures once you're elected and a Celestian is loitering in the spider caves of Angkrag, half the commune is demanding precautionary enemying and the other half is deriding them for being too militaristic. Be general but don't dodge the question either.

Unless you're Aiakon and have already spent an exorbitant amount of time perfecting the art of flaming others, don't try to insult anyone else running against you. You'll likely ruin your chances of being elected if you use a poorly constructed flame. Putting your opponents down is rarely to your advantage. Instead, its much more profitable for you to essentially ignore them. Place your focus on the people, the issues they care about and the potential you see in your organisation. People will see how uninterested you are in petty politics and will relate to that better.

Mood swings are not your friend. People want to vote for someone who will lead with consistency and at least something resembling a level head. Don't let your emotions lead you around by the nose.

Arguably the most important, do not write long news posts. When people see "Type MORE to continue reading" what they really see is "I don't respect your time enough to state my points succinctly." If you feel like people should have to read every word of your novel-length post, you should probably take some time to write a post congratulating your opponent on winning your election. You can nearly always state your case with fewer words. Get to the point and cut out the filler.

I would agree. It's absolutely vital that you don't get locked into a flame war on your organisational boards. You have to stay whiter than white during an election.

Nevertheless, there will be some stellar opportunities for flames. This is where your henchmen come in. If they're dim, write their posts for them. If they're not, give them a good list of bullet points and send em to the newsroom. Most people can't be bothered to read through long insulting posts (unless they are funny), and they can't be bothered to work out who is in the right and who isn't. End result, both sides get tarred with the same brush.

If you're preparing to contest, by all means do the things that Anarias has suggested... but again, propaganda is vital. Coordinate it, write it.. just make sure it's never linked to you. You also need to stir up trouble - you want to make it look like you're contesting because the current leader can't cope... not because you want power. Set them for a really sticky situation and kick em while they're down.

When the electorate thinks that things are going well, they vote for the incumbent.
When the electorate thinks that things are going not well, they vote for the challenger.

There's more to it than that, but ignore these truths at your own peril. Also notice that it doesn't say "When things are going not well...", but rather "When the electorate thinks that things are going not well...". Sometimes they're the same thing, sometimes not. See previous posts.

I have found that the best way to win elections is to log in 24 hours a day and just do things. At least that was my experience in Aetolia, when I went from newbie to Sultan in less than 3 weeks. Of course, real life suffered a bit, but it was a minor thing. But it taught me that visibility is really important. Ofcourse my experiences in Lusternia would tell me to suggest that you get appointed by a Divine, but thats not going to happen unless you go for Halifax

And interestingly enough, outside of "be visible" I don't think I ever did any of the things mentioned in the previous posts.

For my own experience, I never went into an Election not knowing the outcome beforehand. Counting votes before hand is really usefull. Cause unlike in the real world, there arn't countless unkown voters. If you are in a guild you have a perfect list of voters, and if you are running for city leader, well, I've never had experience with that.

I was sort of appointed by a divine

There was one or two other points I was thinking of adding but ultimately, Aiakon and Daganev's posts summed it all up perfectly. When it comes down to it, elections will be won or lost based on the aura or image you project. It may not be accurate, it may even be a maniacal pre-fabrication you've come up with yourself for the intent to exploit your hapless electorate, but if you don't have that aura or image you'll only win elections by complete and blind luck.

Personally I dislike anyone going for, or in a leadership position who role-plays selfishly.

What do I mean by that? Putting either ideas they have or rp for their character above the guild/nation's best interests.

I've seen people in various orgs run them into the ground, or keep them from flourishing, because of their selfish rp.

So do your thing, but look out for the future of the org before all else. Don’t do things because it keeps you in power, or because you feel like spicing your RP up a bit this month.

Note: You don’t even have to be in a leadership position to RP selfishly, plenty of people cause problems in other ways, but it’s usually the worst when they’re in a leadership position and choose to do so.

Why don't you just write a short scroll with these bullet points and a little explanation? This would be great advice to have IC, and we need more books on political analysis. I hope eventually someone writes the Lusternian version of The Prince.

I started one ages back. Never finished it.

I was going to write A Child's Primer to Glory, likewise, didn't get to it. Now must do it before someone else does...

I find the advice to be very ooc personally. Since I think the reality of it is based mostly on how you play the game, rather than what your charachter does in the game.


For example, one of the things that helped me become Sultan of Shallam very quickly, (if you remember, in that system you have 5 people who vote amongst themselves who will be the head), was that I built a website that kept track of things that the game didn't do very well. It was my organizing of that website and the AIM chat sessions that made them pick me as leader. ICly I would have credited it to my "peacefull" ways.