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[FinetalPies]

Seriously, there needs to be a (Better) way to do this.

How aboot what is essentially a less effective form of hacking where you program and distribute politically satirical games full of Liberal violence... Too meta?

There should be a university class at least. There are already an even three pages of classes, so I'd suggest getting rid of Public Policy. Persuasion is already risk free and easy as hell to train, I've never, ever used the class for it. If I'm too lazy to go forth and talk to people I'll just solicit donations.

Even if just talking with programmers and the like during recruitment raised Computers the same way you can raise Business, Religion, Law and Science. (Actually I guess I'll go test that now)

[ed boy]

Maybe a blogging skill? Sort of like the liberal guardian?

I could see that happening - pay a couple of thousand to buy servers, maybe pay a monthly service fee of a couple hundred, and you can assign people to write for it. Raises computer skill and writing skill.

[Liberal Elitist]

Maybe a blogging skill? Sort of like the liberal guardian?

I could see that happening - pay a couple of thousand to buy servers, maybe pay a monthly service fee of a couple hundred, and you can assign people to write for it. Raises computer skill and writing skill.

I have noticed some stuff in the source code about Liberals blogging. It doesn't appear to be fully implemented, though. It appears like the function that handles Liberal blogging is never actually called, since no option has been added to the user interface to call it. There are actually a bunch of functions like that which never get called, that all appear to be half-implemented features, although I haven't actually looked at all of them and it would take too long to list them all.

Anyway, the current game DOES allow you to legally raise your Computer skill by checking public opinion polls. I'm not quite sure as to whether whoever wrote the Liberal blogging function plans on fully implementing it and making it an option you can actually pick in the user interface. But, since that is already in the source code, it's clear somebody else has already had this idea of adding Liberal blogging as a feature that you can do. Perhaps this feature should be fully implemented so that you can actually use it, I guess it's a good idea, no real reason not to, except that if we add too many more options to the "A - Engaging in Liberal Activism" section, there won't be enough space on the screen to list all of them.

And the other real question is, how much effect on public opinion should Liberal blogging have? I would say that it should probably depend on computer skill and writing skill, as well as POSSIBLY these others: intelligence attribute, heart attribute, wisdom attribute, charisma attribute, persuasion skill, religion skill, business skill, science skill, law skill, art skill, music skill, psychology skill, teaching skill, and seduction skill. Yes I listed a lot, those other ones besides computer and writing are just possibilities, I don't think they should ALL be taken into account, here is just the reasoning behind them: intelligence is the base attribute for computer and writing skill and you have to be smart to write a good blog. You have to have more heart than wisdom to be Liberal, and if you're not very Liberal, the stuff you write won't be very Liberal either. If you have very high computer and writing skills and high intelligence, sure you could be good at blogging, but you'd have centrist/moderate views. Charisma and persuasion come into play because you are trying to persuade people to agree with your point of view. Religion, business, and science skills all come into play because knowing about these topics in-depth gives you more credibility with Conservatives and more of an ability to persuade them, and people blog about those topics and the better your knowledge is, the more persuasive you are (Religion giving you the ability to win theological arguments, Business giving you the ability to win economic arguments, and Science giving you the ability to win scientific arguments). Law is also something people blog about, and with a high law skill you can make excellent legal arguments in your blog about why Liberal policies are the way to go (plus, many lawyers and judges out there read legal blogs, so this could influence the judicial system). Art comes into play because part of a website or blog is the design, which requires artistic talent, and lots of blogs have Photoshopped images or other artwork on them, such as Internet memes and such (this would affect your audience size, not how persuasive you are). Music skill could come into play if you are podcasting rather than just posting a regular blog that has text and images, or if you are video blogging on a site like YouTube (if you made really good music for a video blog on YouTube, you'd have more people watch it and a bigger audience, although it wouldn't affect how persuasive you are). Psychology skill, while normally just for interrogations, is the ability to understand how other people think, and if you're blogging and want to actually change people's minds, it could play some role, especially if you are replying to comments posted on it by trolls and trying to have a psychological effect on them. Teaching skill would affect your ability to teach people your Liberal ideology so people reading your blog, listening to your podcast, or watching your vlog on YouTube would learn all about the proper Liberal worldview they should have. Seduction skill would affect your ability to get lots of viewers by acting seductive in a video blog or posting seductive photos of yourself on the blog that increase its viewership. Of course, most things in the game don't rely on more than 2 or 3 skills or attributes, so most of those skills or attributes, other than computer and writing skill, probably wouldn't be included in determining your overall effectiveness as a blogger, I am just listing them as possibilities.

Anyway, as a blogger, there'd be 2 main variables: how large your audience is, and how persuasive your blog is. If your blog is very bad at being persuasive writing, it will actually backfire, since people will find your horrible writing amusing and post in the comments section things that refute all your arguments. A very persuasive blog will have a big effect on persuading everyone who actually reads it. But you'll also need a big audience. The audience for a blog starts out at zero when you create a blog, and then gradually grows over time, if you update it regularly and the content is high quality. If you go too long without updating a blog, you'll lose audience. A successful blog needs to be updated every day. Computer skills are needed to keep the blog online and keep it from being taken down by hackers, and know how to post articles, put pictures in them, do stuff like that. Without blog advertising, a blog's audience probably only grows quite slowly, even it the quality is good. And Internet advertising for your blog costs money, but is optional. It would increase your audience, depending on how much you spend. But new people brought in by advertising will quickly stop being interested unless the quality is good, and if the persuasive writing quality is bad, then again, it can have a negative impact on them and convince them that you are wrong, at least among your audience members. If you are using a free blogging service, and you have a high-profile blog that Conservatives don't like, they might be able to persuade the blogging service to take down your blog if you post something offensive, especially depending on free speech laws. If you pay for your own web hosting, then Conservatives can only get your blog offline by hacking it (which they would only do if it has a wide enough audience for them to notice it), and you could protect against this by having a high Computer skill.

And of course, the various documents you can publish in the Liberal Guardian, you'd also be able to publish on your blog too. Anyway, a high-profile blog could actually be more effective than the Liberal Guardian because nobody reads newspapers anymore, that's a dying industry, everyone's on the Internet. But getting a big online audience and keeping it is hard. Most blogs have very little audience and almost no effect on public opinion. But with enough time, effort, skills, and money, a blog can become quite effective at changing public opinion. Those are just my thoughts on how it would work.

[Kent Able]

That's a nice long post there L.E. but chock full of good ideas. Possible new feature? Seems a bit too involved to tack onto the liberal disobedience section of activism.

If we were to simulate the blogosphere as the successor to print media would we should also have a look at social media interactions as a companion. Plus since the game starts in 2009 which is the beginning of the rise of digital dominance we could also simulate the gradual decline of traditional media. This could turn into a whole new game simulating how liberals could "capitalize" on the destruction of old market models. Liberal artists (music and art) could take to the internet to gather loyal fans.

[ed boy]

Maybe each day a (weighted) random skill is picked and the blog uses that skill?

And concerning effectiveness, I say it should have a power of 10 to the liberal guardian's 15,and should be contingent on a successful skill roll. That way it works similarly, but is lower risk and lower cost, and is less powerful (for game balance)

[Liberal Elitist]

I should mention that there is very little room on the screen to add more types of Liberal activism to the list (especially if you are at a site that has a printing press). There are, at most, 2 empty lines for new types of Liberal activism. Technically, if we wanted to add more than 2 new types of Liberal activism, we could either have it take multiple pages on the regular activating Liberals screen, or put it on a single page and have it be full-screen. But that would be silly, since it would require too many keystrokes to get common tasks done, and we don't really need THAT many types of Liberal activism. Anyway my point is, if we add blogging as an activity, then there will only be enough space left on the screen for 1 more type of Liberal activism to be added after that, unless you want to have the list take up multiple pages or be full-screen.

[ed boy]

I should mention that there is very little room on the screen to add more types of Liberal activism to the list (especially if you are at a site that has a printing press). There are, at most, 2 empty lines for new types of Liberal activism. Technically, if we wanted to add more than 2 new types of Liberal activism, we could either have it take multiple pages on the regular activating Liberals screen, or put it on a single page and have it be full-screen. But that would be silly, since it would require too many keystrokes to get common tasks done, and we don't really need THAT many types of Liberal activism. Anyway my point is, if we add blogging as an activity, then there will only be enough space left on the screen for 1 more type of Liberal activism to be added after that, unless you want to have the list take up multiple pages or be full-screen.

It could go in a sub - menu.

[Liberal Elitist]

It could go in a sub - menu.

Yes, that is what I was saying. We have enough room for 2 more Liberal activism activities, so if we add Liberal blogging, there will be room for 1 more. Both types of sub-menus I discussed, the full-screen sub-menu that takes up the whole screen and the multiple-page sub-menu that just takes up part of the Activate a Liberal screen, would be ways to deal with having 3 or more Liberal activism activities added to the list. The full-screen type sub-menu is currently used when you make clothing as an activity (to choose what kind of clothing to make), and the multiple-page sub-menu is currently used for university classes (to choose what to study).

[FinetalPies]

Hahaha, sorry, your post is so long I will have to come back and read it when I have time.

But for now: I did allude that there is already a way to legally raise your computer skill, but it's AWFUL. It drastically increases the amount of button pressing you have to do to get to the next day, so doing it everyday slows down your whole game.

And to top it all off it raises your computer skill by 0.01. Zero point zero one, augh. This is the most frustrating thing. Over three months of having to skip the public opinion screen every single day for a single point of computer skill.

So I took to recruiting a programmer, sending him to university to learn how to teach, then having him teach me. But it's very difficult to raise your computer skill above 9 or so this way. Unless you have the programmer/teacher commit some crimes to raise his skill before teaching, and I don't want someone who might generate heat in the same safehouse as my founder. )=

Gosh I complain a lot.

[Liberal Elitist]

But it's very difficult to raise your computer skill above 9 or so this way.

Yeah, that's why once you get your computer skill up to 1.00 you should immediately switch to hacking... at least in the current version of the game. I know, I know, hacking is a serious crime, but whatever, as long as you stay in your hideout and there aren't any raids on it you'll be fine, plus hacking doesn't generate any heat so it's not really that dangerous, just don't have your Founder do it, since it's best to keep the Founder out of trouble unless you already have a juiced-up replacement leader ready to take over at a moment's notice.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

I know, I know, hacking is a serious crime, but whatever, as long as you stay in your hideout and there aren't any raids on it you'll be fine, plus hacking doesn't generate any heat so it's not really that dangerous, just don't have your Founder do it, since it's best to keep the Founder out of trouble unless you already have a juiced-up replacement leader ready to take over at a moment's notice.

I think hacking gives quite a bit of heat, but only if you don't pass the "cover your tracks" skill checks. There are some famous historical raids on hackers and even not-actually-hackers, so it would be a shame for the game to not give heat for hacking.

[Neonivek]

Besides the game works PARTIALLY on Hollywood hacking anyhow. So we know all hacking can be traced and all computers can be hacked.

Heck I am surprised the game never went all the way and went into full on B-movie hacking plots.

[BoxOfAids]

I think hacking gives quite a bit of heat, but only if you don't pass the "cover your tracks" skill checks.

Did not know this existed, is it just a general Int or Computer check or is it just random, or what?

[Liberal Elitist]

I think hacking gives quite a bit of heat, but only if you don't pass the "cover your tracks" skill checks. There are some famous historical raids on hackers and even not-actually-hackers, so it would be a shame for the game to not give heat for hacking.

Ah, so the reason I haven't been getting heat for it is I've been passing all the skill checks... I got it. Oh, and I guess the fact that I'm only using one hacker instead of multiple hackers probably has something to do with the lack of heat, too.

[nephilimnexus]

Or you could just add computer classes to the University.

For that matter, you could classes in fencing class (swords) there too.  With anything less than L+ gun control laws then taking firearms classes (pistol, shotgun, etc) should be legal, although they wouldn't teach it at a University.  To flesh that out you would need a dedicated gun store added to the game and take classes there (and those stores would close up shop entirely at L+ gun control laws, of course)

All things considered, the only skills that should be restricted to sheer practice only are Stealth and Seduction.