A Neutral's Blog

I'd like to comment on the original topic of this blog, if that's alright.

The first thing you have to understand about MK and Mushqaeda is that MQ isn't the only "faction" persona of MK. Hopefully, the vast majority of people understand this, since virtually every faction, MQ notwithstanding (Fine Old Gents - victorian old guard, Mushroom Kommune - marxists, Southern Delegation - confederates, Mushreich - nazis) has posted in many of MK's OWF announcements.

Notice how each of those factions is based off the parody of "Mushroom" + some other hilariously mislead group of people, a villainous adversary in history, or an otherwise easily satirized institution. Each is offensive in its own right, and thus became a perfect way for us to identify each other as rival, highly-offensive parties. The factions initially took up equal space within MK, though MQ through it's superior propaganda (Allarchonu willing) rose to levels of visibility and attention not seen by the others. MQ was unique in a world filled with fascists and communists (NPO, NoR, LSF, ICP, Int, etc), tryhard Christians (CCC among others), boring democratists (GDA, ODN), old-guard gentleman's clubs (The liquor cabinet, among others), and others for MQ's ability to essentially be a parody while likewise being exceptionally offensive and interpreted as "real" to some.

The only way to understand MQ is to see it in the perspective of our "Become the Villain" mantra, which in and of itself is a satirization of the way CN works (by casting a very obvious light on the nature of this game; it needs a villain, it needs hypocrisy, and it needs action to survive). In that sense, MQ as a terrorist organization (self-parodying the real life al-qaeda, and ultra-extremist islam) was basically our attempt to liven things up a bit. Or rather, it became a great tool for us to do just that, as it was never actually intended to leave the halls of MK. Mushqaeda became a goldmine for propaganda and activity, perhaps to the chagrin of those in and outside of MK.

Some took the MQ identity to be that of literal muslims, ignoring that our God was Allarchon, our prophet Gunhammad, our Ayatollah Tamerlanei, and we the Mushlims. I see no sign of Islam in any of this, given that Mushlims exist solely within the plane of cybernations, and nowhere outside of it. Mushlims don't satirize the stereotypes of Muslims specifically; some of the terms are borrowed, and certain stereotypical characterizations of muslims might have been co-opted for Mushlim use, but the vast majority of imagery used by MQ is that of Al-Qaeda specifically. Understandably, there are those in this game that can't tell the difference, or assume that one is the same as the other, and MQ served to draw those imbeciles out (and gave us plenty of targets, Allarchonu willing).

The core idea that resonated in MQ, however, was not of satire or parody regarding the very real Al Qaeda in the very unreal Cybernations. What made the factions such a widely successful and creative institution, and what made MQ the superbly realized blaze of glory that so easily offended and confused, drew praise and cries of hatred and idiocy, was the parody of roleplaying itself. I'll just leave it at that.

Thanks for that comment Gairjuki, and for the time you took to write and post it. It's very interesting.