FACE Press Conference

[Believland]

But an odd thing happened on the way to the pasture. Some really great friends looked me up and asked if they could join. I'm a bit of a sucker for a sad luck story, and before I knew it, FACE had become a fully functional and real alliance and I never got to create the alliance I intended to. I find that hilarious on many levels. As the saying goes 'Man plans, God laughs.' Hence, I am now running FACE along with Hormones and my members are coming up with great ideas going forward which has only delayed my desire to write stories. Actually, now that I think about it, my members may well know my desires, but are seeking to avoid having to read the anticipated drivel that I come up with. A crafty bunch I would say.

The thing about the members not wanting to read the story is true. I ask VI all the time if I have to read it. If he says yes I go to Shigh, XRCatD or Yubyubsan and ask for a summary. But, I’m all for the role play.

Did I mention FACE has great members? It does, and I'm far better off for the detour I've taken. I wouldn't trade one member for anything.

Aww this means a lot to me VI.

Edited February 14, 2009 by BEazy

[Believland]

Oh and to the question of if FACE can become independent or relevant. I believe that FACE will become both. We’re not going to go on a Treaty binge and sign an MDP with anyone we can. We will only sign treaties on those who we can trust.. So this will help us become independent. And when FACE begins to role play on OWF like we have(Look at our treaty with TOP and our DoE), we will become a lot more relevant. So thus we will become both. I hope this answered your question.

[Gurney Halleck]

Even with all the words spelled correctly Federated Allies for Cultural Exchange still sounds atrocious and makes even less sense. Who needs enemies when your allies "federate" you? For the express purpose of "exchanging culture", no less.

C'mon, Doitzel, even without the very good backstory that VI provided, the name rings like an homage to an old James Bond movie. I like it. And you should too.

[Believland]

Maybe he hasn't read that whole wall of text yet. I'm still in shock that I read the whole thing.

[Shigh707]

haha he does like to talk a lot :0

[Some-Guy]

I can not underscore enough the importance of broadbeans in the early days of FACE. First of all, he is truly one of the nicest people I have ever met in this game. He knew nothing about me, yet was willing to listen to the following harebrained scheme.

broadbeans is good.

FACE is good.

DJPenguin is average.

[Yubyubsan]

Actually, now that I think about it, my members may well know my desires, but are seeking to avoid having to read the anticipated drivel that I come up with. A crafty bunch I would say.

Oh, bull. I've been on you to finish J & D since before the Freak Safari alliance was established. If only half the drivel you post on IRC could be converted to a story, you would have a decade worth of reading material.

Also, Doitzel, why the hate?

[Yubyubsan]

DJPenguin is average.

You give him far too much credit.

[Ejayrazz]

Contact me.

Thanks.

[Duncan King]

When are you going to tell me what want in a video?

[Carter]

When are you going to tell me what want in a video?

That didn't make much sense.

[Believland]

You give him far too much credit.

I can not stress this enough

[Shigh707]

I can not stress this enough

HAHAHAA true that

[Duncan King]

That didn't make much sense.

Vi knows what it means.

[DJPenguin]

Ejay, come through me first.

Calling me average is giving me too much credit.

[metal]

Thanks for answering my question gents. Good luck!

[Doitzel]

Doitzel, I appreciate you stopping by. I've always been a fan of your posts, and I must say you have style. Something I certainly envy as I seem to have very little.

Yes, I am a musician, and in fact, as I write this, I have just finished my last gig with my band and am retiring from playing out.

Anyway, back on point. You're absolutely right. The name is extremely contrived, but it did have a very important purpose.

When the idea of a merger was floated, in what was to become The Dark Evolution, I initially was resistant to the idea. This is no way a slam on DE, I have a lot of friends there and enjoy the discourse I have with the members and government there. As I mentioned earlier, my relationship with TOP was very important to me. I wanted to keep that in place, somehow, someway. The path I decided on, mostly because I knew my fellow LX members would be well cared for at DE, was to create my own thing. It seemed that the timing was perfect. I had led an alliance in the past (freak safari - and hey guys, glad to see you're doing well, you're a great bunch), and my gov duties at LX were at an end. Thus, I really had my options wide open. No one was depending on me. I take peoples' trust in me very seriously, so as a tenet, I will sublimate what is in my best interest to the interest of those around me. If someone is willing to follow me, then I am hell bent on making sure I take that seriously. You may ask yourself why this is relevant, but I believe I will get to that.

Anyway, the duty of telling TOP that LX was merging fell on me. I was the main contact with TOP, and as much as I hated it, it was my responsibility to tell the folks that I had grown so close to that we would be ending that relationship. I contacted Crymson (and yes, this is a pattern, I am a big fan of him and seek him out when I need advice, or am stuck in a situation. He always seems to have a good take on the situation). Contemporaneously with telling him that LX would be nullifying the treaty with TOP, I asked if I might make a proposal. He was tied up at that time with war preparations for GW 5 and suggested I contact his deputy, broadbeans.

I can not underscore enough the importance of broadbeans in the early days of FACE. First of all, he is truly one of the nicest people I have ever met in this game. He knew nothing about me, yet was willing to listen to the following harebrained scheme.

I am a voracious reader, and had recently read the wiki about The Coven. At that time I was writing for CNNN and my contact was in the Legion and had brought it up to me. I was intrigued. As I mentioned earlier, RP is my main love. Thus, an alliance was born.

I contacted broadbeans and told him of my proposal. Basically, it was a RP alliance. He asked me about membership in the proposed alliance, and I answered honestly and said 'I'll be lucky to find 5 people who have any interest in this proposed alliance.' I think he was taken aback and asked 'why so few?'

I told him my idea. I wanted to create an alliance within an alliance. The 'real' alliance was to be called the 'Council of Bloodstone.' It was intended, RP wise, to be a clandestine alliance based in the Crossroads that employed secret measures to effect the betterment of the Black trade sphere. In fact, several amendments, as well as my RP thread 'What the Hell Have I' reference Bloodstone, and there is a wiki entry that I wrote regarding the same. So I told broadbeans about my idea, and he was intrigued. So preliminarily, the idea for my alliance was Council of Bloodstone (please do not confuse it with Blackstone, as that is a completely different entity). So I had the alliance within the alliance (members of Bloodstone would need a front to operate behind), but I didn't have a name for front organization.

As I recall, broadbeans and I kicked around a few names for the 'front' alliance. As it was a RP thing, I wanted it to be obvious that there was something behind it. The acronyms I picked were FRONT, MASK and FACE. All the names I came up with for this 'front' alliance were cumbersome. The least odious was FACE, Federated Allies for Cultural Exchange. Again, I need to stress that at the outset of this endeavor, I had one member and myself. Yes, that's right, I started the alliance with two people. But as fate is wont to do, things would go very differently than my initial plan. I received a bunch of queries about what I had planned, mostly in response to my post in the DE creation thread which had my name on the charter, but a post noting I wished them luck which made it clear that I would not be joining. To this day, I miss many of my alliance mates, but am heartened by the fact that they are well cared for.

So broadbeans and I settled on the cumbersome nomenclature of FACE, and came up with something that fit that acronym. I have a great story in mind for Bloodstone's creation, which is referenced in one of the amendments to FACE's charter. Basically, a group of die hard purists within the Crossroads assassinates a Senator within FACE roughlyaround 1200 AD. Like I said, I was creating a RP alliance, and was far more interested in what stories I could come up with than actually running an alliance (and hence, my desire to be put out to pasture at some point).

But an odd thing happened on the way to the pasture. Some really great friends looked me up and asked if they could join. I'm a bit of a sucker for a sad luck story, and before I knew it, FACE had become a fully functional and real alliance and I never got to create the alliance I intended to. I find that hilarious on many levels. As the saying goes 'Man plans, God laughs.' Hence, I am now running FACE along with Hormones and my members are coming up with great ideas going forward which has only delayed my desire to write stories. Actually, now that I think about it, my members may well know my desires, but are seeking to avoid having to read the anticipated drivel that I come up with. A crafty bunch I would say.

So I didn't create the alliance I anticipated, but instead got the alliance I can't walk away from.

Did I mention FACE has great members? It does, and I'm far better off for the detour I've taken. I wouldn't trade one member for anything.

See now if I wasn't a **** about that would we have gotten such a good explanation? I think not! Thanks.

I'm still going to make fun of your name though.

[Believland]

No Doitzel you are wrong. VI likes to type wall of texts all the time. And if you're going to troll us you should start hanging in our chan more

#face if anyone wants to drop by

[VIdiot the Great]

When are you going to tell me what want in a video?

DK, I appreciate your patience, I should have something to you by the end of the week.

Warmest regards,

VI

[Poyplemonkeys]

Actually, it's because I like you. You should see how I typically greet Hormones, which I won't reprint here due to the, uh, well, inappropriate nature of the greeting.

You must love me so much that my head and heart combined cannot comprehend it.

As a protectorate of TOP you must have similar ideals and perhaps aims. Where do you feel you differ significantly from TOP, and where do you believe the closest ties are?

[VIdiot the Great]

You must love me so much that my head and heart combined cannot comprehend it.

As a protectorate of TOP you must have similar ideals and perhaps aims. Where do you feel you differ significantly from TOP, and where do you believe the closest ties are?

The differences between us and TOP are they are a democracy. As I noted earlier, I've dealt with several administrations, and TOP has a great pool of talent to draw from. Though the names of the erstwhile leaders change from term to term, their process is consistent. To me, it is one of their greatest strengths, that when one gets tied up in RL, there are others that will step up and keep things moving forward. FACE is not a democracy, at least not officially. One of the reasons I like a smaller atmosphere is that in essence, I'm very aware of what my members think of pretty much any situation. And that of course always goes into the mix in decisions that hormones or I make.

TOP is also one of the most relevant alliances politically in the game. We're not politically relevant at all, and actually, I'm not really sure that's an aim of our membership other than within the Black trade sphere. So we do differ in this regard from TOP. Also FACE is more of an RPing alliance than TOP.

The similarities are that both alliances are committed to diplomacy and nation building. Neither alliance tech raids or particularly likes the idea. Many of the members of TOP also have a sense of humor very similar to us, and I don't think you can underestimate that sort of thing. We get along really well, and there is a level of trust between us that has developed over our time together. I can't recall TOP ever saying 'you should do x or y' unless it's in response to my question of 'should I do x or y.' TOP and FACE's aims regarding FACE's development are exactly the same. They are looking to help develop a stable and strong ally and we want to be exactly that for TOP.

And of course I love you Poyples, I just practice tough love.

I'm working on the love part.

[Poyplemonkeys]

You say you like a smaller atmosphere as it keeps you aware of what your members want. Is that going to restrict FACE's growth in terms of numbers? If not, do you think that you'll have to change your approach to leadership as the alliance grows and perhaps look to a different system?

[VIdiot the Great]

You say you like a smaller atmosphere as it keeps you aware of what your members want. Is that going to restrict FACE's growth in terms of numbers? If not, do you think that you'll have to change your approach to leadership as the alliance grows and perhaps look to a different system?

I find it unlikely that we would grow to such a size that hormones and I couldn't logistically interact with all of FACE's members. I'm shocked there's 16 of us at this point, however, I did build something into the charter and structure of FACE in the event we expanded beyond what I and hormones could reasonably administrate.

FACE has a Senate, directly elected by the membership. IC, the Senate was suspended by the Triumvirate pursuant to this amendment in our charter:

Amended this 19th day of July, 1793. Due to irregularities regarding recent Senate procedures, and the destruction of the Senate meeting chambers along with most of the serving Senators, the Office of the Triumvirate is hereby granted the authority to suspend and reinstate the Senate upon unanimity of serving Triumvirs.

In OOC terms, if FACE reaches 30 members, the Senate will be reinstated and as they are directly elected by our members, I would anticipate that they will be a representative body that will reflect the wishes of the members. Though I prefer interaction with all of FACE's individual members, we have planned for expansion and the necessity of additional government to assist members in the event that we get bigger than anticipated.