[Discussion] New Themes

[New Rogernomics]

The more I think about it, the more I'm coming around the idea that we might not want to have an official theme. Placing ourselves in a certain theme is bound to always be unsatisfactory to a solid chunk of the population- most people don't like LazCorp, and of them, they're all divided on what they want to replace it. I think in the long run, we may find more potential to develop our own, unique identity without shoehorning ourselves into a particular set of titles and culture that we may soon grow tired of- as with what happened to the HRL, the CU, the Realms, etc.

I would support legislation to give our titles respectable, but thematically neutral names. Things like legislature/congress, Delegate/Queen/Lord/Lady, High Court, etc. My first thought is that LazCorp should go. And as much as I dig the ancient Greek idea, and I do think we can make that work, I'm inclined to believe we'll end up better off in the long run if we develop it without an official rule enforcing it.

We already have theme neutral names in our constitution, so we don't need to legislate for new names. Instead we'd just remove LazCorp, and it would revert to Delegate and Minister,etc.

 

[Arlo]

At the end of the day I don't really care what the theme is. Lazcorp is fun, though it feels to me like it works better as a meme and informal theme than an actual regional identity.

I generally think Lazarus has historically approached theming wrong. Stop trying to impose a strict theme from the top down where everything is already decided -- and let one evolve on its own from interactions within the community. Other regions have very loose theming -- while Laz tends to take it a bit too far.

Just my cents.

Not sure I can agree with that. Theming isn't just a legal issue -- it's part of our regional identity, and it has strong potential for both spurring and stifling activity.

What I'm trying to say is -- to me anyway, it has always looked like Lazarus has been trying to adapt itself to a theme, rather than the other way around. I hope that makes some sense.

 

[New Rogernomics]

At the end of the day I don't really care what the theme is. Lazcorp is fun, though it feels to me like it works better as a meme and informal theme than an actual regional identity.

I generally think Lazarus has historically approached theming wrong. Stop trying to impose a strict theme from the top down where everything is already decided -- and let one evolve on its own from interactions within the community. Other regions have very loose theming -- while Laz tends to take it a bit too far.

Just my cents.

As for a few honorable mentions:

• The New Revolution, which basically built a region around a post-revolutionary French Republic style.

Even if we were to theme, it would take months of lore creation, and if people aren't behind it, it would more die off like the Magical Realms, where plenty of room was given to create lore, but no one stepped up to do so, and no one was really invested or interested in doing the work to make it happen.

 

[New Rogernomics]

No no no no no no no no no... {no

The most successful model has always been generic. Take TNP, TSP, and Europeia, for example, which might do a little titling but follow more after RL government styles than any precise theme. 10k islands managed to pull it off, but they put many years of effort in to make it work.

 

[Wycliffe]

I would argue that the failure of the Realms had a great deal to do with the people entrusted to create them. Something we may forget is that we had something like four Realms, and each one was given to a prominent Lazarene (Rog, Funk and Harm among them, IIRC, and one other) to do what they wanted with it. Instead of completely organic development, what we ended up with was one or two Realms developing as the brainchild of whichever person controlled it, and the others dead in the water because their people didn't put any effort into it. The Realm leaders all ran in completely different directions, which gave the region no real sense of a unified culture- just four different, unevenly-developed fragments of one.

I believe we could make something like that work again, but it could not be structured in the same way, which gave too much free rein to the people to whom the Realms were assigned. And given that I don't think the appetite right now is to focus our regional efforts on developing something that deep or complex, it might be much simpler to abolish official theming.

We have some scraps of a sense of regional identity. We tend towards green, and we like to use the phoenix. The rest can kind of flow from there, I think.

 

[Arlo]

I don't disagree haha. It's part of what I meant by "Lazcorp is fun, though it feels to me like it works better as a meme and informal theme than an actual regional identity."

I'm not advocating any particular position really. I'm just saying we don't need an intense pre-constructed theme. Why can't we just be Lazarus? Is that not enough??

 

[Wycliffe]

I agree. And some of us find LazCorp more boring than anything. I'd rather tear it down and let us be just Lazarus for a bit. See what shakes out.