For new members. The Alpha Centauri Democracy Game, an introduction

Kody · February 1, 2004, 20:33

Contents
* Introduction
. . . .The computer game Alpha Centauri
. . . .Roleplaying
. . . .Government & Diplomacy
* Teams
. . . .The Hive Team
. . . .The Cycon Team
. . . .The Peace Team
. . . .The University Team
. . . .The Drones Team
* Being Involved In The ACDG
* Joining In
* Extract from Hive IC Story - part II

Introduction
The Alpha Centauri Democracy Game is based upon the computer game Alpha Centauri. It is often referred to by the abbreviation ACDG. There are 5 teams of humans that are playing in this game. In addition to the playing of the actual computer game, the teams are roleplaying, running their own internal governments that decides on and executes decisions and most importantly having fun interacting with each other.

Our time is mainly spent on roleplaying, playing the game and running the government & diplomacy. A new member can contribute to any of these aspects of our game, and does not have to become involved in an aspect they are not interested in. These three aspects of our game will be discussed briefly.

The computer game Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri is a turn based strategy game that has a loyal following of gamers due to it's complexity. Unfortunately the same complexity prevented it from being accepted as a mainstream game. However, most of the people here are unfazed by that.

The game Alpha Centauri is set in a futuristic world where earth is dying. In a last ditch effort to save the human race the space ship Unity was built and sent to the nearby star Alpha Centauri. A couple of decades later, the colonists arrived and began their approach to a planet they named Chiron. However, things did not go to plan as space debris hit the ship forcing the colonists to crash land. This combined with an assassination of the captain, broke the chain of command and caused the survivors to break up into 7 separate factions with different ideologies.

The game begins as you crash land on the world. You need to built up your cities, and rediscover much of the technology that was lost in the crash. You also have to contend with the other 6 factions that are somewhere else on the planet. However, that's not all, as this brave new world is also an alien world. As you progress through the game you have to learn about and understand the planet you have landed on.

Usually one or two people from each faction are nominated to play the game turns. These people usually take the advice and directions of their team mates, then make the moves in the game before pass it on to the next team. Currently, the game is progressing at 1 turn every 5 days. At this rate it is expected the game will finish in a year to a year and a half.

Roleplaying
Roleplaying is about imagining yourself in a interesting situation or having a different persona. It's about acting out a character.

In this case you're pretending to be someone in the futuristic world of Alpha Centauri. The type of roleplaying depends on the faction you decide to join. The different teams have come up with varying ideas on how to roleplay in their faction. So you should probably have a look at the individual descriptions of each faction.

There are many ways to roleplay in the ACDG. It is doubtful anyone will try and restrict you, but it's easier if you're with people that like to roleplay in the same ways. So far it appears the favourite ways of roleplaying are in writing stories, writing newspaper articles, roleplaying your position in the government, writing diplomatic messages, and making jokes while acting out your character.

Government & Diplomacy
The majority of factions are running a democracy for their government system. This means that many decisions are voted upon. Decisions have to be debated with arguments and reasoning before approval can be made for all major decisions. Inside each faction there is a government hierarchy, and work is distributed among the members according to their government position.

Diplomacy occurs within a team in convincing other team members of ideas and running for elections. External to the team there is inter-factional diplomacy. This involves mainly alliances and trading in the early stages of the game. When the first global council is called it is expected that issues of global important will also be decided.

Teams
The differences in the team aren't only in their roleplaying descriptions. They're also different in the way they are run, what they spend their time doing, and how they roleplay.

The teams have different governing systems and command structures. This is highlighted in the descriptions each team has provided. The priorities of each team also vary, with some giving high priority to the technical aspects of the game and others to roleplaying.

This can be divided even further. Certain teams will likely stress aggressive game play or prefer to build up their forces for the long run. In roleplay, certain factions may place high emphasis on roleplaying while making decisions. Other factions may prefer to use story writing or newspapers as the main outlet of their roleplay.

Which faction you choose should depend on what you are interested in. Once you have committed to a team you cannot change teams. This is to prevent secret information from being leaked into other factions. If you have joined a team and find you don't like it, your only opinions are to attempt and change way the team is being run or quit. Enforcing your will on all your team mates is going to be difficult so you should try and choose the team you want to join carefully.

The Hive Team
The Cycon Team
The Peace Team
The University Team
The Drones Team

Being Involved In The ACDG
People are involved in this game because it allows them to interact with other people. Some of the participants are here to learn the game from the experts that are playing. Others like to write articles or stories and show them to others in their team. Roleplaying with your team members can be something fun to do every now and again. Most often people come to this place just for an excuse to talk and share jokes.

Having others to play with is a major part of the ACDG and interacting with the others is what makes it fun. This is why we are always interested in new members.

It's not necessary to devote large amounts of time to the ACDG. Some members spent less than 1 hour a week making a few comments. If you are interested in more commitments then there are always jobs available. How much you want to get involved depends on what you decide.

Joining In
If you are interested in joining, you should first be fairly sure which team you will fit into best. One mistake people make is joining a team based on which faction they have enjoyed playing in the past. The differences between the teams are more than just what their faction can do.

You can only join one faction, and once you join that faction you will be unable to change to a different faction. This is because many of the game secrets are shared among team members, and allowing someone to change between factions may result in one team’s secrets being told to another team.

It is suggested you read each faction's description before making your decision.

Once you have chosen the faction of your choice you should look at the links at the top of the page. The links highlighted in the below picture allow you to join a faction, leave a faction and after you have joined the private forum link will appear there. These links will only be visible when you are in the ACDG forums.

To join, you click on the join link associated with your chosen faction then send a private message to the leader of the faction. Do not attempt to join multiple teams at the same time, as you will get rejected by all of them. This is so that game secrets won't get leaked out by someone that has access to multiple teams.

The factions and team leaders to private message are listed below.

Join the: Hive Team Leader: Voltaire Description: The Hive Description	Join the: Cycon Team Leader: Drogue Description: Cycon Description	Join the: Peace Team Leader: Hercules Description: Peace Description
Join the: University Team Leader: Archaic Description: University Description	Join the: Drones Team Leader: Buster Description: Drones Description	Computer Players: Believers Data Angels