Elgeis, as a political RP simulation, is more like Model UN, Mock Senate, or Debate Club than simply a video game server. Most of the game's developments happens in our discussion chats, both international and domestic, not inside the actual game of Minecraft. As a four-year member of Model UN in high school, one aspect that I always found lacking was the rushed manner of the committees: long-term, nothing mattered. Dominance in the 2-3 days of the conference was paramount. No one needed to focus on the big picture, and no one would feel the effects of the policies they had passed through the committee.

That gripe has been fully resolved in the simulation we have constructed in Elgeis. Here, what you do matters. That opportunistic land-grab you made against a neighbor might come back to bite you in a month when an even bigger fish is baring down on you. Due to this long-term outlook, states have to actually pay attention to economics, since availability of raw materials translates directly into war readiness (much as it is in the real world). We've seen states approach this issue from every corner of the political compass. Some invest in private-sector seed funds, while others conduct all trade through the government in order to prevent exploitation. Some resort to overseas imperialism to secure natural resources, and others focus on technology to make the resources more available at home. As some policies fail and others succeed, we've seen absolute autocracies topple and be reformed into democracies, countries form regional unions, and philosophies from primitivism to organized religion grapple their way onto the world stage. The world order has changed dramatically since the server's start on Aug. 30, 2018, much moreso than if Elgeis was limited to a certain period of time.

However, Elgeis isn't just a never-ending Model UN crisis committee. Unlike those limited simulations, almost every tool available in the real world is available to our politicking players, from social engineering and espionage to non-state actors and propaganda. One thing I've grown to love about Elgeis as the server began to prosper was that there arose such a multidisciplinary range of enrichment for those who join to get involved with. While, of course, rhetoric skills are practiced as disputes are deliberated upon, there are just as many skills practiced in management fields with land zoning and organizational administration; in logistics from gathering and distributing materials for social programs, to supporting martial readiness and excursions; and in communication fields with everything from dossiers, to marketing, to media manipulation. Well-timed misinformation blitzes have spurred the world to the brink of war, and one player has even devised their own anonymous Wikileaks-style system to allow whistleblowers to sound alarms (or for shadowy agencies to bend narratives to their will.)

All in all, despite being based in Minecraft, I believe the freedom and lack of prescriptive guidance Elgeis members enjoy results in a far more enriching, hands-on political experience than much of what I'd experienced in similar "traditional" organizations.

- GoatWhisperer, server owner and a founding player