V a p o r v e r s e - Or, a Vaporwave inspired Timeline.
- Thread starter Derpsternium
- Start date
Desert Storm is averted, August Coup is Thwarted, Soviets abandon communism and the Internet becomes more influential earlier on. Ross Perot did not drop out of the 1992 race halfway and while not victorious managed to take 4 electoral votes in Maine. This prompted him to form the reform party earlier and in last update an internet driven campaign allowed them to get an excellent result in the 1994 midterm elections, basically turning America into a Three-Party System.
Sega implements better 3rd party support upon the US release of the Sega CD, allowing them to remain in the console wars as a major competition against Nintendo and Sony. As you can see from the update I just posted Nintendo is going to try and make an online gaming modem in collaboration with America Online to compete with the Sega Channel (a real subscription service from the time that allowed for online capabilities on the Sega Genesis) to go with the Satellaview (a real Nintendo Satellite Modem for the Super Famicom.) The Sega Channel was produce in a collab between Sega and Time-Warner Cable. The Collab between Nintendo and AOL should setup for a possible prevention of the merger that the two companies had in 2001.
Basically, the ultimate goal I have in this timeline is to extend the "era of good feelings" romanticized by Vaporwave as long as I can into the 21st century. I'd recommend reading from the start if you got in late, since many of the changes are not made apparent by each update. I can't dive as deep as I would like into many aspects of this world since I have Time Limits on my device and have other commitments to balance out (job, school, chores, etc). I do plan the updates constantly however. My main goals right now are to get a Reform White House and an averted 9/11.
Sega implements better 3rd party support upon the US release of the Sega CD, allowing them to remain in the console wars as a major competition against Nintendo and Sony. As you can see from the update I just posted Nintendo is going to try and make an online gaming modem in collaboration with America Online to compete with the Sega Channel (a real subscription service from the time that allowed for online capabilities on the Sega Genesis) to go with the Satellaview (a real Nintendo Satellite Modem for the Super Famicom.) The Sega Channel was produce in a collab between Sega and Time-Warner Cable. The Collab between Nintendo and AOL should setup for a possible prevention of the merger that the two companies had in 2001.
Basically, the ultimate goal I have in this timeline is to extend the "era of good feelings" romanticized by Vaporwave as long as I can into the 21st century. I'd recommend reading from the start if you got in late, since many of the changes are not made apparent by each update. I can't dive as deep as I would like into many aspects of this world since I have Time Limits on my device and have other commitments to balance out (job, school, chores, etc). I do plan the updates constantly however. My main goals right now are to get a Reform White House and an averted 9/11.
The biggest issue for the Reform Party is the First-Past-the-Post voting system(FPTP). Due to vote splitting, top-two-party domination is inevitable.
The only way around FPTP is regionalisation, where 3rd parties become the 2nd party in certain areas.
This is how 3rd parties manage in places like Canada & the UK. For example, the Conservatives do very poorly in urban constituencies, so the 3rd party Lib Dems have managed to position themselves as the real alternative to Labour in many of these areas.
It sounds like the Reform party is managing to become a regional alternative, in areas that suit the particular issues they represent, but to make it on a national level in the long-term, the Reform party needs a new voting system.
The obvious way to address the root of the issue of vote splitting is Proportional Representation, but in the US this would require a complete overhaul of American Democracy.
That's why most modern voting reform movements focus on Ranked Voting(AKA Instant Runoff[IRV] or Ranked Choice[RCV]), but as we saw with the recent New York Mayoral election and many other cities that have seen after decades of using Ranked Voting, these elections are still dominated by Republicans & Democrats, because Ranked Voting systems still have vote splitting, if not as obviously.
Of the single-winner voting systems that the US has historically adopted, only Rated/Ranged Voting systems such as the Approval Voting system that was recently adopted in Fargo & St. Louis or the S.T.A.R. Voting system that is in the process of being adopted in Oregon can truly eliminate vote-splitting AKA the spoiler effect and allow long-term 3rd party success.
Ranked Voting was adopted in Maine, but it hasn't actually helped 3rd parties succeed, even though polling shows they would do very well under a Rated Voting. The reform party should push for Rated Voting, first and foremost as a matter of survival.
The US often publishes Approval Ratings for candidates so it's easy to get an idea of how candidates would perform under a Rated Voting system.
Also here's data on Perot being a lot closer to the win in '92 with Approval Voting: https://www.rangevoting.org/PsEl04.html
Also, it's worth noting the USSR were experimenting with Approval Voting before its collapse, so the survival of the Soviet Union that developed this further could be the inspiration for the Reform Party: https://rangevoting.org/SovietApp.html
The only way around FPTP is regionalisation, where 3rd parties become the 2nd party in certain areas.
This is how 3rd parties manage in places like Canada & the UK. For example, the Conservatives do very poorly in urban constituencies, so the 3rd party Lib Dems have managed to position themselves as the real alternative to Labour in many of these areas.
It sounds like the Reform party is managing to become a regional alternative, in areas that suit the particular issues they represent, but to make it on a national level in the long-term, the Reform party needs a new voting system.
The obvious way to address the root of the issue of vote splitting is Proportional Representation, but in the US this would require a complete overhaul of American Democracy.
That's why most modern voting reform movements focus on Ranked Voting(AKA Instant Runoff[IRV] or Ranked Choice[RCV]), but as we saw with the recent New York Mayoral election and many other cities that have seen after decades of using Ranked Voting, these elections are still dominated by Republicans & Democrats, because Ranked Voting systems still have vote splitting, if not as obviously.
Of the single-winner voting systems that the US has historically adopted, only Rated/Ranged Voting systems such as the Approval Voting system that was recently adopted in Fargo & St. Louis or the S.T.A.R. Voting system that is in the process of being adopted in Oregon can truly eliminate vote-splitting AKA the spoiler effect and allow long-term 3rd party success.
Ranked Voting was adopted in Maine, but it hasn't actually helped 3rd parties succeed, even though polling shows they would do very well under a Rated Voting. The reform party should push for Rated Voting, first and foremost as a matter of survival.
The US often publishes Approval Ratings for candidates so it's easy to get an idea of how candidates would perform under a Rated Voting system.
Also here's data on Perot being a lot closer to the win in '92 with Approval Voting: https://www.rangevoting.org/PsEl04.html
Also, it's worth noting the USSR were experimenting with Approval Voting before its collapse, so the survival of the Soviet Union that developed this further could be the inspiration for the Reform Party: https://rangevoting.org/SovietApp.html
This is some cool data. The Reform Party will certainly be pushing for a new electoral system not just as survival but also because of the platform they came in on. While I can't say that it will be completely successful (after all, they still have to contend with the republicans and democrats, who will likely block any of the needed amendment processes to replace the EC.) Due to the way terms work, they have a lot of time to work something out. The big thing an actually relevant Reform Party does in Congress is act as a buffer. Neither the Republicans or Democrats can get a majority vote by turning members of the other party, and I don't think it's gonna be incredibly realistic for all the Republicans and Democrats to suddenly vote in unison to block reformist bills since after all, both parties share some things in common with reform.
Currently, if the Republicans want to pass something, they can't just get 20 democrats, they have to get a bunch of Reform Party members on board as well. Same goes for vice versa. Reform, Democrats, and Republicans will need to relearn the value of compromise if gridlock is to be avoided (which is a likely chain of events, since again, those Radical Centrists have common ground).
As for the Soviets, I'm probably going to need some help from all of you guys with researching how the elections of '95 will go. those thousands of seats are all up for election, from the Supreme Soviet down. Thats a lot of change. And approval voting or not there's a lot of stuff to consider, from Parties, to Sentiments, and of course Strategic Voting. Any information can help.
yeah, Sega's going to release Saturn stateside in '95 as well.
AND NOW, A SPECIAL IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
So, As you know, The Russia Elections of 1995 are set to be an absolute unit of an update. However, I have very little time on my hands, since I have to juggle this with School, my Job, Other online commitments and whatnot. So, there's some bad news and good news.
The Bad news is I don't have enough time to compile all the research I need to do an adequate election update for the Soviet Union in 1995. I need parties, candidates, all sorts of info about trends, opinions, and just the fact that the Soviet Unions Republics are in drastically better shape than they were in OTL '95 throws a bunch of spanners in the works. So, I can't get it out in a timely manner. By myself that is.
The Good NEws is that despite my incredibly slow update rate (I actually wanted to get to 2001 by September 11th for symbolism sake. That turned out well.) there is still a large amount of people who are interested in this project and are very helpful with pointing out details I may have missed and suggesting ideas for new stuff. So, I've come up with an idea that can get this confusing election update down right.
So here's the plan. I'm going to do something which has probably never been done on this website before. Something that should be quite fun for those who really like this timeline and allows us all to pool our collective braincells to change the course of a Country.
I am proposing that an Election Game be set up to simulate the 1995 Soviet Elections. It won't be a traditional EG, as it would only focus on this single election. Pick any historical post-soviet politician from this period you desire (Putin, Yeltsin, Anyone at all, heck a few newcomers would be welcome as well.) And let the controlled chaos begin. Manage the campaign, play your cards right, and with enough skill and luck (and if applicable, a slight hint of subterfuge) you might just be able to land a seat on the local soviet.
The Bad news is I don't have enough time to compile all the research I need to do an adequate election update for the Soviet Union in 1995. I need parties, candidates, all sorts of info about trends, opinions, and just the fact that the Soviet Unions Republics are in drastically better shape than they were in OTL '95 throws a bunch of spanners in the works. So, I can't get it out in a timely manner. By myself that is.
The Good NEws is that despite my incredibly slow update rate (I actually wanted to get to 2001 by September 11th for symbolism sake. That turned out well.) there is still a large amount of people who are interested in this project and are very helpful with pointing out details I may have missed and suggesting ideas for new stuff. So, I've come up with an idea that can get this confusing election update down right.
So here's the plan. I'm going to do something which has probably never been done on this website before. Something that should be quite fun for those who really like this timeline and allows us all to pool our collective braincells to change the course of a Country.
I am proposing that an Election Game be set up to simulate the 1995 Soviet Elections. It won't be a traditional EG, as it would only focus on this single election. Pick any historical post-soviet politician from this period you desire (Putin, Yeltsin, Anyone at all, heck a few newcomers would be welcome as well.) And let the controlled chaos begin. Manage the campaign, play your cards right, and with enough skill and luck (and if applicable, a slight hint of subterfuge) you might just be able to land a seat on the local soviet.
We actually do have a 90s Russia Election game happening here https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...turnening-a-post-soviet-election-game.514217/ if you want to take a look for ideas. Also, how much freedom would we have in the ideology of our characters if we make a newcomer?
Original Created characters could literally be any ideology they want. All seats are up for grabs meaning incumbents need to run against anyone who challenges them.
Of course, we are not going to be simulating the elections for the hundreds of thousands of seats in play, all I need for an adequate update would be The Legislatures and Executives for the major republics (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus etc.) The Semi-Autonomous Republics (Chechnya, Transnistria, etc.) And of course, Everyones favorite, The Supreme, all-union Soviet.
Nice, I'm almost ready to post the election game, I have all the info, I just need to write it down.
A N D N O W- A N I M P O R T A N T A N N O U N C E M E N T
Hello again. I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I will completely understand if you are angry that I keep breaking my repeated promises of “I’ll start posting more frequently”. And I have decided to make this post a way to explain my absence. Tl;dr, I’ve not forgotten about this timeline nor do I intend to stop working on it. I’ve simply been overly optimistic about how much work I can get done with the limited time I have and need to deal with other priorities before this.
So, first off, as you know I go to an online school, am in 11th grade, and also have a weekend job at a fast-food joint. As such, I have to balance my recreational activities with my education, career, and ensure my parents are happy enough that they won’t decide to block everything under the sun or limit things beyond all practical use. Recently, like the past couple of weeks, I had fallen increasingly behind in certain subjects in school. Normally, I would work over the weekend to catch up since as an Online Student I can log into my courses anytime I want or need to. However, since I have to work at McDonald’s every weekend I don’t have that luxury anymore, so I’ve had to devote more time during the regular school week as well as time after my weekend shifts to catch up on the backlog. This can get hard since I can only do as much work as I can before my brain goes “mush” and the quality of work will go down substantially. (this is also why more recent updates may seem more rushed).
To make this worse I also have anxiety about telling people I’ve made commitments to bad news. This is why I am overly optimistic, Not only do I think I might be able to get 5 assignments on trig identities done in 1 day, I feel that I will get penalized if I tell them I can’t, even though my IEP exists so I can tell them it will take longer for me to complete those assignments and they won’t get mad. (Anxiety is one hell of a deceiver). This carried over here, I think I can get an expansive update out before the end of the week, I find out that backlog/work won’t let me start work on the said update until 2 days before my self-imposed deadline and I end up posting something I consider sub-par fearing everyone’s going to hate it. You all have been very understanding however and I thank you for that.
This brings me to my last point, The Vaporverse Election Game will still be posted, but It will likely be a couple of weeks at least. It’s not because I’ve not started work or have no idea what to do. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I have the receipts to prove it. I just have no time to write all the ideas down and smooth out the kinks. (the good news is this would be the hardest part since all I would have to do once the game starts is look at the responses each turn and make the needed rolls.) so, here are some of the ideas.
The basic idea is not changed. Choose to play as a historical character or an original character you design. Any position (which would affect the politics of the Soviet Union on an all-union level in some way) can be chosen to compete for, any party can be run under and you can even create your party, be it a historical party which you think could form earlier than OTL or a completely original party of your design. This is an approval-based voting system, and seats are won by the candidate who won the most approval votes, and a voter can approve or disapprove of as many candidates as they want to. The game is going to be turn-based and has 52 turns, each being a week in length. The campaign season starts with week 1 (June 12th, 1994) and lasts until the end of week 52 (June 17th, 1995). And players have to ensure their party wins the most seats.
Some more rules about characters: If you choose to play as an incumbent running for reelection you must play as the historical holder of this position. If You play as a newcomer challenging a seat, you can play as a historical figure but must be true to the actual person’s beliefs.
Original characters cannot be incumbents, any OC’s backstory must detail how they got the recognition they needed to run a campaign. Such recognition must not have been obtained before the point of divergence of this timeline, which is October 18th, 1990.
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union is Bicameral.
Each Republican President (From the union republics) serves on the cabinet of the General Secretary (Who is voted by approval as well).
Sliders and rolls will play a part despite this only being a single cycle game. Different sets of sliders will exist for different roles. If you are running a campaign you have to deal with popularity, funds, grassroots, and other stuff. If instead, you are running a party, you have to deal with the stability and funds of the party as well as ensure that infighting is kept to a minimum. If you are an incumbent you of course still have a job to do alongside running for reelection which can be a double-edged sword. As the General Secretary, you have to deal with holding this mess altogether.
Lastly, let’s talk about traits. Characters have traits and attributes. I’ve mostly adapted them from the system of Crusader Kings 2 since I feel Elections and Party Politics have a lot in common with feudal bickerings. Essentially, attributes can determine how well you do at certain things, for instance, diplomacy helps with forming alliances with other parties as well as general popularity. Stewardship helps with managing campaign finances, learning adapts your campaign to the digital age. And of course, intrigue helps with *ahem* alternative means of securing your position.
Traits can determine many things. For example, a character who’s known as a Drunkard can be sure to have a hard time maintaining extremely high ratings. Someone with Lustful is at a higher risk of being subject to a potentially ruinous scandal.
Of course, this takes time, and time is a resource I have in VERY LIMITED SUPPLY So I’m no longer going to pretend it’s going to be out by Tuesday because chances are it won’t be out by Tuesday. I have other things to deal with first and while I still plan to work on this it’s just not at the top of the to-do list. I’ll post updates somewhat regularly just to ensure you guys know how it’s coming and when it’s ready it will be posted. As I said at the start of this text wall, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to post the EG for a couple of weeks at least. When it is ready, It’ll be ready, and by god, I’ll make sure it’s the best damn EG this site has ever seen.
So, first off, as you know I go to an online school, am in 11th grade, and also have a weekend job at a fast-food joint. As such, I have to balance my recreational activities with my education, career, and ensure my parents are happy enough that they won’t decide to block everything under the sun or limit things beyond all practical use. Recently, like the past couple of weeks, I had fallen increasingly behind in certain subjects in school. Normally, I would work over the weekend to catch up since as an Online Student I can log into my courses anytime I want or need to. However, since I have to work at McDonald’s every weekend I don’t have that luxury anymore, so I’ve had to devote more time during the regular school week as well as time after my weekend shifts to catch up on the backlog. This can get hard since I can only do as much work as I can before my brain goes “mush” and the quality of work will go down substantially. (this is also why more recent updates may seem more rushed).
To make this worse I also have anxiety about telling people I’ve made commitments to bad news. This is why I am overly optimistic, Not only do I think I might be able to get 5 assignments on trig identities done in 1 day, I feel that I will get penalized if I tell them I can’t, even though my IEP exists so I can tell them it will take longer for me to complete those assignments and they won’t get mad. (Anxiety is one hell of a deceiver). This carried over here, I think I can get an expansive update out before the end of the week, I find out that backlog/work won’t let me start work on the said update until 2 days before my self-imposed deadline and I end up posting something I consider sub-par fearing everyone’s going to hate it. You all have been very understanding however and I thank you for that.
This brings me to my last point, The Vaporverse Election Game will still be posted, but It will likely be a couple of weeks at least. It’s not because I’ve not started work or have no idea what to do. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I have the receipts to prove it. I just have no time to write all the ideas down and smooth out the kinks. (the good news is this would be the hardest part since all I would have to do once the game starts is look at the responses each turn and make the needed rolls.) so, here are some of the ideas.
The basic idea is not changed. Choose to play as a historical character or an original character you design. Any position (which would affect the politics of the Soviet Union on an all-union level in some way) can be chosen to compete for, any party can be run under and you can even create your party, be it a historical party which you think could form earlier than OTL or a completely original party of your design. This is an approval-based voting system, and seats are won by the candidate who won the most approval votes, and a voter can approve or disapprove of as many candidates as they want to. The game is going to be turn-based and has 52 turns, each being a week in length. The campaign season starts with week 1 (June 12th, 1994) and lasts until the end of week 52 (June 17th, 1995). And players have to ensure their party wins the most seats.
Some more rules about characters: If you choose to play as an incumbent running for reelection you must play as the historical holder of this position. If You play as a newcomer challenging a seat, you can play as a historical figure but must be true to the actual person’s beliefs.
Original characters cannot be incumbents, any OC’s backstory must detail how they got the recognition they needed to run a campaign. Such recognition must not have been obtained before the point of divergence of this timeline, which is October 18th, 1990.
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union is Bicameral.
- The Soviet the Union has 1 seat for every 300,000 people in the entire union, and acts as the lower house, directly representing the entire population.
- The Soviet of Nationalities represents the various ethnic groups within the Soviet Union and contains:
- 32 deputies from each Union Republic (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.) 11 from each Autonomous Republic (Crimea, Komi, Chechnya, etc) five from each autonomous oblast, (Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, etc), and 1 from each autonomous okrug (Komi-Permyak, Nenets, etc)
- This house acts like a senate, and each unit of each type sends the same number of deputies regardless of population size.
Each Republican President (From the union republics) serves on the cabinet of the General Secretary (Who is voted by approval as well).
Sliders and rolls will play a part despite this only being a single cycle game. Different sets of sliders will exist for different roles. If you are running a campaign you have to deal with popularity, funds, grassroots, and other stuff. If instead, you are running a party, you have to deal with the stability and funds of the party as well as ensure that infighting is kept to a minimum. If you are an incumbent you of course still have a job to do alongside running for reelection which can be a double-edged sword. As the General Secretary, you have to deal with holding this mess altogether.
Lastly, let’s talk about traits. Characters have traits and attributes. I’ve mostly adapted them from the system of Crusader Kings 2 since I feel Elections and Party Politics have a lot in common with feudal bickerings. Essentially, attributes can determine how well you do at certain things, for instance, diplomacy helps with forming alliances with other parties as well as general popularity. Stewardship helps with managing campaign finances, learning adapts your campaign to the digital age. And of course, intrigue helps with *ahem* alternative means of securing your position.
Traits can determine many things. For example, a character who’s known as a Drunkard can be sure to have a hard time maintaining extremely high ratings. Someone with Lustful is at a higher risk of being subject to a potentially ruinous scandal.
Of course, this takes time, and time is a resource I have in VERY LIMITED SUPPLY So I’m no longer going to pretend it’s going to be out by Tuesday because chances are it won’t be out by Tuesday. I have other things to deal with first and while I still plan to work on this it’s just not at the top of the to-do list. I’ll post updates somewhat regularly just to ensure you guys know how it’s coming and when it’s ready it will be posted. As I said at the start of this text wall, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to post the EG for a couple of weeks at least. When it is ready, It’ll be ready, and by god, I’ll make sure it’s the best damn EG this site has ever seen.
I will say this, it may be a good idea to have at least some restrictions on what kinds of parties/characters people can make. I've played a lot of election games, and I speak from experience when I say that giving the participants total freedom is likely going to result in at least a few "wacky meme" characters, and not the fun kind.
Ｓｔａｙ Ｔｕｎｅｄ ｆｏｒ ｙｏｕｒ Ｌｏｃａｌ ｏｎ ｔｈｅ ８ｓ， ｏｎｌｙ ｏｎ， Ｔｈｅ Ｗｅａｔｈｅｒ Ｃｈａｎｎｅｌ． 加シィ゠も ニぞ影ー コ虞 タ
More to come.