A Guide to The Allied States

The Allied States was founded on April 18, 2014 by Britarvia. The Constitution of The Allied States was finalized on April 23, 2014 and was mainly written by CDland and Naiagara. Most of the activity in the region occurs on the forums, which is why most of this dispatch will be dedicated to describing the Allied States Forum.

How to Get Started on the Forums

All of the forum is visible to guests, so feel free to browse around. If you decide you want to participate, first create an account. The next step is to apply for citizenship. Once your citizenship application is processed by the President or Cabinet official, you are a full member of The Allied States and can vote in the House of Representatives and in Presidential and Senatorial elections.

The Allied States Forums

The forums are large and can be at times confusing but there are four primary activities that take place on the forums. Residents of The Allied States are strongly encouraged to create an account on the forums in order to participate in the bulk of what The Allied States has to offer.

The four primary forum activities are:

Regional Administration
The Governmental Roleplay
The Forum Economy and Business
The National Roleplay

Regional Administration

The government of The Allied States is modeled after the government of the United States and is thus a republic with three co-equal branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The government is responsible for leading The Allied States as a region and for creating and administering the activities of the region for citizens who wish to participate.

Within the forums, the government decides how the region should be run and what appropriate behavior for citizens and residents of the region is. For example, according to the Secure Voting Act, no one may have more than 1 forum account.

The legislative branch is composed of a bicameral legislature: the House, of which all citizens are members, and the Senate, which is composed of 3 Senators who stand for election every two months. Only the Senate has formal powers to create laws that administer the region; however, the House can suggest laws to the Senate.

The executive branch is composed of the President, who stands for election every two months, the Vice President, who is elected on the same ticket as the President, and the Cabinet, which is selected by the President. The executive branch is responsible for carrying out the laws passed by the Senate as well as keeping the region safe. For example, it is the President that would place a password in the region if it fell under attack, per the Border Security Act of 2014.

The judicial branch is composed of three Supreme Court Justices who are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The judicial branch has two main responsibilities in terms of regional administration: it tries cases where a citizen is accused of breaking a law and it can nullify executive and legislative actions that are unconstitutional.

The Governmental Roleplay

One of the most important activities of our region is the governmental roleplay. In the government roleplay, members of the region assume the duties of government officials such as President, Senators, Representatives (all citizens) and Justices. The nation that the members of the region collectively govern is also named The Allied States.

The Vice President plays an important part in guiding the government roleplay because of his dual role as the Game Administrator of the government roleplay. The Game Administrator has two primary responsibilities: creating news events and updating the statistics of the Allied States. The government officials react to the news events created by the Game Administrator. For example, the Authorization of the Use of Military Force, which failed, and the Support South Korea Act were both written in response to the North Korean news event.

All members of the government, including all citizens in their capacities as members of the House of Representatives, also have roles in the government roleplay. The President may sign legislation and direct the military of the roleplay Allied States. Laws are written by Congress and, unlike regional administration laws, both houses of Congress need to approve roleplay legislation. For example, the Organ Sales Act was enacted by both the House and Senate. Legislation can be written in response to news events, like the Support South Korea Act or independent of news events, like the Organ Sales Act, and may originate in either House. The Supreme Court may try cases that arise in the government roleplay, such as the Allied States v. Ji case.

Another aspect of the government roleplay is the budget. Every month, a budget must be enacted by Congress allocating the funds of the Allied States government. In addition to the statistics kept by the Game Administrator such as economy, political freedoms, and civil rights, statistics such as GDP and total government budget are calculated by the formulas in the player calculator NSTracker. Congress must then determine the tax rate and how much each area of government such as healthcare, education, and defense, are funded.

The Forum Economy and Business

The forum economy is based on a monetary unit known as the Allied Dollar. The amount of Allied Dollars one owns is on the profile of every member of the forum in the sidebar. Members of the forum automatically earn 10 Allied Dollars every time they make a post on the forums. The money can then be redeemed in return for services at the market.

The market is the location for all of the businesses in the forum. You can purchase services from businesses such as legislative and legal consultation, banking services, and guns and weaponry for the national roleplay. You can also get hired at a business by contacting the owners of the business (typically the user who moderates the business forum) or start your own business.

Another way to make money is to provide services for the Allied States. The Secretary of the Treasury is empowered to make payments from the Treasury to those who provide services to the region such as manually recruiting and introducing legislation. To redeem money for providing services to the region, simply post a reply in the Treasury Payments thread linked in this paragraph.

The forum economy is governed by the Senate and President (the House may only make recommendations, as with regional administration). For example, the Senate passed the Economic Reform Bill, which provides most of the framework for the forum economy and the Expenditures Act of 2014 which allows the treasury payments outlined in the previous paragraph.

Finally, citizens are expected to pay taxes to the Treasury at the beginning of every month (this is different than the taxes set in the governmental roleplay). The current tax is a flat 10% unless the deadline for filing is missed, in which case 20% of monetary assets are seized by the Secretary of Treasury.

The National Roleplay

Finally, in the national roleplay, each member of the forums control different nations rather than being parts of the same national government like in the governmental roleplay. Different countries may then interact with each other in diplomacy, trade, and war. To get started, claim a spot on the official world map. Money from the forum economy must be paid for a spot on the national roleplay map, which is another use for your money: the more you post and the more you work, the bigger empire you may control on the map!