Background

How did you learn about PrUn? What made you keep playing?

YouTube recommend me this Spacedock video, which quickly turned into creating an account, which quickly turned into a COLIQ restart and buying a year subscription.

I kept playing because it's like the game scratched an itch I didn't know I had. I loved making intricate spreadsheets at work, I like space games and daydreaming about running my own company someday so it felt like it was made for me. But ultimately, the community is the highlight for me. Usually I don't play multiplayer games; even if I do, I lurk and don't talk. But this community is so friendly and supportive that I was quickly conversing across multiple Discord servers and in-game chat. I also appreciated that many of the players I chatted with reminded folks to make sure that they (I) didn't burn out. It seemed like a healthy balance was understood by most which was very reassuring.

What are your long-term goals? Would you care to share anything about your real-life background/profession?

In game, my long-term goal from the start was to make ship engines. And I'm pleased to say I'm making advanced engines for KAWA now. I need to firm up my next long-term goal still. I want those who come after me to have a more built-out universe and ideally for them to know I was one of the ones who helped make it so.

As such, I've sadly found myself in the realm of politics. I would rather compromise on my vision somewhat if it means a majority are in agreement. I'm wise enough to ignore chasing universal appeal but also old enough to know it's better to work alongside others if at all possible.

I dropped out of an aerospace engineering program and found myself working for an industrial component manufacturing company. I was briefly (and accidentally) important, but then corporate buyouts and restructuring happened. I'm actively looking to leave and should've moved sooner. Sadly, I anticipate that I will scale back the mental bandwidth I dedicate to the game once I start the new job. Not going away but just doing less than I am now. Currently this game is kind of my escape from work, so it gets an outsized portion of my attention.

What does your nickname and company name mean?

When I was a kid I always wanted to build spaceships that went to Mars, so "MartianEngineer" was a Steam gamertag I came up with when I was studying aerospace engineering. I grew attached enough to it to keep it even after I dropped out (and thus am not actually an engineer).

What got you into governing?

My first governing gig was taking over for the Schaitr on Milliways. Not long after, I stepped up to run Kakrafoon Kapp (then only known as KW-020d) due to the govenor at the time getting buried under IRL responsibilities. TAfirehawk, one of KAWA's career governors, mentored me and slowly added additional planets to my portfolio.

CptColeslaw was getting busier and busier IRL, so I started helping them run planets behind the scenes, and then eventually became govenor. That's how I added Gibson and eventually Umbra to my resume. Starter planets are much harder to balance and maintain than any other type of planet due to the immense player count and need to support all worker tiers. It would've been a little tense for my company financially if I hadn't had the monetary backing of multiple corps and banks.

After talking with other regional govenors, I really wanted to start pushing the regional development via taxes angle, as I believe that is the future and the foundation of Benten specifically. And that basically brings us to now with growing pains magnified by some of my communication stumbles blowing up into a much hotter election then Benten is used to. I'm pleased to say that things have by and large been pretty respectful. I can see where those with the different policy platforms are coming from and even respect their position even if I personally disagree with it.

Recently, I've realized that what I want to do is literally politics, which surprised me as I've had a distaste of such things for most of my life. But that's what it's called when you want to rally folks to your cause and foster collaboration and development on a scale beyond just one company or person.

Polity

In your opinion, is Benten a leading region or a lagging one?

Benten is both; it depends on who you ask and what you're measuring. Everyone views Moria and Antares as competing for first and second largest regions in terms of economic power and Hortus and Benten as competing for third and fourth. This makes it sound like we're a lagging region since we're in the second pack.

But that is missing the local picture and context. True, Benten lost quite a bit of momentum over the years as some of our old players left the game. But just as Hortus has exploded recently, so too has Benten been seeing a steady influx of new players. Our region now has five full starter planets! In additon, we have seen streadily accelerating growth in all the economic indicators. This has largely been the result of intentional efforts put into the region. BEU was created. FIOC colonization initiative for JS-570 was so successful it grew into the Frontier Ascension Directive. We were among the first to build and launch colony ships.

To me, the question is more a measure of acceleration than velocity. Benten has been accelerating heavily, showing we have the appetite and capability. From my perspective as one of the players heavily involved in the growth of this region, we are a leading one more than a lagging one.

Benten has always been built on close collaboration and community bridging the gap to make the region great. Leaning into that and intentionally opening up new programs that foster that sprit and mentor new players will let us lead the charge again. This is why I've pushed myself to take this regional planetary development fund from idea into reality.

What do you think is the most important issue in this round of elections?

Tax increases. Benten has historically subsidized planetary upkeep and relied on the donations of large players to build out our larger planets. I don't see anything wrong with that. But it's not the only way to do things and that I think now is a good time to change that.

I believe all planets should be able to hand the keys over to a trainee governor, and (with some coaching and financial assistance) they should be able to run and maintain the planet by buying off the market. Currently, that's broadly not true. So getting taxes caught up with inflation is part of it.

I also think the largest planets can bear increased tax burden to fund the region as a whole, which is the other hot topic in this election. Everyone seems to agree that having a transparently run Planetary Development Fund for the region is a good idea. Some just don't like the idea of partially funding that with "federal taxes" stacked on top of what the planets need to maintain themselves. We will see where the majority opinion lands on that nuance. But either way, there will likely be a revised tax structure in the near future.

Policy

Why is your program better than the program of the other party?

Transparency. I'm putting a huge amount of effort into de-mystifying and democratizing this process. As such, it will take more time to build out this fund than if I or anyone else were to just run it themselves. But I think it'll be worth it for the increased trust, accountability, and ultimately sustainability that a more fleshed out system will provide.

As for the planets themselves, my recent track record speaks for itself. I was able to turn around two struggling, full starter planets and am the incumbent govenor.

But I'm much more focused on the big picture here. I want to make sure that people feel their feedback is being heard and acted on. That is why I have put so much effort into correcting some of my recent missteps around (lack of) communication. I acted without thinking about the optics or others' perspectives and rightfully received pushback for that. So instead of looking like I'm winging things, I'm adopting a "share the plan, solicit feedback on the plan, present the revised plan, then execute the plan" mentality (instead of just skipping to step 4 and having to backtrack afterwards).

What regional infrastructure should Benten develop?

This is my personal view, but of course I'm open to discussions on specifics. In rough order of priority:

1. POPI/warehouses on existing planets
2. Setting up new planets that are well-suited for specific industries or just nearby resource extractions
3. Adding larger WH + LM to resource extraction planets
4. Finish the initial batch of gateways
5. Build gateways to connect to ARC, then possibly other gateways in the future

More important is setting up some form of governance process for vetting and approving individual projects. I've already started discussions and drafting some of this behind the scenes, but it will be a collaborative effort; it's not just me working on this.

Polling

Is there anything Benten should do differently for future elections?

Setting up a regional governance channel to facilitate discussion. In-game planet chats help but are a poor place for discussion as messages get lost much easier than on Discord.

Overall, I think the current elections are more a demonstration of what Benten is doing right for elections than anything else. We have folks sharing their platforms and having civil discussion pretty much across the board. Things naturally get a little heated, but for the most part I was proud of how everyone conducted themselves. Makes me proud to be affiliated with this region.

Anything else readers should know?

Mainly just stressing that I and the other regional leaders understand the request for more insight/transparency and process/structure around the management of the proposed Planetary Development Fund. This is actively being worked on and I'll request additional feedback once it's further along.

And also that folks shouldn't worry that the entire future of the region hangs on this one election. There will be more opportunity to adjust things as they get fleshed out more. This election is just setting directionality as we kick off the more in-depth work.