01-08-2020, 10:03 AM(This post was last modified: 01-08-2020, 10:06 AM by RomanesEuntDomus.)
Kind of an outlandish and semi-serious take, but over the last few days I noticed some similarities between these two situation and the more I thought about it, the more fitting they seemed and the more startling and numerous they became. So I decided to write up a little piece...
Hot Take: The Sim-Change is the SHL's Iraq War
The US government (SHL Head Office), more specifically certain parts of the Bush Administration (whoever is on that loosely defined transition team) want to go to war with Iraq (switch sim engines). There are some legitimate reasons for this, Iraq is a bad actor ruled by a murderous dictator (STHS is a pretty bad sim engine with severe flaws), but the public would likely still be hesitant because of all the risks attached. So what do they need? A casus belli, a specific tangible reason to go to war (switch engines) that makes it hard to say No. In come the Weapons of Mass Destruction (the PA-exploit)! Surely, how can you say No to a war (sim change) if the enemy has weapons that could kills us all if we don't take them away (if the engine is not salvageable and will doom the league if we don't switch asap).
The administration proceeds to produce many pieces of evidence (test-sims) that those WMDs (exploits) exist, maybe the most prominent being Colin Powell's presentation to the UN security council (the test-sims that showed some Hamilton players score at an absolutely gamebreaking pace). This is enough to sway the public and generate broad support that transcends party lines and unites the Hawks (people who have hated STHS and wanted to switch for a long time) and those people that would prefer to avoid a war but see it as a necessary evil (those who don't necessarily want to switch but see it as the only way given the severity of the exploit). The war begins a few days later (the transition to the new engine begins).
The only problem? Yeah well, turns out that the evidence was phoney. While Saddam Hussein did use biological weapons in the past (the exploit does exist and the Steelhawks tried to use it), the US finds no weapons of Mass Destruction once they are in Iraq (no effects of the exploit have actually transpired in-sim in S51). Instead, it turns out that they have cooked up evidence by overinterpreting satellite pictures of some roads and buildings (screenshots of that one bad test-sim), while ignoring the results of independent investigations such as the one that the UN did prior to the war, where they found nothing (the other numerous test-sims that showed no only a small effect of the exploit). in fact, they actively lied and fabricated evidence in order to come to the conclusion that they desired, that WMDs existed and a war needs to happen (I won't go as far to accuse the people on here of that, but it sometimes did look that way a bit when you look at how criticism was brushed aside or how certain pieces of evidence were overintepreted, while others were willfully ignored).
This is where this scenario turns to the future which, I hope, is one that we don't have to repeat and can avoid instead. The war itself is quickly won (setting up the new sim itself, while work-intensive, is manageable). It's only after that that the real problems start. Everyone can agree that a stable, democratic Iraq would be best for the world (a stable, full functional FHM-league would be better than STHS). But people are only seeing the rosy side of this (the shiny new engine) but forget that it's really hard, maybe even impossible to actually get to that point and to transition a relatively poor and religious Middle Eastern country into a western style democracy (to transition the SHLs monetary, TPE, player-build, roster, management etc. systems to a new engine). Iraq descends into chaos under US occupation due to a ton problems, both foreseen and unforeseen ones, like resistance to foreign forces, sectarian and religious violence or a collapsing economy (Unforeseen problems are unforeseen so I don't know what exactly they will look like her, but I can assure you that they will pop up. We found exploits and bugs in STHS, we will find them again in a new engine, in fact some people have already said that they will actively search for them in order to give their team an edge).
The US has gotten itself into an endless Quagmire in the Middle East that still exists to this day, losing a lot of human life and money in the process (members and activity) while Iraq is barely better off than before now, even though we got rid of the Dictator for them (the bad old engine). But that step, the getting rid of the Dictator part (the engine change itself) is only the first and maybe even the easiest one, the real challenge starts afterwards and we don't even know of all the possible problems yet that can arise. Especially if the way to get to this point, as mentioned before, was based on faulty evidence that deligitamized a lot of the process.
Alright I will show myself out :D. I know this is kinda ridiculous but i still hope it serves as a bit of a warning. The sim-change is way more risky than people seem to want to admit and it is being forced on us based on faulty or at the very least inconsistent and selective evidence. STHS sucks, we can all agree, but it is not as broken because of the exploit as people want you to believe if you really look at all the tests, not just the few outlandish ones from last season that people focus on. Look at the results of this season where Hamilton did well but didn't break the league, look at the leagues scoring list where each of the past three seasons, a pass-first player led the league in scoring. No matter how much you despise Hamilton for what they are doing and their attitude about it, they didn't break the league even if they might have tried. Look at the facts, not at who you like or dislike in this situation!
Kinda sad that this might get buried under the Minny shit going on. I know we talked a bit in other threads and I respect this kind of writing and the point of it whether or not I agree with, it im glad someone is willing and able to put things into a different perspective.
01-08-2020, 10:15 AMgolden_apricot Wrote: Kinda sad that this might get buried under the Minny shit going on. I know we talked a bit in other threads and I respect this kind of writing and the point of it whether or not I agree with, it im glad someone is willing and able to put things into a different perspective.
Thanks for the kind words and for being so understanding, I know there are a lot of good people involved in this process as well. Oh and damn it Minny!
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