2022 Back to the Future Festival

Welcome to the 2022 Back to the Future Festival!

First held in October 2015 and then held again in October 2017, the Back to the Future Festival is an opportunity to celebrate the fantastic Back to the Future trilogy and also to take a look back at where we’ve been and think about how we want our future to look like.

As we open our Back to the Future Time Capsule to read the messages left for us from those who were around in 2017 I encourage everyone to think about how much we have grown both as individuals and as a community, and to think about how we want our future.

How can you participate in the festival?

Send a telegram to Back to the Future Time Capsule!

We will keep the time capsule nation alive so that anyone can send telegrams to it. Your message can reflect on regional life today, your hopes for the future, or anything in between. We will open the time capsule in 2025, so that the South Pacificans of the future may learn about our their peers from today.

2 Likes
From: Karnetvor
Date: 2017-10-22 06:26:18 UTC

Hello TSP from the future!

I’m known as RandomGuy199, TSP’s resident Venezuelan, on the forums. I am, as of this writing, the “official” Lampshade Bar & Grill manager, a soldier in the South Pacific Special Forces, and also an avid roleplayer, being part of TSP’s Golden Era of RP back in 2015. I feel dumb for not writing one of these back then, but well.

To the RandomGuy199 of the future: are you still in NS? In that case, wow. I didn’t expect I would remain in this browser game for long back when I found it in 2014, let alone for four f^^king years! Did I become insane and try to get into regional politics? How’s university going? I’ve barely started when I wrote this. Did you find a girlfriend, or are you still a lone wolf?
Has Venezuela improved a bit? Please tell me so. Things are bad currently. Is that piece of s^^t Maduro still in power? Is the family alright?

Who won the World Cup in Russia? Has Donald Trump been impeached? Did Youtube implode? Is the Game Attack Youtube channel still around, or did Craig stab Bolen in the back? And most importantly… do you still watch wrestling? What was the Wrestlemania main event? Was it AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura? If it happened, was it great?! When did Jinder Mahal lose the WWE title? Did Daniel Bryan leave WWE to wrestle in Japan and/or Mexico? Did Kenny Omega win more accolades?

For the South Pacific of the future: How are things going? Is TSP coup-free? I hope we’re still the best democracy in NS. Are my old friends Qwert and Resentine still there? Is the LB&G still a thing? Am I still the manager? Is the old man, Tsunamy, still around?

If the Coalition is still a thing? Please tell me so. I wouldn’t want those a**holes from Balder taking control… ugh…

Anyway, my best regards. TSP was a big part of my teenage years, and in my time there, I’ve met lots of great people, even if they were far away. It helped me shape my outlook on politics and life in general. I’ll be an old veteran in NS if I’m still around by the time this telegram is released, so I recommend the following in advance: keep the party going!

(PD: If I’m not around by this time, somebody contact me to remind me of this)

From: Zadiner
Date: 2017-10-22 12:51:50 ITC

Heyyyyy It’s Zadiner here. I’ve taken a break from NS for the past little while, but my plan is to become a bit more active over the summer (ur winter) (we’ll see how that actually turns out ;)). I don’t have much to say apart from this: the future may look/sound scary, but you are in charge of shaping it and facing it in whatever way possible.

Hope I’m still here in 2018
Bai

From: Neu Hundland
Date: 2017-10-22 13:53:21 UTC

Hello, future TSPers! This is Neu hundland here!

I’m really excited about this virtual time capsule, actually. The truth is, I wasn’t checking this game for a few weeks and when I read Erinor’s post about it, I got surprised. I like to address a few things to describe what it is like here now. I hope it will stay same or even get better. Here we go:

Forum-Gameside Disconnection:
Don’t know if we are going to live this problem a year after now, but if we don’t it’s important to let you know about our problems. Sure, gameside is active, but forums are somewhat dead. Forums are important and I’m sure that they won’t get abolished, but they don’t have much activity. The problem is, people don’t want to, don’t know how to and don’t care to learn how to open an account which is the only way to be active in a forum.

In forums, we have discussions in High Court and the Assembly, which I don’t join yet, and other formal things. One time, there was a discussion about the definition of “member”. Yeah, pretty exciting, huh? Although, it is possible that you understood that you belong here, good luck in your career. Gameside, on the other hand, is where all of the HYPE of TSP is stored. In RMB, we have lots of crazy posts and we are proud of everyone of them. It is exactly opposite of forums and it is informal as possible and it is fast. We are quick to warm up with newbies and we give them SPIT and lampshades. (If we abolish these traditions, I will kill all of TSP.)

So, they are exact opposite and they are not connected, as I mentioned earlier. No matter how sincere our ministers and Delegate are, system is still not that HYPE.

SPSF:

I am a part of SPSF, although if my country does not adapt Winter Time, it seems I have to leave it. However, SPSF is an independent organization although is not officially Independent. Independent organizations are closer to Raiders, although SPSF has strong connections with both raiders and defenders. It is a role model for every independent organization and has a strict, although sincere atmosphere. If you read this please consider joining it. I thought about it for months and I’m really sorry about those months. You can always leave if you want, they can’t do anything about it.(Don’t make them mad too much, though. They can and will coup TSP with Roavin. Roavin, if you are reading this, and became succesful about couping TSP, know that I always counted on you.)

Diplomatic Relations:

Well, time to blame Foreign Affairs. Just joking, they’ve done their best, but our relations were weakened and after Lazarus happened, our allies just became our enemies. Foreign Affairs slowed it a bit but now TSP is kind of alone, although they promised something big is going on, we’ll see.

Now, I have to mention Lazarus. Three nations: Funkadelia, Killer Kitty, and Scum’ve couped and overthrown the legitimate government. They are still in control of Lazarus, but they will fail, I believe. Although, I have to mention this, and I have no intention to blame them, Resistance doesn’t know how to resist. They made people fed up. They sent lots of telegrams and people who once sympathised the cause of Resistance now want to kill them all. Lazarus was never a stabile region, but the region itself is now in chaos. Mostly because the banned ones are now free to come back to Lazarus. Because ban list was full, they had to empty it by erasing criminals’ names from that list to ban more Resistance puppets.

So, the only problem new government has, is created by itself and not the Resistance. I’m not saying they are uncapable of doing something, they are just doing it in the wrong way. It’s like ordering a fish to climb a tree. Of course, Funkadelia won’t stay Delegate for long, but there is a chance that Celestrial Union may not be the ruler.

There is also the thing about Union of Democratic States. Their president just cut off all the relations with no reason. We don’t know if we can form these relations in foreseen future, but TSP can still be a gamechanger. I honestly believe in that.


That was all folks! Hope we can make TSP better. See you a year later. (Don’t tell anybody, but I’m orgaizing a communist revolution. Those capitalist bourgeois have no idea what’s going on. Just a few more years.)

From: Edenila
Date: 2017-10-22 14:14:15 UTC

2017 is the starting year for my adventures in NS, I hope that is still true in 2019 NS better than ever.
From: Sender
Date: 2017-10-22 17:41:22 UTC

*A voice recording starts for the Back to the Future humans*

… . .-… .-… — --…-- / – -.-- / -. .- – . / … … / -. — - / … – .–. — .-. - .- -. - --…-- / -… …- - / – -.-- / – . … … .- --. . / … … / -.-. .-… . .- .-. .-.-.- / .-- . / -… .-. … -. --. / .–. . .- -.-. . --…-- / … -. / - … . / --. .-. . .- - / - .- .-. .- -. - …- .-… .- / . .-. .- .-.-.- / .-- . / – …- … - / … . . -.- / - — / .-… — …- . --…-- / - — / .-. . … .–. . -.-. - --…-- / - — / .-- — .-. -.- --…-- / - — --. . - … . .-. .-.-.- / .-- . / .-- … .-… .-… / …- -. … …-. -.-- / — …- .-. / .-- — .-. .-… -… --…-- / … -. / .- / .-- .- -.-- / - … .- - / … .- … / … . . – . -… / …-. — .-. . … --. -. / - — / - … . / .-- .- .-. / .-. … -… -… . -. / -.-. … .- — … / — …-. / - … … … / -… .- -.-- / .- -. -… / .- --. . .-.-.- / .-- . / … … .- .-… .-… / -… . / - … . / --. . -. . .-. .- - … — -. / - — / -… …- … .-… -… / - … . / -… .-. … -… --. . … / -… . - .-- . . -. / — …- .-. / .–. . — .–. .-… . … / -… … …- … … … — -. … .-.-.- / .-. . .— — … -.-. . .-.-.- / - … . / - … – . / - — / -.-. .-… .- … – / — …- .-. / …- - — .–. … .- / … … / …- .–. — -. / …- … .-.-.- / - … .- -. -.- / -.-- — …- .-.-.-

The recording ends

From: United Federated States of Omega
Date: 2017-10-24 02:49:59 UTC

Hello future TSPers.

My name is Omega and I started the APC and SPN. If I am still here in two years awesome. If not too bad. Right now I am 16 and in band living outside of Autin Texas. I am having the time of my life right now and in two years I hope TSP never forgets the thing that makes us great is our openness and friendliness. I was met with open arms and I hope in two years, TSPers are still welcomed here and encouraged to pursue their passions.

Good luck and I hope there isn’t a coup
-Omega 2017

From: The Solar System Scope
Date: 2017-10-27 10:12:06 UTC

27 October 2017 (2017-10-27)

It appears it’s that time of year again! Sending stuff to the future. In digital form. It’s not as impressive as LAGEOS, and hopefully it will not be as problematic to plan as KEO, but it is a nice thing to do, peek into the past, which is our present, from the future, which is the future’s present. Enough confusion!

Here are today’s BBC News headlines for reference (I’m lazier than last time):
-Spain PM demands direct rule on Catalonia: Spain’s senate is expected to pass the emergency measures, which include sacking the Catalan leader.
-Australia’s deputy PM disqualified: Barnaby Joyce and four others were wrongly elected because they held dual citizenship, a court says.
-Files on JFK assassination released: Some 2,800 records on the 1963 assassination are released, but the president withholds some others.
-SA farmers jailed for coffin abuse: Two white farmers are sentenced to more than 10 years each for forcing a black man into a coffin.
-El Capitan speed climbing record smashed: Two Americans set the fastest time for scaling the vertical Yosemite rock formation.
-Sailors rescued after five months adrift: Two US yachtswomen and their dogs are rescued by the US Navy after a trip from Hawaii went wrong.
-France sentences Equatorial Guinea VP
-Indian surgeons separate twins joined at the head
-EU bank to owe UK billions ‘for decades’
-Body clock ‘affects surgery survival’
-YouTuber apologises for ‘manipulating’ women
-N Korea to free fishing boat from South
-Clashes mar Macron’s French Guiana visit
-Pope’s tough question for ISS crew

Until 2018, these events are likely to happen:
February 9–25 – The 2018 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
March – NASA plans to launch the exoplanet-seeking TESS mission.
April 4–15 – The 2018 Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
May 5 – Launch of NASA’s InSight is scheduled. InSight will launch to Mars in November and use a drill to conduct geological science.
May 25 – Implementation date of General Data Protection Regulation.
June 14 – July 15 – The 2018 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to be held in Russia.
June 24 - Saudi Arabia will allow women to drive.
July 27 – Mars will make its closest approach to Earth since 2003.
October – Unmanned European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft is scheduled to be launched to Mercury.
The U.S. missile defense complex in Poland is expected to be operational.
The second capsule of The Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument is expected to be opened 50 years after the time capsule was locked in 1968.
NASA’s Solar Probe Plus is expected to orbit the Sun.
Israel is expected to begin to release classified information held in its state archives from the first two decades of its existence.
JAXA’s robotic SELENE-2 lunar mission is expected to be launched in 2018.
Two space tourists are scheduled to fly around the Moon in a Falcon Heavy rocket, marking the first time that humans have ventured beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972.

If you expected an inspirational or philosophical message, go check my previous submission for 2015 (opened 2017).
But I gotta write something… Um…
There are probably major events not listed here that happen in this time’s future (your present), which is caused by the fact that they cannot be foretold. Did Donald Trump declare war on Canada? Russia? China? Himself? Is Catalonia independent? We cannot know before you open this. Remember these events, because the forgotten past is as hard to know as the uncertain future.

Yours sincerely and faithfully,
The Solar System Scope
No longer you friendly neighbourhood Local Councillor
But at least I get to be the Lord of Space and the Protector of the TARDIS Keys
:3

From: Ryccia
Date: 2017-12-21 11:39:29 UTC

So, hello, I guess.

If I’m not here for the time this gets re-opened, I want you all to know that I love TSP. The fond memories and friends I have made here…I shall carry forever.

Anyways, it is a shitty time. I have lost all hope for this fateforsaken island. The economic crisis just gets worse, we have high crime, immorality, and now…Maria…

NOAA said that an even stronger hurricane will come in 5 years. So, if I’m not here to tell the tale and that potential hurricane passes through my island, we are oh so, so fucked. We were before, and you think it couldn’t get worse, but hey, life just finds a way to make things even worse.

Hurricane or no hurricane, things will get worse. I am afraid that the island will take decades to recover, or might never will. And I will be part of a lost generation…

No. I won’t. I’ll move to the States. If I can. If not, then my life will be an eternal misery. What will be the point of living?

Farewell,
Ryccia

From: Qvait
Date: 2020-10-27 08:04:56 UTC

Well, hello there, people of the South Pacific in 2022 CE! I may even be greeting my future self. By the time this message comes out of the time machine, I should have a bachelor's degree in political science – international relations at the University of California, San Diego. Whether I'm pursuing a master's degree or my dream job by this time, I do not know. I'm sure you, my future self, have figured that old by now, I hope. I also hope that you don't cringe at your 2020 self.

Just to remind you, my future self, we’re in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic, and Donald Trump is the president of the United States. I know, it fucking sucks. I hope that Joe Biden is president by the time you read this, and no one in our family died from the disease. Perhaps, COVID-19 is no longer a significant issue, a vaccine is readily available, and people have returned to their lives before the pandemic. The world has gone to shit, so I hope the situation has improved these past two years. If not, then this message serves as a reminder that we’ve been through many years of shit.

In any case, I want you, my future self, to reminiscence about how you got here. As I said, by the time you read this message, you should already have a bachelor’s degree. Remember when the dream was transferring to UCSD? You’ve indeed come a long way, so be proud of how far you’ve come. I wonder if you have a gaming PC by now. Right this moment, I’m pre-downloading Watch Dogs: Legion on PS4, and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Far Cry 6 are around the corner. I also wonder if you enjoyed playing those games. As you may recall, Far Cry 6 is a game that you’re anticipating and bummed out that you still have to wait a few months to play it.

Anyway, enough about me! Let’s talk about the South Pacific. I wonder how far we’ve come these past two years. Last year, in 2019, we passed the historic defender resolution, making the South Pacific not a region that merely defends, but a defender region. The Assembly recently passed an amendment to the Cultural Act that made that momentous day in 2019 a regional holiday. The defender community does not have a formal organization right now, but I hope that has changed since then. If it exists, I wonder how much its members contribute to it, especially the South Pacific.

The first two words that leap to mind when I think of the South Pacific are “democratic” and “defender”, and I hope those are the same words you would use to describe the region. I wonder if there are any names in the new 2022 Cabinet that I would recognize in October 2020. When I served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from June to October, I served alongside Nakari as Prime Minister, Seraph as Minister of Regional Affairs, and Phoenix as Minister of Military Affairs (which is now Minister of Defense). Later on, Prarie would come in as Prime Minister after a special election, and the Cabinet appointed Pengiun as Minister of Regional Affairs, then the split happened.

I wonder if the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs exists yet. Right now, we have the lowly Office of WA Legislation (OWL) with Somyrion as its secretary. I hope the OWL got an upgrade by then. If so, then we should have at least seven Cabinet ministers: the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Culture, Minister of Engagement, Minister of Media, Minister of Defense, and Minister of World Assembly Affairs (or whatever we call it once it exists). Maybe, we have a Minister of Cards like the North Pacific, hehe. I wonder if that’s still around in 2022. Speaking of, I hope the South Pacific has a thriving cards culture.

Now that it’s 2022, I wonder what our friends in 10000 Islands, the Rejected Realms, and the Union of Democratic States are up to. They’re our closest allies because of their defender status, which I hope they have retained these past two years. I wonder if we’ve made other defender allies, maybe regions that don’t exist at the time of this writing. In any event, I hope we are in a grand alliance with these regions owing to our shared values and culture.

I hope all is well for the Coalition of the South Pacific, a region that I have had the pleasure to be part of since 2014. By the time you read this message, I will have been a resident of the South Pacific for nearly nine years. That is a long, long time in NationStates. I wonder what has changed since then. To remind me and everyone who reads this message, I have enclosed a snapshot of NationStates on 27 October 2020. My main nation’s population currently stands at 18.919 billion. If my math is correct, my nation’s population on 27 October 2022 should be around 23.353 billion.

So, I’ll see you on the other side.

From: Proctethia
Date: 2020-11-21 13:34:01 UTC

So, um... hi Proccie.

Sorry, that was a bit rude. We hardly know each other. Or at least, I don’t know you.

Dear Mr. Proctethia,

You are still male… right?

Am I embarrassing you? I think I am. But to be fair, I look back at all former variations of myself with regret “WHY DID I DO THAT?!”.

Preditor’s notes: It’s only been a few days and I regret writing that so much.

Editor’s notes: Combining Proctethia and editor is a bad idea.

What’s big going on in 2022? Here in 2020, err well, that’s obvious. COVID-19. That still going on in your time? Does the world still even exist? Do you even exist? Are you even reading this? Am I even writing this?

Please tell me my humour has evolved from painfully unfunny jokes (like this one).

Do you still play NS? I just had an 8(?) day break, due to not being able to access NS, yay.

Let’s try and at least put some sense of order into this… letter(?)… I promise my English is better than this usually!

So, Section 1: What has happened in NS?

I joined, I guess.
Well, that’s silly. I did join, I’m not guessing.

September 2nd. My pretitle was Community, my animal was Procteh, and my currency was a Pound. I had been searching for a geo-political stule game for a while. This wasn’t what I was actually looking for, but I hit jackpot.

Regrettably (but probably for the best) I have deleted my first RMB post, but the remains of my second (also deleted) live on through being quoted.

In response to my welcome telegram from Somyrion/Auneltopia, I sent this monstrosity of writing:

“Hi, Thanks for the message.
Our nation looks forward to our times in the South Pacific.
However, it will be a couple of days before we get involved.
Good Day.
Henry Appleson
High Ranking Citizen in Proctethia.”

Agh.

I responded to early recruitment too: “
Hi, Thank for the invite.
Your invite sounds good and all but for now while I still get to grips, I shall stay how I am.
Sorry to turn you down although I may join you in future.
Goodbye.
Representative of Proctethia”

“We have come to a decision.
Sorry but the answer is no.
We are assured that you are a wonderful region, but we will stay how we are for now.
Proctethia”

“Thanks for the Invite.
We are assured we would have a wonderful time in Lasagna.
However our answer is a no. Well sort of. We may join you in the future but not now.
Proctethia”

“Thanks, but no.
We may have a great time in Europeia, but still, no.
We are not particularly after power and we are fairly happy at the moment.
Proctethia”

To my surprise, these aren’t that bad (still bad though).

I’m not going to copy and paste all my telegrams sent, but I would like to point out that, as of writing this, it is my one year anniversary of receiving telegrams from all troll. Yay. Celebration. Party.

Oh, right! Party! TSP is where the party never ends! Let’s talk about TSP. The world is not all about me. I am very insignificant. And this is a great place to change subjects.

But I’m going to continue talking about myself anyway. It’s not like I get arrogant everyday.

So, in the early days, I would assume I was seen as a nation that would disappear after a few weeks. But here I am today. I had some idols like Hanguk-Nippon, TSSS, Si-Topia, Beepee, Lily Pad Nation, and perhaps some others.

Co-incidentally, the first posts Auphelia and Rabbitz quoted of mine were the same one. You’ll learn more about them later.

There isn’t much I believe I need to tell you. Not until November, anyways. That was the first LC elections I experienced. I almost ran in it. I planned too. I then decided I should wait. The outgoing LC were Aidenfieeld, Auphelia and Hanguk-Nippon and the incoming were Beepee (Woo!!!), Concrete Slab and Zess (who, by the way, said they were quitting NS a few months before hand.

Wait, wait, wait! We missed a few things out. Let’s start with Ha-Hollowe’en(!). I joined the TSP discord. I think it was for Z-day. Now the Discord was really insignificant to me in future, so you weren’t hear a lot about it.

Then, with November, comes NaNoWriMo. My first NaNo! That was fun!

December, that contained Christmas/Seraph’s Birthday and Christmas, duh.

Oh, Steamie and Rly8h. Around November-January I met them. They were cool. I liked them. I miss them.

Moving on to March it is my second LC election and this time I ran! And I won! Somehow! Probably because I was competing against someone who withdrawed due to RL, a joke campaign and RON (no offence RON).

So, stuff happens, drewpocalypse, Rabbitz leaves the LC to became chair of the assembly-

Oh yeah! Rabbitz and Auphelia. My co-councillors. Coincedentally, their first posts quoting me was the same post.

Now, I move onto the most important thing that happened (so far) in my NS career. Sometime around this time, The Great Parkguinius joined nations.

He was a joy, a beauty, a pain. We very much had a hate-love relation, especially extending to the Discord-

and then Parky was banned from NS :sad_face:

But as of right now, I am the only person who knows about the fact he still has a nation - Saint Cinder. :smiling_imp:

Anyways, now Volaworand and Drystar have joined the LC with Auphelia, Amerion is now delegate. The MoRA became the MoC, MoE and MoM, and the MoMA became the MoD, and the MoFA didn’t change.

In roleplay, I recently joined the Pacifica RP, and Proctethia is about to become a Dalek Empire.

Anyways, yoohoo from me!

Proctethia/Proxtethia/Proktethia/Protethia/Procustera/Prorktevenais/Prorktevenais Alksj/Procus Rega/Proc/Proct/Procty/Procci/Proccie/Procy/Proccy/Proctie/Pro/Prok/Prokkie/Prokty/Apollo/<3 all you crazy TSPers! May the part always stay with you. :tspheart:

From: Holy Free
Date: 2021-04-11 09:58:08 UTC

Wait a minute... why doesn't this nation CTE?

Oh well maybe I could sneaky sneak my letter to the future in here for 2022.

Hi! Future Tin,

I hope you still doing good after I made that important life decision yesteray. TSPRP community is great but my time here may be over 'cause of this decision so… here’s a capsule for the future that I’ll be… there. Yeah I’ll be there!

See you soon,
Tin the Free.
Marked 11th of April 2021.

I like this a lot.

By the way, these are my favourite quotes:
Jay:

Karnetvor/RandomGuy199:

Neu Hundland:

I do love Back to the future