Board Thread:Fiction Universe Discussion/@comment-4242472-20160124202207/@comment-25309944-20160125143418

I'm going to have to agree with Cyrannian on this one. In the past few months, I've grown increasingly weary of standardized, wiki-wide systems like the tier scale which impose the same standards, styles, and criteria on fictions with widely different authors, considerations, focus, and grounding. I regret having tried to create some of those systems myself, and would really like to avoid creating one here.

The tier scale is an example of a system like this which I personally feel is limiting because it sets us up on a linear, hierarchical path which can only move in one direction: towards greater and greater megastructures. This linear model of technological development is actually a mindset that causes a lot of problems in developing nations today, and does not take into account the full breadth of factors that make up a state. In light of this observation, it seems to me like technological development (coupled with economic, social, and political development) can unravel in a multiplicity of ways with a myriad of possible results and systems, each ultimately capable of projecting power on the same scale.

This is why I don't use the tier scale, and would really oppose any kind of formulaic approach to defining a hyperpower. As Cyrannian pointed out, these kinds of systems are limiting to creators and mire us in hierarchy. Furthermore, they restrict us to a single interpretation of fiction built around a limited point of view. As a student of political science and political economy, I disagree with the tier and class systems. There are others who don't use it because they invalidate the style in which they want to write.

Does this not mean that––with loosening standards––the First Gigaquadrant will become even more fragmented and incapable of consistency? I would actually like to suggest a solution in line with what has been said above. Rather than use the tier scale to scientifically divide people, we should use it as a great equalizer between fictions. For me, assigning a fiction to one category of power is a way of saying, "My fiction is as powerful as all of these other fictions of the same level. I know we disagree on what makes a fiction powerful, but because we're friends we can take each other's word for it and write fiction as equals."

In other words, while fictions like the French Empire and the Delpha Coalition of Planets use vastly different writing styles, technology, and systems, Wormy and I have agreed to consider them as equals in the post-GXS world, thus making the hyperpower label applicable to them both. By using this method, we avoid belittling, we avoid envy, we avoid stressing out about power and prestige, and we can have a blast writing fiction.