The Microsoft Agent Frontier Empire
The Microsoft Agent Frontier Empire | |
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Motto: "United we stand, divided we fall" | |
Capital | Main Province |
Official languages | English |
People groups (2022) |
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Religion (2022) |
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Demonym(s) | Frontierian |
Government | Constitutional Monarchy, Semi-Christian Theonomy |
• Monarch | Konnor88 |
Legislature | TMAFE Legislature |
• Upper chamber | Frontier Secret Service |
• Lower chamber | Frontier Security Agency |
Separation from Operation Butler | |
• Split from Operation Butler | May 25, 2018 |
• Merge with The Microsoft Agent Community | June 10, 2018 |
September 13, 2018 | |
Currency | Bitcoin |
The Microsoft Agent Frontier Empire (TMAFE), is an online community with e-nation elements that was established on May 25th, 2018 by Konnor88. It consists of multiple areas, including a YouTube section, a Discord section, and elsewhere online. The most populous part of TMAFE is the TMAFE Discord server, commonly referred to as Main Province.
Following the fall of The Microsoft Agent Community, many inside of the community joined its successor, Operation Butler. By May 2018, a lot of Microsoft Agent users were upset with the leadership and strict rule enforcement of Operation Butler, with many exiting the community following frequent bans. On May 25th, 2018, The Microsoft Agent Frontier was established as a separate Microsoft Agent Community. Operation Butler did little to stop the splitting up of itself, and as a result, most Microsoft Agent users who received a ban in Operation Butler came to TMAFE. Following TMAFE becoming a clear successor to Operation Butler, it eventually merged with TMAFE in June 2018, with Seamus being allowed to enter the community later on.
By September 2018, TMAFE was establishing itself as a successful community, with rapid member growth and major victories in Community War IV. Following the conflict, Microsoft Agent had become a united entity for the first time since the 2nd Microsoft Agent Community. As TMAFE is a mapping-influenced community, it became a common phenomenon to associate the two communities together, similar to how TMAC was grouped with the Vyond community.
TMAFE is a community with an e-nation (online nation) governing style. It is classified as a constitutional monarchy and has two separate branches of government. The Frontier Secret Service (FSS) serves as the higher branch, and the Frontier Security Agency (FSA) serves as the lower branch. Since the TMAFE constitution mentions religion, it is also a de jure partial theonomy. The monarch and FSS positions are unelectable, with FSS members being appointed directly by the monarch. FSA members are, however, elected in council elections.
History
Pre-Frontierian history
It is well-known that the 1st MS Agent Community was created in 1997 following the first public release of Microsoft Agent. Initially a major success, with many websites joining as a part of it, it declined in the early 2000s after the 2nd Microsoft Agent Community was established. The 2nd Microsoft Agent Community brought forward many concepts seen currently, including videos using the characters in skits and the use of a platform for discussion.
After the discontinuation of Microsoft Agent by Microsoft, the 2nd Microsoft Agent Community slowly died off. Shortly after, the BonziBuddy application became a popular online meme after Vinesauce showcased the program during a live stream of the streamer attempting to infect and "destroy" the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. This lead to a resurgence in interest in Microsoft Agent and lead to a few new communities being established.
On November 18th, 2015, The Microsoft Agent Community was established. It was established by Spidermanboi13, following the creation of multiple skits of the Microsoft Agent characters on YouTube. As a result of the BonziBuddy meme still being relatively popular online, these videos gained traction and lead to more people gaining an interest in Microsoft Agent. The same streamer who live-streamed the "Windows XP Destruction" also live-streamed the "Windows 8 Destruction", which had a segment of him attempting to download characters from the Microsoft Agent Scripting Helper's website.
After Spidermanboi13 stopped uploading Microsoft Agent content, Norbika9Entertainment, a YouTuber from the Vyond community, started producing Microsoft Agent content in 2016 under the name Norbika9Studios. Norbert would then be considered the leader of the community. Since Norbert had come from the Vyond community, this had marked the first time that Vyond culture had been brought into Microsoft Agent. Elements of this new culture included "grounding" videos and the use of "good/bad user" phrases. Many Microsoft Agenters would join throughout 2016 and 2017, increasing the size and influence of the community.
Following the increased growth, users took notice of Norbert's behavior. Many users thought the behavior was childish, as some thought some of Norbert's labels of people as unjustified. Users were also not happy that Norbert would accept criticism of any variant, even if it was constructive. This led to SeamusMario55 overthrowing Norbert with most of the community backing the overthrowing of Norbert. The reasoning for the overthrowing was due to Norbert not being able to accept criticism and being easily provocative. This marked the end of the Vyond leadership inside of the Microsoft Agent community, and lead to a brief period of Object Show Community leadership.
Following the overthrow of Norbert, many were originally satisfied with the outcome and supported the new Microsoft Agent community, Operation Butler. However, in the coming weeks of the community's existence, major issues were brought up by the members. The members were not pleased with the decision to restrict the use of the MS Paint Shape characters, the decision to ban "controversial fight" videos, and how easy it was to get banned from the community. Many members were banned shortly after the establishment of Operation Butler. As a result of the strict leadership, Konnor88 talked with Terence and a few others that had been banned from the community, and all agreed that there should be a replacement for Operation Butler. This led to Konnor88 establishing The Microsoft Agent Frontier on May 25th, 2018.
Early Frontierian history
Following the establishment of The Microsoft Agent Frontier (TMAF), it decided to stay neutral towards Operation Butler and the remaining people that stayed loyal to Norbert. TMAF established itself under a different culture group from OB and TMAC, deciding to become Mapperdonian (mapper) influenced. This was made evident by the large presence of mappers in the server, the depiction of Polandball characters, and the e-nation concept, taking inspiration from a lot of mapping servers around that time frame.
Since a lot of users were upset with the drastic changes that had occurred, some opted to wait to join TMAF in hopes that the situation would eventually stabilize under one community. On May 28th, 2018, TMAF had its first conflict with some of the Vyonders that stayed in the collapsed TMAC led by Norbert. They believed that Norbert should be reinstated and that TMAC should've been kept as the main Microsoft Agent community. Following the war breaking out, TMAF defeated the remaining Vyonders inside of TMAC, marking the end of the Vyond-influenced Microsoft Agent era. Following TMAF's show of strength and the stabilization being apparent, many opted to join TMAF, with many users in Operation Butler quietly leaving and then joining TMAF. It is unknown how long or if OB had been aware of TMAF's existence at the time. Around this time frame, TMAF had adopted its second flag.
In mid-June 2018, with some old messages suggesting June 10th, 2018, Seamus had established contact with TMAF and talked about the possibility of the two communities being friendly towards each other. Konnor88 and many members of TMAF were open to this but did not want him to enter the main server of TMAF. After a vote, it was determined that Seamus could be allowed in, and granted a special status due to his OB leadership. This marked the decline and eventual fall of Operation Butler, serving as "the nail in the coffin" for the short-lived Object Show-influenced Microsoft Agent Community. Around late June, TMAF adopted its third flag created by Cipher.
Throughout the early history of TMAF, there were multiple conflicts involving different communities, leading to these conflicts being dubbed "Community Wars". The first Community War occurred as a result of a disagreement between TMAF and the subgroup of MS Agent users called the "Scratchers", due to their use of the Scratch platform. After a few days of fighting, TMAF had ended the conflict. According to messages from a Deleted User account, Community Wars II and III occur shortly afterward, with 27 known sub-wars, marking July 2018 as a "war period". Following the successes, TMAF changed its name to The Microsoft Agent Frontier Empire (TMAFE).
After a short period of no conflict, TMAFE was alerted of a drama between Seamus and Losky on August 31st, 2018. This alongside the discovery of other Microsoft Agent communities leads to Community War IV. TMAFE first made contact with the VidLii MS Agent Community and annexed it on September 1st, 2018. The Vimeo MS Agent Community was annexed on September 2nd, 2018. On September 3rd, 2018, both the MS Agent Spriters Resource Community and Bonzi Spriters Resource Community came under TMAFE occupation. Some communities were destroyed during the fighting, including the Dailymotion and NicoVideo ones. However, most of the MS Agent communities conquered were already extremely weakened due to the declining interest in Microsoft Agent over time and the fall of BonziBuddy's popularity. Following a few weeks of fighting, an agreement was reached with all three fronts of the conflict. TMAFE would annex all of the communities it had come under occupation, with Seamus and Losky temporarily making up. During the conflict, TMAFE had discovered what was left of the 2nd MS Agent Community and invited Brofist Monster to assist in visiting it. Brofist Monster was impressed with the discovery and talked with what was left of the community about lost agents. Members of the 2nd community were impressed with how TMAFE was keeping Microsoft Agent relevant, and the majority believed that TMAFE would be a true successor to the community.
Modern Frontierian history
The end of Community War IV marked the end of the early period of TMAFE's history, as the community would see many changes in 2019. Following the beginning of 2019, TMAFE made attempts to un-isolate itself. However, due to the MAV conflict still going on around that time, TMAFE had to immediately close down, meaning that TMAFE would have to remain accessible by invitation only. Shortly after this, Konnor88 and Sebastian both had their account disabled after being inside of a server that got deleted for violating the Terms of Service. As a result, mass panic occurred across TMAFE, with some assuming the community would die. However, since Konnor's alternative account still had access to the server, he did an announcement clearing up the situation and established the new TMAFE server on February 15th, 2019. Panic later died down, with over 100 members being recovered on the day of the closing. It took a few months for TMAFE to build back up to the 329-member count it had before Konnor88's old account was disabled.
A week after the event saw the Scratch user group of Microsoft Agent users was upset with the leadership of TMAFE, believing that Konnor88 was uploading too many malware videos instead of Microsoft Agent content. As a result, a DM group was created with Konnor88 and those unsatisfied with his leadership. Inside the DM, insults were spammed alongside demands to stop uploading malware content. Despite Konnor88 agreeing to do so, they exited the DM and formed the 1st rebellion. After a few days of fighting, the 1st rebellion agreed to stop fighting, and Konnor88 agreed to change his upload schedule.
Shortly after this time, TMAFE had gotten invested in a project called the United Mapping Nation, a purely mapping-centric TMAFE server. However, around the same timeframe, a lot of the mapping community was reporting the rise of a user group called "anti-mappers". Anti-mappers quickly developed into a major problem for both communities. An anti-mapper known as T-SERIES Mapping took advantage of the mass panic and created an alternative account that helped ban raiders in some mapping servers. As a result, a lot of mapping servers, including the UMN took trust in the alternative account. Shortly afterward, TSM used the alternative account to raid the UMN, with TSM then going on with T-Day I", a 3-step plan to destroy the mapping community. TMAFE and some of the Polandball community were also met with these attacks, with TSM and other anti-mapping groups attempting raids on TMAFE and messing up the first FrontierBot. After the incident, TMAFE had learned to repel their attacks and even adopted some of their tactics, such as reporting users to Discord. Around April 2019, TMAFE met Soundcard following United World claiming that Soundcard dislike bombed his videos after joining his server from the Mapperdonian Station.
Anti-mapping later declined with TSM going inactive, with smaller groups such as "bats" rising. Since these groups did not pose a major threat, TMAFE suffered little damage from future anti-mapping attacks. Since 2020 had begun, and so did the COVID-19 global pandemic, TMAFE saw a large surge in activity due to school closures across the world. This led to a large increase in daily messages and members. Growth had been temporarily halted on March 28th, 2020 due to a "nuke" (mass banning/kicking of members) on the main TMAFE server. 144 members were kicked as a result of the nuke, with activity going above average levels due to the panic. The administrator responsible was banned but later forgiven for his actions. TMAFE's member count would slowly recover up until June 2020, when TMAFE met the "Windows Horde", a large community of users with Windows/Microsoft-themed avatars. TMAFE had befriended Julien, one of the members of the community, and Julien helped exponentially grow TMAFE's member count, with over 80 members gained in less than a week. TMAFE continuously grew with a lot of activity throughout 2020 due to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the closing of schools. The MAV conflict also ended in early 2020, with TMAFE and FSA both deciding to let MAV inside the server.
In 2021, the activity slightly died down with the reopening of schools. The Mapper League had been let go as a vassal earlier that year after Sebastian had it vassalized prior. Two months afterward, Sossie had become responsible for a mass-member prune on April 18th, 2021. TMAFE had lost 142 members total as a result of the nuke. However, Sossie was later forgiven, and TMAFE would begin to slowly recover from the nuke. In August 2021, the anti-mappers did another massive attack on the mapping community, with an anti-mapping front taking over the Mapperdonian Station. As a result, the mapping community had temporarily fallen under anti-mapping control, with the Mapperdonian Station being nuked afterward and losing over 2,000 members. TMAFE had established a new station, called the Global Mapping Station (GMS) as a result of the nuke. Although the mapping community was originally united for that brief period, a divergence between classical, edgy, and kiddie mappers became more evident over time. Eventually, the GMS was shut down due to internal conflict with edgy mappers disliking GMS, while classical mappers supported GMS.
In December 2021, Konnor88 announced his retirement as the leader and left the server. TMAFE's new government declared a state of emergency and chaos ensued afterward. After mass pressure and mass DM messages were directed to Konnor88, he returned to TMAFE after a little over a week. A lot of the server was pleased with the decision, however, some were upset that Konnor88 was forced out of retirement. Konnor88 however did not mind returning and said that he was content with the one-week break. Throughout 2022, activity continued to decline to the COVID-19 pandemic becoming less severe, with schools re-opening across the world. Operation Butler had attempted to revive itself in April 2022 with claims of TMAFE becoming a mostly political community. After the conflict, TMAFE compromised and set "curfews" that would limit political discussion in the general chat for periods. In October 2022, a third Rebel Battle happened following a group of users, mainly from BonziWorld being upset with TMAFE enforcing its policy on Vyond. Peace was made later that day, with Seamus retiring peacefully, Norbert being declared a non-major threat, and Soundcard being let back in TMAFE.
Beginning in 2022, TMAFE had major problems developing inside of the FSS branch regarding the ban durations of both Pagerorgy and TheNixMin. While Konnor was open to compromise and not in favor of a permanent ban, Cyberblue, Sossie, United World, and Isaac supported a permanent ban on both Pagerorgy and TheNixMin. As a result, tensions had begun to develop inside of the higher branch of TMAFE throughout October and December 2022. After continuous arguments and disagreements, Konnor told FSS that he would either delete the server entirely or archive it. FSS was shocked with the decision, but had moved through to archive it following a long argument. After TMAFE 2.0 had been archived, two illegitimate TMAFE 3.0 that were being advertised were ordered closed by TMAFE higher-ups. Konnor stated that while TMAFE will continue to live on despite the 2.0 server being archived.
Government
TMAFE is headed by Konnor88, the FSS, and the FSA. Konnor88 holds most of the power while FSS and FSA have some of the power, although Konnor88 rarely does anything without their approval. There are 13 seats in the FSA, with 12 seats filled and 1 vacant. FSS has 6 seats total, with 5 filled and 1 reserved. TMAFE may also have some forms of democracy with referendum votes, where referendums are placed on the ballot alongside the FSA member vote. TMAFE has two parties inside of the FSA election system, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party. Currently, the Conservative party holds a supermajority with all seats in both chambers, with 97% being registered for the Conservative Party.
Demographics
TMAFE does a census every year in the month of May regarding the user groups present inside of the community. TMAFE does both a census for the Main Province and one for all the areas of TMAFE.
All area census
The all-area (sometimes referred to as empire-wide) is the census that focuses on all areas of TMAFE.
Currently, 40.1% are Mappers/Mapperdonians, 37.0% are MS Agent Tubers/Frontierians, are 17.5% Techies, 3are .6% Logo Editors, and 1.9% are classified as unknown.
Main Province census
The Main Province-only census is done specifically on the Main Province area of TMAFE. Currently, 66.7% are MS Agent Tubers/Frontierians, 24.2% are Mappers/Mapperdonians, 7.2% are Techies, and 1.9% are Logo Editors.
The Main Province only census is: 66.7% MS Agent Tubers, 24.2% Mappers, 7.2% Techies and 1.9% Logo Editors.
Culture
Since the destruction of the 2nd Microsoft Agent Community, no Microsoft Agent community afterward has retained the original Microsoft Agent culture that was present in both the 1st and 2nd Microsoft Agent communities. TMAFE has a culture similar to that of the mapping community, with TMAFE sometimes being grouped as a type of mapping community. During the TMAFE conquests for other Microsoft Agent Communities, users from the other Microsoft Agent communities referred to the Frontierians as "Mappers" or "Mapper Microsoft Agenters". TMAFE closely aligns with the classical mappers rather than the edgy mappers, with the divide becoming more evident with the internal tension that was present inside the Global Mapping Station. TMAFE had also been a member of the Mapperdonian Station before its fall to the anti-mappers.
Aside from the classical mapper influence, TMAFE has some elements that were created or borrowed from other communities. TMAFE uses "ally" and "enemy" as a substitute for the "good user" and "bad user" terms brought by the Vyonders in TMAC. TMAFE also uses phrases such as "ohok" and "ohwow", which were brought by Soundcard in 2019.
Culture however varies by user group and sub-group, a notable example being mediocres having a more TMAC-influenced culture, and scratchers having a Scratch-influenced culture.
Influence
Due to TMAFE's size, some influence of TMAFE has spread to other communities over time and to other user groups. During Community War IV, the e-nation concept was seen by some users, leading to some object show community-influenced e-nations with a similar structure to TMAFE. However, most have collapsed and none are known to still be around. Another TMAFE conflict involving some of the object show community following a user being aggressive towards TMAFE led to some re-exposure of the concept, with some more object show e-nations forming. TMAFE has, however, rejected any contact with them, and most have collapsed due to conflicts among themselves. Some of the Vyonders after being forced out of Microsoft Agent after TMAC fell later copied the TMAFE e-nation concept and started their e-nations. However, like the object show community e-nations, they were short-lived, and most fell apart.
TMAFE's influence outside the e-nation concept has also been significant due to the creation of TMAFE.COM. Since TMAFE.COM became the default replacement for character uploading, many people unaware of the community itself substitute the word "TMAFE" for "MS Agent", leading to concern about the future of TMAFE. Most members agree that once TMAFE's server falls, the website will remain up and the transformation of TMAFE as a synonym to Microsoft Agent will accelerate rapidly from there.
Trivia
- TMAFE has lasted longer than both Operation Butler and The Microsoft Agent Community combined.
- Konnor88 has lead TMAFE for most of its lifetime, with the exception of 1 week.
- TMAFE currently has over 600 members inside of its main server.
- TMAFE has only been at peace for less than a month its existence, primarily due to the MAV conflict (June 2018 - March 2020) and the anti-mapping conflict (June 2019 - Present).
- Despite the anti-mapping conflict being ongoing, there has been little fighting due to the decline of anti-mappers overtime.
- TMAFE's culture is mapping influenced.