In-Game Governance

Mass Island encourages player autonomy and aims to educate players on how a real-world government works. Players with a master's or doctoral degree in relevant fields in real life are highly encouraged to share their expertise and knowledge with other players and are exempted from membership fee payment during their service in any federal, state, or local government in our virtual world.

The Congress

Mass Island's legislative branch is made up of the House and the Senate, just like real-world US. Our legislative branch makes in-game federal laws, regulates in-game interstate commerce, and controls in-game taxing and spending policies. Because there is only one country in our server, the Congress does not declare war.

The White House

Mass Island's executive branch consists of the President, the President's Advisors, and various federal departments and agencies, just like real-world US. This branch is responsible for enforcing the laws of the server world. Since there is only one country in our server, there is no border protection, immigration, trade, and custom agencies, nor does our server have military forces other than the National Guard, the Coast Guard, and the National Air Guard. Nonetheless, other servers may establish embassies in our server, and our virtual White House has broad power over inter-server affairs.

The Supreme Court

Mass Island's judicial branch consists of the Mass Island Supreme Court and the Federal Judicial Center, just like in real-world US. Currently there are only two inferior federal courts (both are trial courts): District Court for the District of Columbia and District Court for the District of Wachusett.

State and Local Government

Mass Island currently has two in-game States: the District of Columbia, i.e. Newton, D.C., the capital of Mass Island, and the State of Wachusett (abbreviated as WT). Both D.C. and WT were established by the founders of our server. More States may be established by players in accordance with the server laws and the will of the players.

State of Wachusett

The State of Wachusett has a similar government system to the real-world Massachusetts government. The State Senate and House of Representatives both meet monthly. The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Judicial Court and one general-jurisdiction Superior Court at trial level for each of the State's 3 Counties: Plymouth, Zoe, and Essex. Yet, unlike real-world Massachusetts, currently all Wachusett municipalities rely on County governments.

District of Columbia

Newton, D.C. is the capital of Mass Island, the oldest city in Mass Island (est. Jun 30, 2020), and currently the largest and most populus municipality in our server. D.C.'s executive branch is governed by an elected Mayor and Deputy Mayors. D.C.'s legislative branch is a Counsil of 9 Members--one from each of D.C.'s 5 Wards, 3 At-Larger Members, and Chairman. D.C.'s judicial branch consists of the Court of Appeals and one District (trial) Court for each Ward. Newton, D.C. is divided into 5 wards: East Newton, Downtown, Back Bay, Roxbury, and Beacon Hill.

Unlike real-world Washington D.C., our virtual Newton D.C. enjoys statehood and is represented in the virtual Congress in the same way a State would be.

Identifying Emergency Vehicles

Types of Emergency Vehicles

We currently have the following types of emergency vehicles on our primary gaming server (play.massisland.org):

Fire & rescue vehicles, including engines, ladders, command vehicles, inspection, maintenance & fire marshal vehicles, airport fire engines, off-road vehicles, specialty vehicles, trailers, fixed-wing planes, and helicopters.
Law enforcement vehicles, including marked and unmarked sedan, SUV or pickup truck PPVs, prisoner transport vans, specialty & maintenance SSVs, SWAT vehicles, trailers, fixed-wing planes, and helicopters held by local, state, and federal police departments, sheriff departments, correction departments, and other law enforcement agencies.
EMS vehicles, including type I, II, and III ambulances, quad cars, specialty vehicles, and helicopters held by privately EMS companies, municipal EMS services, fire departments concurrently offering EMS services, and other special medical services.
Other emergency vehicles used by emergency management agencies and the military.
States may opt to classify tow trucks as emergency vehicles or not.

Emergency Vehicle Lights

Emergency vehicles may use flashing, oscillating or rotating red, blue, and amber lights and siren-PA systems in public, while non-emergency vehicles may not. However, any vehicle may lawfully have light bars, search lights, strobe lights, and siren-PA systems installed, as long as they are not used unlawfully.

Current in-game federal law mandates at least blue lights on law enforcement emergency vehicles and at least red lights on fire department and EMS emergency vehicles.

Emergency Vehicle Sirens

Emergency vehicle sirens, when activated, may be heard by all players within 192 blocks from the vehicle. All players in front of a siren-activated emergency vehicle will also have "Pull over now!" displayed on the bottom of their game interface, which the players must obey.

Emergency Vehicle Owners

Most emergency vehicles' owners are identified by 1 - 3 lines of six white and colored dots on the exterior of the vehicles, with a white dot meaning 1 and a colored dot meaning 0:

State departments have 1 line of dots. Currently State of Wachusett's code is 110010.
County departments have 2 lines of dots, with the upper line being its State's code and the lower line being its county code. Currently in State of Wachusett, Plymouth County's code is 000001, Zoe County's code is 000010, and Essex County's code is 000011.
Municipal departments have 3 lines of dots, with the top line being its State's code, the middle line being its county's code, and the bottom line being its municipal code.
Newton, D.C. and federal agencies have "DC" or the abbreviation of the agency's name on vehicles. There are two lines of seven-dot indicating the four-digit vehicle number in binary, with colored dots meaning 1 and white dots meaning 0. The upper line stands for the first two digits, and the lower line stands for the last two digits.
All emergency vehicles are numbered with Arabic numerals on the roof.

Each in-game department may have their own unique livery designs.