Star Citizen Influence Operations 101 Guide
“Manipulation is the act of influencing someone for your benefit without their consent. Education is the act of influencing someone for their own benefit with their consent. We exist in the   between those two sentences.”—‘Engagement’, Star Citizen backer since 2016
This guide provides org leaders with the foundational knowledge to begin conducting effective influence operations. An influence operation is a deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the influencer. Below, you will learn about what influence operations are, the basic steps to conduct an influence operation, how to create the message you want to influence people with, the difference between positive and negative messaging in the modern influencer space, and how to master the art of influence.
Additionally, you’ll find a brief case study of the 2951 Ship Showdown, which involved successfully influencing a significant portion of the Star Citizen community to vote for the Argo MPUV as Best in Show for that year.
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Key takeaways
Influence operations (INFLOPS) are strategic efforts to shape attitudes, behaviors, or decisions of target audiences using tools like propaganda, disinformation, and psychological operations.
Successful INFLOPS require clear goals, understanding the environment, choosing the right distributor, and crafting a strategic transmission pattern.
Effective messages are clear, simple, emotionally appealing, and tailored to the target audience’s beliefs and values.
Negative messages attract attention but don’t build trust, while positive messages build trust but don’t attract much attention. A balance of both can be effective.
What are influence operations
Influence operations (INFLOPS) are strategic efforts aimed at shaping the attitudes, behaviors, or decisions of target audiences to achieve specific objectives. These operations can be carried out by organizations, collectives, or individuals and often involve various tools and techniques, such as propaganda, disinformation, and psychological operations.
The primary goal is to influence perceptions and decision-making processes to align with the operator’s objectives. Methods used in influence operations include disseminating information or misinformation through social media, traditional media, and other communication channels. These operations can target individual players, orgs, or the entire the entire Star Citizen community, often focusing on specific demographics. They can occur during peacetime, crises, conflicts, and post-conflict situations.
INFLOPS involve tactical information collection and propaganda dissemination. Common approaches combine education, persuasion, coercion, and outright manipulation to project legitimacy while using overt and covert channels. Strategic successes are more difficult to qualify and measure accurately.
Contemporary INFLOPS have undergone a significant shift in recent years. Traditionally, entities aimed to be loved and projected a positive image globally. However, these same entities now often combine seduction with infiltration and coercion. It’s important to note that in this context, “seduction” refers to the qualities or features of an idea, concept, or process that make it seem attractive or tempting. It’s about captivating, luring, and enticing people into action or adopting a particular behavior, often involving education and persuasion rather than just threats or coercion.
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The absolute basics of INFLOPS
1. Define your goals
Before starting an influence operation (INFLOP), it’s important to clearly define your goals. This includes setting specific objectives, identifying an influencer, identifying a foil (if needed), determining the target audience, and establishing a timeline.
Objectives are the specific goals one aims to achieve with the INFLOP. They should be clear, measurable, and aligned with your overall strategy. For instance, an objective might be to increase public support for a gameplay change, change perceptions about a particular issue, or undermine the credibility of an opposing viewpoint.
The influencer is the person who is used to introduce or discuss a topic. An influencer doesn’t necessarily need to echo specific viewpoints; some INFLOPS simply require that the message is heard and discussed. Although influencers can promote or endorse a message, service, or viewpoint for personal gain and without disclosing their financial incentive, credibility and authenticity can be added by being at least somewhat open about compensation.
The foil is the person or group whose arguments or positions you use to contrast and highlight your own points. A foil isn’t always needed, but having one can help create a clear distinction between your message and the opposing viewpoint, making your arguments more compelling to the target audience.
The target audience is the group of Star Citizen players you aim to influence with your operation. This audience can be defined by various factors such as demographics, interests, behaviors, or geographic location. Understanding your target audience is crucial for tailoring your messages and choosing the most effective communication channels.
The timeline outlines the duration and key milestones of the influence operation. It includes the start and end dates, as well as important phases or checkpoints along the way. A well-defined timeline helps ensure that the operation stays on track and allows for adjustments as needed.
Goals should be defined twice: a private definition for internal use and a public definition for external use. In both cases, the private and public definitions should be shared only with necessary assets, actors, and allies. The public definition should not be widely advertised, but instead used to keep assets focused without tanking the operation in the event of a leak.
Some questions to answer before starting any INFLOP: are you seeking to influence a specific target, or a target audience that a foil provides access to? Is it more important to maximize reach, or do you want to hone in on a handful of players? Do you want to obfuscate the origin of your message?
Lastly, ensure the INFLOP aligns with your organization’s strategic goals. Conducting an operation without a clear purpose can be detrimental and expose your capabilities. It’s better to be underestimated than to reveal the extent—and thus limits—of your influence.
2. Understand the environment
Understanding the current and future conditions within a targeted social system or community is essential for a successful influence operation. This involves comprehending the social dynamics of the Star Citizen community, including player organizations and the various factors and personalities that influence them. This knowledge helps craft messages that resonate with the target audience and achieve the desired impact.
Additionally, understanding expected conditions helps anticipate how the community might evolve and how different factors might interact over time. This foresight enables influencers to adapt their strategies and messages to remain relevant and effective, maintaining their influence and shaping perceptions and behaviors in their favor.
By analyzing the social system, influencers can identify key players, allies, opponents, and prevailing sentiments, allowing for tailored messages that align with the audience’s beliefs and values.1
3. Identify the distributor and the means of distribution
Choosing the right distributor for messaging—whether influencers or their agents—is crucial. The source of the information is as important as the content itself. Selecting the wrong distributor or means of distribution can lead to the message being ignored or discredited, damaging the distributor’s reputation.
4. Get the transmission pattern right
Influence operations rely on strategic transmission patterns to effectively reach and influence their target audience. A transmission pattern combines the two most crucial aspects of how a message is transmitted: the route it takes to the target audience, and frequency at which it’s repeated. Poor routing can discredit the message and the sender, such as when a PVP organization attempts to advise on PVE matters, or when a group that appears to be associated with griefing seeks support for changes to game rules. Meanwhile, the frequency of transmissions must be balanced. Too few won’t impact the target audience, while too many can lead to desensitization, alienation, or even rejection of and inoculation from the message.
5. Build on core ideals
An effective influence operation leverages the target or audience’s existing beliefs and values to gain acceptance and trust. It starts by identifying a prevalent opinion within the group and presenting it as an undeniable fact, minimizing resistance. The message uses bold colors and graphic typefaces to attract attention and ensure it is easily understood and memorable. Repetition across various platforms reinforces the message, embedding it deeper into the audience’s consciousness. Emotional appeal, by tapping into feelings like fear, pride, or hope, strengthens the connection with the audience, making the message more compelling and persuasive.
6. Shape perceptions
An effective influence operation aims to shape perceptions, guide thoughts, and direct behavior to achieve the influencer’s goals. While distorting reality is common, lying isn’t always necessary; a strategically told truth can be just as effective. For instance, framing the source of an aggressive action as an enemy org’s own members who happen to be aligned with your ideals rather than your own org’s members or associates can imply dissent with leadership from within rather than outsider interference, making the INFLOP more impactful.
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Creating the message
Crafting an influential message requires clarity and simplicity. Use straightforward language to ensure the audience easily grasps the main points. Keep the message brief and focused, highlighting the most important information and avoiding unnecessary details.
Ensure the content is relevant to the target audience by addressing their specific needs and interests. Establish credibility by providing accurate information and citing reliable sources. Connecting with the audience on an emotional level can enhance the message’s impact, so use stories and examples that evoke emotions.
Organize the message logically with a clear beginning, middle, and end to guide the audience through the points. Finally, include a strong call to action to motivate the audience to take the desired steps.
Negative vs. positive messaging
Negativity spreads quickly and attracts attention but doesn’t build trust, while positivity builds trust but attracts less attention. Effective messaging can start with negative content to engage users, followed by positive messages to build trust and maintain engagement.
Research shows negative posts get more engagement due to stronger emotional reactions, triggering cortisol and reducing reasoning. Positive comments trigger oxytocin, enhancing communication and trust, but its effects are shorter-lived. More positive interactions are needed to counteract negative ones.
Positive messages promote goodwill and can increase engagement as recipients feel better about the sender. Starting with negativity followed by positivity creates a contrast, making positive comments seem more impactful and fostering trust. However, this strategy should be used carefully to avoid damaging relationships. It’s always best to communicate with respect and consideration for another player’s feelings.
The role of contemporary ideological language
Using contemporary political buzzwords in non-political debates can be inflammatory due to their strong emotional and ideological connotations. These terms can trigger defensive reactions and escalate tensions, even if the original topic is unrelated to politics.
For instance, phrases like “fake news” and “cheap fakes” are loaded with real-world contemporary meanings that can provoke strong reactions and distract from the main discussion.
Additionally, political buzzwords often simplify complex issues into binary choices, which can polarize discussions and make it harder to find common ground. Buzzwords can signal that the speaker aligns with a particular ideology, alienating those who hold different views, creating an “us vs. them” mentality, and further deepening divisions.
Message coloring effects on Westerners
Color psychology is a well-researched field in the Western world. Throughout 2012 and 2013, Riot games performed a well-documented experiment on their own players using color-coded messaging.2
Red-colored messages warning about counterproductive results (e.g., threatening punishment; “Don’t insult your teammates”) of negative behavior causes a drop in aggressiveness and counteracts its spread. But a positive message in red will cause an increase and spread aggression.
Blue-colored messages highlighting benefits (e.g., offering reward; “teammates play better if you encourage them…”) of positive behavior also cause a drop in toxic aggressiveness.
Case study of the 2951 Ship Showdown
Origins and nomination
In 2021, the Argo MPUV gained significant attention during the annual “Ship Showdown” event, where players vote for their favorite ships. Despite being a small and relatively unremarkable utility ship, the MPUV garnered a surprising amount of support. Fans of the MPUV created memes, videos, and other content to promote the ship, celebrating its underdog status and practical utility.
The idea to nominate the Argo MPUV, affectionately known as the “Argo Cargo,” began as a humorous and somewhat ironic campaign within the Star Citizen community. The MPUV is a small, utilitarian ship primarily used for sublight cargo and personnel transport, and it wasn’t initially seen as a contender against more glamorous and powerful ships.
Pushing the message
The campaign gained momentum on platforms like Reddit and the official Star Citizen forums. Key users and influencers within the community, such as content creators and active forum members, started promoting the Argo MPUV with memes, parody commercials, and enthusiastic posts. The humor and irony of supporting such an unassuming ship resonated with many players, creating a viral effect.
One of the most notable contributions was the creation of “fauxmercials”—parody commercials that humorously showcased the Argo MPUV’s features and versatility. These videos were shared widely, further boosting the ship’s popularity.
The showdown
During the Ship Showdown event, the Argo MPUV faced off against much larger and more popular ships. Despite the odds, it continued to advance through the rounds, thanks to the dedicated support of its fans. The final showdown saw the Argo MPUV narrowly defeating the Mercury Star Runner, a fan-favorite ship, with a vote count of 18,211 to 18,037.
Why you were influenced
The success of the Argo MPUV campaign can be attributed to several factors. First, the campaign effectively engaged the community through humor and irony, making it a fun and inclusive movement. Second, memes and fauxmercials created a viral effect, spreading the message quickly and widely. Third, the Argo MPUV’s status as an underdog resonated with many players, who enjoyed supporting a less conventional choice. Lastly, the campaign combined negative and positive messaging effectively, starting with humorous critiques of other ships and ending with positive endorsements of the MPUV’s unique qualities.
This campaign is a prime example of how a well-executed influence operation can turn the tide in favor of an unlikely candidate, leveraging community spirit and creative content to achieve a surprising victory.
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Mastering the art of influence
Influence operations (INFLOPS) are powerful tools that can shape perceptions, behaviors, and decisions within the Star Citizen community. By clearly defining your org’s goals, understanding the environment, and strategically crafting and distributing a message, influencers like you can effectively guide a target audience. Balancing negative and positive messaging, leveraging core ideals, and understanding the impact of contemporary ideological language are crucial to your success. As the landscape of influence operations evolves, staying adaptable and ethical will be key to maintaining credibility and achieving your org’s long-term objectives.
The Doctrine would like to offer a special thank-you to Nightrider-CIG for providing additional insight and commentary critical to the writing group’s research.
Zigelman, Katie. “How Riot Games Used Science to Curb Toxic Behavior in League of Legends”, SpectrumLabsAI, March 2020, https://www.spectrumlabsai.com/the-blog/how-riot-games-is-used-behavior-science-to-curb-league-of-legends-toxicity/