Difference between revisions of "Jennifer Government: NationStates"

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Ratings for civil rights, the economy and political freedom, tax rate, key industries, budget, economic composition and demographics can also be changed by the player, but only indirectly through issues. A nation's civil rights, economic and political ratings are used in turn to assign it a category. There are twenty-seven such categories, one for each combination of the three groups of ranks into which the ratings divided. Statistics controlled by issues also determine a nation's position relative to other in periodic national rankings. The variable being measured changes daily, and nations are compared both within their [[Jennifer Government:NationStates#Regions|region]] and the world as whole.
 
Ratings for civil rights, the economy and political freedom, tax rate, key industries, budget, economic composition and demographics can also be changed by the player, but only indirectly through issues. A nation's civil rights, economic and political ratings are used in turn to assign it a category. There are twenty-seven such categories, one for each combination of the three groups of ranks into which the ratings divided. Statistics controlled by issues also determine a nation's position relative to other in periodic national rankings. The variable being measured changes daily, and nations are compared both within their [[Jennifer Government:NationStates#Regions|region]] and the world as whole.
  
Players do not control their nation's population, which increases indefinitely over time. This unlimited growth means that nations which are around long enough eventually end up with very large and unrealistic populations. For the same reason, population is also useful as a rough metric for how long a nation has been in the game.
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Players do not control their nation's population, which starts at 5 million when the nation is created and increases indefinitely over time. This unlimited growth means that nations which are around long enough eventually end up with very large and unrealistic populations. For the same reason, population is also useful as a rough metric for how long a nation has been in the game.
  
 
If a player does not log into their nation periodically, it will cease to exist (CTE) after twenty-eight days. Players can choose in their settings to receive emailed warnings about such an impending apocalypse. Even if a nation ceases to exist, it can still be revived later, provided the player remembers the password for the nation or used an email address for it which they can access to reset their password. Because nations can be revived, a name previously used by a nation can never be used again, if the nation no longer exists.
 
If a player does not log into their nation periodically, it will cease to exist (CTE) after twenty-eight days. Players can choose in their settings to receive emailed warnings about such an impending apocalypse. Even if a nation ceases to exist, it can still be revived later, provided the player remembers the password for the nation or used an email address for it which they can access to reset their password. Because nations can be revived, a name previously used by a nation can never be used again, if the nation no longer exists.
  
===Issues===
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==Issues==
 
The core gameplay of NationStates hinges on deciding government policies. The player is regularly presented with issues and may choose a response from a list of options. Their choice will in turn affect their nation. Players can also dismiss issues without affecting their nation. The rate at which new issues arise is set by the player, who may choose either none, one per weekday, two per weekday, one per day or two per weekday. After the original issues written by Barry were found to be too few for the game to satisfactorily develop, players were allowed to submit new issues starting July 15, 2003.  
 
The core gameplay of NationStates hinges on deciding government policies. The player is regularly presented with issues and may choose a response from a list of options. Their choice will in turn affect their nation. Players can also dismiss issues without affecting their nation. The rate at which new issues arise is set by the player, who may choose either none, one per weekday, two per weekday, one per day or two per weekday. After the original issues written by Barry were found to be too few for the game to satisfactorily develop, players were allowed to submit new issues starting July 15, 2003.  
  
 
There is no correct option for any particular issue, and each usually has both positive and negative aspects. Many issues are posed in terms of radical or extremist beliefs, and the accompanying opinions are rarely well-founded. This serves both humorous and didactic purposes. Similarly, options often have unexpected or exaggerated results which may not always be explicit in their descriptions. In particular any issue which implements a new government program will increase the nations tax rate, and players often unwittingly increase theirs to absurd levels. Because of such potentially undesirable effects, it is routine for players to dismiss issues when they find none of the options appealing.
 
There is no correct option for any particular issue, and each usually has both positive and negative aspects. Many issues are posed in terms of radical or extremist beliefs, and the accompanying opinions are rarely well-founded. This serves both humorous and didactic purposes. Similarly, options often have unexpected or exaggerated results which may not always be explicit in their descriptions. In particular any issue which implements a new government program will increase the nations tax rate, and players often unwittingly increase theirs to absurd levels. Because of such potentially undesirable effects, it is routine for players to dismiss issues when they find none of the options appealing.
  
===Rankings===
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==World Assembly==
[[Image:GBM ScreenShot.JPG|thumb|200px|left|The main page of a sample nation]]The player's decisions affect the nation's status in the areas of ''Political Freedoms'' (how democratic the nation is), ''Civil Rights'' (how much freedom the citizens have), and ''Economy'' (how strong the nation's economy is), as well as other variables, such as crime rate, industry size and public sector spending.
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Based on the nation's personal, economic, and political freedoms, they are assigned to one of 27 "UN Categories", from ''Scandinavian Liberal Paradise'' and ''New York Times Democracy'' to ''Compulsory Consumerist State'' and ''Psychotic Dictatorship''.  The "other variables" are used to compile the game's daily UN reports, which lists every nation in the game in order of their rank in that day's chosen variable.
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Finally, the nation's main page briefly describes the population, government, economy and latest policy decisions resulting from the player's choices (see sample page, left).
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===World Assembly===
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Players may choose to join the World Assembly (WA). The body functions as international legislature akin to the real life United Nations in real life, as evidenced by the fact that it was originally called the "United Nations" until Barry received an order to cease and desist from the actual organization. Players who join their nations automatically affected by the decisions of that body, although various players role-play disobedience. Discussions on proposed resolutions take place on the forums, often home to all manner of political debate. A dedicated team of volunteers moderates the forums; most of them also moderate the game to keep it free from vandalism.
 
Players may choose to join the World Assembly (WA). The body functions as international legislature akin to the real life United Nations in real life, as evidenced by the fact that it was originally called the "United Nations" until Barry received an order to cease and desist from the actual organization. Players who join their nations automatically affected by the decisions of that body, although various players role-play disobedience. Discussions on proposed resolutions take place on the forums, often home to all manner of political debate. A dedicated team of volunteers moderates the forums; most of them also moderate the game to keep it free from vandalism.
  
===Group play===
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==Regions==
 
Nations are grouped into regions. All players begin in one of five Pacific regions and may move their nations into any other region at any time, or set up a new region. Many regions have an elected leader and some participate in complex regional governments, though some contain only a handful of nations. Players commonly attempt to collectively "invade" another region by entering it and seizing control. Some regions have password-protection to stave off such attacks.  
 
Nations are grouped into regions. All players begin in one of five Pacific regions and may move their nations into any other region at any time, or set up a new region. Many regions have an elected leader and some participate in complex regional governments, though some contain only a handful of nations. Players commonly attempt to collectively "invade" another region by entering it and seizing control. Some regions have password-protection to stave off such attacks.  
  
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Recently, steps have been taken to reduce region-crashing and griefing.  Based mainly on the time a nation has spent in a region, each nation is given an amount of "Regional Influence."  In order for a nation, such as the UN Delegate, to eject another from the region, they must have a specific amount of influence, depending on the other nation's influence level. This helps ensure that invaders do not flood a region, install one of their own as UN Delegate, then eject the original members from the region.
 
Recently, steps have been taken to reduce region-crashing and griefing.  Based mainly on the time a nation has spent in a region, each nation is given an amount of "Regional Influence."  In order for a nation, such as the UN Delegate, to eject another from the region, they must have a specific amount of influence, depending on the other nation's influence level. This helps ensure that invaders do not flood a region, install one of their own as UN Delegate, then eject the original members from the region.
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==Raiding and Defending==
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==Roleplaying==
 
==Roleplaying==
 
NationStates' relatively simple simulation has given rise to more in-depth and freeform role-playing, with players using their nations' statistics to measure how their nations would fare in international trade, diplomacy, and war. Some players have even developed complex statistical calculators. Part of the appeal of NationStates lies in the ability to create an unrealistic utopia (or dystopia) as the subject of conversation and political philosophy, without needing to worry about practical matters, like national defence, that might become factors in a more comprehensive simulation.
 
NationStates' relatively simple simulation has given rise to more in-depth and freeform role-playing, with players using their nations' statistics to measure how their nations would fare in international trade, diplomacy, and war. Some players have even developed complex statistical calculators. Part of the appeal of NationStates lies in the ability to create an unrealistic utopia (or dystopia) as the subject of conversation and political philosophy, without needing to worry about practical matters, like national defence, that might become factors in a more comprehensive simulation.

Revision as of 09:02, 29 September 2011

Jennifer Government: NationStates, typically shortened to Nationstates (NS), is a massive multiplayer online game created by Max Barry in 2002. It is very loosely based on his book, Jennifer Government. In the basic game, players charge of a simulated nation and decides issues that affect their country. Nations may also join the World Assembly and vote on resolutions which affect other members.

Play

Nations

All players control at least one nation. Players are allowed to have multiple nations, and it is not uncommon for them to have puppets, but only one of them may be a member of the World Assembly at a time. Each nation a number of settings and statistics which influence its the look and description. Many of these are set in an initial state at the time of the nation's creation. Except for the nation's name, which is immutable, all of these can be changed afterwards. Whether this change can be done directly or only indirectly depends on the type of national information concerned.

A nation's flag, title, motto, currency and national animal can all be set directly by the player from their settings page. A capital, leader and state religion can also be set once certain issues are gotten and acted on in a certain way. Most of these fields are fully customizable and indeed have no preset options available. The exceptions are the flag, which the player can choose one from real life instead of making their own, and the title, which is chosen from a finite list of options until the nation's population reaches 500 million, at which point the field becomes a typical custom one.

Ratings for civil rights, the economy and political freedom, tax rate, key industries, budget, economic composition and demographics can also be changed by the player, but only indirectly through issues. A nation's civil rights, economic and political ratings are used in turn to assign it a category. There are twenty-seven such categories, one for each combination of the three groups of ranks into which the ratings divided. Statistics controlled by issues also determine a nation's position relative to other in periodic national rankings. The variable being measured changes daily, and nations are compared both within their region and the world as whole.

Players do not control their nation's population, which starts at 5 million when the nation is created and increases indefinitely over time. This unlimited growth means that nations which are around long enough eventually end up with very large and unrealistic populations. For the same reason, population is also useful as a rough metric for how long a nation has been in the game.

If a player does not log into their nation periodically, it will cease to exist (CTE) after twenty-eight days. Players can choose in their settings to receive emailed warnings about such an impending apocalypse. Even if a nation ceases to exist, it can still be revived later, provided the player remembers the password for the nation or used an email address for it which they can access to reset their password. Because nations can be revived, a name previously used by a nation can never be used again, if the nation no longer exists.

Issues

The core gameplay of NationStates hinges on deciding government policies. The player is regularly presented with issues and may choose a response from a list of options. Their choice will in turn affect their nation. Players can also dismiss issues without affecting their nation. The rate at which new issues arise is set by the player, who may choose either none, one per weekday, two per weekday, one per day or two per weekday. After the original issues written by Barry were found to be too few for the game to satisfactorily develop, players were allowed to submit new issues starting July 15, 2003.

There is no correct option for any particular issue, and each usually has both positive and negative aspects. Many issues are posed in terms of radical or extremist beliefs, and the accompanying opinions are rarely well-founded. This serves both humorous and didactic purposes. Similarly, options often have unexpected or exaggerated results which may not always be explicit in their descriptions. In particular any issue which implements a new government program will increase the nations tax rate, and players often unwittingly increase theirs to absurd levels. Because of such potentially undesirable effects, it is routine for players to dismiss issues when they find none of the options appealing.

World Assembly

Players may choose to join the World Assembly (WA). The body functions as international legislature akin to the real life United Nations in real life, as evidenced by the fact that it was originally called the "United Nations" until Barry received an order to cease and desist from the actual organization. Players who join their nations automatically affected by the decisions of that body, although various players role-play disobedience. Discussions on proposed resolutions take place on the forums, often home to all manner of political debate. A dedicated team of volunteers moderates the forums; most of them also moderate the game to keep it free from vandalism.

Regions

Nations are grouped into regions. All players begin in one of five Pacific regions and may move their nations into any other region at any time, or set up a new region. Many regions have an elected leader and some participate in complex regional governments, though some contain only a handful of nations. Players commonly attempt to collectively "invade" another region by entering it and seizing control. Some regions have password-protection to stave off such attacks.

Many multi-regional organizations have formed - either to organize invasions or to organize those who defend against raider play.

Invading, or "region crashing," first became prominent with a group of players calling themselves the Farkers, who all arrived due to links between the game and the website.

Recently, steps have been taken to reduce region-crashing and griefing. Based mainly on the time a nation has spent in a region, each nation is given an amount of "Regional Influence." In order for a nation, such as the UN Delegate, to eject another from the region, they must have a specific amount of influence, depending on the other nation's influence level. This helps ensure that invaders do not flood a region, install one of their own as UN Delegate, then eject the original members from the region.

Raiding and Defending

Roleplaying

NationStates' relatively simple simulation has given rise to more in-depth and freeform role-playing, with players using their nations' statistics to measure how their nations would fare in international trade, diplomacy, and war. Some players have even developed complex statistical calculators. Part of the appeal of NationStates lies in the ability to create an unrealistic utopia (or dystopia) as the subject of conversation and political philosophy, without needing to worry about practical matters, like national defence, that might become factors in a more comprehensive simulation.

Technical History

Due to the unreliability of the NationStates server, which commonly led to slow or inaccessible forums, January 2004 saw the announcement that the British gaming company Jolt Online Gaming would take over hosting of the site as well as the development of NationStates-2. On 28 June, 2004, after several delays, the game switched to the new servers; however, continued programming issues compounded by the death of Max Barry's father caused the forums to remain down until 13 July. Flag size increased from 6k to 10k around 15 August.

A second version of the game, currently in development and called "NationStates 2", may include complex functions for war, trade, diplomacy, and customization. Rumours about the sequel to NationStates have existed since the summer of 2003, and the release date has been postponed since.

Technical Failures

At three points during the game's existence, the large amount of data required to hold the names and information of over one million nations exceeded the amount of room available on the game's server. Rather than shutting down, the server continued to operate, but failed to save any additional data. As a result, anyone who logged into their nation found that their nation's name had been changed to "The 0 of 0", and that their region was suddenly without a Delegate, Founder, or name. On each occurrence, game administrators loaded a backup file from the previous day. The first "Great Disk Space Disaster" occurred on 27 April 2005 with subsequent errors taking place on 27 August 2005 and 2 April 2006. The 2 April incident may have been a result of the April Fools joke the day before, where the game had been turned into an online matchmaking service, "NationDates"

Statistics

As of December 7 2004, players had set up over 1,000,000 individual nations since NationStates premiered in late 2002. At any time fewer than 150,000 remain in existence as a result of the deletion of nations due to various rule infractions and to inactivity. Though the specific time has varied greatly over the years on-line, NationStates currently has an inactivity limit of 28 days (or 60 days if nation-owners enable "Vacation Mode"), after which the system automatically deletes the quiescent nation. However, the Moderators can resurrect nations deleted for inactivity (though not for rule-violations, unless circumstances warrant a repeal of the deletion) on the request of the nation's original owner.

Forums

NationStates also has a forum community. Originally, they were phpBB forums hosted by the NationStates server, but after NationStates was acquired by Jolt, the forums moved to Jolt's forum site. The off-topic / out-of-character 'General' forums are mainly used for recreational purposes and political discussion. Role-playing is done in the Nationstates and International Incidents forums.

External links