Difference between revisions of "Nationstates"

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'''Nationstates''' is a [[fictional]] nation-simulation website created by [[socialist]] [[Australian]] author [[Max Barry]] on November 13, 2002 to promote his anti-[[capitalist]] book Jennifer Government. The website is notable for its heavy population of [[liberals]], who regularly engage in [[liberal deceit]], [[liberal denial]], and [[double standard]] to silence [[conservatives]] and [[Christians]] and prevent [[biblical]] or [[logical]] arguments from being seen; and for openly plagiarizing Conservapedia with it's "Conservative" theme, which allows users to display the Conservapedia logo with the word "Nationstates" replacing the word "Conservapedia." <ref>https://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2010/03/31/index.html</ref>
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{{about|the web game|the concept|nation state}}
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{{italic title}}
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{{third-party|date=March 2014}}
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{{Infobox Website
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| name = ''NationStates''
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| favicon =
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| logo = [[Image:NationStates Logo2.png|255px]]
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| url = [http://www.nationstates.net/ nationstates.net]
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| alexa = {{Increase}} 15,072 ({{as of|2016|6|1|alt=June 2016}})<ref name="alexa">{{cite web|url= http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/nationstates.net |title= Nationstates.net Site Info | publisher= [[Alexa Internet]] |accessdate= 2016-03-01 }}</ref><!--Updated monthly by OKBot.-->
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| commercial = Yes
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| type = [[Government simulation game]]
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| registration = Yes
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| owner = [[Max Barry]]
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| author = Max Barry
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| launch date = 13 November 2002
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| current status = Active
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| revenue = From advertising, paid premium memberships and encouraged book sales
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}}
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'''''NationStates''''' is a multiplayer [[Government simulation game|government simulation]] [[browser game]]. It was created by [[Max Barry]] and was publicly released on 13 November 2002,<ref name="">nationstates.net: [http://www.nationstates.net/HISTORY History], accessdate: 10 April 2014</ref> based loosely on his novel ''[[Jennifer Government]]''.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/16/technology/online-diary.html|title=ONLINE DIARY|last=O'Connell|first=Pamela Licalzi|date=16 January 2003|work=The New York Times|page=3|accessdate=30 June 2011}}</ref> Barry originally founded the site as an independent vehicle publicizing the book one week before its release.<ref name=nyt />  The site continues to promote books written by Barry and holds as a minor Social Experiment.
  
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==Jennifer Government==
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==Gameplay==
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[[Max Barry]]'s 2002 novel served as inspiration for Nationstates, which Barry intended to use to drum up interest in his book before it ballooned into a safe-haven for liberals to compare [[logical fallacies]] without fear of logical rebuttal from conservatives. The novel is notable for its many [[socialist]] and [[communist]] themes and attacks on the [[free market]], including depictions of [[AT&T]] and [[Verizon]] employees being shot on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange and the painting of [[Nike]]'s marketing department as a villainous organization willing to sanction murder to sell shoes. <ref>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33356.Jennifer_Government</ref>
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[[File:Australian Aboriginal Flag.svg|thumb|175px|alt=The Australian Aboriginal Flag|The [[Australian Aboriginal Flag]] is the default flag for new nations in ''NationStates''.]]
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Players set up their nation by answering a short questionnaire about their intentions for its economy, civil rights and political freedoms,<ref name="abc">{{cite web | url=http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97793&page=1&singlePage=true | title=A Web Site of Virtual Nations | publisher=ABC News | accessdate=10 April 2014 | author=Goldman, Noah}}</ref>  giving it a name,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2006-09-12/news/27451151_1_cyber-world-private-sector-theocracy|title=Virtual nations take control over the cyber world - Economic Times|date=12 September 2006|work=[[The Economic Times]]|accessdate=30 June 2011}}</ref> a flag from current countries and territories or their own, a [[national animal]], a currency, and an official motto.<ref name="abc"/> The player's response to the initial questionnaire defines the type of government they are running.<ref name="sommerer">{{cite book|author1=Christa Sommerer |author2=L. C. Jain |author3=Laurent Mignonneau |title=The Art and Science of Interface and Interaction Design|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2a4CRJviwGkC&pg=PA173|year=2008|publisher=Springer |isbn=354079869-2|pages=173}}</ref>
  
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==Nationstates and Liberalism==
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New nations appear in one of five main game regions (known in the game as "feeders") located in the NationStates version of the [[Pacific Ocean]] (The, East, West, North, and South Pacific), but nations are able to move to other regions, or create their own. Nations that remain inactive and are resurrected are put into three "sinker" regions called [[Osiris]], [[Baldr|Balder]], and [[Lazarus of Bethany|Lazarus]], all named after characters that purportedly rose from the dead. Nations ejected or banned from a region are moved to a region known as "The Rejected Realms".
  
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With the book's blatant appeal to [[liberal]] [[wishful thinking]], the website quickly attracted a massive amount of liberal users, who soon outnumbered conservative users and drew false authority from the [[logical fallacy]] of proof by numbers to shout down any conservative argument with waves of illogical rebuttals and [[strawmen]]. While the presence of a forum on the website could have allowed it to become a vein for conservatives to demonstrate the superiority of their position and rebut many of the points presented in the book and by liberalism at large, the overwhelming population of liberals make it impossible, as any point that does not line up with their twisted worldview is dismissed out-of-hand and falsely mocked as incorrect. Repeated claims of bias to the site admins have gone unanswered, indicating that the [[liberal bias]] is not only present among the common users but also among those who are supposed to ensure fair debate.
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Gameplay hinges on deciding government policies: four times each day the player is presented with an automatically assigned "issue",<ref name="sommerer"/> such as choosing whether to allow a right-wing protest march, or dealing with food shortages in their country.<ref name="abc"/> The player chooses a government stance from a list of options, or may choose to dismiss the problem. Each action or inaction affects the prosperity of the player's country, and may have unforeseen effects. For instance, granting greater political freedom will lead to more civil unrest.<ref name="abc"/> Some issues are written by the game's developers, while others are submitted by players. For the first 30 days of a nation's existence, only game-created issues can be answered, but after that period any approved issue can be answered.<ref name="sommerer"/> The player's responses to issues affect the nation's status in three main factors: the level of ''[[political rights|Political Freedoms]]'' and ''[[Civil Rights]]'' and the strength of the ''[[Economy]]''.<ref name="sommerer"/> As of March 24, 2016, users have developed 500 issues to be used in game.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2016/03/24/index.html|title=NationStates {{!}} News|website=www.nationstates.net|access-date=2016-03-29}}</ref>
  
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==Evidence of Liberal Bias in Site Administration==
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[[File:Updated NS Graph.svg|thumb|A chart showing the game's 27 government types]]
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Max Barry does not allow user-created nations to use the [[swastika]] on their flags, but does allow the [[communist]] [[hammer and sickle]] emblem, under which far more people have been murdered, in a clear example of liberal [[double standard]]. Challenges to this stance are repeatedly shut down by site admins without explanation. <ref>http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=16394962#p16394962</ref>
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Based on the nation's personal, economic and political freedoms, the nation is assigned to one of 27 government types,<ref name="sommerer"/> from Anarchy, to Inoffensive Centrist Democracy, to Psychotic Dictatorship. Although there is no way of "winning" the game, daily "World Census reports" are compiled for each region and the entire world, ranking nations on anything from economic strength to the most liberal [[public nudity]] laws.<ref name="sommerer"/>
  
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As noted above, conservative appeals to the administrators about the unfair treatment received at the hands of liberals, who far outnumber them are summarily dismissed.
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Outside the basic technical parameters of nation play, players can also move freely between regions, "take over" opposing regions by flooding them with foreign nations (a popular gameplay tactic also called "raiding"), interact on the game's chat boards, vote on resolutions at the [[#United Nations incident|World Assembly]] (which affect member nations' stats much the same way issues do), and chat and/or roleplay their countries on the official game forums. Many of the regions also have separate regional forums that concern regional politics, fairs, etc.
  
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The website bans any use of "political nicknaming" (i.e. referring to Barack Obama as "Barack Obummer"), and the rule is mainly used to silence conservatives from mocking the mistakes of liberal leaders or making unfavorable comparisons between them and other leaders ("Hitler-y Clinton"), while liberals are allowed to unfairly mock conservatives at will, with tactics that approach [[libel]].
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==Popularity==
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The game attracted a thousand nations within two weeks, and had 20,700 by the end of the first year.<ref name="abc"/> Barry was surprised by the popularity of the game, and saw its discussion forums developing into an arena for political debate.<ref name="abc"/> He was impressed by some of the activity in the forums, relating how "One nation accused another of conducting secret missile tests and posted photos to prove it. That escalated into an international crisis that was only solved by sending in teams of independent weapons inspectors".<ref name="nyt"/>
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As of April 21, 2016, NationStates had around 190,000+<ref>{{cite web|last1=Barry|first1=Max|title=World Census Update|url=http://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2016/04/18/index.html|website=NationStates|accessdate=4 March 2016}}</ref> active nations, and 4.25 million inactive, no longer existing, or defunct nations.
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==United Nations incident==
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In 2008, Barry received a cease and desist order from the [[United Nations]] for using the UN name and logo for the international ruling body on the website. In response, he removed the logo and changed the name to the World Assembly.<ref name="blog">[http://maxbarry.com/2008/04/02/news.html The United Nations vs Me], retrieved 17 May 2014.</ref>
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==''NationStates 2''==
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In 2008, OMAC Industries purchased [[Jolt Online Gaming|Jolt Gaming]] and announced plans for a "big release" sequel that summer, ''NationStates 2''.<ref>{{cite web|author=Phil Elliott |url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/omac-industries-acquires-jolt-online-gaming |title=OMAC Industries acquires Jolt Online Gaming &#124; GamesIndustry International |publisher=Gamesindustry.biz |date=2008-06-18 |accessdate=2013-01-06}}</ref> In February 2009, Max Barry announced that ''NationStates'' was leaving the OMAC Industries servers and game system, and that the game "doesn't have terribly much to do with [''NationStates 2''] any more."<ref>{{cite web
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  | last = Barry
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  | first = Max
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  | authorlink = Max Barry
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  | title = We're indy, baby
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  | publisher = NationStates.net
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  | date = 2009-02-25
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  | url = http://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2009/02/25/index.html#rebirth
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  | accessdate = 2009-04-02}}</ref> He also stated in a YouTube [[FAQ]] video that the developer had not taken time to develop the game thoroughly, and was planning to develop the game further after its release. This was not something Max Barry had in mind.
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Nationstates 2 was closed down in 2009,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationstates2.com/|title=NationStates 2|publisher=}}</ref> and Jolt Gaming shut down in 2012.
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==See also==
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* [[eRepublik]]
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* [[Micronation]]
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* [[List of Internet forums]]
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
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{{reflist|1}}
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{{Reflist|2}}
  
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==External Links==
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==External links==
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[http://www.nationstates.net NationStates Home]
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* [http://www.nationstates.net/ Official website]
  
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[[category:Websites‏‎]]
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[[Category:2002 video games]]
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[[Category:Fictional governments]]
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[[Category:Government simulation video games]]
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[[Category:Massively multiplayer online role-playing games]]
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[[Category:Browser-based multiplayer online games]]

Revision as of 20:57, June 17, 2016

This article is about the web game. For information about the concept, see nation state.

Template:Third-party Template:Infobox Website NationStates is a multiplayer government simulation browser game. It was created by Max Barry and was publicly released on 13 November 2002,[1] based loosely on his novel Jennifer Government.[2] Barry originally founded the site as an independent vehicle publicizing the book one week before its release.[2] The site continues to promote books written by Barry and holds as a minor Social Experiment.

Gameplay

File:Australian Aboriginal Flag.svg
The Australian Aboriginal Flag is the default flag for new nations in NationStates.

Players set up their nation by answering a short questionnaire about their intentions for its economy, civil rights and political freedoms,[3] giving it a name,[4] a flag from current countries and territories or their own, a national animal, a currency, and an official motto.[3] The player's response to the initial questionnaire defines the type of government they are running.[5]

New nations appear in one of five main game regions (known in the game as "feeders") located in the NationStates version of the Pacific Ocean (The, East, West, North, and South Pacific), but nations are able to move to other regions, or create their own. Nations that remain inactive and are resurrected are put into three "sinker" regions called Osiris, Balder, and Lazarus, all named after characters that purportedly rose from the dead. Nations ejected or banned from a region are moved to a region known as "The Rejected Realms".

Gameplay hinges on deciding government policies: four times each day the player is presented with an automatically assigned "issue",[5] such as choosing whether to allow a right-wing protest march, or dealing with food shortages in their country.[3] The player chooses a government stance from a list of options, or may choose to dismiss the problem. Each action or inaction affects the prosperity of the player's country, and may have unforeseen effects. For instance, granting greater political freedom will lead to more civil unrest.[3] Some issues are written by the game's developers, while others are submitted by players. For the first 30 days of a nation's existence, only game-created issues can be answered, but after that period any approved issue can be answered.[5] The player's responses to issues affect the nation's status in three main factors: the level of Political Freedoms and Civil Rights and the strength of the Economy.[5] As of March 24, 2016, users have developed 500 issues to be used in game.[6]

File:Updated NS Graph.svg
A chart showing the game's 27 government types

Based on the nation's personal, economic and political freedoms, the nation is assigned to one of 27 government types,[5] from Anarchy, to Inoffensive Centrist Democracy, to Psychotic Dictatorship. Although there is no way of "winning" the game, daily "World Census reports" are compiled for each region and the entire world, ranking nations on anything from economic strength to the most liberal public nudity laws.[5]

Outside the basic technical parameters of nation play, players can also move freely between regions, "take over" opposing regions by flooding them with foreign nations (a popular gameplay tactic also called "raiding"), interact on the game's chat boards, vote on resolutions at the World Assembly (which affect member nations' stats much the same way issues do), and chat and/or roleplay their countries on the official game forums. Many of the regions also have separate regional forums that concern regional politics, fairs, etc.

Popularity

The game attracted a thousand nations within two weeks, and had 20,700 by the end of the first year.[3] Barry was surprised by the popularity of the game, and saw its discussion forums developing into an arena for political debate.[3] He was impressed by some of the activity in the forums, relating how "One nation accused another of conducting secret missile tests and posted photos to prove it. That escalated into an international crisis that was only solved by sending in teams of independent weapons inspectors".[2]

As of April 21, 2016, NationStates had around 190,000+[7] active nations, and 4.25 million inactive, no longer existing, or defunct nations.

United Nations incident

In 2008, Barry received a cease and desist order from the United Nations for using the UN name and logo for the international ruling body on the website. In response, he removed the logo and changed the name to the World Assembly.[8]

NationStates 2

In 2008, OMAC Industries purchased Jolt Gaming and announced plans for a "big release" sequel that summer, NationStates 2.[9] In February 2009, Max Barry announced that NationStates was leaving the OMAC Industries servers and game system, and that the game "doesn't have terribly much to do with [NationStates 2] any more."[10] He also stated in a YouTube FAQ video that the developer had not taken time to develop the game thoroughly, and was planning to develop the game further after its release. This was not something Max Barry had in mind. Nationstates 2 was closed down in 2009,[11] and Jolt Gaming shut down in 2012.

See also

References

  1. ↑ nationstates.net: History, accessdate: 10 April 2014
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 O'Connell, Pamela Licalzi. "ONLINE DIARY", The New York Times, 16 January 2003, p. 3. Retrieved on 30 June 2011. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Goldman, Noah. A Web Site of Virtual Nations. ABC News. Retrieved on 10 April 2014.
  4. ↑ "Virtual nations take control over the cyber world - Economic Times", The Economic Times, 12 September 2006. Retrieved on 30 June 2011. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 (2008) The Art and Science of Interface and Interaction Design. Springer, 173. ISBN 354079869-2. 
  6. ↑ NationStates | News.
  7. ↑ World Census Update. Retrieved on 4 March 2016.
  8. ↑ The United Nations vs Me, retrieved 17 May 2014.
  9. ↑ Phil Elliott (2008-06-18). OMAC Industries acquires Jolt Online Gaming | GamesIndustry International. Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved on 2013-01-06.
  10. ↑ Barry, Max (2009-02-25). We're indy, baby. NationStates.net. Retrieved on 2009-04-02.
  11. ↑ NationStates 2.

External links

Retrieved from "https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Nationstates&oldid=1227650"