NationStates is an online game that allows you to dictate and be master of your own conspiracy theories by giving you the chance to run your very own country for just a few minutes of your time as often or as not-so-often as you please.
Thankfully, all your citizens are (I really hope) mere pixels on your screen and therefore none of your judgments actually affect anything in the real world whatsoever, allowing your experiments with their lives and livelihoods to not get you thrown into jail. This has led to an extremely varied audience participating within the international community there, ranging from classes full of schoolchildren learning to be responsible citizens to crazed sadists desperate to execute as many of their own nation’s inhabitants as possible.
The mechanism of NationStates is to emulate national and international politics within a virtual global community in a fun and accessible way. The game is entirely text-based and the pace of the game is customisable to the player’s individual needs. For example, you can select an option to limit play to weekdays only in case you only have internet access via an office or university connection. A very welcome innovation in online gaming. Upon registering on the site, a series of options are selected via a required form so that the game’s engine can pre-determine what kind of leader you are going to be, and then places you into an official United Nations (Changed to World Assembly now) classification category which will change as the game progresses. Since the game works in real-time, it is open-ended and so this category usually changes significantly during the course of play. Interestingly, membership of the World Assembly is entirely voluntary.
Each nation also is given a set of classifications showing the level of Civil Rights and Political Freedoms awarded by each nation to its citizens, along with an economic rating. These are affected directly on a daily basis by judgements that you, the player, make in running your country. These judgements are shown through a series of issues, which appear as a screen of text summarising the problem and presenting you with a series of options based on the demands of your people and the opinions of your advisors. These are typically either issues of legality or tax judgements, although there are a small number of moral decisions that you can make as well. This is where the game is weakest - a major complaint is that any attempt to improve the public facilities or civil rights of your citizens results in a detrimental impact on a nation’s economy, which is by no means true to life. On NationStates therefore, only the countries which would be classed as rogue nations in the real world are able to maintain a strong economy, which clearly holds no true representation of real life.
Further to this complaint, any decisions made by a nation have no effect whatsoever on any future issues that arise. For instance, on two consecutive days I made public nudity compulsory and also made it compulsory for women to cover up their entire bodies. This led to some very interesting information being displayed on my country’s introduction page and also led me to wonder what the hell they were covering themselves up with! Repetition of these issues is a common occurrence and is noticeable very quickly when playing the game for weeks rather than days - the game has a fast turn-around of players to say that it has such a large userbase. Anyone can establish a “Region”, which is a grouping of nations usually with similar government types or goals, but to actually get involved on a wider scale one must join the World Assembly, committing the player to their laws and guidelines and generally providing a detrimental effect to the players who are trying to run their corrupt dictatorship in peace.
Joining the World Assembly can allow a player to gain a great deal of influence in the game. For instance, I joined the WA, rose to the position of Delegate for my Region and can now endorse policies on behalf of my entire region. I can also field and approve proposals placed by other players as well as propose my own policies. Whilst this doesn’t make the game any more fun to play, it does allow me to feel like an active part of a community-based game and give me additional hope for change in the future. Sadly, although the complaints about individual issue repetition for those selectable by everyone are common to just about every player there, this situation does not seem to be changing.
In summary, NationStates is a game with grand ideas and grand potential, but a lack of consideration to its users and a lack of realism means that it fails to meet its objective. It is fun for a while, but only if you play in a light-hearted manner. After I found myself starting to get bored, I decided to spice things up so to speak, and as Delegate, I destroyed my entire region just to see and feel the after effects. No matter how often you hold elections in your nation, you are still in charge - the eternal dictator. Taking this seriously can lead only to disappointment. Hopefully with Nation States 2 just around the corner, we will be graced with an even better game with alot more features.
Rating 12/20
[ Graphics | 3 ]
[ Gameplay | 3 ]
[ Through | 3 ]
[ Fun Factor | 3 ]
Second Opinion - by Codanon
This is an interesting role playing game for anyone who enjoys politics and history. While it is not for everybody, it is rather fascinating as you can see how your friends and neighbors rule a nation in their own ways. Sadly, the interactivity only reaches as far as your nation. But with NationStates2 around the corner and with promising features such as war and trade, the next generation will definitely be a game to try.
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Casual Comments (8)
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Level: 5
August 27, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I’m always surprised at how good your articles are. Good job!
Level: 1
August 27, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Well thank you
Level: 3
August 27, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Oh man, Nationstates. I remember playing this game years ago.
Was fun for a short while, and in small bursts, but definitely got old and repetitive fast.
Level: 5
August 28, 2008 at 7:36 am
Hey, I thought smileys wern’t implemented…
Anyway, nice job, as always. I have such a hard time with detail, but it may just be because flash is linear >.>
Level: 1
August 28, 2008 at 10:13 am
lol
Level: 2
August 28, 2008 at 11:17 am
I played it a couple of years ago aswell.. was fun cause most of us in the office used to go to it every morning and and have a chat about it. But it did get old real fast.
Level: 4
August 28, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Played these game too, gets boring way too fast. If only there were graphics :S
Naivetry:
November 15, 2008 at 5:07 pm
The real long-term appeal of NationStates is found in the creation of a regional government based on an off-site forum. There, rather than pretending to pass legislation for your citizens, you and the collection of strangers who end up in the same region can draft a constitution and legislation to govern your behavior as nations - in other words, you can create and experiment with *real* political systems, because the politics can be as real as the people they affect.
And in doing so, you can enter a world (if you choose) with years of history - wars (yes, there IS warfare), complex spygames, political maneuvering for control of the largest regions in the game, alliances and inter-regional treaties and initiatives that have far more impact on players and the game environment than the ‘World Assembly’ - all taking place on off-site forums that are organized to manipulate game reality. Unfortunately, it is because this aspect is mostly hidden from the average player (and largely unsupported and unendorsed by the mod/admin team, who seem to consider serious players a nuisance) that NS is generally dismissed after a few weeks… which is, after all, what its creator originally intended.