Jingle Bells

Merry Christmas, everyone!

As a special Christmas treat, I've entered a new issue into the game. Enjoy! Also, if you need to contact me, send a telegram to sirocco@nationstates.net as I've been too busy to read my telegrams. Sorry about that!

Happy Halloween

I apologise for the lack of updates - I'm putting most of my energies into university work at the moment. But I'll still do what I can.

Have a fun evening, everybody!

N-n-new Forum Mods!

A big old welcome to our three new forum mderators: Czardas, Lunatic Goofballs, and NERVUN. A big welcome to all three of you!

Since the move away from Jolt, the General forum's become a bit of a pariah as the idea of sensible rational arguments about ideology, politics, religion, etc. got thrown out the window somewhat and players decided that anyone with an opposing viewpoint must be trolling. This led to some rather ugly drama in the Moderation forum as you can imagine. That's where our new moderators come in! We needed some fresh blood... some General blood!

I wish our new mods the best of luck in their endeavours!

N-n-n-new Features!

A first step towards the 'annexe' feature (see previous posts, can't be arsed finding a link) has been made! Regions now have history pages for an automatic record of notable events. Check out your own region page and have a look! Regional settings have been twiddled with so that everyone can see them without having to manipulate URL addresses. You can check that out too!

I've been rather absent from NationStates recently. I've got a LOT of university work to do, and I also got engaged as well, so I've had little time to tell you guys to play nice!

Welp. I've got stuff to do (sigh) but we should have some new issues on the way (huzzah) so keep your eyes bright and your tails bushy. The only way is up.

Jennifer Government Hits The Small Screen!

And in two different ways! If you've read the latest MaxChat you'll already know that AMC (an American TV channel) is going to turn the book that launched NationStates into a TV series - very exciting! - but if the wait until we actually hear more about it is too much for you then you can thank some students from Weddington High School for filming their own abridged amateur version.

Watch it here!

I only learned of this because it was linked by Seculartopia in this thread so kudos goes to him/her for discovering it as well.

MaxChat V: The Log

http://www.nationstates.net/pages/MaxChat5.html

It's been great fun and we all look forward to having another... hopefully not after waiting for three years again though! Thanks everyone for coming, it was a blast!

Oh, and something I forgot to mention: telegrams now have a 'preview' feature thanks to Pythagosaurus! If you haven't already seen it, give it a shot.

Oh! And something else I forgot to mention! The new spiffy banner at the top of my blog is courtesy of Imagey Nation. His name is as apt as his banner is awesome. Thanks!

MaxChat V Coming Soon!

As in quarter of an hour! If you haven't already downloaded an IRC client, do it now and join us at #nationstates on the Gamesurge server!

Click here for more details!

MaxChat Date Announced

I don't have anything more to add to this except that I hope to see you there! Just follow the link:

http://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2009/09/10/index.html#maxchat5

Regional Flags And More!

Hello everyone, I've been away for a while! Among other things I've had a tooth removed, which wasn't pleasant at all. There is nothing quite like the horrors of mouth pain is there?

Anyway, let's see if I can round up all the changes that have happened while I was mourning the loss of my incisor:

Regional flags! I do believe this is something we've been wanting since... well, November 2002! Thanks to [violet]'s wizardry, regions can now proudly fly a flag symbolising the whole smorgasbord of countries in their membership. Take a gander at the official news post here.

Also, thanks to Pythagosaurus, you can also add regions to your dossier.

There some other tweaks and minor changes too. Founders and delegates may have noticed that new buttons have been added to nations in their regions so they can ban offenders without having to take the long road all the way to regional control. Some graphics have been updated too. If you haven't noticed, I'm not surprised - it's subtle. Go look until you see it.

[violet] has announced an intent to overhaul the telegram system to make it more efficient. A lot of big region delegates will look forward to this I'm sure!

There has been a little more added to the annexe discussion since I last mentioned it. Check out the thread for more details.

The aptly named Imagey Nation has set up a thread in gameplay where he designs seals/logos/heraldic shields for other players' nations. Very snazzy.

[violet] has posted the latest Moderator Olympics in the Moderation forum. I should probably note that about 3000 of my 'Moderator Actions' were deleting issues! [violet]'s also posted all the old olympics (except for the missing first one) in the Archives forum for anyone who feels like reminiscing.

GMC Military Arms has been playing video games instead of modding the forums, the cad, but he does do it wonderfully. Check out his amusing playthroughs of Perfect Dark and Goldeneye here.

I, meanwhile, have been quite fascinated by a game called Dwarf Fortress recently. A rather intriguing part of it is the generation of rather detailed pseudo-ASCII maps which some NSers might be interested in. It generates everything from oceans, rivers and aquifers to mountains, civilisations, geographical data, and wildlife. Climate too. And a bunch of other things. You can download the game (which is still in its alpha stage) for free at http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ - though it is very complicated so I fully recommend the wiki project other players have set up to help you get into it. Unlike NationStates this could easily have been called Micromanagement: The Game.

That's all from me for now. Just remember that MaxChat begins in a couple of weeks! I wouldn't want you to miss it!

Slow News Day

Ever wondered just exactly HOW are you supposed to play NationStates? How do you get started? Never fear! There is a handy online instructional video for all your NS needs.

New Forum Moderator: Flibbleites

Welcome aboard, Flib! We've been needing some additional WA expertise for a while and Flibbleites, who's been hanging around the UN/WA side of the game since the year dot seemed just like the man for the job. We all look forward to his contribution to the team.

In other news:

The daily update has been, well, updated! Delegate turnover is now recorded every twelve hours instead of every twenty-four. This will add some spice to the raider/defender game! Follow the link for more details.

WA proposals have updated formatting thanks to Pythagosaurus, and players can now link to individual proposals - it's not the simplest of arrangements, but it works! Click here for more details.

Well, that's enough procrastinating from me for now, I suppose. This flat's not going to tidy itself!

We Have Issue Editors!

I'm back from my holiday! I'm certain lots of interesting things happened while I was away but I can't remember what any of them are.

Except for the thrilling conclusion to the issues contest!

I'm pleased to announce that three volunteers have taken up the role of 'Issue Editor' and will be helping me convert player submitted issues into game-worthy dilemmas. Our winners are:

Kandarin
Responsible
Glen-Rhodes

You'll notice they all have a rather nifty badge designed by Charlotte Ryberg. Kandarin seems to be building quite a collection of decorations for his spotlight page!

I'm going to be very busy over the next month or so, so let's hope our new editors are up to the task!

For more details, you can check out the forum post I made.

MaxChat V: The Empire Writes Back

Ha ha ha, I only suggested that title as a joke. I didn't realise it was going to get used! Anyway, for the first time in many years, Max Barry is going to be answering player questions in #nationstates, the official NS IRC channel. The official announcement can be read here: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9894

Very exciting! The event has been tentatively proposed to occur on the 19th or 20th of September, though that may change.

We have a new feature for telegrams: nations may now select telegrams that are dear to them to be spared should their inbox overflow and old telegrams get purged.

A possible new feature, annexing, is still being discussed. It got a bit forgotten, so I dredged it up again by posting my take on it.

[violet]'s later post on the thread is most intriguing. It casually mentions ANOTHER possible new feature: regional embassies. I wonder that's all about?

Reploid Productions has updated the latest chapter in her Bastard NS Mod from Hell saga. Check it out.

I'm going to be visiting my family for the first week or so of August so I won't be around much during that time. Just a heads-up.

250 Issues

I'm a bit late in reporting it, but I'm very happy to say that NationStates has reached a new milestone! There are now a grand total of 250 issues in circulation. I'd like to thank everyone who's submitted an issue, doubly thank everyone that submitted a good issue, and wish the best of luck to future writers of issues.

In other news, Belgium has been liberated prematurely by various defender regions who somehow learned what the password the raiders were using was. This has put the liberation debate into a different light, since the original intent of the resolution is now moot. Congratulations to the defenders, anyway, and hard luck to the raiders. I'm sure they'd have been able to put up a better fight if they hadn't been ambushed. There's still a chance though! If the liberation resolution passes they can rally another attack.

Ah, irony.

Moving on, Erastide has devised a new Security Council proposal category: Open Immigration - this category, if passed, would clear and disable the banlist of a selected region. I haven't had much time to mull over it yet, but the debate makes for an interesting read.

Another liberation-related debate is on whether it's up to the moderators or the World Assembly to ascertain how factually accurate a resolution is. If a liberation tells outright lies to further its argument should it be deleted? But how can mods tell whether something is true or not without psychic abilities? Hmm.

Max Barry has posted to the News page summarising recent additions to NationStates.

The issues contest ends in just under two weeks! I've received one shy of fifty entries. I've been very impressed by the quality of even the losing entries - the standard has been very high! I'm looking forward to being able to take a step back and supervise the budding new editors (whomever they may be...). Still plenty of time for creative NSers to win a position.

Remember, there is also a badge-making competition for designing a little logo to go on issue editors' nations. The winner will be able to select their own custom forum title! Those are like gold dust, don't you know!

Good luck!

Discord And Chaos In The WA

I'm tired and I don't have much time for pontificating so I'm just going to summarise recent events:

• The proposal to liberate Belgium has reached the floor and is now being voted on by the World Assembly. With liberation proposals been written left, right and centre I can't help but feel that maybe the defenders are spreading themselves a little thin. Reclaiming one region will be difficult, regardless of password restrictions. Organising a way of reclaiming several regions will be much harder.
• A temporary ruleset has been written up by Ardchoille for the Security Council. This has been quite a formidable task in many respects and it's still in the process of being beaten out on the anvil. We need rules that are clear, concise, and appropriate. I just hope we can manage it quickly, because a lot of players are rather losing their patience!
• Voting times on proposals that have reached the floor has been reduced from a week to four days.
  
• We've had a few glitches and bugs popping up here and there but they've not caused too many problems.
• I've finished the latest batch of issues and am waiting upon admin to give me the next.

In conclusion, and in reference to my second point, the new rules for Security Council resolutions need to be sorted out with co-operation between moderators and players. So if you have any ideas, let us know. If you think any rule shouldn't be there, let us know. We've got a framework from which to build something that could benefit the gameplay. So let's build!

La Mort d'Ordinateur

My laptop has kicked the bucket, given up the ghost, and pushed up the daisies. You know there's something wrong when error messages predicting an imminent failure of your hard drive disc haunt your every virtual step. Ah well. I'm under warranty so I guess it'll either get fixed or replaced. I don't know when though. Fingers are crossed that it will be soon!

As you can imagine, this makes it difficult for me to contribute to NationStates as much as I'd like so new issues are probably going to be a bit rarer over the next couple of months. Don't worry about the competition though! That's still on track. I've had around thirty-five submissions so far! Not bad at all! There's still about three weeks until the contest ends, so there's no need to be anxious about not having written an entry yet.

Due to the new feature I and Pythagosaurus have developed, I decided it was high time to give past issues a bit of a make-over where needed. Sadly, all my changes disappeared with my laptop, so that may have to wait a bit longer. In the meanwhile, though, you can report typos and grammatical errors and such to this thread.

Liberation And Customisation

We've had two new features added to the game in as many days! Let's cover the new 'Liberation' WA proposal category first.

Liberation is a new Security Council proposal category that [violet] suggested a while back. The general idea is to give the WA the power to remove the passwords from invaded regions to give defenders a chance at throwing out invaders. How effective this will be remains to be seen, but I'm optimistic that this will give the raiding/defending game a bit more balance and also put an end to the 'game over' scenario that's been a blight on the R/D game for a while.

Goobergunchia has almost immediately submitted a 'Liberate Belgium' proposal for the delegates to vote on. Belgium has been a particularly infamous case of the afore-mentioned 'game over; scenario so it should be interesting to see how it goes. Though it reads 'Liberate belgium' because the code doesn't automatically stick a capital letter on the beginning - I'll see if I can get that changed. You can read more about the debate over liberating Belgium here.

Other thoughts I'd like to hear your opinions on:

• Liberation proposals are inherently quite urgent - should they get higher priority in the queue than other WA resolutions? Or perhaps just other Security Council resolutions as the General Assembly crowd might not like that at all?
• Should any changes be made to voting times/quorums?
• What rules should govern how Liberation proposals may be written?

I've set up a new sticky in the Security Council forum for discussing things. If you have any problems, let us know.

There've been a whole bunch of bugs affecting the WA recently, probably as a result of all the admins tweaking and adding things of late. The current resolution at vote is still on the World Assembly page despite voting ending a day ago and there's been a lot of other WA-related oddness reported in the Technical forum. OK, the last one's not WA-related but it is odd.

Now, moving on,

I don't want to spoil too much, so if you'd like the new issues I put in recently to be a complete surprise then stop reading now.

HERE BE SPOILERS

The second feature in the game is something that you guys have been wanting and demanding for six years so I'm quite honoured to have had the chance to be responsible for it. I've contributed stuff to the game before, but this is the first time I've been able to create something new rather than add to what was already there.

The new feature:

I have devised three special issues that give your nation brand new customisable fields (akin to national animal, currency, etc.) - I won't mention what they are specifically for those who'd rather wait and see - if you pick particular options. After the issue goes into effect, you can edit the new field(s) from your Settings page.

Everyone will be able to get these issues except those whose population is not high enough and those who have already chosen an option which gives you a field. This rewards players for sticking with the game.

I wrote all the issues (that's why there's no editor), the new descriptors, the automated telegram you get when a field becomes available, and decided how the whole thing would work. So yeah, if you can't already tell, I'm really quite proud of this! It's my one major contribution to the mechanics of NationStates. I'd like to thank Pythagosaurus who wrote all the code to take care of the new macros I made up and implemented the feature into the game for me. We put a lot of work into getting this right for you all, so let us know if you run into any problems!

Will there be any more special issues in the future? I'm not opposed to the idea, though three should be enough for now. If there's anything you guys think NationStates just couldn't be without then let me know and I'll maybe consider it. Just don't submit special issues to me for editing because that would be really annoying.

Oh, and I had a lot of fun reading this thread here (don't click the link if you don't want to be spoiled). You guys are cute.

Jolt Forums Update

I'm thinking OMAC/Jolt didn't appreciate Max tampering with the nationstates2.net redirect because they've taken away our access to the moderators' private forum over there. Either that or wiped it. And if they have wiped it, it's not unreasonable to guess the rest of the forums may follow. SO - again, if you have any threads still on Jolt that you want to save, here's a step-by-step guide on how to back up forum threads to your hard drive.

You can find a link to the Jolt forums by clicking the redirect link I posted above.

Oh, OMAC!

They really don't give one crap about their players do they? Now that NationStates 2's been wiped, visiting the NationStates 2 website brings you to one of Jolt's other games without so much as an explanation. What a kick in the teeth. Players really are just numbers with dollar signs in OMAC's eyes and they're not afraid to show it.

However! Even though Max Barry doesn't have the rights to the game, he still owns the domain! www.nationstates2.com now redirects to an announcement explaining what's what, a link to NS2 support, and the NS2 forums. Like what should have been done in the first place.

To finish... here's how our players reacted to the news: The Loss of NationStates 2

Have a good day.

How To Use Tags In NationStates

I've been hearing that a lot of people don't know how to use tags in their telegrams/RMB/whatever! It's in the FAQ guys! Here's the appropriate part copy/pasted:

You can use some BBCode-style tags to improve the look of your telegrams, Regional Message Board posts, and (if you control a region) your regional World Factbook Entry. These are:

• Bold: [b]Hello[/b] becomes: Hello
• Italic: [i]Hello[/i] becomes: Hello
• Underline: [u]Hello[/u] becomes: Hello
• Regions: [region]The Pacific[/region] becomes: The Pacific
• Nations: [nation]Testlandia[/nation] becomes: [flag deleted by Sirocco] The Borderlands of Testlandia
  You may optionally specify "short", "long", "flag" and "noflag" formats. If you omit these, the default is "long+flag".
  • [nation=short]Testlandia[/nation] becomes: [flag deleted by Sirocco] Testlandia
  • [nation=noflag]Testlandia[/nation] becomes: The Borderlands of Testlandia
  • [nation=short+noflag]Testlandia[/nation] becomes: Testlandia

The following tags work in Regional World Factbook Entries, but not telegrams or Regional Message Board posts:

• Links: [url=http://www.maxbarry.com]Hello[/url] becomes: Hello
• Colors: [color=blue]Hello[/color] becomes: Hello

I've omitted the wee flags because they didn't cross over to Blogger very well. In other news, I've recently added a brand new daily issue to the game. Although it credits me as editor, this one required little input by myself!

Oh, and NationStates 2 closed down today. Bye bye, NS2.

The Return of Forum Seven

Foooooooruuuuuuuuum Seeeeeeeveeeeeen!!!

*shakes fist*

Yet More Features On The Horizon

There are so many interesting threads in the forums I'm not sure even where to begin.

...

OK.

[violet] is currently gauging interest in a possible new feature: annexation - this would allow regions to declare another region as part of their 'empire', depending on whether the annexed region is willing. I think the possibilities for some major interregional power struggles are obvious - and totally awesome. Click the link for more details.

Naivetry, birther of many interesting threads, has compiled a list of offsite forums players have made for their regions!

Marcuslandia's thread on whether regions should be able to opt out of the invasion game is running into six pages now. A lot of back and forth arguing about to what extent regional politicians should be able to play without fearing sudden ejection to the Rejected Realms. He's also trying to solve the difficult question on how an invasion should be defined.

Well I guess that's four threads that caught my eye today. There's a whole lot more that I've mentioned in previous posts, so if you're not up to speed have a look and see what you've missed.

We've got some new secret (for now) features in the pipelines and they're ones I get to be directly involved in! They're a little something a lot of people have wanted for a long time so... keep your eyes peeled!

OK, now that's that out of the way, I'd like to invite readers to suggest new World Census rankings. Be imaginative, be daring. If it's usable, we'll do it, if it's not then no harm done, right?

Send your submissions to me using this format:

Title: What is your ranking called? (Examples: Nudest; Most Eco-Friendly Governments; Largest Pizza Delivery Service)

Description: What descriptor should accompany this ranking? (Example from today's ranking: The following governments spend the greatest amount (per capita) on environmental issues. This may not always be reflected in the quality of that nation's environment, however.)

Stats: What is the ranking measuring? This might be obvious for some, but if you want to go into more detail, you can do so here.

Either leave a comment or send me an e-mail at sirocco@nationstates.net; I'll see if I can wangle winners a custom forum title from Reploid Productions.

Got Issues, Got Soul

I have officially moved on to a new batch of issues so we should be seeing some more new ones in the near future. The batch I'm working on now extends from the 25th of May 2008 to the 29th of September 2008. All issues submitted before then have either been deleted or put into the game.

Region Lists Tweaks

Another surprise new feature! They're just coming thick and fast aren't they? Just in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll explain. For years, most likely ever since NationStates started, players have wanted to be able to rank regions by size. Well... now you can! You can also see where your region places in terms of that day's World Census ranking. It works by either summing up or taking an average of the ranks of all the region's component nations. It depends on what World Census ranking it is. The official thread is here for your reading pleasure.

While we're on the subject of improving the game, did you know we reached version 1.12 five days ago? You can read more about it on the changelog.

We've had some bad lag today, with people unable to access the site and forums at times. We're not sure what's causing it yet, but we will eventually.

UPDATE: It was the region of Texas using a script. Tsk. Details here.

There have been some more discussions on possible changes to the way regions are controlled to regulate the raiding/defending game better since I last posted. Here they are:

Bring back the competition - a novel and surprisingly simple idea for reducing raiders' capability for griefing.

The Update Time Makes Me Wanna Cry - A discussion about the time NationStates updates itself. Updates are a central part of how the raiding game works, so there's some interesting debate here.

The Security Council

First things first: I beat my personal record for a high score in Scrabble. 649 points! 649 points! It's crazy, and I had to share.

Yes, my username is Scirocco. What of it? Hmph. Moving on.

NationStates has undergone some more changes since my last post! The Commendation and Condemnation controversy has been mostly quelled (if not totally, I think) by the introduction of the Security Council. The World Assembly forum is now known as the General Assembly.

Now, when submitting a proposal you are asked which council the proposal is being submitted to (Security/General) and then asked what category (C&C/all the 'normal' categories). This has tidied up a great deal of the problems because now the WAers (or GAers now) can keep roleplaying the way they wanted to and deal with C&Cs separately. Also, GA proposals that reach quorum take priority over C&Cs so they won't have to wait several weeks/months if a particularly long string of C&C proposals achieve quorum.

All in all: very nice. With the new forum comes new ideas, particularly looking at the possibility of having other gameplay-centric resolutions. [violet]'s suggested a proposal that would allow the WA to disable a particular region's password. As you can imagine, the implications are... complex. You can read all about it here.

The very first C&C proposal to achieve quorum is a condemnation of the region of Gatesville. At the moment it looks like it might be defeated, but who knows... you can read the official thread here.

Unibot, incorrigible as always, has started a thread exploring yet more possibilities. Some interesting reading to be had there.

One interesting Technical thread I noticed is Marcuslandia's Eliminating regional passwords entirely - a simple suggestion with complicated ramifications. Be prepared for walls of text.

The issues contest is going well so far. Eight submissions have been received and a quarter of them were to my liking. That's not bad! There's also been a number of ideas for 'Issue Editor' badges in the official thread. It's going to be close-fought. Perhaps even more so than the primary contest...

I've also put in a brand new issue. Hope everyone likes it.

Finally... another awesome nacho hat! Waarg!

Issues Contest!

I've devised a contest that all players are welcome to enter. I know there's plenty of you out there certain you could do a better job than me at editing issues into something halfway-usable so stop sending me telegrams and get out your word processor! All the rules are in the link I just gave, but if you're too lazy here's a copy:

---

Aspiring Writers Wanted!

We here at NationStates need YOUR help adding new, original content to the game! For many years now we've had a system whereby players write their own daily issues and submit them to the moderators. We then edit those submissions and put them into the game. Unfortunately, not many moderators have the time to do this on top of their other responsibilities and RL concerns so what we're proposing is that talented players pitch in and help us edit issue submissions. We know there's a lot of creative people in these forums, so climb out of your favourite subforum and show us what you can do!

This is going to be a contest with the potential for multiple winners (or none at all. It depends how good the entrants are).

How do I enter?

Very simply. Write a new, original daily issue according to the official guidelines and send it to sirocco@nationstates.net

Please send only one issue.

What happens then?

If you show promise, I will send you an e-mail and go over your issue, raising points, giving advice, et cetera. If I'm still unsure, I will ask you to submit a second original issue. If I approve of your second submission, then you will be taken on as an honourary issue editor. If your first submission doesn't show promise to me, then I'll send you an e-mail telling you that you have been declined.

What's in it for me?

Winners will get the one or two issues they sent put into the game. They will also receive a special 'Issue Editor' badge on their nations to show off to everyone. They'll also have the glory (infamy?) of being credited on every issue they edit. We haven't designed the badge yet (I don't even HAVE Photoshop), but maybe someone can come up with one?

If I win, what will I be expected to do exactly?

Issue editors will be sent the raw data for issue submissions by myself. You edit them and send them back to me where I'll add the code needed to change player stats and maybe a few minor tweaks if they're needed. There's no need to worry about deadlines, you're free to complete them at your own pace. Hopefully you'll find the experience and skill-developing involved its own reward.

How long do I have to submit my issue?

The competition will be ongoing until midnight on the 8th of August 2009.

---

I'm hoping for a good turnout with this contest, and anyone with above average English skills will be in with a chance of becoming an editor. Good luck!

In other news, we're definitely closing in on a solution for the C&C problem. Players should see some differences to the game very soon to take new ideas into account.

The forums have passed the load tests. With flying colours I might add! Here's the official news post.

And finally, in closing, the old, old region of Belgium has been invaded and is about to be destroyed by the region of Macedon. This has caused a lot of debate over whether the regional influence system is as effective against griefing as it was supposed to be. I'll write up a post looking at influence and the raider/defender game in more detail at some point in the near future. It may be time for a change.

Commendation And Condemnation, Part Two

Wow, this new feature really didn't go down well with the denizens of the World Assembly forum. The thread's even been locked temporarily at the time of me posting this so everyone can go breathe deeply and get themselves back together. I didn't expect such a strong reaction (nor did [violet]), but on reflection, perhaps I should.

For those not interested in reading the ten-pages of argument, I'll try to explain the situation as simply as I can and give my own input.

Over the years, the World Assembly has had a number of rules that have been carefully devised so that the whole system can function properly. A proposal proposes new laws, changes to the world - BUT it obviously can't ACTUALLY change the world because that world is NationStates, a fictional game. The WA is fundamentally a bit schizophrenic. On the one hand you've got regional delegates, casting votes, regional passwords, and other assorted WA gameplay things. On the other hand we have the proposals themselves, the drafting of said proposals, the long discussions, the RPs, and the debates. It was necessary to segregate the two because it just wasn't possible to have the ambassador of Sirocco arguing why child labour should be banned when entire countries were being airlifted by helicopters out of the Pacific in the game. This is the most important complaint. There are some other problems, but I'll get to them later.

C&C has forced these two worlds to merge together, quite abruptly. I'm struggling for a particularly apposite analogy here, but I suppose it's a bit like this: you've got a bunch of actors who have been rehearsing and performing Othello for years. They've honed it to perfection, and they're having a great laugh doing so. Then one day the director comes in and tells them that they can refer to each other by their real names on the stage now, and they can kill Othello earlier on if they want. And the audience can join in too and do a dance.

OK, enough of the analogy. Simply put: it means that the WA people are being made to acknowledge things they cannot acknowledge in character. Commendations have perforated the cocoon that the WA's been safely nestled in all these years. Regional passwords, raiding, ejection to the Rejected Realms, the actual players behind the nations- it's all completely irreconcilable with the idea that everything the WA produces is wholly IC. A number of the rules were placed to protect that distinction. How can the roleplayed ambassadors of a nation possibly even begin to debate the merits of commending a region for its role in reporting spammers? It just can't work.

It may seem a bit silly and confusing to some people, but you can imagine how pissed off footballers would be if the spectators could jump on pitch and boot about their own balls if they wanted and yet be able to affect the score.

Now, before I go on any further, I want to point out that though [violet] didn't discuss this with anyone and just put it into the game, it wasn't done with any kind of malevolence or disregard for the WA forumers. She just wasn't fully aware of how things went down there. We all want to make NationStates a better game, and this was one of the first steps. The problem wasn't that [violet] didn't think the WAers opinions mattered, it's that she didn't realise she was completely shattering their game for them. You ARE valued members of the community. None of us want to lose the people who've made the WA what is today, believe me, we all think you've done a tremendous job, and we don't want to completely bulldoze over everything you've been doing until now. We're no trying to piss in anyone's sandpit. I'm don't want to speak on [violet]'s behalf here, and I'm not trying to, but I want to emphasise what I said before. The WA community is a valued community. It just wasn't completely understood. Once we get to a mutual understanding, I think things will progress much more smoothly.

So, let's look at the other side of the argument: everyone I've talked to who isn't a hardcore WA forumite has loved the idea of C&C and think it's a fantastic addition to the game. Suddenly the WA has become a great deal more interesting to casual and involved players alike because now it's doing something that could, potentially, directly involve themselves. There is enormous potential for the C&Cs to become something really impressive. Here's a scenario I imagined if this really took off:

Region A and Region B are longstanding rivals for ideological reasons and currently in the middle of an uneasy truce. One day, a nation from region A goes on a smear campaign against region B, telling everyone not to join them and even succeeds in getting a few nations from region B to defect. The delegate of region B is furious and files a proposal to condemn the nation for its lies. Region A, acting in the defence of one of its member states, goes on to the forum to counter this and tells all and sunder that Region B is lying and spreads even more lies about the region. Region B calls on an ally, Region C, to spread the word and condemn Region A for its blatant warmongering. And so the dominos fall until the condemnation of some insignificant nation has become a very big deal indeed...

I think we can all agree that this would be a really fun thing to happen in NationStates. Nothing else has ever given cross-region alliances in NationStates any proper meaning apart from raiding. The problem is that this is all incompatible with how the WA forumers see things. How could regional disputes ever cross into the WA forum where the OOC concerns and the IC concerns could possibly (and probably) be completely ignored? It's not so much that the WA can now affect gameplay, because it can't really, it can only comment on it. But it acknowledges that gameplay exists, therefore admitting a game exists. How can one RP under those circumstances? So we're going to need some sort of compromise. There's a number of things we could do at the moment...

• Leave things as they are. WA forumers leave the game and while things remain much the same, a lot of what goes on in the WA forum will be seen as meaningless. No one will want to RP because it's too difficult and eventually it becomes a very dull place to post. No one wants this.
• Change the C&C system into something that complements the World Assembly rather than changes it. This could be difficult and I can't say I've thought of anything yet. But it would be a very happy outcome if we could manage it. Suggestions are very welcome! Ardchoille is in the midst of building up a ruleset for these new categories. Have your say!
  
• Make the C&C system separate from the proposals section. On the upside, this would mean that it could be put into a separate subforum where IC and OOC could mingle. On the downside, this could make C&C seem less important than normal resolutions and divorces it slightly from being part of the WA which was kind of the whole point.
• Keep the C&C system as it is but make it separate from the WA. Again, this rather demeans the concept of the C&C in that it was about the organisation as a whole uniting to comment on a particular nation or region. A possibility I wouldn't exclude, but it's not very desirable.
  
• Only allow IC Commendations and Condemnations. This would be very difficult and confusing for players. Not desirable.
• Make separate categories for IC and OOC C&Cs. Again, this is difficult and confusing. Messy too. Not desirable.
• Remove C&C altogether. It's a possibility, but for something with so much potential, I don't think it's desirable.
  
• Make the C&C and the proposals two distinct branches of the WA. I don't think it would take long for things to become... internecine. But it's an idea to hold on to.
• Something else? If anyone's got a suggestion, I'd love to hear it! Drop me an e-mail (sirocco@nationstates.net) or post in the thread I linked to earlier when it becomes unlocked.

There's a similar discussion going on in the Gameplay forums. Very interesting.

Now, there is another source of contention over the C&Cs and this is something that changes a very fundamental rule of the World Assembly, if not the entire game, and it is this: the WA cannot in any way affect a non-WA nation. This rule's been present since almost the beginning for a few obvious reasons, some practical, some ideological, and some philosophical.

If someone submits a proposal that says trade with non-WA nations should cease, we should invade non-WA nations, blah blah blah, we have to delete it. Why? Because there's no provision in the game for affecting those changes. The code only allows for changes to affect the WA nations, otherwise what's the point? Why join the WA at all? Suddenly joining the WA isn't a major decision anymore and is reduced to a triviality. Also, some object to the power of the WA over sovereignty and don't join because of that and other personal objections to certain resolutions or the general ideological thrust of the World Assembly. And then there are those who don't join because they're simply not interested in that part of the game.

The upshot of all this is that these people (a not inconsiderate number of players) may and could strongly object that the WA is doing something that affects them. Now, the C&C system rather neatly sidesteps this by not actually affecting them and merely putting a badge on the C&C'd nation. I can still see problems though, as this would still be too much for some. Or many. Who knows? The point of fact is that if the WA puts up a proposal condemning your nation for anti-WA attitudes then your nation has no defences because it is completely at the whim of WA members.

They could deal with this by joining the WA and submitting a repeal after being C&C'd but as you can imagine this could be seen as distasteful for the nation on many levels. They could also entreaty WA members on their behalf or debate it in the forums which may be better, but I don't know if that's a perfect solution. Ultimately because they've been branded with something they don't want and, from their point of view, shouldn't be made to have. I don't want to see people ditching their favourite nation because of this.

Possible choices as I see it...

• Keep things as they are. Possible, but probably not the best solution. I can foresee many players getting pissed off about this.
• C&Cs can only affect WA members. A solution, it's true, but not exactly desirable. The system carries more weight and importance if it can be used worldwide.
• C&Cs affect non-WA nations but only WA members can see them. Something to think about. Imperfect, but... still something to think about.
  
• non-WA nations can make an appeal after getting C&C'd to be voted on by the WA. It's a nice idea, but I think it's ultimately unworkable. Not only would it be difficult to work into the game, but if the nation loses the appeal then it's still stuck with a badge it hates forever.
• non-WA nations get the C&C but it expires after a time. This is an idea I rather like. It allows the WA to make its opinions known and allows the non-WA nation to be badge-free after enduring whatever blessing or black spot it just acquired. On the other hand, this would lessen the impact of the C&C and the WA would probably be rather disinterested in voting on matters involving non-WA nations which would be a shame.
  
• Something else? Again, let me know. I'd love to hear.

Finally, there all sorts of practicalities that need to be overcome if the new system isn't going to strangle itself with its own umbilical cord. I think Quintessence of Dust's post here best explains this for me.

Some other neat threads, you may like to look at:

The Modern WA - A discussion on WA roleplay.

NS School of Ideological Studies - Something I completely missed until now. It's New South Hell again, this time analysing issues with more passion than anyone previously. Obviously not to be missed. You should check out his forum for quite an illuminating list of essays and analyses.

Latin Motto Clinic - Naivetry is translating mottos into Latin for everyone. Very, very cool. I wish I could remember how to write in Latin.

An Analysis of NationStates Generations - An updated version of the essay Unibot wrote a while back.

That's it from me for now. Ta-ra.

Commendation And Condemnation, Part One

We have a new feature! And it's one I (or any of the mods, I think) had no idea was coming! The new system allows the World Assembly to collectively shun or celebrate any particular region or nation. It's a pretty neat idea which gives the WA a whole new relevance. I can't wait to see where the players take this. These new categories completely contradict a lot of the rules we have for submissions, of course, so there's an ongoing discussion as to the ramifications of these new proposal categories in the WA forums. You can take a look here: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1479

Ultimately, I think this will tie the players together as they start to consider the actions ans reactions of others. This has the potential to be a major political weapon. I think that's great.

There's a whole bunch of other small tweaks to the game too. I'm sure everyone must have noticed the rounded frames the data tables have now?

We have a new subforum for discussions about nations, embassies and such: Factbooks and National Information. More information can be found here.

The WA Archives has its first thread. Get out your party whistles!

The new forum has surpassed the 10000 users mark! the distinction of 10000th member goes to... Bosa. Well done, Bosa, you win a biscuit.

There's a lot of very interesting threads going on at the moment, so here's a rundown of all the ones I've come across. Do tell me if there's something else to which you'd like attention brought.

Military Gameplay and Game Mechanics - A Primer - A discussion on how raiding and defending can be integrated into the game that satisfies everyone.

Suggestion For The WA - The power to defy the WA by not taking on a resolution you don't like. But what kind of ramifications could there be...?

NS History - Users sharing years-old telegrams.

"RESERVED. That name was used by a former nation." - A discussion on how to go about freeing up old names.

Allow mass-telegrams for delegate or founder? - The thread title describes the content perfectly. [violet]'s reply that it's on the to-do list is exciting.

Unibot's List of NS Improvement Suggestions - A Bible for all those wanting to keep up with the fast flurry of ideas and whatnot. Has links to most (all?) of [violet]'s feedback on suggestions.

The Bastard NS Mod From Hell - Injustice For All - Reploid Productions brings us a new chapter in the (fictional) story of everyone's most despised moderator.

What Does Your National Currency Look Like? - A creative thread (often my favourite) where players are invited to design their own currency and show it off.

Unofficial NS Survey Results - Quite interesting.

As much as I don't like to give any exposure to OMAC's properties, I feel it's worth mentioning that people have been having trouble accessing the Jolt forums because they've been changing the URL. You can access them by visiting this link: http://forums.joltonline.com/

I recently learned of an offsite forum for Generalites: http://generalitemafia.ipbfree.com/index.php ; so if you spend a lot of time around the General forum why not pay a visit? They've even got a webcomic with more words and speech bubbles than you can shake a stick at.

And finally... How To Make A Nacho Hat

That's all from me for now. I've got some laundry to deal with.

NationStates 2 Closing Down

The dream has ended. This is something I've been predicting for a looong time though I never mentioned it here for reasons I'll elaborate on later.

Here are some links for all of you to get up to speed on the situation:

NationStates News Page Post

NationStates Forum News Post

Some NS2 forum posts about the matter:

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=594350
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14802865

I've deleted my lengthy rant about OMAC here because I didn't think it was very becoming of me. I'll give a short paraphrase instead:

OMAC sucks. They reneged on their promises, and raped the community in its quest for revenue. They didn't pay me for some of the work I did and have ignored my e-mails for the last four or five months. I am owed nearly £100 and have just about given up on ever getting it. They have been screwing us since day one by using us as venture capital for their REAL projects, those of which are just rip-offs of other games.

I implore readers not to deal with OMAC. If you haven't done so already, leave the Jolt forums and come join us on the new funky self-hosted one. They have treated the NationStates community extremely poorly in its quest for more and more money to the deficit of everything else. Stay away. Stay far, far away.

In other news, NS1 has a whole bunch of new tags for World Factbook Entries. Check out the news posts here:

Tags For Everyone
A few good tags

I've got some plans for a site-wide contest which will be all about asking players to show off their creativity! More on that later though, I'll probably launch it when the forums come out of the beta stage.

One last thing: despite the general chaos of OMAC and Jolt and NS2... I would like to thank Lydias who's really gone above and beyond in helping players, mods, and the community at large even when everything else has been falling apart.

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Forum

The new forum's been working very well so far (long may it continue), so I thought I'd direct your attention to a few of the more interesting threads have been sprouting up and touch on a few other developments.

First of all, is there's a competition (!) for users to design a special avatar for nations that have ceased to exist. You can post your own submission here. Remember to read the rules in the first post.

Secondly, and of more importance, we have a few new subforums, namely Global Economics and Trade, NS Sports, WA Archives, and Fiction which has superseded the old Jennifer Government forum (which you can still visit on Jolt, of course).

Excepting Fiction, I was the one who suggested these forums so I hope they're well received! Yeah, NS Sports is a bit of a lame name, but I couldn't think of anything better at the time. Perhaps you can all suggest something better?

The WA Archives is still virgin soil. Learn about how you can help make it an integral part of the World Assembly here.

The new Technical forum is also brimming with interesting threads. Here are a few links to click at your leisure:

About This Forum
New Forum Thoughts, Suggestions, and Problems
2 Questions: Antiquity? The original, original forum?
.:The BIG Collaborative List of Suggested NS Improvements:.

In other news, there's some new World Factbook Entry wizardry in the form of [nation] and [region] tags which you can use to link to nations and regions. In the WFE. It's really quite straightforward. There is also a [url] tag you can use to direct visitors to your own offsite regional forum! No more copy/pasting to the URL bar! Read all about it here.

I've got one exam this year on top of all my coursework in early June. I'll be performing Chopin, Satie, Skryabin, and one of my own pieces. Wish me luck!

Ring The Bells! We Have New Forums!

www.forum.nationstates.net - BETA!

Also, read the official announcement here: http://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2009/04/29/index.html#bravenewforum

It's still early days, so go easy on it. We're still figuring out how to get everything working properly.

Great News... Soon

NationStates readers: just skip to the bottom.
People who actually know me in real life: HOLY SHIT WHERE DID MY HAIR GO?! AND HOW WAS THIS PHOTO TAKEN IN THE FUTURE?!

The clock on the camera's wrong, OK? But I have a more serious question...

Is my head really that rectangular?


It's rather unsettling.

...


Aaaaaaaaanyway.

I completely forgot about it, but Sirocco (the nation) turned six years old on the 14th. Go me! But the really exciting news is that in the very near future there will be... exciting news.

We've got something in the works that we're all very pleased with and can't wait to expose to the NS public. But for now it's secret.

Ooh, the anticipation.

Issue #234 Is In The Game

Attention all budding issue writers:

I am very close to finishing the most recent batch of issues. When I have completed this batch, I'll move on to the next one which will consist of all the issues written for the last year or so. If you have any issues you've been thinking about writing, I highly recommend you write them as soon as possible. If you submit it after I've moved on, you may have to wait another year before I see it.

Anyway, new issue.

Woo.

Glory Be

Issue #233 Is In The Game

Hooray! Break out the booze - the editing train is back on the rails.

All The Cool Kids Are Backing Up Their Threads

Before I get to the gamut of this post, I first need to say I'm sorry to report that the NationStates DS version was suddenly - and unexpectedly - cancelled the day following its announcement. We're all very disappointed by this of course, but one day maybe we'll at least be able to get involved in Top Trumps or something.

On to more pressing matters, however.

As you all should know by now, NationStates 1 is no longer affiliated with OMAC Industries but our forums are still hosted by Jolt which is owned by OMAC. This is all very good as it means Max doesn't have to pay for the costs of hosting such a large forum. There is, however, a slight possibility that at some point we will no longer have this forum for reasons related to the previous two sentences - Jolt could, at any time, delete our forums. All of it. We have absolutely no control over this.

This is obviously the last thing we want to happen, as the forums represent not only six and a half years or so of NationStates history, they contain a goldmine of user-created content from roleplays and other works of writing in the NS and II forums to the WA (and UN) debates over proposals and resolutions. Not to mention, some of the diamonds that occasionally surface in the coal pile of NSG. The forums are a very large part of what defines NationStates' personal character and believe me when I say we are working very hard towards minimising any risk of their loss.

However, we must be prepared for the worst, and if the worst does happen, we will work towards hosting our own forums. We have requested the forum data from Jolt (we are entitled to this data) but unfortunately these requests have, as of this post, been refused. I do not know why.

So what can we do? Nothing that we aren't already doing, believe me! I've prepared a little something for everyone fearing the future of their favourite threads: here's a step-by-step guide to backing them up so even if our boards go down in a ball of flames you'll have your own copy safely stashed on your computer.

How to back up a thread.

1. Find the thread you want to save. (All images can be made larger by clicking, by the way)


2. Check out the thread's URL:


See that number there? That's the unique ID of this thread. In this case it is 338362, yours will of course be different. Unless you really like my issue writing guide. If we replace the hash signs in the following URL: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/archive/index.php/t-######.html then we will be able to convert the thread into a format in which it can easily be saved.


Like so. Point your browser at this address.

3. You should now see something rather like this:


Excellent! I'm using Firefox, so this next step may differ a little depending on your browser. You need to go File and then click Save Page As... in the drop down menu.


4. You will be asked what type of file you want.


Pick this one, or nearest equivalent.

5. Finally, place your saved file wherever you wish. You now have a copy of the thread on your computer to cherish for all time.

That's that!

I'll not lie: I have been disappointed with the way things have worked out between us and Jolt/OMAC, but I retain optimism that all problems will be resolved in a way that suits everyone. The NationStates community is very precious to all of us who have invested so much time in making the site what it is today and we want to protect it as much as possible.

So, I'll end this post on a small suggestion that if you've got any friends with favourite threads. you help them back it up. They may thank you later.

Oh, and I've got two new issues under construction. Hoping to add at least one of them within the next few days.

NationStates On The DS!

This is something we've been working towards for a while, so we're very pleased to be able to announce it now. There's going to be all sorts of exclusive features such as quick-time segments for wars and trade, and the ablility to send handwritten telegrams using your stylus. Don't like your latest issue? Just shout 'DISMISS!' into the microphone!

Long term plans include customised NationStates NS cases for your DS and is specially designed to be compatible with the DSi so you can include photographs of yourself as the leader of your country or spiffy photographic flags. but until then check out www.nintendo.nationstates.net and be excited!

NationStates Needs YOU

The floodgates are open to suggestions for improvement to NationStates 1. With our newly acquired independence, we've turned our collective hive mind to adding new features to everyone's favourite nation simulator. Some of our ideas are quite ambitious! Everyone interested in throwing in ideas should visit the Technical forum and join the discussion. We've got some quite exciting developments that we've kept secret to be revealed soon.

In other news, the NS2 blog reports a favourable review of the game at www.bbgsite.com

The players have promptly visited the comments section and shat all over it. C'est la vie, I guess.

I've got an awful lot of work to sort out over the next three weeks, but I'm hoping to be able to put a new issue into NationStates at some point during that time. It's been something like six months since I last contributed. And that's a tad too long.

An Analysis Of NationStates Generations

An anthropologist has put NationStates under the magnifying glass in the Gameplay forum. Take a look.

Also, in the Jennifer Government forum is a thread about how Erastide took an edition of JG with her to various countries and got it signed by as many NSers as possible. I wish I'd had the chance. Ah well.

There's possibly going to be a UK NationStates meet, perhaps even two: one for the people of the north and another for the south. I strongly recommend everyone tout Edinburgh or somewhere even further north as the meet location, because I want to attend a meet for once, goddammit! Here's the thread.

Finally, did you know Max Barry has an Australian accent?!

Mind blown, guys. Like, totally.

The Future Of NationStates

... Is looking pretty good, actually. Now that NationStates is on a new server, and NS2 is properly being looked after by OMAC, we can start developing the game a bit more again. I realise I've already linked to this thread in an earlier post, but things have got even more interesting since then. [violet] herself has chipped in a few words about what changes might be coming to NS so if you've got a suggestion, join the discussion!

Special kudos goes to Unibot for his/her interesting ideas. Regional issues make me go all gooey inside.

Also of note is the NationStates Trainers thread in International Incidents. If you're interested in roleplay but don't know where to begin, that's a damn good place to go to get some advice from our more experienced players! If you're reading this blog, you're probably not new to NS, though. Or your Google search has forsaken you. If this is the case I bid you good luck in your search for HOT LESBIAN PORN. Heh heh heh.

In other news, Jolt's taken the advertising on the forums up a notch to the point where the ads are actually within the posts. Many people have voiced their disapproval. Everyone who's upset by the new ads should realise that we don't have control over the forums, so if you wish to complain to Jolt, do so here: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=584726

NationStates 2 now has war! It's been a long time waiting for this most-coveted feature, and it's now tentatively been introduced to worlds 34, 64 and 119. Here's the official announcement.

Initial feedback for the new feature has been quite scathing, but there's optimism too. Here's a few links to threads about it:

War is a disappointment

Gg OMAC

War

World 64 Laws of War (there's some amazing politics-building in here, I'm impressed)

There's a lot of interesting stuff in the forums, including transcripts of the war issues in the NS2 Got Issues? forum, but you may not want to have that spoiled for you.

Speaking of issues, I've resigned my post as an NS2 issue writer, mostly because I couldn't keep up with the deadlines due to university work - however, since NS2 now has a 'submit your own issues' feature, I'm a bit of a fifth wheel there anyway, so it all works out. And not that many of my submissions have ended up being used so it's not big loss. It does mean, however, that I will be editing issues for NS1 again, not as frequently as I'd like, but there will be new ones I promise.

To conclude this post, I'll finish on some rather promising news straight from the typing fingers of [violet]. I shan't spoil it, go see yourselves: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14551293&postcount=47

Update: Max Barry has posted to the NationStates News page affirming NS1's independence of OMAC Industries.

NationStates 1 Moves On To Pastures New

http://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2009/02/18/index.html#exodus

NationStates 1 is in the processes of being moved to a new server so nation restoration has been disabled temporarily while all the data is moved across. Not much more I can add to this! I'll just settle with paraphrasing.

Here's some an interesting link to keep you occupied until there's something more interesting to say:

NS World Adjustments: Feeders <-- An interesting thread by The Bruce discussing possible changes to the feeder regions to compensate for the dropping player numbers (nation numbers seem to have stabilised around 50000 or so for now).

NationStates 2 YouTube Competition

Yes, I'm still alive. Just suffering the consequences of a wisdom tooth giving up the battle against decay, and getting back on board the University Studies Express. The tooth in question is hidden right at the back of my mouth where no manner of head tilting in front of the mirror will let me look at it, but from feeling it I can tell that I only have half a tooth there, it smells unpleasant no matter how much I brush it (or try to brush it, it's almost inaccessible), and it is SORE. VERY, VERY SORE.

Trying to get an NHS dentist is also excessively difficult.

On with NationStates business:

NationStates 2 has launched a competition to advertise NationStates 2 on American TV. They seem quite fond of the idea, linking to the NS2 Youtube channel three times in one post.

I think it's a really good idea, though I'm yet to see any entries I particularly like. The premise is pretty simple: make a ninety-second video of you addressing your nation about whatever you like. Winner gets to become the focus of OMAC's NationStates 2 advertising campaign. I'm intrigued to see what creativity this will inspire as more entries get listed though I'm a little sceptical as to how people will be drawn in by an ad done this way.

Time will tell.

In other news, New South Hell has written a new essay, this time about how NationStates categorises ideologies: http://cityofulthar.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/deconstructing-the-ideocube/

Hello, 2009

Happy New Year, everyone! We're homing in on the end of the first decade of the new millennium. NationStates has been around for six-and-a-bit years now and long may it reign over its small corner of the internet. This blog has been around for nearly four years. Still going strong!

Moving on, I forgot to mention an important NationStates 2 update: players can now submit their own ideas for issues to OMAC and possibly get them included in the game! I am, thankfully, not an NS2 issue editor, so don't ask me if any of yours have been looked at.

Submit your NS2 issue here!