NationStates

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi

It's a game by Max Barry, author of Jennifer Government (which I have not read). You answer a five question quiz about your political beliefs and a nation is generated for you. Then you're given one or two decisions a day that affect your nation's policies. Kinda fun, and it requires little effort. There's also a UN run by other players, but I haven't done anything with it.

Here's my country:

The Holy Empire of Whooping Your Ass
"Go to Hell"

UN Category: Corporate Police State
Civil Rights: Unheard Of
Economy: Thriving
Political Freedoms: Outlawed

Location: the West Pacific
The Holy Empire of Whooping Your Ass is a very large, devout nation, renowned for its compulsory military service. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 73 million are ruled with an iron fist by the corrupt, dictatorship government, which oppresses anyone who isn't on the board of a Fortune 500 company. Large corporations tend to be above the law, and use their financial clout to gain ever-increasing government benefits at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

The tiny, corrupt, moralistic, pro-business government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defence, and Religion & Spirituality. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 1%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Book Publishing, Woodchip Exports, and Gambling industries.

Military spending is on the increase, bicyclists are banned from major roads, young children are regularly seen wagering pocket money at blackjack tables, and political activists are routinely executed. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is relatively low, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Whooping Your Ass's national animal is the retarded vole, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the fetus.

The problem with simulations like this is that the options are really quite politically naive and the questions are so few and so limited in scope as to make any real map of the players intentions useless. All your actions and answers to the original questions and the supposed "dilemma's" posed, fit into the box the author, or authors, themselves have made. Civil rights equals preferential treatment for minorities? Come on. If you choose to adhere to a specific worldview within the sim, then why not just make the outcomes also adhere to the expectations that each worldview has for their own success? Because otherwise everything posed within the game is already in someone else's little box, which is already confined due to the small and rigid choices for worldviews.

I give it 10/10 stars for those people who think that all the worldviews can be summed up with a few multiple choice questions and extremely generalized "Government Style's".

Dude, it's a free game that some guy made in his spare time. You shouldn't really be all that surprised that it's not massively complex.

I give it 0/10 stars for people with ridiculous expectations that have a stick up their ass.

Ridiculous expectations? It is called "realistic expectations" for a so called nation builder that focuses on the political aspects of it. I pointed out some flaws within this specific game, wtf is wrong with that exactly? If you didn't want divergent opinions to a game you found interesting voiced, then you shouldn't have posted about the game here. You thought that it was "Kinda fun, and it requires little effort.", I went in and played it with no preconceptions and found some problems with it, that I voiced, that affected the game experience for me. Deal with it.

it gets old very quickly.

I posted a thread about it a couple of months ago.

If you check the faq, you'll see that your expectations weren't realistic. 30 total issues, results are intentionally exxagerated, its probably tilted towards his views(which is impossible to avoid) and so forth.

Anyways,

I played it a few months ago with friends in region we created. Queendom of Victoria or something. A girl made it and she was roleplaying as a tyrant or something. The only difference between blocking off your own region from the others is that you can message friends, instead of 1000s of random people in the South Pacific or wherever.

Anyways,

I got rid of cars, military,weapons(obviously), meat eaters,was super environmentalist and pro-freedom and gave freedom for everything else. Children gambling and cussing,(after they finished working?), people walking about nude and such. Drug use all about, I think. I don't remember the options.

My final stats were something like:

Nation: The free state of Lunengun
quote: I've forgotten

UN Category: Capitalizt(I believe it changed near the end, but I don't remember to what)
Monetary unit: Dollar =\
National bird or animal or whatever it was: Fopdillious Twip.

Civil Rights: average?
Economy: Excellent
Personal Freedom: World Benchmark

Thats all from my head, I'm sure some things were different.

Ends pretty quickly, but its interesting in the beginning.

Quote:

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Originally posted by rezo
If you check the faq, you'll see that your expectations weren't realistic. 30 total issues, results are intentionally exxagerated, its probably tilted towards his views(which is impossible to avoid) and so forth.

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Based on the information I was given and the appearance and self-portrayal of the website itself I was entirely justified in thinking that I wouldn't be so severely limited in my choices for worldview or hindered by the designers apparent lack of knowledge concerning worldviews. How hard would it have been to add whole lot more divergent governmental styles which would naturally lead to specific worldviews. I wasn't told to check out the FAQ's section before I played, and therefore had absolutely no reason to do so beforehand. These were MY expectations, and clearly I had realistic ones based on the knowledge I had at that time. And even after reading the FAQ I still have to say that I still would expect them to use a more thought out, accurate and diverse political structure to the game. It would take very little effort and restructuring to do so, and with the numbers of ready participants they have had it could have been done by now.

FAQs are there for people to understand the game or at least answer a set amount of questions the creator feels are relevant. Its on the front page. If you're forming expectations of it, you ought to check the source of information it provides, otherwise the associations you make to what you expect from the game and what it is might as well be random beyond the most basic principles.

Its like expecting Mortal Kombat II to be an in-depth fighter since it has the realistic graphics. If you'd check the booklet, you'd find that characters all fight using the same basic template(uppercut, roundhouse, standing jab) and only have a few specials. Sure, it would be better if they added to it, but thats not something you should expect from the game.

Quote:

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Originally posted by teenwolf
Based on the information I was given and the appearance and self-portrayal of the website itself I was entirely justified in thinking that I wouldn't be so severely limited in my choices for worldview or hindered by the designers apparent lack of knowledge concerning worldviews. How hard would it have been to add whole lot more divergent governmental styles which would naturally lead to specific worldviews. I wasn't told to check out the FAQ's section before I played, and therefore had absolutely no reason to do so beforehand. These were MY expectations, and clearly I had realistic ones based on the knowledge I had at that time. And even after reading the FAQ I still have to say that I still would expect them to use a more thought out, accurate and diverse political structure to the game. It would take very little effort and restructuring to do so, and with the numbers of ready participants they have had it could have been done by now.

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Wow. Well, erm, I guess you, like, won that one, didn't you? Yeeah. You the man.

*applauds*

*coughs*

*goes back to creating his nation*

Quote:

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Originally posted by arjue
I posted a thread about it a couple of months ago.

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Dammit! I did a search and everything.