Political simulator NationStates

(Note about the science fiction hub. Usually we associate with science fiction all sorts of fantastic technical devices, such as teleporters and starships. However, the structure of society itself can be sci-fi, for political science, sociology and economics are also science, and society itself is the same artifact, as well as the items produced by him .On this logic, Orwell's story "1984" is a model of science fiction.)

Do you think politics is very boring? If so, I can advise you on the simulator of the policy of NationStates.net , which is able to arouse interest in politics even among citizens who are in political lethargy. This is a little-known game in RuNet, so I decided to write a review. NationStates will show you that politics is very interesting!
')
Disadvantages:

In order to avoid unnecessary resentment, I write right from the door about the shortcomings. NationStates does not suit you if ...

• You do not know English well or you do not have enough patience to constantly use the dictionary. There is no translation into other languages ​​and it is not planned, because too much text will have to be translated. However, if you learn English, then this can turn into an advantage, you can replenish your vocabulary during the game and chat on the forum.
• You want to be able to win and lose. In the game you can neither lose nor win. Even your most idiotic actions will not drive the country into a coffin. The loss of the country as a result of military defeat does not threaten you either. Although statistical information on your country will show that life in your country is far from sugar.
• You want a game for which you need a lot of free time. NationStates is most suitable for busy people who can not spend hours chopping into WoW.
• You want a lot of beautiful graphics, and in 3D. NationStates does not shine with beautiful graphics, and there is no 3D at all.
• You like games with a rich plot. NationStates has no plot. Totally.
• If you are too serious and expect hyper-realistic. Humor is often found in NationStates (although not too often), and even before the completely realistic political simulator of NationStates as to the stars.

History and Business Model of NationStates

NationStates was created by Max Barry as an advertisement for his book Jennifer Government. However, at the moment there are ads on the site and his other books. Advertising is not intrusive, even by my picky standards. You can also buy a Supporter badge at a local store , which is in fact a donation to the site, plus a few other goodies that have no effect on the gameplay.

How I found NationStates

It was evening, I did my homework in English. As part of this homework, I became interested in the difference between the words Internationalism and Cosmopolitanism. Google unexpectedly told me that this question, in his opinion, is best understood on the iron March fascist website.

I have long tried to find some fascist site, but for some reason I never managed to find anything worthwhile. I decided to take advantage of my luck, and decided to ask a local question about a totalitarian state that my friend invented. I was wondering whether this state is attractive from the point of view of fascism. And if not, why not. The reaction was extremely hostile. For this question, as well as my anime avatar, I was called an autistic person, a drug addict and just an untermensh. During the correspondence, I accidentally discovered that I could like my post. This caused additional criticism; in my experiment with the interface, they immediately saw narcissism. Before I was banned, one of the locals gave me a link to NationStates, advising me to join other autists playing this political simulator and no longer disturb serious uncles. So I found NationStates.

Creating your country

This process is simple, so I will not describe it in detail, but some nuances need to be considered.

First, you MUST provide your email address, otherwise you risk permanently losing your country if you forget the password. The pace of development of countries is very slow, so it will be very sad to lose a country that has been pumped for several months.

Secondly, in NationStates all countries are divided into 27 categories :


A country can move from one category to another, but it can be a long and difficult process. If you want your country to be in a certain category from its very foundation, then you should best use the ideological test guide .

Thirdly, if you intend to create several countries that will be compared with each other, I advise you to create them in one category in advance, so that you can see how much their paths diverge.

Fourthly, if you are a supporter of the principle “everything that is not directly prohibited - is permitted”, then I suggest starting with Anarchy, as with the system that is as free as possible from any restrictions. Thus, all restrictions that will only be in the country will be a direct result of your legislation. That is, you will avoid the fact that things that you did not explicitly prohibit will be prohibited.

If you are a supporter of the principle that “everything that is not directly permitted is prohibited”, then start with Psychotic Dictatorship as from the “squeezed” system. All subsequent freedoms will be a direct result of your actions.

Fifth, avoid using the swastika in your flag, this is prohibited by the rules.
I can advise you to use the allowed triskelion instead of the swastika.

Legislative activities with examples of Zeroth Reich, Liberal Church, Really Stateless Nation, Lawyer Suicide and Crazy Free Lands

The whole game actually comes down to creating new laws, changing / canceling old ones and analyzing the consequences of these actions. I created many different countries in NationStates, let's consider this process from the perspective of different countries.

Where's The Love Gone?

The issue
Last night the TV show “60 Minutes” tabulated report on @@ NAME @@ 's rising divorce rate. What is happening to the nuclear family?

The debate
1. “There's a simple solution,” says Pastor Felix, of the Catholic Church. “Divorce should be illegal. 'For better or worse,' anyone remember how that goes? We’re not going to be so much the hardest, ”he said.

2. John the Black, author of the hit book, 'Men are from Mars',' has a simpler solution. “If you’re a couple of breakdowns. A little affection is all it takes. It should not be a problem: "Your darling should be called".

3. “There's a way to boost your marriage rate,” says gay rights activist @@ RANDOMNAME @@. “Abolish those archaic laws that discriminate against same-sex marriages. It is an obscene to treat people preference. Besides, everyone knows more than straight ones.

Positions of different countries:

• Crazy Free Lands in decision making is always guided by the result of the work of a random number generator. In this case, a number from 1 to 3 will be generated. For example, if 1 is dropped, the divorce will be prohibited.
• As its ideology, Zeroth Reich has a rather specific version of fascism, which the locals call “eco-fascism”. The country is under the management of a collective of rulers, the so-called Green Sector. They solve all the issues collectively, have a wild IQ and are completely committed to the interests of society. In this case, the Green Sector will decide to allow same-sex marriages in order to undermine the institution of the family. The green sector considers the family institution a relic of the past and believes that in the near future the production and upbringing of children will look like in the book “About the Brave New World” by Huxley. This explains the unusual, for the fascist regime, tolerance for homosexuals. In fact, why worry about the fact that the spread of homosexuality will lead to a decrease in the birth rate, if soon the production of children will go on industrial rails? This decision will lead to the fact that we get the message "same-sex marriages are increasingly common" and the statistics will change. For example, the level of civil rights will increase.
• Liberal Church was conceived as the opposite of Zeroth Reich. When making decisions, the country tries to choose the worst, in terms of Zeroth Reich, options. Sometimes this leads to funny consequences, such as a ban on heterosexual military service or forced nudism for all women. In this case, Liberal Church will opt for option number 1. After implementing the law, we will receive the message „divorce is illegal“, as well as a strong drop in the level of civil rights.
• Really Stateless Nation is a dictatorship that disguises itself as anarchy. The ruler lets everything and everything drift. In this case, this means pressing the "Dismiss This Issue" button, because all options require active actions by the state. As a result, this Issue will not affect the country's statistics in any way, as if it never existed. The only thing that changes is the size of the population. Each time, the population becomes more and more, regardless of your legislative activity.

Another example:

The issue
At the same time, it’s correcting the situation.

The debate
1. “@@ NAME @@ 's prisons are in a ghastly state,“ says @@ RANDOMNAME @@, representative for several large businesses. “The state now pays a fortune in @@ CURRENCY @@ s each day for every prisoner. It is much less than what you have to pay. It is up to you to be able to get it.

2. “This is just another scheme by the nation in a corporate dictatorship!” Claims @@ RANDOMNAME @@, of the United States of America. „Just say NO to privatized prisons. We should be closing them away anyway! “

3. “Private prisons ?! Rehabilitation ?! How utterly ridiculous! “Exclaims @@ RANDOMNAME @@, @@ NAME @@ 's toughest police officer. “These resources will be the scum of society. I’m saying that we can’t summarily execute all violent criminals. ”

• Lawyer Suicide in this case will choose the introduction of private prisons, and here's why: Lawyer Suicide was originally created by my friend. He has a law degree and the country was initially conceived as a place of legal mayhem, a place where all laws would be taken contrary to the general logic of legal thought. Then he abandoned this country and handed it to me. I, in turn, decided to use Lawyer Suicide in order to look for possible flaws / bugs in the game engine. And I did it ! As can be seen from the link, Lawyer Suicide is business-friendly, it has private prisons and private fire stations, despite the fact that the country has a 100% planned economy and all business activities are prohibited by law. And as if this was not enough, Lawyer Suicide managed to get the Capitalist Paradise category for a high level of economic freedoms, as well as to break into the top 10% of countries with the most pro-market economy. In general, Lawyer Suicide mercilessly tears up the templates of the game engine.
  

There are also Issue-chains. This means that the introduction of a certain law will allow to introduce another law. For example, in the Isssue called "Child Casino Shock", the ban on gambling will make Issue "Gambling Interests Offer High Stakes" available, where a total ban on gambling can be replaced by an age limit for players.

Be prepared for the implications of your laws to be quite non-trivial. For example, after the shooting of the homeless was introduced into Zeroth Reich, the population happiness index increased. Why? Apparently, this index is calculated from the ratio of the percentage of categories “unhappy citizens” to “happy citizens”. Homeless people are considered unhappy and therefore a decrease in the number of homeless people leads to a decrease in the number of unhappy citizens, which in turn increases the happiness index. That is, the happiness index can increase not only because there are more happy people, but also because there are fewer unhappy ones.

Examples of my countries in NationStates

Here I want to give examples of the most interesting countries that I personally created in NationStates.

• Zeroth Reich. That was my firstborn. As I have already said, this is an oligarchy (not to be confused with the power of the rich!) Whose ideology is ecofascism. As the name suggests, my players took great care of the ecology, it was their fixed idea. However, they are still interesting because they strive to break many patterns about fascism and I still have doubts, but are they really fascists? Or are they like a Cheburashka, a beast still unknown to science, which chose the term “fascism” simply because of the absence of more appropriate words? It makes you think more deeply about what “fascism” is.
  
  Here is a sample list of torn templates, if anyone is interested:

  • Racism Racism in Zeroth Reich is punishable. Up to the political correctness enshrined at the legislative level and the Nazis' departure to the concentration camp. The green sector considers racism to undermine the unity of the nation.
  • Homophobia . It is significant that the first law, which was issued in Zeroth Reich, dealt with RESOLUTION of same-sex marriage. The reason for this tolerance of homosexuals is that the Green Sector was able to transfer production of the population to industrial rails, a la Huxley, Brave New World. As a result, even if it is assumed that homosexuality is an informational virus (which still needs proof), and it is extremely infectious, then society will not be threatened with extinction, since all citizens are so sterilized.
  • Attitude towards women . Zeroth Reich is pretty feminist for the fascist country. Although men and women are recognized to be UNEQUAL, but in most cases it is considered that this difference can be neglected.
    A woman can actively participate in society, her role is by no means reduced to a royal machine and a housewife.
  • Relationship to the institution of the family . Usually, the fascist regimes vehemently advocated "family values", but in Zeroth Reich the family institution was, in fact, destroyed. Instead, the family institute has been replaced by donating sperm and eggs, while the army is engaged in raising children from early nails. Why all this? The green sector believes that upbringing in a family makes it difficult to make children of true patriots of their country, they will be accustomed to think in the framework of serving the interests of a narrow circle of their relatives. In the framework of this approach, the maximum deregulation of marriage was carried out, as a result of which not only same-sex marriages became possible, but also polyandry with polygamy.
  • Traditionalism . Although the fascist regimes position themselves in the traditionalist manner, Zeroth Reich immediately sends traditionalism to hell. The green sector considers itself entitled to issue any laws that it deems necessary, regardless of any traditions, neither its own nor those of others. For example, animal hunting was banned, although supporters of it were appealing to a long tradition.
  • Totalitarianism . In theory, Zeroth Reich is a totalitarian state, for the Green Sector has absolute power. In practice, the Green Sector is guided by the principle “that it is not prohibited, it is allowed” and does not prohibit its citizens from doing anything without a sufficiently weighty reason, as a result of which, surprisingly, many things are permitted to citizens. If a certain activity is not directly related to politics, economy or the environment, then there is a very high chance that this is permitted.
  • Eugenics . Zeroth Reich practices eugenics. However, unlike the Third Reich, Zeroth Reich is sufficiently humane and developed to do without murder. Instead, the case is limited to abortion and the selection of the best genetic material before the stage of fertilization, with the result that the eugenics in Zeroth Reich is extremely civilized and humane. Plus, the knowledge of human physiology in Zeroth Reich is high enough to prevent the accidental abortion of another Beethoven or Stephen Hawking, so in some cases people are still allowed to be born with defects if there is a chance that this will be compensated by other genes.
  • Leaderism . There is no leaderism simply because there is no Leader. The Green Sector is a team of equal individuals, inside it there is no hierarchy or leaders that are particularly distinguished by their charisma. If there is a cult in Zeroth Reich, then it is most likely a cult of a collective, and not a cult of personality.
  • Repression . The Green Sector resorts to repressions relatively seldom, only one concentration camp operates in the whole country. It all boils down to the fact that not particularly smart citizens have been thoroughly brainwashed by propaganda, and intellectuals understand that the government of the Green Sector is indeed optimal for the country. It's like mathematics, all people who know mathematics well enough, when solving the equation x-2 = 0, will come to the conclusion that x = 2. With the same inevitability, intellectuals come to the conclusion that the Green Sector with its ideology is a boon to the country.

• Really Stateless Nation is a dictatorship that "mows down" under anarchy, letting things run its course. For example, if scientists ask for money for research, they must be denied. Why? Imagine that there is actually no state, although scientists believe that it exists. Will a non-existent state give money for research? Of course not, it does not exist! In general, it turns out a certain analogue of deism, when God seems to be there, but acts as if it does not exist.
  
  An interesting consequence of this imitative anarchy is the overdeveloped market. In theory, in a healthy country, the market and the state complement each other, it's like two legs. You will not all the time rely on one leg? Although some have tried, the late USSR among them. In Really Stateless Nation, the inaction of the state led to a super-developed market that is trying to at least crookedly, but at least somehow fill the vacuum that has arisen. For example, private fire stations and private prisons operate in the country, and corporations are in charge of the country's defense.

• Supervirus. Once the thought came to me: my Zeroth Reich has as its goal environmental friendliness. In other words, it is a society that is hyper-ecologically responsible. What if we take another problem (thanks to Ebola for inspiration): epidemics? Take a society that was initially very liberal, which so often and severely suffered from epidemics of various superviruses, that their self-transformation was such a self-transformation so as to minimize the chance of infection and maximize the chances of recovery of the sick at ANY PRICE. Even if the reduction in the chance of infection is insignificant, the other negative effects of the reform are enormous. So the country "Supervirus" appeared.
  
  The consequences of such an attitude for those interested in:

  1. Using electronic money a la Webmoney as a national currency. Physical money is generally a dangerous object from the point of view of hygiene, because it passes through many hands. But thanks to electronic money, the problem is solved radically. And unlike the memorable Bitcoin, Webmoney is a centralized system.
  
  2. I first wanted to ban the elections, because there is a crowd on the elections. This increases the chance of spreading the infection. But then I came to the conclusion that since the country is so advanced that it can use e-currency everywhere, then elections can be easily replaced with e-voting.
  
  3. And here with the Church came an uncomfortable situation. If you are a believer, then you must visit the temple physically from time to time, especially during major religious holidays like Easter. As a result, the deep anti-clerical nature of this society.
  
  4. Tamagochi as a national animal. It is due to the fact that all the inhabitants, instead of the usual animals, hold all sorts of animal-like robots and electronic pets a la Tamagotchi. They certainly can not catch the infection even with all the desire. In zoos, there are robots imitating real animals.
  
  5. Marijuana, tobacco and alcohol under strict prohibition, because the use of these reduces immunity.
  
  6. The fight against poverty. Poor people live in conditions of worse hygiene, so there will be a serious struggle to improve the welfare of the people by any means, including through Sharikovsky “take everything away and divide” and mass executions of homeless people. Inheritance is subject to taxes and restrictions, so that the rich may inherit only a fraction of their wealth. Equal pay for men and women.
  
  7. Bowing hatred of nature. Good nature is dead nature, any animal is a potential spreader of diseases. Ideally, residents of Supervirus would prefer to move to the moon or another lifeless and inhospitable celestial body. But since it will be very expensive and not soon, they prefer to turn the Earth itself into such a body.
  
  8. Compulsory universal veganism at first. Reducing the risk of abandoning livestock in general and as a result of livestock products in particular. Although this is a very controversial point, because immunity may decrease due to such nutrition, however, I assume that in the future they will be more than able to compensate for this with GMO plants and meat grown in vitro
  
  9. The death penalty. Just in case you need to kill the infected.
  
  10. The system of universal observation a la "Big Brother". It is useful for identifying infected people and for identifying everyone with whom the infected person has been in contact.
  
  11. Complete disruption of bioethics in the name of the development of medicine, in particular, experiments on human embryos.
  
  12. Euthanasia is permitted. Even if a person dies NOT from an infection, his immunity is significantly weakened. He may die from cancer, but during his slow dying he can become infected, and then he can infect the people around him. Therefore, if he decides to die voluntarily ahead of time, then this decision must be fully embraced, because it will reduce the chances of others to become infected.
  
  13. Multiplicity is allowed. Because of this, if a devastating epidemic takes place that takes more men than women, it will be easier for the population to recover.
  
  14. Closed borders. Immigrants from other countries receive a lapel turn, because they can be carriers of an exotic infection from which the locals do not have immunity and / or vaccines.
  
  15. A very developed public health system. No comments.
  
  16. Hostility to the outside world. Preoccupation with infections leads to such aggressive militarism that the Third Reich, with its theories about the superiority of the Aryan race, has never dreamed of. Other countries that are at least a little less concerned about infections are perceived by Supervirus residents as factories producing non-stop contagion. No slavery, no colonization - only total anigilation of all life, from old people and children to ants and grasshoppers.
  
  17. Replacing all physical books with e-books. The reason is the same as for switching to electronic money.
  
  18. General sterilization and prohibition of sex. Reproduction occurs artificially, children are grown in laboratories (these are NOT clones).
  
  19. (Based on two different Issue). Aliens tried to make contact, but the authorities decided to refuse to establish contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. “God forbid these aliens re-infect everyone with their own infections!” There are many UFO eyewitnesses, but the state hides and denies everything.
  
  20. , . .
  
  21. - , .
  
  22. . , , . , , , . , , . Supervirus.
  
  23. ( ), /, . . (, -, ). , , „ “, ( , ).
  
  24. (, ) - .
  
  25. , , .
  
  26. — . , .
  
  27. , ( - ). , . , , , Supervirus .
  
  28. ( , - ) .
  
  29. . : / - . , .
  
  30. .
  
  31. , .
  
  32. , .
  
  33. . // — .
  

World Assembly

World Assembly . World Assembly , General Assembly Security Council. General Assembly - WA ( WA) . „“ „“, - WA. , . , WA , .



The Security Council also issues resolutions that are accepted / rejected by voting. The Security Council has four functions:

1.Condemn (condemn) a certain region or country. The convicted country / region receives the corresponding badge.


2.Commend (praise) a certain region or country. The country / region receives the corresponding icon.


3.Liberate (release) a certain region. If the resolution is adopted, then the password protection (if it was) is removed from this region for the duration of the resolution. As a result, the region is open to invasion.


4. Cancellation of resolutions. By the way, the General Assembly can also cancel adopted resolutions.


. -, NationStates , WA, .

-, Issue „World Assembly Woes“. Issue , WA.


(. .)

. , . „“ , . . , .

, , . ? , NationStates .

, : Founder. WA Delegate - World Assembly, . - WA, . ( „The Rejected Realms“), , , , , . Founder , WA Delegate …

• Founder .
• Founder . , , .
• Founder WA Delegate. , WA Delegate .

, WA Delegate Founder. . WA Delegate . , WA Delegate , , . . Regional Influence ( Influence).

, Influence, WA Delegate. Influence, Influence , Influence WA Delegate , .

Influence :

• , Influence. Influence . , Influence . , , .
• , Influence . WA Delegate , . WA Delegate .
  

, , . . .

, , :

• Influence Influence .
• WA .
• .
• WA Delegate, .

The seizure of the region is called raiding, the raiders in turn are divided into krasherov, imperialists, vandals and defandors, they differ in their goals. The purpose of the Kresherov is to simply destroy the region, the imperialists seek to get the region in their permanent possession, the vandals aim to spoil the blood of the local, after the vandals the residents can return to the region, the defandors enter the region occupied by other types of raiders to help the local in the fight against the invading forces, their target is counter-invasion.

The simplest example of raiding:

There is a small, open to invasion region. In case of invasion, there is no place to wait. A group of vandals agrees on his capture. Each aggressor country is a member of WA. During the update (the choice of any other moment is fraught with the fact that the WA Delegate local will roll out and ban the countries of the aggressors long before their votes for the new WA Delegate are counted), they all move from their region to the victim region and vote for their leader , which soon becomes the WA Delegate, for the votes of the vandals are greater than the local ones for the current WA Delegate. The newly-emerged WA Delegate vandalizes the flag and the factbook of the region, throws out all the locals, and then returns home with his gang. Moving away from the shock, the locals also return home and restore the flag and the fact book of the region.

An example is more complicated:

A group of imperialists invades an update on a medium-sized region, which turns out to be open for invasion due to the "dead" Founder. The seizure of power took place easily, because despite its size, only a small percentage of the votes of local residents were given over to the current WA Delegate. The imperialist WA Delegate pays a password to the region and begins to kick out all the inhabitants. However, since the region is large enough, it is impossible to throw out all at once. In addition, there were many old-timers in the region, which slowed down the process even more. As a result, it took enough time for the local people to go on the counterattack and vote for the old-timers with the greatest Influence. The imperialist WA Delegate realizes that it can’t do without help, as a result of which it temporarily removes the password from the region. The help comes, but along with the help, the diffandra are leaking into the region. As a result of fierce battles with local and difenderami imperialist forces win. The region is almost cleared of residents, the imperialist WA Delegate will soon leave the region, pre-passport it. The region will be automatically destroyed by the next update, as a result of which the imperialists will be able to create a region with that name and already with their own, imperialist Founder, which will protect it from invasion. However, it was not there that a Founder of the region appears, which, like Phoenix, has risen from the ashes! Residents of the region apparently were able to find a player who owned Founder and he in turn "resurrected" him. Founder threw the current WA Delegate out of the region, restored the factbutton flag, unparted the region, and turned off the option to select WA Delegate in the region settings. Dictatorship replaced democracy, but now residents can not be afraid of invasion.

Life example:

There was a region Nazi Europe. Residents of other regions did not like him for two things: the active raider seizure of other regions and his ideology. The Nazi Europe residents knew about this, so they set a password for their region in order to avoid a possible invasion. In turn, their enemies dragged the resolution "Liberate Nazi Europe" to the Security Council, where it was approved by a majority vote. In general, as the name implies, in theory such resolutions should be used to liberate the regions from invaders, for the good of the locals. However, in this case, the Security Council decided to “free” the region from the local residents. As a result, the residents of Nazi Europe were forced to abandon the raider activity and throw all their forces to protect their home region. Nazi Europe defenders began to bombard the Security Council with the abolition of the “Liberate Nazi Europe” resolution. Perhaps tired of their perseverance, and maybe even for some reason, but the resolution was canceled and the region was able to re-establish the password. However, the invading forces were able to find out the password. As a result, a coalition of invasion forces from Osiris, Balder, Equilism, Europe, The Lone Wolves United, The Black Hawks, The Red Fleet, United Kingdom, Sicarius, Mazeria, The MT Army, Kantrias and North Korea were able to capture the region. The region was re-founded by invasion forces, as a result of which the residents lost access to it forever and were forced to create a new Nazi Europa region for themselves. It was one of the largest raider operations in the history of NationStates.

PS
In conclusion, I want to write that this is only a superficial description of the most basic, in my opinion, features of NationStates. Be prepared for the fact that in reality everything will be more complicated and, possibly, more interesting than I described in the article.