Nationstates
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Type of site
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Government simulation game |
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| Owner | Max Barry |
| Created by | Max Barry |
| Revenue | From advertising, paid premium memberships and encouraged book sales |
| Website | nationstates.net |
| Alexa rank |
 15,072 (June 2016[update]) |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Yes |
| Launched | 13 November 2002 |
| Current status | Active |
NationStates is a multiplayer government simulation browser game. It was created by Max Barry and was publicly released on 13 November 2002, based loosely on his novel Jennifer Government. Barry founded the site as an independent vehicle publicizing the book one week before its release. The site continues to promote books written by Barry.
In an interview, Max Barry said the influence for the game began with a questionnaire he took: "NationStates was influenced by a little political quiz I did once, where you answer a bunch of multiple-choice questions and have your politics categorized. [...] It was fun, but I also wanted to see what kind of country my policies created, and have to deal with the consequences."
Players set up their nation by answering a short questionnaire about their intentions for its economy, civil rights and political freedoms, giving it a name, a flag from current countries and territories or their own, a national animal, a currency, and an official motto. The player's response to the initial questionnaire defines the type of government they are running.
New nations appear in one of five main game regions (known in the game as "feeders") located in the NationStates version of the Pacific Ocean (The East, West, North, and South Pacific), but nations are able to move to other regions, or create their own. Nations that remain inactive and are resurrected are put into three "sinker" regions called Osiris, Balder, and Lazarus, all named after characters that purportedly rose from the dead. Nations ejected or banned from a region are moved to a region known as "The Rejected Realms".
Gameplay hinges on deciding government policies: four times each day the player is presented with an automatically assigned "issue", such as choosing whether to allow a right-wing protest march, or dealing with food shortages in their country. The player chooses a government stance from a list of options, or may choose to dismiss the problem. Each action or inaction affects the prosperity of the player's country, and may have unforeseen effects. For instance, granting greater political freedom may lead to more civil unrest. Some issues are written by the game's developers, while others are submitted by players. For the first 30 days of a nation's existence, only game-created issues can be answered, but after that period any approved issue can be answered. The player's responses to issues affect the nation's status in three main factors: the level of Political Freedoms and Civil Rights and the strength of the Economy. As of March 24, 2016, users have developed 500 issues to be used in game.
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