the only way

Fulhead Land

Fulhead Land

TNPer
This may not spark any discussion but its been my viewpoint for a while so I may as well share.

The game startd to decline years ago. It became apparant there was to be no NS two years ago. NS continued because of a vibrant group of players who continually launched into conflicts. the game needed the conflicts to survive, as any game like this does.

However, as has been said, the Admins and the owner of the game no longer really care. Others still did for a long while. Jasque is an excellent example. People kept on trying, making economic calculators and such like.

The admins though, wouldnt incorporate. Had they decided to join together with the better of these projects NS could be revived and changed. It may well be too late now but my proposals would be such:

1) The current admins should be petitioned to code and incorporate existing codes into the game.

2) If, as is very likely, that is refused, they should be petitioned to allow others to take over the administration of the game.

3) If again thats a no, then NS should become open source. Allow a concerted effot by a group of the remaining faithfull to take NS and recreate it. Create a community-improved game that can carry on, fresh and new but still Nationstates.
 
Forgive my ignorance, but how would an open source game work? would there be lots of versions of NS out there, or would NS be like WIKI, constantly changing as people tinkered? And how would we stop some 14 year old with terminal acne crashing the game for fun?
 
Open source still requires a dedicated team of admins to approve changes and whatnot. How would you import NS data to that new game, or would it be a wholly new game?
 
They would never make it opensource. There would be no ad-revenue for Max Barry.
 
Max gets no direct revenue from NationStates, the only ads advertise his book and go away if you buy his books through the link from Amazon.

It's an interesting, but I disagree that the game is dying, stagnating maybe but not dying.
 
Max cannot need the ads that much as he allows half of us to opt out anyway.

A mix of old and new admins could handle the game, but allowing people to design new sections would mean a constantly refreshing game
 
His name is Pythagosaurus, he is just Sal's deputy who he helps out and gives advice and opinions on new ideas on the NationStates Technical forum.

I believe the NationStates Featured Region was implemented by him.
 
Before I came to the Delegacy in Lazarus, we were pushing the admins to allow for war-zone style ejections. Didn't go over well. Maybe they were lazy.
 
This is an intriguing idea but the key is that we don't actually need the NS code; it's best to code a new database-driven game from scratch.

Perhaps I'll make a thread about that...
 
Not true ... there are on the scene working hard to improve ... oops! wait a minute ... that's Cyber Nations ... never mind.
 
TAO:
Not true ... there are on the scene working hard to improve ... oops! wait a minute ... that's Cyber Nations ... never mind.
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That's because Cybernations is new and fresh.

When Max made the game all those years, the news page was always being updating and the game being tweake constantly. But since the game has settled and Max has got slightly tired of spending his time working on codes, updates has been few and far between. It will happen to Cybernations sometime.

I think a new, experienced and well-known admin team would be a great idea. Make it avaliable for everyone to edit? Hell no.
 
I don't think it will happen as quickly with cybernations at it did with NS. Keep in mind CN is there to make money (as odd as it seems) from merchandising. They need to keep changing the game.

Either way you put it, there are always ways to add things and improve NS in major ways. The admins and mods just don't want to and should be fired if they don't want to do their jobs.

And as much as I know your trying FH that idea is horrid. An open code, even if it had to be admin approved, would be a total pain in the ass. I think most players like change ever once in a while, perhaps once every 3-6 months. If your idea went through, even if it was possible, the game would be too fluid, change too much, and be very confusing.
 
That's a cop out, BW. WE (the collective of NS players) make the game what it is. WE force the game's tech team to make changes to the game because WE push it to the limits and create nuances that Max and his crew never considered. If WE can think outside the box again and create another in-game rules stretch, the tech team will have to respond ... good or bad ... at least we get them off their butts.
 
This is true...its been proven that extreme interpretations of the rules have given rise to all sorts of changes, like a limit to the number of nations that can be banned at once, or the creation of influence.

The only problem is...I can't think of a way to push the rules to the limit :blink:

Can't I just bitch at the Admins until they add something new?
 
the game wouldnt change that quickly but by allowing the community to create new features the game can improve if lazy admins dont care anymore. Not every idea would have to be implemented only the best ones
 
I think it can be very easy to just blame the admins. Part of the reason for stagnation, within this region and NS as a whole, is an unwillingness to alter the status quo, an unwillingness to change for fear of what it might bring, the placing of "stability" above activity, above dynamism, above -as TAO said- DRAMA. And this ultimately, inevitably, leads to stagnation.

As has been said many times, this game- like life- requires the stimulus of change to keep it active, to keep it interesting and to keep it alive. The stagnation within the game has as much to do with the systems which have been created and maintained by the players, the old oligarchies, as it does with admin and the general game structure.
 
Fulhead Land:
the game wouldnt change that quickly but by allowing the community to create new features the game can improve if lazy admins dont care anymore. Not every idea would have to be implemented only the best ones
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If the NS admins are by definition lazy, what makes you think the work overseeing and approving code changes would be welcomed?

I've long thought that once this game served its original purpose (book promotion) that those in charge have wished we'd just go away.
 
Indeed Blackshear, which may be why its time for some of them to hand over the reigns.

And HC, I do agree conflict is the reason the game remained interesting for so long.

But conflict alos tires people and the fighters have all tired of it. And as the game is quite tecnologicaly basic, there isnt the influx of new players for the game to carry on.
 
Zemnaya Svoboda:
Blackbird:
They would never make it opensource.  There would be no ad-revenue for Max Barry.
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What adrevenue?
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There is ad-revenue.

A minor one, and a major one.

Minor: people buy the books.

Major: he can always sell this game. If someone changed the ad-revenue, that person would get a lot of money. By making the game open-source, he looses that sell-out opportunity.
 
Here's a question, would a sell out be good or bad? I mean, clearly Max likes the game enough to keep it thus far but I'm sure he thinks it's well past the value of it's worth. If he does sell out the guy he is selling to will want to attract more players because more players means more money he can charge for ads. And in order to get new players he needs to improve the game...
 
That would depend on the buyer. If the buyer wants to directly charge for NS, that could be bad. Or if the buyer took NS in a direction that many of the players didn't want to go.
 
I say hands down good.

If the buyer is buying, they're buying for the audience, for the ad potential, not because it's a good game. If they're buying for ad potential, then they'll want to increase the ad potential, and that means making the game not crappy.
 
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