Anyone Here on NS 2 ?

I was, but turgid issues and lack of...any sort of fun whatsoever mean I've not checked it for months.
 
I'm sort of on it. Meaning that I poke my nose in every few months to see if it still sucks. Judging from the latest news, its suckage is about to end. :P
 
Monday, 18 May, 2009 3:20 PM

Dear Rulers

As you know, NS2 launched in beta several months ago and has suffered from intermittent stability issues, mostly relating to the growing in-game economy, diplomatic networks and Alliance complexities. On July 1st, we are going to be taking the game down in order to perform substantial work on its architecture and features. This will not be a simple process and we are not able to give a definite timeline for when the game will return.

To ensure that players do not lose out because of this interruption, we will be turning off new registrations and payment options this week.

We regret having to take such extreme action but unfortunately, the underlying design of the game has several major flaws which must be addressed otherwise it will become irreversibly broken. As soon as we have new information, you'll be informed. In the meantime, perhaps we could interest you in Utopia Kingdoms? It's a game which is heavily based on the management of a kingdom and its associated economy and military. Certainly not a carbon copy of NS2 but hopefully something to get involved with until NS2 returns. This is a link just for NS2 players:

http://www.utopiakingdoms.com/?utm_source=...ampaign=NS2news

Regards

The NS2 Team
 
SWATH:
Monday, 18 May, 2009 3:20 PM

Dear Rulers

As you know, NS2 launched in beta several months ago and has suffered from intermittent stability issues, mostly relating to the growing in-game economy, diplomatic networks and Alliance complexities. On July 1st, we are going to be taking the game down in order to perform substantial work on its architecture and features. This will not be a simple process and we are not able to give a definite timeline for when the game will return.

To ensure that players do not lose out because of this interruption, we will be turning off new registrations and payment options this week.

We regret having to take such extreme action but unfortunately, the underlying design of the game has several major flaws which must be addressed otherwise it will become irreversibly broken. As soon as we have new information, you'll be informed. In the meantime, perhaps we could interest you in Utopia Kingdoms? It's a game which is heavily based on the management of a kingdom and its associated economy and military. Certainly not a carbon copy of NS2 but hopefully something to get involved with until NS2 returns. This is a link just for NS2 players:

http://www.utopiakingdoms.com/?utm_source=...ampaign=NS2news

Regards

The NS2 Team
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So it looks like NS 1 could be getting a shot in the arm from this
 
Actually, NS1 split from jolt a while ago. Any shot in the arm would come from Max and his team. Not Jolt/OMAC. They never seem to care about any of their games.
 
Krulltopia:
Actually, NS1 split from jolt a while ago. Any shot in the arm would come from Max and his team. Not Jolt/OMAC. They never seem to care about any of their games.
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Well any NS 1 players over there will encourage NS 2ers to come over here
 
Max's Take on this:

Wed, 20 May 2009

The Sad State of NationStates 2

by Max Barry

Jolt, developer of NationStates 2 and ex-host of this site, has announced the imminent shutdown of NationStates 2, with the game to go off the air indefinitely on July 1st, 2009.

I realize that last you heard, NationStates 2 was my baby, endorsed by me and financially supporting me and this site. So allow me to clear that up.

For months now, Jolt has been operating NationStates 2 without my authorization, profiting from my trademark, domain name, and original game design while paying me nothing. As you might expect, I've been less than thrilled about this. I haven't taken action to shut them down, though, as I didn't want NS2 players to be left in the lurch. NS2 is not my favorite game—parts of it are great, but as a whole it's a pale, deformed version of the game I designed—but some people are enjoying it, and are invested in their nations. So I've let it run, even though I feel pretty ripped about Jolt taking my work.

Now Jolt says that NS2 is closing, and "substantial work" will be performed on it, and eventually it may rise again in retooled form. I have no idea what this means, but I note that Jolt's strategy these days is all about herding players from less profitable games to more profitable ones. I was told to push players from NS1 to NS2; now NS2 players are being pushed onward to something else. The ultimate destination of this quest over burning bridges, I imagine, must surely be a game in which players compete to throw the most cash at Jolt.

I also note that Jolt's two flagship products are copies of other people's games with an unrelated brand name stuck on top: "Legends of Zork," for example, is a clone of Dragon Tavern, and has little to do with Zork, while "Utopia Kingdoms" is a rebadged Khan Wars that has little to do with Utopia. Other Jolt games, like Truckz (and, for a while, NationStates), were acquired from indy designers and Jolt's contribution has been to insert ads.

Which is fine; after all, Jolt is a business, albeit one that ignores my invoices. But this is not the kind of thing that implies a commitment to gameplay or community. So if I was a NationStates 2 player, I would not hold out much hope that this "substantial work," if it occurs, is for my benefit. I would guess it is more about developing exciting new ways to pay Jolt money. And I would not be surprised if any reworked NS2, if it does eventually emerge, turns out to be an entirely new game, copied from somewhere else, with a big brand name and no real connection to NationStates.

I've always said that if it ever became impossible for me to host NationStates, I'd release the source code for free. Because I'm not here to make money. Even when I created this game, back in 2002, I hoped it could help promote my novels, but a big reason for doing it was just because I thought it would be cool. And that's the main reason I run this site today: because we're a cool site, with a smart, quirky, sometimes prickly, and occasionally bizarre community, a style of debate and discussion you don't see anywhere else, and almost seven years of history.

We have millions of nations, and probably as many stories. Players here reminisce about regions that rose and fell, about Delegates who were betrayed, about alliances that were infiltrated, and ideological battles waged on the forum. I don't think Jolt gets that. I don't think they understand there's more to a game than its revenue—that games can become universes, and people live there. And that sincerely disappoints me, because I hoped NS2 could be something special.

NationStates—the original—is, thankfully, self-hosted these days. We have some plans, but our most important one is to not go anywhere. Thanks for sticking with us.
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Max really needs to get a few of us who have stuck with the game in on helping it evolve rather that just impliment the knee jerk "Fixes" to appease the weenies who like to gripe and demand deletions everytime someone doesn't sumbit to their stupidity.
 
I have - or better had - a nation in NS 2 which CTE'd some time ago. I felt the game was just a simple game, but too complex to play to feel myself comfortable in my personal "niche" without investing a lot of time.

So I am still here.
 
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