On July 14th, the North Pacific Army and the United Imperial Armed Forces refounded the region of Nazi Europe (NE), successfully concluding an occupation that had been ongoing for six weeks. The operation involved a coalition of militaries from Equilism, Europeia, The East Pacific, Lone Wolves United, The Black Hawks, The Red Fleet, Unknown, The Kingdom of Great Britain, Sicarius, Mazeria, The MT Army, Kantrias and North Korea; and was one of the largest in recent gameplay history, with an endorsement count exceeding 80 at its peak. As the seemingly last in a series of high-profile interregional incidents involving NE, the refounding provides an opportunity to look back at the events that lead to this conclusion.
In February 2013, representatives from game-created regions participated in a summit organized by the New Pacific Order, with the purpose of coordinating their efforts against Nazism in NationStates. The summit produced and successfully passed a Security Council liberation proposal targeting the notorious, but also founderless and password-protected, region of NE, with the explicit intent of opening it up for invasion. Several attacks against NE took place afterwards, though none of them were successful. The SC eventually repealed the NE liberation in February 2014, and the region was passworded once more. However, the reuse of an older password by the NE delegate meant that invasion was feasible once more, leading to the eventual refounding.
Both the NE liberation and offensive military action against NE, as well as Nazi regions in general, have been the subject of considerable controversy. Those opposing anti-Nazi aggression have argued that it has the opposite of the intended effect, in a twofold manner: First, rather than demoralize those espousing Nazi beliefs, counterintuitively it increases their resolve and their dedication towards spreading their ideology. Second, it unnecessarily draws attention to Nazi regions, offering them a convenient means for recruitment - essentially an “any PR is good PR” argument.1
To support these arguments, commentators have offered data showing an increase in the total population of a number of Nazi regions starting in February 2013 and persisting until 2014. The coincidence of the beginning of this rise with the passage of the NE liberation is evidence, they argue, that the liberation and subsequent attacks made Nazi players more determined to grow their regions and benefitted their recruitment efforts. This, however, is a very weak causal link. The rise of these regions’ populations can be easily attributed to another development: the release, in February 2013, of the Telegram API and legalisation of telegramming scripts for recruitment. Indeed, this author has received automated recruitment telegrams from many of these Nazi regions as soon as March 2013 - and notably none of those telegrams made reference or even alluded to either the NE liberation or any of the other SC resolutions condemning Nazi regions. The positive effects such scripts had on the population of small- and mid-size regions, especially before the introduction of stamps in August 2013, is well-documented. The fact that the population data can be trivially explained by the introduction of recruitment scripts means that this data has very little, if any, persuasive force for the commentators’ arguments.
A data point more relevant for evaluating the effects of anti-Nazi aggression would be the following: For the 12 months the liberation of NE was in effect, the region was protected by a strong garrison of more than 20 WA units. With perhaps the majority of their troops stuck inside NE for a whole year, the offensive operational capability of Nazi regions was crippled. In turn, this resulted in a reduction of destructive Nazi attacks against regions, with most of their operations limited to tag raids of few units. Unsurprisingly, the repeal of the liberation also saw the return of large-scale Nazi deployments, for instance in Liberal Haven in March 2014. A similar effect was observed in June 2014, when a coalition of Nazi regions abandoned their occupation of Hell to protect NE. What these two cases highlight is that the creation of credible threats through anti-Nazi aggression is tremendously effective in halting the forceful expansion of the Nazi ideology in other regions.
The publicity Nazi regions get from aggression against them should likewise be evaluated with respect to the objective of halting the spread of the Nazi ideology in NationStates. It has been documented, in the past and also in this article, that Nazi regions systematically attempt to recruit new nations, and through that process expose new players to their hateful message. Consider, then, a naive new player who is a considering a recruitment offer from a Nazi region; the presence of WA documents condemning it and the conspicuous mobilization of some of the most important regions in the game against it both serve as educational resources informing the player not to accept the offer. They also serve as strong warnings for regions considering associating themselves with Nazi regions. In their absence, and in an era where everyone can easily reach every new nation, or even every nation, in the game, Nazi regions would be completely unimpeded to expand their recruitment efforts, with the rest of the world watching in apathy. It is important to caution against turning these actions of anti-Nazi aggression into celebrations of notoriety, which indeed can be exploited for recruitment purposes. However, systematic and carefully crafted messages opposing Nazism, broadcasted to the NS world by its major regions, can only help to defeat the spread of this ideology in NationStates.
The coordinated action by gameplay regions against Nazi regions has been dubbed by commentators the “War on Nazis”. In many ways this is an inaccurate designation: It is not a war in the usual diplomatic sense used in NS Gameplay. It is certainly not analogous to the real War against Nazism, and to liken our inconsequential gameplay to that War is an offensive trivialization. What it actually is is a cause: against the celebration of a horrendous ideology, against the proliferation of this ideology within the NS community, and against the exploitation of this community to proselytize people to this ideology. What the efforts against Nazi Europe have shown is that anti-Nazi aggression from gameplay regions can be of immense utility to this cause. For this reason, The North Pacific is elated to have led and successfully concluded these efforts, and remains committed to the cause against Nazism in NationStates.
1Another source of opposition is from players, primarily defender-leaning, who oppose all kinds of invading activity - but this line of reasoning is unrelated to this article and will not be discussed here.
In February 2013, representatives from game-created regions participated in a summit organized by the New Pacific Order, with the purpose of coordinating their efforts against Nazism in NationStates. The summit produced and successfully passed a Security Council liberation proposal targeting the notorious, but also founderless and password-protected, region of NE, with the explicit intent of opening it up for invasion. Several attacks against NE took place afterwards, though none of them were successful. The SC eventually repealed the NE liberation in February 2014, and the region was passworded once more. However, the reuse of an older password by the NE delegate meant that invasion was feasible once more, leading to the eventual refounding.
Both the NE liberation and offensive military action against NE, as well as Nazi regions in general, have been the subject of considerable controversy. Those opposing anti-Nazi aggression have argued that it has the opposite of the intended effect, in a twofold manner: First, rather than demoralize those espousing Nazi beliefs, counterintuitively it increases their resolve and their dedication towards spreading their ideology. Second, it unnecessarily draws attention to Nazi regions, offering them a convenient means for recruitment - essentially an “any PR is good PR” argument.1
To support these arguments, commentators have offered data showing an increase in the total population of a number of Nazi regions starting in February 2013 and persisting until 2014. The coincidence of the beginning of this rise with the passage of the NE liberation is evidence, they argue, that the liberation and subsequent attacks made Nazi players more determined to grow their regions and benefitted their recruitment efforts. This, however, is a very weak causal link. The rise of these regions’ populations can be easily attributed to another development: the release, in February 2013, of the Telegram API and legalisation of telegramming scripts for recruitment. Indeed, this author has received automated recruitment telegrams from many of these Nazi regions as soon as March 2013 - and notably none of those telegrams made reference or even alluded to either the NE liberation or any of the other SC resolutions condemning Nazi regions. The positive effects such scripts had on the population of small- and mid-size regions, especially before the introduction of stamps in August 2013, is well-documented. The fact that the population data can be trivially explained by the introduction of recruitment scripts means that this data has very little, if any, persuasive force for the commentators’ arguments.
A data point more relevant for evaluating the effects of anti-Nazi aggression would be the following: For the 12 months the liberation of NE was in effect, the region was protected by a strong garrison of more than 20 WA units. With perhaps the majority of their troops stuck inside NE for a whole year, the offensive operational capability of Nazi regions was crippled. In turn, this resulted in a reduction of destructive Nazi attacks against regions, with most of their operations limited to tag raids of few units. Unsurprisingly, the repeal of the liberation also saw the return of large-scale Nazi deployments, for instance in Liberal Haven in March 2014. A similar effect was observed in June 2014, when a coalition of Nazi regions abandoned their occupation of Hell to protect NE. What these two cases highlight is that the creation of credible threats through anti-Nazi aggression is tremendously effective in halting the forceful expansion of the Nazi ideology in other regions.
The publicity Nazi regions get from aggression against them should likewise be evaluated with respect to the objective of halting the spread of the Nazi ideology in NationStates. It has been documented, in the past and also in this article, that Nazi regions systematically attempt to recruit new nations, and through that process expose new players to their hateful message. Consider, then, a naive new player who is a considering a recruitment offer from a Nazi region; the presence of WA documents condemning it and the conspicuous mobilization of some of the most important regions in the game against it both serve as educational resources informing the player not to accept the offer. They also serve as strong warnings for regions considering associating themselves with Nazi regions. In their absence, and in an era where everyone can easily reach every new nation, or even every nation, in the game, Nazi regions would be completely unimpeded to expand their recruitment efforts, with the rest of the world watching in apathy. It is important to caution against turning these actions of anti-Nazi aggression into celebrations of notoriety, which indeed can be exploited for recruitment purposes. However, systematic and carefully crafted messages opposing Nazism, broadcasted to the NS world by its major regions, can only help to defeat the spread of this ideology in NationStates.
The coordinated action by gameplay regions against Nazi regions has been dubbed by commentators the “War on Nazis”. In many ways this is an inaccurate designation: It is not a war in the usual diplomatic sense used in NS Gameplay. It is certainly not analogous to the real War against Nazism, and to liken our inconsequential gameplay to that War is an offensive trivialization. What it actually is is a cause: against the celebration of a horrendous ideology, against the proliferation of this ideology within the NS community, and against the exploitation of this community to proselytize people to this ideology. What the efforts against Nazi Europe have shown is that anti-Nazi aggression from gameplay regions can be of immense utility to this cause. For this reason, The North Pacific is elated to have led and successfully concluded these efforts, and remains committed to the cause against Nazism in NationStates.
1Another source of opposition is from players, primarily defender-leaning, who oppose all kinds of invading activity - but this line of reasoning is unrelated to this article and will not be discussed here.