h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: NationStates - the Website - A2060533
Author: Hussassan the Silicon Samurai - Proud User of Alabaster - U200779

Despite my name, I'm not pushing Alabaster in this entry, it just looks most like Nationstates if used with said skin.

This sounds like a lot of fun. I suspect it would seriously interfere with me getting any work done though...

Anyhow, great article. Explains it well and I like the style it is written in.

Sprout

Congratulations on the article. As a NationStates user, it is great to read a well written article on the site.

Here hoping it gets through Peer Review quickly.

Brendan - The Holy Empire of RobRob

The alabaster link seems to show the page in goo...

It would do, if you're logged in in goo. Jim did something a few months ago that make skin-specific links force to your defualt skin.

I think the SKIN=whatever method still works though.

how does the SKIN= go in a link then?

Very good and interesting. I must try it some time.

I just noticed one typo:
"Deletion: there is now way to delete a nation"

You need to put ?skin=alabaster on the end of the link

Whether that'll be approved in or not in an EG entry, I'm not sure...

I just wanted it for my personal space doodad

Thanks for the support and info on skins.


Emporer of Zurgaz
President of the Rogue Nation of Hussassan

A fair representation - the game also allows you to play, purely through the issues - you don't have to join in the forums, which mught be worth mentioning for people who've never come across it.

The Free Land of Myouth

Also, it only takes up 10 mins max of my day, so you might mention that it doesn't have to eat up your time.

Looks good to me.

Number Six - Grand Duchy of Anguria

I see that Section 8 films (George Clooney's company) have taken up the option to make a film of the book.

Comments:

"War and Trade: There are no actual war or trade features in NationStates. The reason for this is that, if there were, Mr. Barry would have to charge people to use it, plus it would only work properly with broadband, and it is intended to be primarily a bit of light-hearted fun, open to as many people as possible."

This sentence, besides being a run-on, is a bit unclear as far as the logic goes. I think what you're trying to say is something like:

The game is purposefully somewhat simplistic, and as such, there are no features that allow war or trade between nations. There are several reasons for this. First, it would require considerably more programming and maintenance time, quite possibly pushing the game over the threshhold of what is feasible, given that no one is being paid for this. Secondly, as has been seen with other online multiplayer games, an increase in features generally requires a comparable increase in bandwith, making the game less accessible to those with slower connections.

You say that your country will be given an issue every weekday, when in actuality, you get to choose how often you receive issues -- 2 per day, 2 per weekday, 1 per day, or 1 per weekday. I would add something in there, though, that the fact that the maximum is 2 per weekday results in this game having rather lower addiction potential than something like CivilizationIII.

As far as the example issue goes, I think it might be clearer with fewer options to choose from, not to mention that it would be a better representaiton of what the game is actually like -- very few issues have more than 3-4 options, and quite a few have only 2.

I would get rid of the sample country, at least all of the text -- it comes perilously close to being a copyright violation.


Mikey (Queen of Tieclan, Thomasina, and Bizzarroworld)

Oh, and I would also include a link to this: http://alces.sel.uaf.edu/gregg/ns/nsmap.html

Very helpful when you're trying to explain the UN categories.....


Mikey

for your input, Mike.

Is this entry ready, then, HSS?

Um, several of the issues I brought up haven't been addressed yet.