The Trick is to Keep Breathing

CN about to bash NS over the head with a rock in early 2006

It's glaringly obvious that NationStates is dead. Compared to its heyday of 2004, NS is now a post-apocalypse collection of the big regions that weathered the calm. The RPers are still there, but they never mattered. The PRP was right to complain about the complete lack of gameplay improvements as NS passed its 3rd birthday. Perhaps NS never was alive - Max Barry conceived it as a marketing exercise for his book Jennifer Government. CN was developed by Kevin (peace be upon him) as a perpetual nation-sim. The problem was there from the outset - it was soulless.

Why didn't NS compete with CN for audience? As the NS site was ultimately a gimmick; high, medium or low, player turnover didn't matter - so long as they heard about the book. NS was still-born compared to CN's stream of improvements over the past 6 months. Max is/was a minor author trying to drum up publicity for his book. He is not a programmer, nor is he an über-nation-sim enthusiast.

What does the death of NS mean for the communities established there? For all but the oldest, biggest, and most-recognised, it's past the end - regions were abandoned and nations were drawn to the more successful. Ultimately, those communities founded on NS need to untie themselves from that single game and move across games - carrying recognition, participants and ethos between each. The NPO/PRP (herein Pacifica), as the most vociferous NS critics, were the first to expand beyond the confines of NS. To a lesser extent, the ADN/ODN followed suit, though I'm unsure how successful it was.

What's happening now is that NPO [CN] members are now joining the PRP [NS] - a bi-directional flow of talent and participants. That's why the PRP continues to survive in a game where 'userite' regions have shriveled up. Pacifica is not only a/the leading power in CyberNations, it's now the driving force of activity in NationStates. It remaines to be seen wether the ODN can do likewise, and wether the remaining NS powers can learn from Pacifica.

At Home

In my home region, The Proletariat Coalition, the current population is half of what it was at the end of 2004 (327), the big names (including myself) have been seduced by CN, and the regional government has ceased functioning. Without abandoning the region, the only option I can see is to federate with our sister region, the Allied States of EuroIslanders. Not TPC being absorbed by the ASE, but a pan-regional government running both. In fact, from the state of the ASE, I'd say they need it more.

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