Political Simulator NationStates

(Note about the Science Fiction hub. Usually we associate with science fiction all kinds of fantastic technical devices, such as teleporters and starships. However, the very structure of society can be science fiction, because political science, sociology and economics are also science, and society itself is it’s the same artifact as the items it produces. According to this logic, Orwell’s novel "1984" is a model of science fiction.)

Do you think that politics is very boring? If so, I can advise you the NationStates.net policy simulator , which is able to arouse interest in politics even among citizens in political lethargy. This is a little-known game in Runet, so I decided to write a review. NationStates will show you that politics is very interesting!

Disadvantages:

In order to avoid unnecessary insults, I write about the shortcomings right from the doorway. NationStates is not suitable for you if ...

• You do not know English well enough or you do not have enough patience to constantly use the dictionary. Translation into other languages ​​is not and is not planned, because too much text will need to be translated. However, if you study English, this may turn out to be an advantage, you can replenish your vocabulary during the game and communication on the forum.
• You want to be able to win and lose. In the game you can neither lose nor win. Even your most idiotic actions will not drive the country into a coffin. The loss of the country as a result of military defeat does not threaten you either. Although the statistical information for your country will show that life in your country is far from sugar.
• You want a game that needs a lot of free time. NationStates is most suitable for busy people who cannot spend hours chopping in WoW.
• You want a lot of beautiful graphics, and in 3D. NationStates does not shine with beautiful graphics, and there is no 3D in sight.
• You like rich story games. NationStates has no plot. Absolutely.
• If you are too serious and expect hyperrealism. NationStates often has a sense of humor (albeit not too often), and even up to the completely realistic political simulation of NationStates as stars.

History and Business Model of NationStates

NationStates was created by Max Barry as an advertisement for his book Jennifer Government. However, at the moment on the site there is an advertisement of his other books. Advertising is not intrusive even by my picky standards. You can also buy the “Supporter” badge in your local store , which is actually a donation to the site, plus a few more goodies that have no effect on gameplay.

How I Found NationStates

It was evening, I was doing my homework in English. As part of this homework, I became interested in the difference between the words Internationalism and Cosmopolitanism. Google unexpectedly told me that this question, in his opinion, was best dealt with on the fascist site Iron March.

I have long been trying to find some kind of fascist site, but for some reason I never managed to find anything worthwhile. I decided to take advantage of my luck, and decided to ask the local question about the totalitarian state, which my friend invented. I was wondering if this state is attractive from the point of view of fascism. And if not, then why. The reaction was extremely hostile. For this question, as well as my anime avatar, I was called an autist, drug addict, and simply untermanent. During the correspondence, I accidentally discovered that you can like your post. This caused additional criticism, in my experiment with the interface they immediately saw narcissism. Before I was banned, one of the locals gave me a link to NationStates, advising me to join other autists playing this political simulator and not to bother serious uncles anymore. So I found NationStates.

Creating your own country

This process is simple, so I will not describe it in detail, but some nuances need to be taken into account.

First, be sure to include your email address, otherwise you risk irrevocably losing your country if you forget your password. The pace of development of countries is very slow, so it will be very disappointing to lose the country that has been pumped for several months.

Secondly, in NationStates, all countries are divided into 27 categories : A


country can move from one category to another, but it can be a long and difficult process. If you want your country to be in a certain category from its very foundation, then it is best for you to use the ideological test guide .

Thirdly, if you intend to create several countries that you will compare among themselves, I advise you to create them in one category in advance, so that later you can see how much their paths diverge.

Fourthly, if you are a supporter of the principle of “everything that is not expressly prohibited is permitted,” I suggest starting with Anarchy, as if we were to build as free from any restrictions as possible. Thus, all the restrictions that will only be in the country will be a direct result of your legislative acts. That is, you will avoid the fact that things that you did not explicitly forbid are prohibited.

If you are a supporter of the principle “everything that is not expressly permitted is forbidden”, then start with Psychotic Dictatorship as the most “squeezed” system. All subsequent freedoms will be a direct result of your actions.

Fifth, avoid using a swastika in your flag, this is prohibited by the rules.
I can advise you to use the authorized triskelion instead of a swastika .

Legislative work on the examples of Zeroth Reich, Liberal Church, Really Stateless Nation, Lawyer Suicide and Crazy Free Lands.

The whole game actually comes down to creating new laws, changing / repealing old ones and analyzing the consequences of these actions. I created many different countries in NationStates, let's look at this process from the perspective of different countries.

Where's the love gone?

The Issue
Last night the respected tabloid TV show "60 Minutes" ran a report on @@ NAME @@ 's rising divorce rate. What is happening to the nuclear family?

The debate
1. «There's a simple solution,» says Pastor Felix, of the Catholic Church. «Divorce should be illegal. 'For better or worse,' anyone remember how that goes? We should return to the good old days, when you got married for life and stuck by your partner no matter how much of a drunken, abusive, adulterating disappointment they turned out to be.»

2. John Black, author of the hit book, 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Some Whole Other Place,' has a simpler solution. «If couples would just call each other 'darling' once in a while, there would be far fewer relationship breakdowns. A little affection is all it takes. So the government should make it mandatory: call your spouse 'darling' at least once a day, or face a fine.»

3. “There's a simple way to boost the marriage rate,” says gay rights activist @@ RANDOMNAME @@. "Abolish those archaic laws that discriminate against same-sex marriages. It's obscene to treat people differently because of their sexual preference. Besides, everyone knows gay relationships are more stable than straight ones.

Positions of different countries:

• Crazy Free Lands in decision making is always guided by the result of the random number generator. In this case, a number from 1 to 3 will be generated. For example, if 1 drops out, then the divorce will be prohibited.
• Zeroth Reich as its ideology has a rather specific version of fascism, which the locals call “ecofascism”. The country is managed by a collective of rulers, the so-called Green Sector. They solve all issues collectively, have an off-scale IQ and are fully committed to the interests of society. In this case, the Green Sector decides to allow same-sex marriage in order to undermine the institution of the family. The green sector considers the institution of the family a relic of the past and believes that in the near future the production and upbringing of children will look like in Huxley’s book “Brave New World”. This explains the unusual, for the fascist regime, tolerance for homosexuals. In fact, why worry about the spread of homosexuality leading to lower fertility, if soon the production of children goes to industrial rails? This decision will result in the message “same-sex marriages are increasingly common” and the statistics will change. For example, the level of civil rights will increase.
• The Liberal Church was conceived as the antipode of Zeroth Reich. In making decisions, this country is trying to choose the worst, from the point of view of Zeroth Reich, options. Sometimes this leads to funny consequences, such as a ban on heterosexual service in the army or forced nudism for all women. In this case, Liberal Church will opt for option number 1. After the law is implemented, we will receive the message “divorce is illegal”, as well as a strong drop in the level of civil rights.
• Really Stateless Nation is a dictatorship that masquerades as anarchy. The ruler lets everything and everyone drift. In this case, this means pressing the “Dismiss This Issue” button, because all options require active action by the state. As a result, this Issue will not affect the country's statistics in any way, as if it had never been. The only thing that will change is the size of the population. Each time the population becomes more and more, regardless of your legislative activity.

Another example:

The Issue
In response to increasing costs of running state prisons, several government advisors have suggested allowing the private sector to play a greater role in managing @@ NAME @@ 's correctional facilities.

The Debate
1. „@@ NAME @@ 's prisons are in a ghastly state,“ says @@ RANDOMNAME @@, representative for several large businesses. „The state now pays a fortune in @@ CURRENCY @@ s each day for every prisoner. My clients will be able to operate the prisons more efficiently and charge the state far less than they're having to pay now. With our help, those in jail will be able to get themselves jobs to do and the government can imprison as many people as they like! “

2. “This is just another scheme by multinational corporations to turn our great nation into a corporate dictatorship!” Claims @@ RANDOMNAME @@, of the Social Justice League of @@ NAME @@. „Just say NO to privatized prisons. We should be closing them all down so we can begin focusing on rehabilitation anyway! “

3.“ Private prisons ?! Rehabilitation ?! How utterly ridiculous! “Exclaims @@ RANDOMNAME @@, @@ NAME @@ 's toughest police officer. “Both of these proposals will simply waste resources on the scum of society. I say that we should summarily execute all violent criminals and give their property to their victims. “

• Lawyer Suicide in this case will choose the introduction of private prisons, and here's why: Lawyer Suicide was originally created by my friend. He has a law degree and the country was originally conceived as a place of legal lawlessness, a place where all laws would be adopted contrary to the general logic of legal thought. Then he abandoned this country and handed it to me. I, in turn, decided to use Lawyer Suicide in order to look for possible shortcomings / bugs in the game engine. And I did it! As you can see from the link, Lawyer Suicide is business-friendly, has private prisons and private fire stations, despite the fact that the country has a 100% planned economy and all entrepreneurial activity is prohibited by law. And as if this were not enough, Lawyer Suicide managed to get the Capitalist Paradise category for a high level of economic freedoms, as well as to break into the top 10% of countries with the most market economies. In general, Lawyer Suicide mercilessly tears the templates of the game engine.
  

Issue chains also exist. This means that the introduction of a law will allow the introduction of another law. For example, in an Isssue called “Child Casino Shock,” the prohibition of gambling will make available the Issue “Gambling Interests Offer High Stakes”, where a complete prohibition on gambling can be replaced by an age limit for players.

Be prepared for the fact that the consequences of your laws can be quite nontrivial. For example, after the shootings of the homeless were introduced in Zeroth Reich, the index of population happiness increased. Why? Apparently because this index is calculated from the ratio of the percentage of categories “unhappy citizens” to “happy citizens”. Homeless people are considered unhappy and therefore a decrease in the number of homeless people leads to a decrease in the number of unhappy citizens, which in turn increases the index of happiness. That is, the index of happiness can increase not only because it has become more happy, but also because it has become less unhappy.

Examples of my countries in NationStates

Here I want to give examples of the most interesting countries that I personally created in NationStates.

• Zeroth Reich. That was my firstborn. As I said, this is an oligarchy (not to be confused with the power of the rich!) Whose ideology is ecofascism. As the name suggests, my wards were very concerned about the environment, it was their fix idea. However, they are still interesting in that they strive to break many patterns about fascism and they still torment me with doubts, but are they really fascists? Or are they like a cheburashka, a beast still unknown to science, who chose the term “fascism” simply because there were no more suitable words? This makes us think more deeply about what “fascism” is.
  
  Here is a sample list of torn patterns, if anyone is interested:

  • Racism . Racism in Zeroth Reich is punishable. Up to the political correctness fixed at the legislative level and the Nazis sent to concentration camps. The green sector believes that racism undermines the unity of the nation.
  • Homophobia . It is noteworthy that the first law, which was issued in Zeroth Reich, concerned the resolution of same-sex marriage. The reason for this tolerance for homosexuals is that the Green Sector was able to transfer population production to industrial footing, a la Huxley's Brave New World. As a result, even if we assume that homosexuality is an information virus (which still needs proof), and is extremely contagious, then extinction will not threaten society, since all citizens are sterilized.
  • Attitude towards women . Zeroth Reich is set up by pretty feminists for a fascist country. Although men and women are recognized as being unequal, in most cases it is believed that this difference can be neglected.
    A woman can actively participate in society, her role in no way comes down to a birth machine and a housewife.
  • Attitude to the institution of the family . Usually the fascist regimes vehemently advocate “family values,” but in Zeroth Reich the institution of the family was, in fact, destroyed. Instead, the institution of the family was replaced by sperm and egg donation, and a school with an army was involved in raising children from young nails. Why all this? The green sector believes that family upbringing makes it difficult to make children the true patriots of their country, they will be accustomed to think in the framework of serving the interests of a narrow circle of their relatives. As part of this approach, the maximum deregulation of marriage was made, as a result of which not only same-sex marriages became possible, but also polygamy with polygamy.
  • Traditionalism . Although the fascist regimes position themselves in a traditionalist way, Zeroth Reich immediately sends traditionalism to hell. The green sector considers itself entitled to issue any laws that it deems necessary, regardless of any traditions, either its own or others. For example, animal hunting was banned, although adherents of it appealed to a centuries-old tradition.
  • Totalitarianism . In theory, Zeroth Reich is a totalitarian state, for the Green Sector has absolute power. In practice, the Green Sector is guided by the principle of “what is not prohibited is allowed” and does not prohibit its citizens from doing anything without a reason enough, as a result of which surprisingly much is allowed to citizens. If some activity is not directly related to politics, economy or the environment, then the chance that it is allowed is very high.
  • Eugenics . Zeroth Reich practices eugenics. However, unlike the Third Reich, Zeroth Reich is humane and developed enough to do without killing. Instead, it is limited to abortion and selection of the best genetic material before the stage of fertilization, as a result of which the eugenics in Zeroth Reich is extremely civilized and humane. Plus, the knowledge of human physiology in Zeroth Reich is high enough to prevent the accidental abortion of another Beethoven or Stephen Hawking, so in some cases people are still allowed to be born with defects if there is a chance that this will be compensated by other genes.
  • Leaderism . There is no leaderism simply because there is no leader. The Green Sector is a collective of equal individuals; within it there is no hierarchy or leaders particularly distinguished by their charisma. If there is any cult in Zeroth Reich, then this is most likely a cult of the collective, and not a cult of personality.
  • Repression . The Green Sector has resorted to reprisals relatively rarely; there is only one concentration camp throughout the country. It all boils down to the fact that not very smart citizens are brainwashed by propaganda enough, and intellectuals understand that the rule of the Green Sector is really optimal for the country. This is like mathematics, all people who know mathematics quite well, when solving the equation x-2 = 0, will come to the conclusion that x = 2. With the same inevitability, intellectuals come to the conclusion that the Green Sector with its ideology is a blessing for the country.

• Really Stateless Nation is a dictatorship that “mows” under anarchy, letting everything go by itself. For example, if scientists ask for money for research, then they must be refused. Why? Imagine that the state really is not, although scientists believe that it is. Will a non-existent state give money for research? Of course not, it does not exist! In general, it turns out to be a certain analogue of deism, when God seems to exist, but acts as if he did not exist.
  
  An interesting consequence of this imitation anarchy is an overdeveloped market. In theory, in a healthy country, the market and the state mutually complement each other, it’s like two legs. You won’t lean on one leg all the time? Although some tried, the late USSR was among them. In the Really Stateless Nation, the state’s inaction led to an overdeveloped market, which is trying to fill the vacuum that has arisen, at least somehow. For example, private fire stations and private prisons operate in the country, and corporations are involved in the defense of the country.

• Supervirus Once I got the idea: my Zeroth Reich has as its goal environmental friendliness. In other words, it is a society hyperactive about environmental issues. But what if we take another problem (thanks to Ebola for the inspiration): epidemics? Take a society that was initially very liberal, which so often and severely suffered from epidemics of various superviruses that their fix idea was such a self-transformation in order to minimize the likelihood of infection and maximize the chances of recovery of patients with ANY PRICE. Even if the reduction in the chance of infection is small, the other negative consequences of the reform are enormous. So the country “Supervirus” appeared.
  
  The consequences of this attitude for those interested:

  1. The use of electronic money a la Webmoney as a national currency. Physical money is generally an object that is dangerous from the point of view of hygiene, because it passes through many hands. But thanks to electronic money, the problem is solved radically. And unlike the ever-memorable Bitcoin, Webmoney is a centralized system.
  
  2. At first I wanted to ban the elections, because there is a crowd in the elections. And this increases the chance of spreading the infection. But then I came to the conclusion that since the country is so advanced to use electronic currency everywhere, then the elections can easily be replaced by electronic voting.
  
  3. But an uncomfortable situation came up with the Church. If you are a believer, then you should visit the temple from time to time PHYSICALLY, especially during major religious holidays like Easter. As a result, the deep anticlerical nature of this society.
  
  4. Tamagotchi as a national animal. It is a consequence of the fact that, instead of ordinary animals, all residents are holding all sorts of animal-like robots and electronic pets a la Tamagotchi. Of course, infection cannot be picked up from them, even with all desire. In zoos, there are robots that mimic real animals.
  
  5. Marijuana, tobacco and alcohol are strictly prohibited, because the use of them reduces immunity.
  
  6. The fight against poverty. Poor people live in conditions of worse hygiene, so there will be a serious struggle to increase the well-being of the people by any means, including Sharikovsky’s way of “taking everything away and sharing” and mass shootings of homeless people. Inheritance is taxed and restricted so that the relatives of the rich can inherit only a small fraction of their wealth. Equal pay for men and women.
  
  7. Excessive hatred of nature. Good nature is dead nature, any animal is a potential carrier of diseases. Ideally, Supervirus residents would prefer to move to the moon or another lifeless and inhospitable heavenly body. But since it will be very expensive and not soon, they prefer to turn the Earth itself into such a body.
  
  8. Forced universal veganism at first. Reducing risk by abandoning livestock in general and as a result of livestock products in the above privacy. Although this is a very controversial point, because there may be a decrease in immunity due to such nutrition, however, I assume that in the future they will be more than able to compensate for this by GMO plants and meat grown in vitro
  
  9. Death penalty. Just in case you need to kill the infected.
  
  10. The system of universal observation a la "Big Brother". Useful for identifying infected people and for identifying anyone with whom an infected person has contacted.
  
  11. Complete violation of bioethics in the name of the development of medicine, in particular experiments on human embryos.
  
  12. Euthanasia is permitted. Even if a person does NOT die from infection, his immunity is significantly weakened. He may die of cancer, but during his slow death he will become infected, and then infect the people around him. Therefore, if he decides to die voluntarily before the deadline, then this decision must be welcomed in every way, because this will reduce the chances of those around him for infection.
  
  13. Polygamy is permitted. Thanks to this, if a devastating epidemic occurs that takes more men than women, it will be easier for the population to recover.
  
  14. Closed borders. Emigrants from other countries receive a lapel, because they can be carriers of an exotic infection from which local people do not have immunity and / or vaccines.
  
  15. A very developed public health system. No comments.
  
  16. Hostile attitude to the outside world. The preoccupation with infections leads to such aggressive militarism that the Third Reich with its theories about the superiority of the Aryan race never dreamed of. Other countries that are at least slightly less concerned about infections are perceived by Supervirus residents as non-stop infection plants. No slavery, no colonization - only total annihilation of all living things, from old people and children to ants and grasshoppers.
  
  17. Replacing all physical books with electronic ones. The reason is the same as for the transition to electronic money.
  
  18. Universal sterilization and prohibition of sex. Reproduction occurs artificially, children are grown in laboratories (these are NOT clones).
  
  19. (Based on two different Issue). Aliens tried to make contact, but the authorities decided to refuse to establish contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. “God forbid these aliens remake everyone with some of their infections!” There are many eyewitnesses to UFOs, but the state hides and denies everything.
  
  20. The good old Eugenics, both positive and negative. I think everything is self-evident here.
  
  21. Because of cemeteries, there is a risk of groundwater pollution, therefore forced cremation is introduced.
  
  22. Aircraft are prohibited and therefore people have to use slower vehicles. The bottom line is that the slower people can move between cities, the slower the spread of infection in the event of an epidemic. I proceed from the fact that their population density is low, and the distances between settlements are large enough for this measure to be effective. Also, rejection of separatism automatically follows from this, because long distances between settlements serve as a natural buffer for any infections. Therefore, reducing the size of the country will be a negative phenomenon from the point of view of Supervirus.
  
  23. A country with great enthusiasm is spending large sums of money on space technology (especially military), secretly hoping one fine day the whole country will unite to move to the Moon / Mars, and destroy the rest of humanity from the Death Star. This is the most optimistic scenario. In a more modest scenario, they hope to simply develop a new type of non-mutagenic weapon of mass destruction (for example, an ultra-powerful satellite laser that can turn entire cities into ashes). In the most modest case, they will simply receive technologies that will allow them to create settlements on the Earth with a “closed ecological cycle”, which will allow them to exist regardless of the ecological state of nature of the outside world (and as a result, they will be able to destroy wildlife at least within your country).
  
  24. Refusal to develop and use traditional (biological, nuclear and chemical) weapons of mass destruction due to their mutagenic properties.
  
  25. All protests and rallies are allowed, BUT the details of their conduct must be agreed with the authorities in order to avoid excessive crowding in one place.
  
  26. Skateboard and own legs are the only legally permitted means of transportation inside the city. All in order to reduce the speed of movement within the city.
  
  27. Children are kept in black gloves, bringing up iron discipline in them (otherwise they may be tempted to violate any of the many hygienic norms). The army is engaged in raising children from a very tender age, corporal punishment is considered permissible. Given that all citizens are sterilized, sex between spouses is forbidden, and embryos are grown in test tubes as a result of artificial insemination, it turns out that in Supervirus the family institution is destroyed at the root.
  
  28. Malicious criminals (especially those who knowingly and systematically violate sanitary and hygienic standards) are shot.
  
  29. Hunting and fishing are prohibited. Reason: God forbid, hunters / fishermen pick up some infection in nature. In addition, meat and fish are prohibited.
  
  30. Forced blood donation from healthy citizens in case of deficiency of blood.
  
  31. Breastfeeding is prohibited, because a nurse can infect a baby.
  
  32. Full autarky, the whole country does not buy anything from the outside world and does not sell.
  
  33. NPPs and TPPs are prohibited. Instead, they use solar / hydro / windy - power plants.
  

Joining the World Assembly

World Assembly is the local counterpart to the UN. The World Assembly is divided into two parts, the General Assembly and the Security Council. In the General Assembly, member countries of WA (hereinafter simply referred to as WA) vote in favor of resolutions. If the number of votes “For” exceeds the number of votes “Against”, then the resolution is implemented and the legislation of all member countries of WA. changes in accordance with this resolution, even those who voted against this resolution. Membership is voluntary and revoked, so if you do not like the idea of ​​changing the laws of your country in order to satisfy the resolutions adopted by WA, then you can always refuse membership in this organization.



The Security Council also issues resolutions that are accepted / rejected by voting. Security Council has four functions:

1.Condemn (condemn) a certain region or country. The convicted country / region receives the corresponding badge.


2.Commend (praise) a certain region or country. The country / region receives the corresponding icon.


3.Liberate (free) a certain region. If the resolution is adopted, then the password protection (if any) is removed from this region for the duration of the resolution. As a result, the region is open to invasion.


4. Repeal of resolutions. By the way, General Assembly can also cancel the adopted resolutions.


Important points. Firstly, in NationStates it is allowed to have several countries at the same time, however ONLY ONE of them can be a member of WA in order to avoid cheating on voting.

Secondly, be careful if you receive the Issue “World Assembly Woes”. If you receive this Issue and you choose the first option, you will REALLY lose your WA membership.

War
(See source for details.)

Each country is in a certain region. Each country, when created, appears in one of several regions specially designed for new countries. A region is a kind of region where countries “live”, all countries of one region are neighbors to each other. If you wish, you can always change the region or even create your own. Each region has its own in-game forum, where neighbors can communicate with each other.

Regions is an additional gameplay element that you can ignore if you wish, they do not affect the main gameplay in any way. What are the regions interesting for? Thanks to them, there is a kind of war in NationStates .

But everything has its turn, let's start with the basics: The nation that created the region is called Founder. The WA Delegate is a member country of the World Assembly, which receives executive power through voting. Only the votes of WA member countries are counted in order to avoid cheating. The executive branch gives the opportunity to expel countries from the region (the expelled countries fall into the special region “The Rejected Realms”), set a password that will prevent new countries from entering the region, hide unwanted posts in the regional forum, prohibit specific countries from entering the region, change the factbook region and so on. Typically, the Founder has full control over the region, but WA Delegate may take its place if ...

• Founder will leave the region.
• Founder will cease to exist. A country can cease to exist in two cases, removal by moderators in case of violation of the rules, or if the owner of the country does not visit it for several days in a row.
• When creating the region, Founder will give up power in favor of the WA Delegate. This action is seen as a step towards democracy, because the WA Delegate is elected by members of the region.

Suppose that somehow WA Delegate took the place of Founder. In this case, the fun begins. Upon election, the WA Delegate may begin to actively abuse its power. For example, the WA Delegate can expel all residents of the region and set a password on the region that will prevent them from returning, after which they themselves leave the region. Left without residents, the region will be automatically deleted at the next update. In order to reduce the likelihood of such chaos, Regional Influence is used (hereinafter simply Influence).

Throwing and banning countries, as well as setting a password, requires the Influence costs that the WA Delegate has. Moreover, other countries also have Influence, and the more Influence a country has, the greater the cost of Influence on the part of the WA Delegate will be required to kick out and ban this country.

Influence can be obtained in several ways:

• The longer a country is in a region, the greater its Influence. Newcomers have Influence at zero. If a country leaves the region, then its Influence in this region will begin to decline. At first, slowly, but then faster and faster, until she returns to the region.
• The more votes a country has, the faster its Influence grows over time. The country becomes WA Delegate if it received the most votes, but this does not cancel the votes cast for other countries. As a result, the WA Delegate will have more difficulty cracking down on the opposition.
  

There is also an important, for understanding raiding, thing like updates. Updates are updating information about regions and countries. Updates occur twice a day and last about an hour each.

During the update, the following things are important for us:

• Influence increases among members of the region and Influence decreases in countries that have left the region.
• Voting WA resolutions take effect.
• Empty regions are automatically destroyed.
• All votes cast for a country in the region are counted and, in accordance with the number of votes, either a new WA Delegate is elected or the old one is retained.

The capture of the region is called raiding, raiders, in turn, are divided into crashers, imperialists, vandals and defenders, they differ in their goals. The goal of the crashmen is to simply destroy the region, the imperialists seek to get the region into their permanent possession, the vandals set out to spoil the blood of the locals, after the vandals the inhabitants can return to the region, the defenders enter the region occupied by other types of raiders in order to help the locals to fight against the forces of invasion, their goal is counter-invasion.

The simplest example of raiding:

There is a small region open to invasion. In the event of an invasion of help, there is nowhere to wait. A group of vandals agree to capture him. Each aggressor country is a member of WA. During the update (the choice of any other moment is fraught with the fact that the WA Delegate of local ones will turn out and ban the countries of aggressors long before their votes for the new WA Delegate are counted) they all move from one region to another in the victim region and vote for their leader , which soon becomes a WA Delegate, because there are more vandal votes than local votes for the current WA Delegate. The newly-minted WA Delegate vandalizes the flag and factbook of the region, throws out all the locals, and then returns home with his gang. Having departed from the shock, the locals also return home and restore the flag and factbook of the region.

An example is more complicated:

A group of imperialists invade during an update on a medium-sized region, which is open to invasion due to the “deceased” Founder. The seizure of power was easy, because despite its size, only a small percentage of the votes of local residents were cast for the current WA Delegate. The imperialist WA Delegate locks in the region and begins to throw out all the inhabitants. However, since the region is large enough, it is impossible to throw everyone out right away. In addition, there were many old-timers in the region, which slowed down the process even more. As a result, enough time passed for the locals to be able to launch a counterattack and vote in an all-inclusive manner for the old-timer with the greatest Influence. The imperialist WA Delegate laughs that help cannot be avoided, as a result of which it temporarily removes the password from the region. Help is coming however, with the help of the region, diphenderes seep into the region. As a result of fierce battles with the locals and the defenders, the forces of the imperialists triumph. The region is almost cleared of inhabitants, the imperialist WA Delegate will soon leave the region, having pre-password protected it. The region will be automatically destroyed during the next update, as a result of which the imperialists will be able to create a region with the same name and with their own, imperialist Founder, which will protect it from invasion. However, there it was, the Founder of the region appears, which, like the Phoenix, has risen from the ashes! Residents of the region were apparently able to find a player who owned Founder and who in turn “resurrected” him. Founder threw the current WA Delegate out of the region, restored the flag with a factbook, parried the region, and disabled the ability to elect WA Delegate in the region’s settings.

Life example:

Once upon a time there was the Nazi Europe region. Residents of other regions did not like him for two things: the active raider seizure of other regions and his ideology. The inhabitants of Nazi Europe knew about this, so they set a password on their region in order to avoid a possible intrusion. In turn, their enemies dragged the resolution “Liberate Nazi Europe” to the Security Council, where it was approved by a majority vote. In general, as the name implies, in theory, such resolutions should be used to free the regions from invaders, for the benefit of local residents. However, in this case, the Security Council decided to “free” the region from local residents. As a result, the inhabitants of Nazi Europe were forced to abandon the raiding activities and throw all their forces to defend their native region. Defenders of Nazi Europe began to bombard the Security Council with drafts for the repeal of the Liberate Nazi Europe resolution. Perhaps tired of their perseverance, or maybe for some reason, but the resolution was canceled and the region was able to reset the password. However, the invasion forces were able to find out the password. As a result, a coalition of invasion forces from Osiris, Balder, 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 were able to capture the region. The region was re-founded by the forces of the invasion, as a result of which the residents lost access to it forever and were forced to create a new Nazi Europa region. It was one of the largest raiding operations in the history of NationStates. or maybe for some reason, but the resolution was canceled and the region was able to reset the password. However, the intrusion forces were able to find out the password. As a result, a coalition of invasion forces from Osiris, Balder, 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 were able to capture the region. The region was re-founded by the forces of the invasion, as a result of which the residents lost access to it forever and were forced to create a new Nazi Europa region. It was one of the largest raiding operations in the history of NationStates. or maybe for some reason, but the resolution was canceled and the region was able to reset the password. However, the invasion forces were able to find out the password. As a result, a coalition of invasion forces from Osiris, Balder, 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 were able to capture the region. The region was re-founded by the forces of the invasion, as a result of which the residents lost access to it forever and were forced to create a new Nazi Europa region. It was one of the largest raiding operations in the history of NationStates. Lone Wolves United, The Black Hawks, The Red Fleet, Unknown, The Kingdom of Great Britain, Sicarius, Mazeria, The MT Army, Kantrias and North Korea were able to capture the region. The region was re-founded by the forces of the invasion, as a result of which the residents lost access to it forever and were forced to create a new Nazi Europa region. It was one of the largest raiding operations in the history of NationStates. Lone Wolves United, The Black Hawks, The Red Fleet, Unknown, The Kingdom of Great Britain, Sicarius, Mazeria, The MT Army, Kantrias and North Korea were able to capture the region. The region was re-founded by the forces of the invasion, as a result of which the residents lost access to it forever and were forced to create a new Nazi Europa region. It was one of the largest raiding operations in the history of NationStates.

PS
In conclusion, I want to write that this is only a superficial description of the most basic, in my opinion, features of NationStates. Be prepared for the fact that in fact everything will turn out to be more complicated and, possibly, more interesting than I described in the article.