NationStates, or rather, Jennifer Government: NationStates, is a massively multiplayer online game created by Max Barry, author of Jennifer Government in 2002. The player takes charge of a simulated nation and decides issues (See below) that affect how their nation runs. It is very loosely based on Barry's book, Jennifer Government.
Issues
Issues are the key gameplay in NationStates. They cover a wide variety of topics, ranging from real life issues (animal rights, euthanasia) to unique ones (android rights). The player can choose from the settings menu whether to have one per weekday, one per day, two per weekday, or two per day. There are anywhere from 2 to 5 options to choose from, or you can dismiss the issue without deciding. If you choose one of the options, it will affect your nation in a certain way. For example, if you chose to make meat-eating illegal, your civil rights rating will go down.
Regions
Regions are another key part of gameplay. Often nations will move from their birthplace in the Pacifics (see list of major regions below) to another region that someone else made or they make their own. One of the major goals of most regions is to recruit new people so that they become larger. The feeder regions (again, see below) are the largest, but the two largest founder regions right now are Gatesville and Taijitu.
List of major regions
1. The Pacifics - namely, the North Pacific, the West Pacific, the South Pacific, the East Pacific, and just The Pacific. These are where all nations are born (feeders) and five of seven places where recruiting on the Regional Message Board is legal.
2. Lazarus - where the mods put revived nations that were asked to be brought back after they ceased to exist after 28 or 60 days. This is a feeder, and RMB recruiting is legal here.
3. The Rejected Realms - where nations ejected from their original region are sent. Ejection is not possible here. The Rejected Realms are considered a feeder region.
4. Gatesville - the largest player-made region in NationStates.
5. Taijitu - The region you are in now (see sticky "What is Taijitu").
6. The Lexicon - another large region, that tends to be enemies with most of the feeders (especially the North Pacific). Taijitu was founded by ejected Lexicon members.
Original text by Myroria
