Ye Olde Nationstates April Fools Tricks List

[Todd McCloud]

I figured this would bring folks up to speed with past April Fools pranks. Here's to hoping 2015 is the best!


2014 - Bytecoin: Nations could "mine" bytecoins in a fluctuating market. The East Pacific crashed the economy and populated the "wealthiest nations" list.

2013 - Zombie Nation (shows Halloween numbers, can't find numbers from 2013): Feeders did pretty bad here. Some regions survived but for the most part no one really knew what to do.

2012 - NS IPO: This April Fools featured "stocks" in which nations could trade and build up numbers. Eventually one, "The Nationstates Community" became lead shareholder, but then Max "awarded" 25 million shares to himself, which he later traded to TNC to increase their numbers. Because he's a good sport.

2011 - Haxx0rs: Basically, nations would be duped into believing their nation was hacked. Some liked it, most learned a valuable lesson about password security.

2010 - Liberal and Conservative Nationstates: Based on whichever link you clicked, it would slant your nation category among other things baised toward that particular philosophy.

2009 - Nationstates DS: What you see is what you get. Nationstates in hand-held form.

2008 - UN to WA transition: In perhaps the only AF to have permanent consequences, the United Nations filed a cease and desist against nationstates for using the label "United Nations". This resulted in the creation of the "World Assembly."

2007 - Everyone's a Mod!: basically, everyone had a "Regional Moderator" title in their nation profile. Nations could supposedly issue "warnings" to other nations. Nations could also use the coveted red warning text, which was abused pretty much from the start. I believe the warning text code has since changed (don't try it).

2006 - NationDates: More or less a matchmaker for nations. It'd match national "interests" with that of another nation, creating a "match"

2005 - DHS Shut Down: The Department of Homeworld security "shuts down" Nationstates. Some nation categories were changed to "Most Likely to be Deleted".

2004 - Population Reset: All populations appeared to be reset to 5 million. Some forum titles were changed, too.

[Allea]

I figured this would bring folks up to speed with past April Fools pranks. Here's to hoping 2015 is the best!


2014 - Bytecoin: Nations could "mine" bytecoins in a fluctuating market. The East Pacific crashed the economy and populated the "wealthiest nations" list.

2013 - Zombie Nation (shows Halloween numbers, can't find numbers from 2013): Feeders did pretty bad here. Some regions survived but for the most part no one really knew what to do.

2012 - NS IPO: This April Fools featured "stocks" in which nations could trade and build up numbers. Eventually one, "The Nationstates Community" became lead shareholder, but then Max "awarded" 25 million shares to himself, which he later traded to TNC to increase their numbers. Because he's a good sport.

2011 - Haxx0rs: Basically, nations would be duped into believing their nation was hacked. Some liked it, most learned a valuable lesson about password security.

2010 - Liberal and Conservative Nationstates: Based on whichever link you clicked, it would slant your nation category among other things baised toward that particular philosophy.

2009 - Nationstates DS: What you see is what you get. Nationstates in hand-held form.

2008 - UN to WA transition: In perhaps the only AF to have permanent consequences, the United Nations filed a cease and desist against nationstates for using the label "United Nations". This resulted in the creation of the "World Assembly."

2007 - Everyone's a Mod!: basically, everyone had the "moderator" title in their nation profile. Nations could also use the coveted red warning text, which was abused pretty much from the start. I believe the warning text code has since changed (don't try it).

2006 - NationDates: More or less a matchmaker for nations. It'd match national "interests" with that of another nation, creating a "match"

2005 - DHS Shut Down: The Department of Homeworld security "shuts down" Nationstates. Some nation categories were changed to "Most Likely to be Deleted".

2004 - Population Reset: All populations appeared to be reset to 5 million. Some forum titles were changed, too.

Bytecoin was a lot of fun - made 8th on the Local Currency, had 5th on the first board but sadly the market had crashed and I was determined to end up on one of them

[British Grand Pacific]

I traded Bytecoins all night to ensure TEP's financial domination. Wish I could have seen the look on Bach's face when I paid back the 1 trillion bytecoin loan with 1 septillion extra.

[The Corparation]

You left out in 2011 that forum side everyone had their names changed to mod colors and ran around playing with warn tags.

[Luziyca]

2015 will be no-prank.

[Reploid Productions]

2015 will be no-prank.

Orly?

[Enfaru]

2015 will be no-prank.

Orly?

Care to explain the Prank part?

The prank of 2014 was that users thought they were influencing a market (would have been if Max had godly powers and a helluva lot more money) and as well as the fact that the bytecoin wasn't going to last.
2013 lead a few people to believe it was was really the end. (A great event that got everyone involved pretty much).
2011 was and remains infamous, remembered above all other events for an april fools joke. When the topic of april fools comes up in my region this one always gets a mention.

Yet this Cards against Nationstates...apears to be a rip off of the 3 word forum spam game in one form or another. Literally no prank.

I personally loved the Bytecoin event, was the most involving and the most inspiring I've seen in a long time.

[Zaolat]

Orly?

Care to explain the Prank part?

The prank of 2014 was that users thought they were influencing a market (would have been if Max had godly powers and a helluva lot more money) and as well as the fact that the bytecoin wasn't going to last.
2013 lead a few people to believe it was was really the end. (A great event that got everyone involved pretty much).
2011 was and remains infamous, remembered above all other events for an april fools joke. When the topic of april fools comes up in my region this one always gets a mention.

Yet this Cards against Nationstates...apears to be a rip off of the 3 word forum spam game in one form or another. Literally no prank.

I personally loved the Bytecoin event, was the most involving and the most inspiring I've seen in a long time.

Uhh, logical failure here based on personal biases. Yup.

[Ainin]

Orly?

Care to explain the Prank part?

The prank of 2014 was that users thought they were influencing a market (would have been if Max had godly powers and a helluva lot more money) and as well as the fact that the bytecoin wasn't going to last.
2013 lead a few people to believe it was was really the end. (A great event that got everyone involved pretty much).
2011 was and remains infamous, remembered above all other events for an april fools joke. When the topic of april fools comes up in my region this one always gets a mention.

Yet this Cards against Nationstates...apears to be a rip off of the 3 word forum spam game in one form or another. Literally no prank.

I personally loved the Bytecoin event, was the most involving and the most inspiring I've seen in a long time.

Y so serious?

Lighten up, it's April Fool's Day.

[Bears Armed]

2007 - Everyone's a Mod!: basically, everyone had a "Regional Moderator" title in their nation profile. Nations could supposedly issue "warnings" to other nations. Nations could also use the coveted red warning text, which was abused pretty much from the start. I believe the warning text code has since changed (don't try it).

It wasn't everyone, just some nations in each region (number related to region size?).

[Hobbesistan]

Yet this Cards against Nationstates...apears to be a rip off of the 3 word forum spam game in one form or another. Literally no prank.

Such uneducated, much jump to conclusion.

https://cardsagainsthumanity.com/

Cards against Nationstates is a more dumbed down (purposely so, I imagine as CAH isn't exactly kid friendly) version of that^

[Enfaru]

I read the news article and looked at the game. It's not really much different from a forum spam game. All I'm asking is "Where's the prank"? It's a minigame sure, but so far each has had its own unique april foolery. This just seems to be a rip off of a forum spam game... or even worse a rip off of a game of a rip off of a forum spam game.

I won't deny personal biases, those are my own intepretations of what the pranks were and what I took away from them.

If someone could point out the prank part I'd appreciate it.

[Hobbesistan]

I read the news article and looked at the game. It's not really much different from a forum spam game. All I'm asking is "Where's the prank"? It's a minigame sure, but so far each has had its own unique april foolery. This just seems to be a rip off of a forum spam game... or even worse a rip off of a game of a rip off of a forum spam game.

I fail to see how half of these imply a real "prank". It's really more at having some fun nowdays.

For example, I fail to see how zombies, IPO, NationDates and Bytecoin all incite a real "prank". It's really more aimed at everyone having a laugh and screwing around.

The only ones I would really assert had a real "prank" involved would be DHS Shutdown, pop reset, Haxx0rs and NationStates DS, the others are somewhere inbetween. I, for one, don't really care that theres not directly a "prank" involved, everyone has a laugh and some fun, but some people just take everything as a critic I guess.

And involving CAH being a "rip off of a game of a rip off of a forum spam game" there is, infact, more to the internet than NSG...

[Evil Lord Sauron]

The IPO 'prank' was my favourite by a long way. The way we banded together to take down Max wonderful. Half hoped we'd see a return.

This April fools, has been okay enjoyable for sure but not at the same level as some of the previous years. You don't need to be glued to the game for the full 24 hours or slip behind, and there is no real goal or aim as a region or a player. It's fun but not a classic. Don't know how many websites or games would go to such lengths for April fools, but sadly Google wins this year. Being able to play pac-man on my local streets is pretty awesome.

[Revall]

Bytecoin is still king of all.

[Enfaru]

I read the news article and looked at the game. It's not really much different from a forum spam game. All I'm asking is "Where's the prank"? It's a minigame sure, but so far each has had its own unique april foolery. This just seems to be a rip off of a forum spam game... or even worse a rip off of a game of a rip off of a forum spam game.

I fail to see how half of these imply a real "prank". It's really more at having some fun nowdays.

For example, I fail to see how zombies, IPO, NationDates and Bytecoin all incite a real "prank". It's really more aimed at everyone having a laugh and screwing around.

The only ones I would really assert had a real "prank" involved would be DHS Shutdown, pop reset, Haxx0rs and NationStates DS, the others are somewhere inbetween. I, for one, don't really care that theres not directly a "prank" involved, everyone has a laugh and some fun, but some people just take everything as a critic I guess.

And involving CAH being a "rip off of a game of a rip off of a forum spam game" there is, infact, more to the internet than NSG...

Failing to see is not the same as there isn't one.

The last zombie event. I woke up thinking all my population had been consumed (I wish I could have kept the result but meh). If that's not a prank then I dunno what is. Bytecoin as Evil Lord Sauron puts it has a "real goal" in that unless you keep up you lose... the prank being that you could make all this money but it'd be taken away anyway at the end of the day.

If anything is aimed at people having a laugh and something not mattering it is this most recent game which is... "not at the same level as some of the previous years." It's completely 'meh' and I don't feel fooled in one way or the other. It's the difference between Cern revealing "The Force actually exists" (or perhaps Jeremy Clarkson's ''turning a leaf'') and "Bounce your way to loyalty points" by Tesco. Except this doesn't even meet Tesco's level to be fair on the scale of being suitable for april fools.

Yes quite, because NSG is the only forum ever to have the 3 word story spam game. -_-; You're better than that Hobbes.

Maybe I just fail to see the point of CAH and hence the prank behind CAN. I honestly don't know and that's why I asked if there was one. Apparently not. The only thing it has going for it is, "It might entertain someone for five minutes." ... Now...back to pacman.

[Zaolat]

Obviously your biases aren't gonna change and you've already expressed them. Beating this dead horse is not fun.

[Nephmir]

I didn't even get to play the minigame this year... doesn't fair well on touchscreens.

[Hobbesistan]

I fail to see how half of these imply a real "prank". It's really more at having some fun nowdays.

For example, I fail to see how zombies, IPO, NationDates and Bytecoin all incite a real "prank". It's really more aimed at everyone having a laugh and screwing around.

The only ones I would really assert had a real "prank" involved would be DHS Shutdown, pop reset, Haxx0rs and NationStates DS, the others are somewhere inbetween. I, for one, don't really care that theres not directly a "prank" involved, everyone has a laugh and some fun, but some people just take everything as a critic I guess.

And involving CAH being a "rip off of a game of a rip off of a forum spam game" there is, infact, more to the internet than NSG...

Failing to see is not the same as there isn't one.

The last zombie event. I woke up thinking all my population had been consumed (I wish I could have kept the result but meh). If that's not a prank then I dunno what is. Bytecoin as Evil Lord Sauron puts it has a "real goal" in that unless you keep up you lose... the prank being that you could make all this money but it'd be taken away anyway at the end of the day.

If anything is aimed at people having a laugh and something not mattering it is this most recent game which is... "not at the same level as some of the previous years." It's completely 'meh' and I don't feel fooled in one way or the other. It's the difference between Cern revealing "The Force actually exists" (or perhaps Jeremy Clarkson's ''turning a leaf'') and "Bounce your way to loyalty points" by Tesco. Except this doesn't even meet Tesco's level to be fair on the scale of being suitable for april fools.

Yes quite, because NSG is the only forum ever to have the 3 word story spam game. -_-; You're better than that Hobbes.

Maybe I just fail to see the point of CAH and hence the prank behind CAN. I honestly don't know and that's why I asked if there was one. Apparently not. The only thing it has going for it is, "It might entertain someone for five minutes." ... Now...back to pacman.

Oh absolutley, I'm not saying this is the best one ever made (It's a good laugh for a few minutes then gets boring fast), but I'm saying that the point of these games isn't often for a good "prank" at the end of the tunnel.

Yes quite, because NSG is the only forum ever to have the 3 word story spam game. -_-; You're better than that Hobbes

not sure if sarcasm or serious, but that's not at all what the point of CAH itself is. The NS version is just baaaad.

[Goddess Relief Office]

My favorite is "NationDates". It was cool and a lot of fun in a smaller region like Anime where all residents knew each other quite well. In a larger region like 10KI though, NationDates wasn't as fun since the nation we got matched up was often someone we never talked to, or worse, a nation about to CTE.

"NationStates DS" is my least favorite. Nothing really to say about it. It was just a weak joke.

[Vaculatestar64]

I tried playing a game of this Cards Against NationStates or what not. Not nearly as fun or entertaining as the original. I've wasted many a night with other NSers playing the original, ask Xoriet.