Our guest today, is a player with excellent taste in music and who has experienced several different parts of gameplay. He is one of the founders of the UCR,
The Empire of Mare Nostrum. They have a great Roman themed culture and some really great events and you should check them out!
What kind of region is Mare Nostrum as in what are the values, themes, goals? What kind of players are you looking for? That is actually a rather complex question as of now. If you asked me a year ago, I would have had a much easier time answering it. I would've stated we're a serious GP region that takes pride in our politics, development, and have high ambitions for where we go on NS. But nowadays, we've really mellowed out as a community. Our main value is now our community, keeping the situation harmonious, and just making sure things run smoothly. We're no longer interested in up-ending NS, we're just playing the game to the best of our ability and in a way that our members will enjoy.
In terms of theme, we're themed after the late Roman Republic/early Roman Empire with other influences from the Byzantine and other Mediterranean groups. We are not too strict with that theme, since forcing a real life government onto a region just ends up with a dysfunctional region.
Goals are ever shifting, aside from creating a strong and prosperous community, which I assume literally every other region has, I'd say one of our more concrete goals is improving WA presence and endorsement counts all over the region.
How did you learn about NationStates? How long have you been playing NS?I actually learned of NationStates through Wikipedia, I was googling free multiplayer online games and the Wikipedia article at the time listed NationStates. It listed other games like Cyber Nations, eRepublik, and other games, but NationStates was the one that I stuck with. This was back in June of 2011, so I’ve been on NS for over eight years now.
What is the significance or story behind your nation's name and flag?The name, there really is no story behind it, but there’s a story after it. It genuinely is something that I made up on the spot, but over time it has come to be my identity. I guess I like it since it’s something I picked for myself, even if no real thought went into it. Just a tidbit, but in High School, I had “Salvarity” put on the back of my senior sweater, instead of my actual name.
I actually thought it was a real word - salvarity. A combination between salvation or salve and rarity. It should be The flag was a request made to Hippostania, an RPer from the early 2010s era. I already had the colors of the banner, but the Coat of Arms was entirely his work. I’ve gotten comments that the flag is ugly and garish, but I still genuinely like it and consider it a part of my identity.
Salvarity is recognized by his NS brand, a transparent S. Tell us about your early career in NationStates and the significant things you did to lead you to where you are today?It all started a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
Well originally I was an RPer. I had my own group and even had an “RP Organization” that I was pretty proud of, it was called the Union of Equality and Freedom. It was a fun thread and a fun time. But I was also 12-13 and I was fuc*ing stupid. Like pants on head stupid. No idea how people even took me seriously enough to actually RP with me.
What kind of roleplay did you engage in then? Has that changed? Originally, my main style of RPing as centered around nation building. Pretty much everything under National and International Roleplaying I attempted at the least. There were a lot of wars, of varying writing quality, some international agreements, trade agreements. I even remember trying to run a storefront for a while. That was pretty fun. The one thing I'm most proud of is probably the International Union of Equality and Freedom.
viewtopic.php?t=149396Nowadays, to be truthful I don't RP much. If RPs are started in the regions where I'm active, I'll make a passable attempt to encourage the development. But, RP has long since lost my interest as a player.
How did your interests in NationState progress?Now everyone’s favorite friend, Unibot, he had a habit of reaching out to RPers in order to grow his organization, the United Defenders League. Naturally, being a dumb kid and all, I jumped at the opportunity and decided to help them out. On their very first op, I remembered they (the UDL) wanted more people to participate. So naturally I decided to be helpful and participate on two accounts. And that’s the story of how I got WA banned on my first ever op.
Somehow, I didn’t get kicked out of the UDL, I actually stuck around for a while. I distinctly remember never getting trained and having to figure stuff out as I go. Although let's be real, it’s NS and figuring out update isn’t incredibly difficult. I wasn’t bad at Defending and honestly I enjoyed my time there, I got promoted and won some awards/ribbons. But, eventually I got interested in the other side and, I can’t even remember the name of the person, but an officer in The Black Riders offered to take me along for a raid. I took him up on the offer and I raided for the first time. In my infinite wisdom, I used my Defending puppets from Kyzikos, so of course people realized. TITO complained to the UDL that I was raiding, I fessed up that it was me, and that was the end of my time in the UDL and Defending as a whole. I feel as if I should mention that I didn’t get forced out of the UDL, Unibot was willing to give me another chance (I think he realized that I was stupid and didn’t do this out of real malicious intent). I don’t remember my exact motivations, but I made the decision to leave at that point.
After those few months in the UDL, I was in the British Isles for half a decade, The Land of Kings and Emperors for like 2 years, and now The Empire of Mare Nostrum for just over a year. I’ve been in other regions during the years, but I personally track my NS history as UDL - BI - LKE - EMN.
I think it's so bizarre to think of all the players who started on NS (or internet communities in general) at a very young age. We only just, as a society, have even started talking about internet safety in a real way. The stupid things that so many kids did or the culture that we became acclimated to as "normal," really isn't. What region are you currently a part of? What do you like best about this region?My main region is The Empire of Mare Nostrum, I also hold citizen status in The North Pacific and The South Pacific. I consider Mare Nostrum my main because, well, it’s my region. I was one of the original five founders. The region very much feels as an extension of myself. I see my ideas expressed everywhere, in the government, the community, hell even the name itself was my idea. I feel genuine attachment to the region and I do not think I would be playing NationStates if it was not for Mare Nostrum.
What are your thoughts on the various gameplay venues (forums, Discord, gameside\RMB)?
I am still a fan of the forums, although that fact probably cements me as relatively old. They’re just so useful, with record keeping and the flexibility. There’s probably a bit of tradition and nostalgia influencing my opinions, but I still consider forums as NationStates at its best.
The RMB/Gameside is an integral part of NationStates, you need to use it in order to engage with those new to your communities, and I see no harm in helping the gameside community flourish. But, it’s a very limited medium and I’d rather not spend any more time than the bare minimum on it.
Discord is something I have used for a long time, even unrelated to NationStates. I still use it to keep in contact with real life friends and other gaming communities. Honestly, Discord is probably where I am most active on NationStates. However, at the end of the day, I consider it a net negative to NationStates and the experience of the game. It has effectively killed the traditional forum for most region by migrating the majority of activity to the Discord platform while not having anywhere near the same utility. I would credit Discord with killing NationStates as a game and creating NationStates as a social media.
That's an interesting take and one that others would share (that Discord has changed NS from a political intrigue game to a weird mixture of social media\mutant form)
What has been your favorite historical moment in NS?The NationStates IPO in 2012. Max Barry himself says it was the most fun April Fools day ever, and honestly I agree.
I missed this event, starting NS a bit afterwards but it looks pretty cool (also love that list of names that hearken back to an era). If you were Max Barry for a day, what would you do?Completely rework stamps, welcome telegrams, and how recruitment in general works on NationStates.
What do you do for fun when you're not on Nation States?Well there’s a lot of things I do that are not for fun, but when it comes to fun I’d have to say video games are number one while hanging out with my friends is in second place.
What is your favorite movie and\or TV and\or anime show(s)?I don’t think I have a favorite movie , but I did really enjoy Inglourious Basterds. In terms of shows, one that I really appreciated in the last year was
Love Death and Robots on Netflix.
Favorite book(s)?Picking a favorite book is difficult, but if I had to pick, the answer is
World War Z.
I love your music taste! What is your favorite music\songs?I consider myself a fan of Electronic music and a song I could listen to at any time would be
Talk by Salvatore Ganacci.In terms of channels, I'd definitely say to look at something like
xKito or
MrSuicideSheep. Those channels have a lot of music from different sub-genres in electronic and they label the genre of the track you're listening to. That way you can figure out what you're really into as a listener and can more easily look for what you want. In terms of artists I'd recommend people check out, I would say
Xylo and
CloZee, just because they're two of my favorites. Song recommendations are always the most difficult for me, but I'm gonna take a risk and recommend this obscure track by a relatively unknown British group. It's called
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, maybe you've heard of it?
Serious answer is
EMM - Freedom.
Stardew Valley is a role-playing farming simulation game where you inherit your grandfather's farm in the valley, and are tasked with revitalizing it. The game has a pretty and relaxing aesthetic, a rich world experience, as well as multi-player modes. What is a game (outside of NS) that everyone should play?American Truck Simulator. This one is difficult. I want to recommend something that I felt had a profound effect on me, but most of those are reliant on circumstances, mood, or whatever other factors impacted my life. Thinking of a game that is a genuine experience regardless of all those factors is hard. But, Stardew Valley is one I think anyone could appreciate at any point. The simplicity, calmness, while being strikingly engaging and intensive makes it a great experience. I understand Harvest Moon has the same concept at heart, but that is before my time. So yeah, my game that everyone should play is Stardew Valley.
So you wake up one morning and receive the delegacy of any region you choose. Which would you choose? And what would you do as delegate?The South Pacific, just to scare them with the evil imperialist independent coup, but I’d give it back within an update. I’m not interested in being government in GCRs and I don’t think there’s anything I personally could do with a GCR delegacy to improve the game.
Although the lul factor says take the Pacific and change the flag to a roast guinea pig.
What is one change you would make to NationStates to help improve the game experience?Well, like I mentioned in the Max Barry question, I really think the recruitment system in this game needs to be fixed. I really do believe UCRs have suffered from a “tragedy of the commons situation” and that their stagnation is destroying the game as a whole. While I think a return to pure manual recruitment will frankly never occur, the base principle of that system, that active dedicated players bring in new members (through sending telegrams), very much needs to return. Shells of regions running on an inactive’s stamp money or APIs being run out of pure habit need to disappear.
I have never been deeply involved in building or founding a UCR but it seems the barriers to success seem higher. There was an era where more UCRs thrived and the mechanics have made that harder. Stagnation seems to generally have hit the game hard recently.
Thanks to Salvarity, for this interview and awesome music suggestions!