What does challenging do?

[Vlawarkay]

Does it just compare your nation to others? Is it this game's version of wars? I really don't know, can someone please tell me?

[Sedgistan]

It was a minigame from the site's 10-year anniversary: https://www.nationstates.net/page=tenyears

There's not much more to it than what the Challenge page says:

How to Play Nation Challenge

Find an opponent and CHALLENGE! The winner is decided by comparing stats on randomly-selected World Census rankings.

Levels

Your starting Level is the number of world trophies you have (of any type—top 1%, 10%, etc). You can gain more levels by winning Challenge games and accumulating Championship points.

Round of Five

Games are usually played to the best of 5 rounds. If the dueling nations are not the same level, the higher-level nation begins on a number of points equal to its level advantage. For example, a Level 5 nation will have a 1-point starting advantage against a Level 4 nation.

Nations always have a chance to win any Challenge: the game will play at least as many rounds as is necessary for the lower-level nation to finish ahead, assuming it wins every round. For example, if a Level 1 nation challenges a Level 10 nation, the higher-level nation will begin on 9 points and the game will play up to 10 rounds, all of which the lower-level nation needs to win to claim victory. So it's possible. Not easy. Not really practical. But possible.

[Vlawarkay]

It was a minigame from the site's 10-year anniversary: https://www.nationstates.net/page=tenyears

There's not much more to it than what the Challenge page says:

How to Play Nation Challenge

Find an opponent and CHALLENGE! The winner is decided by comparing stats on randomly-selected World Census rankings.

Levels

Your starting Level is the number of world trophies you have (of any type—top 1%, 10%, etc). You can gain more levels by winning Challenge games and accumulating Championship points.

Round of Five

Games are usually played to the best of 5 rounds. If the dueling nations are not the same level, the higher-level nation begins on a number of points equal to its level advantage. For example, a Level 5 nation will have a 1-point starting advantage against a Level 4 nation.

Nations always have a chance to win any Challenge: the game will play at least as many rounds as is necessary for the lower-level nation to finish ahead, assuming it wins every round. For example, if a Level 1 nation challenges a Level 10 nation, the higher-level nation will begin on 9 points and the game will play up to 10 rounds, all of which the lower-level nation needs to win to claim victory. So it's possible. Not easy. Not really practical. But possible.

Got it, thanks for the help!