The Writers' Block

[Fauxia]

Is there any issue about animals or robots participating in warfare?

Animals? Yes. Robots, not exactly, but there are options that allow you to put robots in the military.

[Trotterdam]

animals
robots

[Zinertia]

My nation has the 'no prisons' policy, yet today I received issue No. 1091, The Great Divide, which states in its opening paragraph:

a number of immigrants have been sent backward, downward, upward and sideways to various detention centres across Zinertia.

A tad confused as to how I have detention centres with that policy?

And whilst there is nothing as clear as a nation policy, I'm fairly sure I'd have responded with open-border options to previous issues on the topics of migration and border control.

[The Free Joy State]

My nation has the 'no prisons' policy, yet today I received issue No. 1091, The Great Divide, which states in its opening paragraph:

a number of immigrants have been sent backward, downward, upward and sideways to various detention centres across Zinertia.

A tad confused as to how I have detention centres with that policy?

And whilst there is nothing as clear as a nation policy, I'm fairly sure I'd have responded with open-border options to previous issues on the topics of migration and border control.

In future, please raise potentially incorrect validities in this thread.

Immigration detention centres are not necessarily prisons, and are counted separately. Also, the issue is restricted from nations with no controls on immigration. Zinertia is currently above that level.

[Merykor]

The issue #1290, Why Didn't the @@ANIMAL@@ Cross the Road, the answer that gives "coat closets are being re-branded as bedrooms" as headliner provides bias and scientifically innacurate results for the stats.

The answer itself is about greatly reducing human expanse through reducing the suburbia, and here are the wrong changes and why I see them as wrong:

Authoritarianism +7.0%, or ~+20 milistalins. It's a great change when considering that the suburbia itself was created and is maintained by heavy government interference, since humans have always gathered in cities. Outlawing suburbia, which I don't believe I did, shouldn't raise by such the milistalins, maybe from -15 to +10 would be a good amount and actions not as extreme should make even less of a difference.[3][4]

Social Conservatism +6.5%, or ~+1.5 on the Bush-Santorum Dawning Terror Index. This strikes me as strange, since the urbanization of life is, on the US, a big Democrat, that is, progressive, point, whereas republicans, that is, conservatives, support more suburbanization. All over the world progressists shun suburbanization while conservatives want it, to varying degrees. It's something that should be on the range of -15 to -0, but never a positive value.[3][4][13]

Obesity +0,82%, or ~+0,6 on the Obesity Rate. People on cities are, anywhere in the globe, healthier and thinner than in suburbia, since they have more incentive to do basic exercise, like walking to places. It should, again, never be positive, ranging from -7 to -0.[2][4][5][6][7][8]

Taxation +0,49% or ~+0.7 Effective Tax Rate. Suburbs require very, very high public maintainance since less people use more infraestructure. It's not hard to see this. A residential apartment building will need less road, plumbing and electric wires, and that's just from the top of my head. Not only that, but suburban maintanance is frequently the highest per zoning, so reducing suburbia should greatly reduce taxes, from -15 to -1 and, again, never be positive.[1][3][4][10][11]

Economy -0.7% or ~-0.7 on the Krugman-Greenspan Business Outlook Index. Cities are the great money maker of countries. The richest cities on the US are New York and Los Angeles, both lacking in suburbs, and that's no coincidence. Around the globe too: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, São Paulo, none have great suburbia, if they have one at all. This should be from +7 to +0 and never negative.[1][3][4][6][10][11]

Average Income -0.15%, or ~-180 Currency. The suburbia makes people poor. Atlanta had an increase in poverty by 126% on the 'burbs, Austin 129%, Las Vegas 139%, Cleveland 62%, Chicago 84%, and the list goes on and on. By these statistics alone, not even considering the previous points on taxation and economy, it's clear that average income should increase, by +0% to +5%.[1][2][3][4][11]

Economic Output -0.16% or ~-385,435,200,000 Currency. With the three previous points, I don't think this one needs to be explained, since it's basically a consequence of the others.[1][3][4][10][11]

Scientific Advancement -0.21% or ~-1.1 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.The largest scientific centers of the world are on the same big cities that make the economy grow, and the arguments for its growth are largely the same. That's not a coincidence. It should be from +0 to +15.[4]

Industry: Information Technology -0.34% or ~-141 on the Fann-Boi Productivity Index. This has to do with Economy and Scientific Advancement, so it should be clear why it should grow, not diminish.[4][11]

Intelligence -0.35% or ~-0.33 Quips Per Hour. People on cities share have wider nets of contact, are under less societal stress caused by loneliness, have a better spacial sense and memory for using less cars, are more fisically active, education centers are closer; all that suggests the intelligence will be higher, not lower, it should be from +0 to +0.5.

Niceness -1% or ~-0.4 Average Smiles Per Day. People on cities are nicer to each other, since they have to practice niceness more often due to the amount of people they meet daily, and being sure the people they meet on the school will be met again, probably with their parents, reduces bullying, since they are neighbors, with the job also not being so different, because they will meet again on the caffe/bar with friends in common.[12][13]

Employment -1.2% or ~-0.6 on the Workforce Participation Rate. With people living near the workplace and having a wider contact network finding a job or starting your own enterprise is easier on cities so, again, this shouldn't be negative. It should go from +0 to +3.[4][11][12]

Civil Rights -1.13% or ~-0.7. Protests, insurgencies, speechs, parades, even revolutions all happen on cities. If you want to protest civil rights, you'll go downtown. Living closer to where you'd ask for more civil rights, nay, any kind of right should increase the civil rights, never diminish them. It should be from +0 to +1.[4]

Industry: Book Publishing -1,3% or ~-234 on the Bella Potter Productivity E-Index. People in cities have more contact with more ideas, besides having more friends to help them get motivated to write, not forgetting the point of the Economy, that it should also rise, as well as Intelligence and Average Income, all contributing to more books being published, not less. It's the New York Times List of Best Sellers for a reason, it's the most urban city on the US, with the most urban city in the world, Tokyo, being famous for its writing scene, from both independent writers and big companies. It should go from +30 to +350, again, never less.[4][11]

Average Disposable Income -1,7% or ~-525 Currency. Besides previous points, living in a city is cheaper. You'll walk to most places, not spending on gasoline/ethanol. Because there will be more competing businesses, you can more easily chose the cheapest one, still inside your walking zone. ADI should increase on a range from +100 to +750.[2][3][4][9][10][11]

Health -2% or ~-0.3 Bananas Ingested Per Day. Most cities aren't the smog filled wastelands they once were. They have better park planning and less polluting industries, with the ones they have being more heavily regulated, besides the fact that there will be less cars coming from the suburbia, reducing pollution even more, and with people walking more and having a wider wet of contacts, making them fisically and mentally healthier. It should go from +0 to +1.[2][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Sector: Manufacturing -2,4% or ~-131 on the Gooback-Jerbs Productivity Index. Better Economy, people living closer, previous points say why this should increase not diminish. If it is indeed to diminish though, it is another reason for Health to go up instead of down.[11]

Cheerfulness -2,9% or ~-1 of Percentage Of Water Glasses Perceived Half-Full. For reasons already said, people on cities are happier than people on suburbs. Healthier, more friends, more opportunities, more money, etc.. It should go from +0 to +2.[4][12][13]

Economic Freedom -4,9% or ~-2,2 on the Rand Index. City States, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Monaco are all listed pretty high and have none or close to no suburbs. For countries this is maintained. Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan none have big suburbs, and have very high economic freedoms. Again, this is not a coincidence. Economic freedom should never go down because of urbanization, but up. A good range would be +0.3 to +5.[1][2][3][4][12]

And this is not even the extended details.

[1]https://sci-hub.st/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1078087407309282
[2]http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/
[3]https://lsecities.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/NCE-Sprawl-Subsidy-Report-021.pdf
[4]https://archive.org/details/suburbannationri00duan/page/n9/mode/2up
[5]https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11541568.pdf
[6]https://sci-hub.st/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2013.11.004
[7]https://sci-hub.st/https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198116688429
[8]https://sci-hub.st/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.08.019
[9]https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0386111214601795?token=D3BABD23DCE971351F983F1BAC8C60E8477839B35133CD2BF2473E06DE3A3728FB5F9692C917D92A919F05306C9CC6EE&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20210525154112
[10]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421505003691
[11]https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2010.00701.x (unfortunately couldn't find a free version)
[12]https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41289-018-0076-x (unfortunately couldn't find a free version)
[13]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254619300560 (unfortunately couldn't find a free version)

[Costa Azurica]

Are there any issues about the use of "flag-shaming" or insulting the flag by its design, features, and color? Been planning on making that issue.

[SherpDaWerp]

The issue #1290, Why Didn't the @@ANIMAL@@ Cross the Road, the answer that gives "coat closets are being re-branded as bedrooms" as headliner provides bias and scientifically innacurate results for the stats.

You're looking for the Unusual Issue Effects Megathread, and while the extra detail and research is interesting it's not terribly relevant.

You've listed a whopping 19 minuscule, secondary effects, and requested they be "fixed". These effects are so small as to be nearly-irrelevant.

• Authoritarianism ranges up to ~15,000; you're complaining about a change of 20
• Obesity ranges up to ~100, you're complaining about a change of 0.6
• Taxation ranges up to ~150, you're complaining about a change of 0.7
• Economy ranges up to ~110, you're complaining about a change of 0.7
• Average Income ranges into the millions and hundreds of thousands are very common, you're complaining about a change of 180
• Yeah... you get the point. Other stats for which you're likely complaining about secondary effects are Scientific Advancement, Intelligence, Niceness, Employment, Average Disposable Income, Health, Cheerfulness, Sector: Manufacturing, Average Disposable Income, and Industry: Information Technology.

Secondary effects arise from "backstage" stats having minor influences on a wide range of visible stats, which can be slightly unexpected but are generally very small, and impossible to iron out without a massive amount of manual exceptions.

Other stats you mentioned that I do feel like explaining in more depth are Civil Rights, Economic Freedom, and Social Conservatism.

• Civil Rights: People can't live where they want to live (provided they want to live in the suburbs). Civil Rights go down. Bringing in a non-correlated relationship with protests is a bit silly - more protests happen in cities where there are higher population density but plenty of protests still happen in heavily-suburbanite locales, like... most of Australia.
• Social Conservatism is basically just anti-civil-rights, to save the team from having to make highly subjective judgement calls about whether a given answer fits the right- or left- wing of politics, let alone deciding which country's definitions to use for that distinction. Civil Rights go down, Social Conservatism goes up.
• Economic Freedom: People can't buy/sell as much stuff as they otherwise could - there's probably more protections on industrial zones expanding out of cities, as well as no longer being allowed to buy/sell property outside of a city. Economic Freedom goes down.

Largely, a lot of the things you've pointed out aren't related to cities specifically, they're related to countries that are relatively technologically advanced and/or modern, and those countries have a lot of cities. Example: cities don't create protests, a socially aware populace that's allowed to protest creates protests. The fact that a lot of countries with "socially aware populaces allowed to protest" have cities is a correlated relationship, not a causative one.

[Trotterdam]

Are there any issues about the use of "flag-shaming" or insulting the flag by its design, features, and color? Been planning on making that issue.

1. Is that a common issue in real life? (As applied to the flags of real nations, not NationStates players.)
2. The game code would have no way of knowing if any particular player nation's flag would be particularly prone to this.

People in real life have come up with many, many reasons to hate or fear foreigners, but "your flag is ugly" is rarely heard among them. It just feels trivial to me. Even when people burn flags or the like, it's because of what the flag symbolizes, not because they dislike the artistic merit of the flag itself.

There are some cases where a nation decides to change their flag due to their own citizens disliking the current design, but, of course, while the player can do that at any time, a gameplay issue can't force it.

[The Free Joy State]

The issue #1290, Why Didn't the @@ANIMAL@@ Cross the Road, the answer that gives "coat closets are being re-branded as bedrooms" as headliner provides bias and scientifically innacurate results for the stats.
[*snip*]

I am grateful you did not provide the extended details.

As for your complaint, SherpDaWerp actually summed it pretty well, but I thought it would pay to hear it from an editor: we are not going to ask the Admin to rework the entire game engine because you are displeased with the outcome to one issue.

All the backstage stats are there correctly. The game engine then takes them, interacts with your nation, and produces the secondary effects you can see (most of which are miniscule).

The results are as expected.

[Baggieland]

I have just received issue 1372: Balls to All That (by Outer Sparta and Zwangzug).

I feel there is a serious case of incorrect wording in the first option, namely:

"Hey hey, ho ho, Althaniq has got to go!" shout the ultra fans of @@CAPITAL@@ United.

Ultra fans are usually extreme right or extreme left violent people. The last thing they would ever say would be "Hey hey, ho ho, Althaniq has got to go!"

"Hey hey, ho ho, Althaniq has got to go!" is something a bunch of hippies in a drum circle would say!

So what would hardcore football fans say? Just: "Althaniq out!"

I realise that this is hardly linguistic genius, however, it is what real football fans chant when they're dissatisfied with their owner / manager.

Please, please, please get rid of "Hey hey, ho ho, Althaniq has got to go!" It makes me cringe just reading those words!

If you're still not convinced, here's a visual:

[Outer Sparta]

I have just received issue 1372: Balls to All That (by Outer Sparta and Zwangzug).

I feel there is a serious case of incorrect wording in the first option, namely:

"Hey hey, ho ho, Althaniq has got to go!" shout the ultra fans of @@CAPITAL@@ United.

Ultra fans are usually extreme right or extreme left violent people. The last thing they would ever say would be "Hey hey, ho ho, Althaniq has got to go!"

"Hey hey, ho ho, Althaniq has got to go!" is something a bunch of hippies in a drum circle would say!

So what would hardcore football fans say? Just: "Althaniq out!"

I realise that this is hardly linguistic genius, however, it is what real football fans chant when they're dissatisfied with their owner / manager.

Please, please, please get rid of "Hey hey, ho ho, Althaniq has got to go!" It makes me cringe just reading those words!

If you're still not convinced, here's a visual:

(Image)

(Image)

Reminds me of the Glazers Out! FSG Out! Kroneke Out! protests following the Super League fiasco.

Perhaps the ultras in question could be more colorful, repeating phrases like "Sod off, Althaniq" or whatever others.

[Baggieland]

Perhaps the ultras in question could be more colorful, repeating phrases like "Sod off, Althaniq" or whatever others.

That would work too.

Just, please God, not "hey hey ho ho"!

[Outer Sparta]

Perhaps the ultras in question could be more colorful, repeating phrases like "Sod off, Althaniq" or whatever others.

That would work too.

Just, please God, not "hey hey ho ho"!

The editors could look into how Balkan fans protest and stuff, but of course it would be way too inappropriate given the civil war-like aspect of derbies there and a lot of what ultra fans say there would be more suited for a R-rated movie.

[Baggieland]

The editors could look into how Balkan fans protest and stuff, but of course it would be way too inappropriate given the civil war-like aspect of derbies there and a lot of what ultra fans say there would be more suited for a R-rated movie.

I'm sure the editors can prevent this issue from requiring the adult tag. There's already a couple of suggestions they can work with.

By the way, nice issue Sparta, except the hey ho bit!

[Outer Sparta]

The editors could look into how Balkan fans protest and stuff, but of course it would be way too inappropriate given the civil war-like aspect of derbies there and a lot of what ultra fans say there would be more suited for a R-rated movie.

I'm sure the editors can prevent this issue from requiring the adult tag. There's already a couple of suggestions they can work with.

By the way, nice issue Sparta, except the hey ho bit!

Thanks, Baggie. Also I'm glad you raised that issue, since now that I think of it, it's definitely cringe for ultra fans to chant that instead of using more direct and colorful language (given they're ultras ).

[Bears Armed]

Here's an idea for anybody who wants it to use.
The suggested title is 'Many Are Cold, But Few Are Frozen', and the subject is whether to introduce 'cold weather payments' such as the RL UK government grants to the elderly to help cover extra heating costs in very cold weather.

From a government website:

You’ll get a payment if the average temperature in your area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees celsius or below over 7 consecutive days.

You’ll get £25 for each 7 day period of very cold weather between 1 November and 31 March.

[Jutsa]

Hey-Ho-Hee-Hoy is not solely an old-timey hippy thing. Why I've seen anti-Trump protests where normal (and some less-than-normal) people chanted that.

Interestingly, the particular instance I saw this in was a video taken in... I think it was California, and the video was equally about the pro-trump counter almost-protest-but-not-exactly? thing that happened, featuring, and I kid you not, several drag queens, rainbow flags and rave.

... My point? The 2010s were a confusing time for a lot of us.

[Baggieland]

Hey-Ho-Hee-Hoy is not solely an old-timey hippy thing. Why I've seen anti-Trump protests where normal (and some less-than-normal) people chanted that.

My point is not about who says "hey ho", but that any self-respecting football fan - especially ultras - would never say that. "Someone out" is what they DO chant.

... My point? The 2010s were a confusing time for a lot of us.

That is so true!

[Lord Dominator]

As best I could tell, the only issue dealing with tax havens so far is 532, at least that I found. Is anyone aware of others?

[Outer Sparta]

As best I could tell, the only issue dealing with tax havens so far is 532, at least that I found. Is anyone aware of others?

Are you thinking of doing an issue draft about tax havens? There definitely could be several potential angles to it, but I'm not familiar with the dealings of tax havens.

[Lord Dominator]

As best I could tell, the only issue dealing with tax havens so far is 532, at least that I found. Is anyone aware of others?

Are you thinking of doing an issue draft about tax havens? There definitely could be several potential angles to it, but I'm not familiar with the dealings of tax havens.

Yes - and to do that I was looking for anything existing, as is natural. Presently debating whether or not to chain off the option in 532 to ban the usage of such (since it’s lack of specificity is useful for a “how we do that” followup) or something separate.

[Outer Sparta]

I'm always thinking of issues related to football, but I'm wondering if using a football club for political purposes (such as reelection or party propaganda) is a viable angle. One example would be Beitar Jerusalem in Israel, home to far-right ultras that are extremely prejudiced against Arab and Muslim players, are tied with the Likud party, and Likud politicians often use them for party politics. Another example is Istanbul Basaksehir, which has close ties with Erdogan's AKP party and functions pretty much the same way, but they're not that significant in Turkey compared to Beitar in Israel.

[Baggieland]

Don't forget that the mighty Real Madrid only became mighty because they were bankrolled by the Franco regime.

[Outer Sparta]

Don't forget that the mighty Real Madrid only became mighty because they were bankrolled by the Franco regime.

On that same note, an issue idea on your nation (going with the same corrupt/authoritarian angle) hosting a large event like the World Cup or regional Olympics, but for the sake of covering up your own atrocities would be interesting to do. Football clubs are a drip in the bucket compared to entire global sporting events.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Hey Baggie, if you come on back in and edit an issue, I'll +1 the change you want to the ultra-fans chant.
Also, if you abandon West Brom for a better club, I'll send you a tenner.