NationStates

I understand this idea would require a fair amount of code, but I think it would greatly enhance gameplay.

Each issue should have its own topic in the forum under a category which allows no new topics by members. The issues presentation page should be hacked to include a text input for alternate answers, which gets submitted as a comment in the forum topic related to the issue. Additionally, a link to the issue topic with instructions to look at other solutions submitted by other countries.

In each issue topic, enable voting so people can choose from the comments those they like. Editors and moderators would then get an idea of the popular solutions and could wordsmith selected comments and include dynamically on the form as drop down items.

I don't know how each issue solution is scored to affect economy/rights/liberties, but I bet some kind of bridge could be coded to match your current system. This is rushed, I'm sure incomplete and probably unworkable, but I had to get it out there...

The point of the options is so you have to make tough decisions.

I'm not saying so any option can be put in place, but some of these issue do not have solutions which fit with the general governing philosophy of the member deciding. So it isn't just making a hard choice, but being forced to make an unwise choice when wiser courses of action should (in theory) be an option.

Laissez faire liberals wrote:I'm not saying so any option can be put in place, but some of these issue do not have solutions which fit with the general governing philosophy of the member deciding. So it isn't just making a hard choice, but being forced to make an unwise choice when wiser courses of action should (in theory) be an option.

Then dismiss it. And there are very few issues that don't have at least slightly sensible options. It's about compromises. If you don't like them, like I said dismiss it, or better yet, stop getting issues.

Laissez faire liberals wrote:I'm not saying so any option can be put in place, but some of these issue do not have solutions which fit with the general governing philosophy of the member deciding. So it isn't just making a hard choice, but being forced to make an unwise choice when wiser courses of action should (in theory) be an option.

You seem to have missed a VERY important element in issue creation (probably the most important one): humor. Very Rarely is a wise choice humorous reading. [That's a legacy of a game derived from a piece of satirical literature.]

What you have to understand, is that this game is one big effing joke. And that's the best part! Even the message saying the cookies were not enabled so you couldn't log in has a satirical part to it! (Do you want to disable your cookies to see what it is now?)

Issues are structured. Each answer in the current issues serves a purpose, a proverbial fork in the road that must be decided. Some structures are simple ('For/Against/Freaky Compromise', 'choose one of these six advisors'), while others are subtler and more complex. You can't totally control where these forks in the road come up, just as in a real nation, but their randomness ensures that no two nations' journeys are the same.

Thought I'd toss this here rather than create a whole new thread.

I find that nearly 100% of issues that I get that have ONLY two choices get Dismissed. Having just two choices pretty much guarantees that they will be the polar extremes, which means that they're usually _too_ extreme for serious consideration. I believe issue writers should most definitely insert some middle-of-the-road options if their issues are going to have any substantial impact on national development.