NationStates Issues **SPOILER ALERT**

[Kaschovia]

#132: World Assembly Woes [Sanctaria; ed:Frisbeetria]

#643: No Small Wonder [Henuld; ed:Nation of Quebed]

#724: Your Stuff Is Forfeit [Sierra Lyricalia ed:Ranisum]

Might want to edit those.

[Jutsa]

Thanks Kas, FJS, and Kas again. Updating now.

Ed: All updated! However, I have to wonder. Is Faith Night a random name or a fixed name? It feels like it's fixed, but I could see it being either.

Edit 2: Also, I noticed this one is somewhat similar to issue #608: Thrown Into Sharp Relief. Is there perhaps a connection with the two?

Also pointing out that I'm updating the list of nations with the two that appear in this issue.

[Trotterdam]

#846 Use Your Words

The Issue

Shortly after your Finance Minister delivered a rousing speech to shore up support for your latest budget, it was discovered that the majority of the speech was plagiarized from a popular Brancalandian economist.

The Debate

1. "Schools have expelled students for plagiarism; the same rules should apply to the highest offices of the land," notes @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ Language Professor @@RANDOMNAME@@, looking over a transcript of your latest speech. "Plagiarism is essentially theft, and we ought to take a tougher stance. The Minister should be sacked! Besides, it hardly looks good on you when supposedly expert cabinet ministers are caught stealing content from a second-rate Brancalandian economist." @@HE/SHE@@ finishes reading your speech. "Hmm, this speech seems awfully familiar to the one that leader made in that alien invasion movie."

2. "So what if my speech was similar to what some hack economist wrote?" questions your Finance Minister, who hasn't been seen since the speech. "People enjoyed the speech, and support for the budget had gone up! Of course those polls were taken before this so-called scandal, but that's beside the point! People are making way too big a deal of this when there are way more important things for them to be worried about like, um, so how about them..." He trails off. "Let's just ride this out and people will forget about it. At least until the next scandal."

3. "And what kind of message does that send to children?" scolds your personal assistant while tsking the Finance Minister. "It seems to me that the problem is the lack of competent speechwriters. Why not invest in the administrative budget so we can hire some quality people? It may cost an extra @@CURRENCY@@ or two, but it's better than being embarrassed by discount writers who think that Twilight is the height of literary genius."

4. "You could at least acknowledge me if you're going to use my work," sighs @@RANDOMNAME@@, the Brancalandian economist, after wandering away from a tour group. "Or better yet, you could pay me to use my work. Us economists aren't exactly rolling in the dough, you know!"

Issue by Nation of Quebec
Edited by Candlewhisper Archive

Note: I don't know if the Finance Minister's gender (mentioned near the end of option 2) is fixed or random, given that he's never named. Technically I'm not sure the other names are random genders either, but it seems extremely unlikely they're not.

[Drasnia]

Here is #843 again for name confirmation and so you get all of it in one place.

#843: Quacking Up [The Free Joy State; ed:Nation of Quebec]

The Issue
A cancer patient has died after taking the advice of Lisa Night, an alternative therapist of dubious qualification. The patient rejected traditional medicine in favor of her ‘secret cure’, which was revealed to be healing crystals, giving up ‘radiation-causing technology’, and living on a diet of raw onions. Questions have been raised about whether restrictions should be put on alternative treatments.

The Debate
1. “Poppycock!” scoffs your physician, Doctor Edwards, raising her eyebrow witheringly. “These so-called alternative therapies do nothing but destroy the integrity of real medicine, where trained doctors with real degrees – not this nutcase who bought her diploma from an alleyway in Maxtopia – use empirical evidence that’s collected over decades. Stop this pillaging of science. Ban these literal snake oil salespeople from peddling false hope and telling the desperate and ill anything for a quick buck!”

2. “Lies and slander!” trills Ms. Night, as she uses a small model of a frowning-face cancer cell as a stress ball. “If this layman is finished, I can explain. All diseases are caused by stress and poor immunity. Even cancer. And all can be cured by removing the stress – those depressing outside influences, that job you never wanted, a nagging family member – and a diet high in immune-boosting antioxidants. Too much stress! That’s all there is to it.”

3. “The problem is not alternative therapy itself, but rather that it is being promoted as a cure for cancer,” declares acupuncturist Ludwig Looney, while pulling needles out of one of your interns’ back. “It is charlatanism on which we must clamp down, including glib peddlers of easy answers such as Ms. Night. The prestigious Medical Association of Brancaland uses acupuncture to relieve the side-effects caused by cancer and its treatments, such as pain and fatigue. We must allow alternative therapists, trained to nationally recognisable standards, to help patients where there is sound evidence that it works.”[/b]

[Jutsa]

Done and done! Thank you both.

Updated the list as well as my list of nations - did you know that if Brancaland appeared in issue 844, we'd have it show up in 4 issues in a row?

[Bears Armed]

#846 Use Your Words

The Issue

Shortly after your Finance Minister delivered a rousing speech to shore up support for your latest budget, it was discovered that the majority of the speech was plagiarized from a popular Brancalandian economist.

The Debate

1. "Schools have expelled students for plagiarism; the same rules should apply to the highest offices of the land," notes @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ Language Professor @@RANDOMNAME@@, looking over a transcript of your latest speech. "Plagiarism is essentially theft, and we ought to take a tougher stance. The Minister should be sacked! Besides, it hardly looks good on you when supposedly expert cabinet ministers are caught stealing content from a second-rate Brancalandian economist." @@HE/SHE@@ finishes reading your speech. "Hmm, this speech seems awfully familiar to the one that leader made in that alien invasion movie."

2. "So what if my speech was similar to what some hack economist wrote?" questions your Finance Minister, who hasn't been seen since the speech. "People enjoyed the speech, and support for the budget had gone up! Of course those polls were taken before this so-called scandal, but that's beside the point! People are making way too big a deal of this when there are way more important things for them to be worried about like, um, so how about them..." He trails off. "Let's just ride this out and people will forget about it. At least until the next scandal."

3. "And what kind of message does that send to children?" scolds your personal assistant while tsking the Finance Minister. "It seems to me that the problem is the lack of competent speechwriters. Why not invest in the administrative budget so we can hire some quality people? It may cost an extra @@CURRENCY@@ or two, but it's better than being embarrassed by discount writers who think that Twilight is the height of literary genius."

4. "You could at least acknowledge me if you're going to use my work," sighs @@RANDOMNAME@@, the Brancalandian economist, after wandering away from a tour group. "Or better yet, you could pay me to use my work. Us economists aren't exactly rolling in the dough, you know!"

Issue by Nation of Quebec
Edited by Candlewhisper Archive

Note: I don't know if the Finance Minister's gender (mentioned near the end of option 2) is fixed or random, given that he's never named. Technically I'm not sure the other names are random genders either, but it seems extremely unlikely they're not.

I've just had the issue, but forgot to check that detail.
However, I can say that for option 3 the 'effect' line is "political speeches always take place at sunset to a background of patriotic power ballads".

[Drasnia]

I got "He" as well on #846.2.

[Jutsa]

Fortunately I accidentally left it as "He" instead of changing it to @@HE@@. Seems he's always a he.

[Teh 2nd Soviet Union]

#847 All The Lonely People

Teh 2nd Soviet Union City University researchers have reported that as many as 1 in 3 people in Teh 2nd Soviet Union may be suffering from chronic loneliness. Studies say this is causing considerable harm to people’s health, as dangerous as smoking a pack of cigarettes each day.

The Debate

1.“The problem here is social isolation,” observes lead researcher Dr. Elena Rugby, who is plastered with a distracting amount of facial make-up. “Lonely people could just use some government-funded opportunities where they can meet up and chat, get-togethers where they might find the man of their dreams after being left at the altar thirty-two long years ago.” She sighs wistfully and averts her gaze.

2.“No, the problem here is perceived social isolation, not actual isolation,” interrupts co-researcher Mackenzie Thomas, talking to you via a carefully crafted sock puppet on his right hand. “Mr. Sock here thinks that it’d be better to provide counseling and drugs to brighten up life. You’re only alone if you feel alone.” He pecks Mr. Sock on the ‘cheek’ and smiles happily.

3.“No, no, the problem here is isolating perceptions of what constitutes socialisation,” interjects IT support nerd Doreen Mode, showing a clueless researcher how to turn his computer off and on again. “Two words for you: robot companions. Okay, three words: foxy robot companions. Kit out social services with a few of these, and BAM... job done.”

4.“No, no, no! The problem here is that these socialists are attempting to isolate big government solutions,” complains socialite Daisy Hawkins, smoothing out her second-hand green velvet jacket. “If you really want people to be less lonely, then cut back income tax a bit, and they’ll have more disposable income to get out and meet people. More money equals more happiness!”

5.“No, no, no. And no. The problem here is social isolation being seen as undesirable,” comments introvert Ringo Harrison, offering his thoughts softly from behind a pair of face-obscuring sunglasses. “Wouldn’t the world be better if everyone just stopped all this inane chatter and got on with some quiet reading? Oh, there’s an idea: maybe you could make two hours every evening into no-contact time, where people aren’t allowed to talk or interact with each other. That’d be... nice.”


Issue by The Mutated Miscellanea of Candlewhisper Archive

Edited by The Free Joy State

[Jutsa]

Ahah! I remember seeing this one.

CWA is that much closer to passing Maxtopia in issues. >:3

Thank you, T2SU - updated!

Er - and if anyone can confirm whether or not option 3 is only available to scientifically advanced nations.

[Trotterdam]

That's a lot of genders.

1. [female charactter, male ex]
2. [male character]
3. [female character, male coworker]
4. [female character]
5. [male character]

At least the ones in option 1 are likely to be nonrandom.

According to the draft thread, none of the names are random.

[Arceus Domains]

According to the draft thread, none of the names are random.

That's right! I've seen this Issue. Fixed names. All of them

Edit:

Er - and if anyone can confirm whether or not option 3 is only available to scientifically advanced nations.

As for my puppet: Top 21% IT Industry - Top 29% Scientific Advancement.
I'll make sure to report future sights. Hopefully, one of my no-computer puppets will receive this Issue. Either that, or any puppet with low levels of Scientific Advancement / IT industry.

[Jutsa]

*eyes glaze over*

Many edits because it's 1 AM. Thank you both.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Fortunately I accidentally left it as "He" instead of changing it to @@HE@@. Seems he's always a he.

Actually it's not.

You know what though? It takes an inordinate amount of work for you guys to work out whether genders are fixed or not, especially now new tools let us base the gender of a pronoun off any name in the issue.

If I were in your position, I'd seriously consider just using whatever pronoun you first see in your spoilers, and then if it is inaccurate for a given nation, who really cares that much? I think with spoilers, people want to know what issues the game presents, and what topics have been covered in the past, not the precise existence of every macro.

The other option, if absolute accuracy is needed, is to have a Technical discussion about whether you want to have the spoilers be fully automated, so that when a new issue is added it just appears on the list, with macros and all there. I'm pretty sure that the game designers are pretty neutral on the idea, and there's not much practical difference in system transparency between an automated system and a very efficient player-run system, which is what you have here. It all depends whether you enjoy the process of discovering new issues, or whether you're doing this just as a means to an end (i.e. the complete spoiler list). If the list is all that matters, rather than the process of discovery, then there's a strong argument to be made for automation.

Backstage we've often discussed this, but felt that the thread belongs to the community rather than the staff, so have just let you get on with it. However, just because that is the status quo, doesn't mean it is obliged to work as it does.

Just my opinion, of course.

[Jutsa]

With only a few potentially uncertain terms, I prefer the player-discovery system, myself.
Automation would be way easier, though discovering's definitely where the fun is, in my opinion.

Edit: Er - that being said, if the majority of the community wholeheartedly wants it automated,
I'm at no position for saying "hey that's a bad idea".

[Candlewhisper Archive]

You're the one doing the bulk of the work, so you have the casting vote, I reckon.

[Drasnia]

Stuff about automating the spoiler thread.

I'm pretty agnostic about it all. There is fun to be had discovering issues and having the knowledge that one or more are out there but haven't been spotted yet. However, automating the process (and keeping up-to-date versions of every issue) would be very helpful for pretty much everybody involved in the issue community - authors, commenters, people who think the effects of a stat are wrong, etc. I'd probably lean towards automating it or whatever, since maintaining the spoiler thread is time-consuming and not all changes to existing issues will be noticed/get cataloged.

[Jutsa]

Hmmm... that is very true.

Plus, the spoiler thread already sort-of spoils the discovery of the issue for yourself in the first place.

[Divine Cervine]

Issue #849

Sky High

The Issue

A fleet of drones was recently caught on surveillance cameras delivering over one hundred packages into make-shift nets in back gardens and alleyways. Police managed to intercept only two of these, both of which contained around 20,000 @@CURRENCY@@ worth of illegal drugs.

The Debate

1. “More drug deals take place right above our heads than anywhere on the ground,” says @@RANDOMNAME@@, Chief of @@CAPITAL@@ Police Department, fiddling with @@HIS/HER@@ shiny golden badge. “Those modified drones more than double the speed of drug deals, and we just can’t move fast enough to catch them! Outlawing drones would obviously be a bit pointless, so why don’t we establish our own aerial presence instead? Imagine a fleet of thousands, patrolling with eyes and guns in the sky, protecting and serving the people from on high.” @@HE/SHE@@ grins and presses play on an MP3 player, filling the room with Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.



2. “Good job officer, you got us!” mocks @@RANDOMNAME@@, an infamous drug lord from behind a wall of thick smoke and thicker bodyguards. “You’ll never keep up, I’m afraid: we’ll improvise, adapt, and will always overcome your pathetic enforcers. Take down our drones and we’ll find other ways to deliver our wares. So why get caught in this deadly cycle of mutual rising costs? If you were to instead legalise and legitimise our businesses, then we could move into the light, with great customer service, next-day delivery, TV advertising, and yes... we’ll even pay taxes. That sound as good to you as it does to me?”



3. “Pardon my interruption, if you will,” interrupts @@RANDOMNAME@@, a quiet, bespectacled @@MAN/WOMAN@@ perched on a reclining office chair with a thick, undusted stack of city policy rulings on @@HIS/HER@@ lap. “The issue here seems not to be what people do with these modified drones, but who gets to own one. I suggest that all would-be pilots should be put through an intense screening check and criminal records investigation before they can buy a drone. With easily exploitable products comes extensively and unnecessarily over-complicated measures and standards!”

Issue by The Spooks of Kaschovia
Edited by Candlewhisper Archive

I hope that I did the macros correctly. I am sorry if I made any mistakes!

[Jutsa]

Holy cow, Kaschovia! You've barely been here and already have three issues!

Updating now. Thank you!

Edit: And done~

Edit2: Be on the look out for 848. :3

[Barney The Dinosour]

#848 It’s A Girl Thing

The Issue

A commercial for a new childrenswear boutique has been unveiled, sparking debate over gender stereotypes in advertising. It features a young girl ballet-dancing in a rose-pink bedroom, holding a baby-pink toy unicorn and a fluffy cameo-pink magic wand, while wearing matching cotton-candy pink dancing shoes, a tiara and flounced pink tutu.

The Debate

1.“This is explicit sexism for all ages!” cries feminist Ashley Kumar, while graffiti-tagging an advert that depicts a woman cheerily vacuuming as her family unwraps their Maxxmas presents. “Don’t you see that such stereotypes are harmful to everyone, that you’re telling all girls that the only thing they’re good for is being beautiful? We’ve got six-year-old girls who only want to grow up to be pretty. How’s that helping to encourage them to be productive citizens? Eliminate ads that perpetuate the lie of gender-specific roles. Allow everyone to grow up as the wonderful, unique individuals they are!”

2.“You’ve got to be kidding me,” groans Man’s World Inc. CEO Newt Rubin, while uploading a photo of Ashley to the Man’s World blog under the heading ‘Today’s Crazy Lady’. “We use stereotypes because they’re what customers want! Girls like pink and enjoy playing house; boys like guns and cars. It’s basic biology, nature not nurture, as countless biopsychology experiments with chimps have shown. Advertisers shouldn’t be censored, and normal people who are happy for little girls to be little girls will shop away, happy as clams.”

4.The impact of ads can be used to our advantage,” states your Minister of Niceness Marin Show, tutting disapprovingly at Ms. Kumar, who is still writing anatomical suggestions of where you might stick the vacuum. “Pay financial incentives to advertisers who depict Barney children in stereotype-shattering roles, so society will become more open-minded. Imagine: women playing exhausting sports, toasting friends in a coffee shop, wiring a plug, administering a company, even growing a beard. And men, too long derided as incompetent homemakers, unafraid to nurture a baby in public, tend a sick parent, or cook a meal. Break antiquated gender roles and protect your citizens’ freedom!”


Issue by The Dictatorship of Braskia

Edited by The Free Joy State

[Jutsa]

OMG! Congratulations, Braskia!

Edit: Updated! And thank you, Barney, for confirming the internal numbers - indeed, we need a socialist version of this issue. :3

Plus, we can confirm which names are random or not.

[Trotterdam]

In #843, the alternative therapist appears to be named "@@RANDOMFEMALEFIRSTNAME@@ Night", while the qualified doctor is "Doctor @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@", and the acupuncturist is "@@RANDOMNAME@@" (possibly always-male, but probably not).

[Jutsa]

Thank you, Trotterdam.

[Divine Cervine]

Issue #850

The Prints And The Slaughter

The Issue

The nation was in shock today after a shooting left dozens dead in downtown @@CAPITAL@@. After the shooter was arrested, a search of @@HIS/HER@@ home revealed that the guns were manufactured by a 3D printer, thrusting the use of the devices into the limelight.

The Debate

1. “These newfangled printers are making it easy for crooks to get their hands on guns!” complains @@CAPITAL@@ Police Chief @@RANDOMNAME@@, showing you pictures of the armory the shooter had amassed. “I say we ban these dangerous machines, and give the police force a free hand to confiscate any device or materials that can be used to manufacture gun parts. We must reinforce our zero tolerance gun policy and remind our citizens that no guns keeps them safe.”



2. “What’s stopping citizens from getting the printers or guns on the black market?” asks @@RANDOMNAME@@, a former gun lobbyist who was injured in the attack. “Gun control is impossible with today’s technology. If I still had my gun, I wouldn’t have a bullet lodged in my shoulder blade. You should legalise guns and let us defend ourselves, and let us use printed guns if that’s our preference.”



3. “Legalising guns would be anarchy in the streets!” reminds the CEO of electronics giant Pear. “However, 3D printers are quite versatile and useful. I hear some countries are using 3D printers to manufacture artificial organs. Imagine how many lives that would save! All it would take is some generous government funding, and some police oversight, to make sure that this technology is used to help people, not to kill them.”

Issue by The UM Parliamentary Republic of Singapore no2
Edited by Nation of Quebec