NationStates Issues **SPOILER ALERT**

by **Trotterdam** » Thu Jun 01, 2023 6:10 am

I guess Verdant Haven's project to fix issue behavior under atheist states is beginning?

(I hope not all of it is just "hide options that require religion", we need some ways of repealing that policy!)

I happen to know that #1204 is another such issue that's been changed recently. I haven't actually seen the text, but I've seen an adjusted effect line.

by **Rocain Founder** » Thu Jun 01, 2023 3:28 pm

I believe you are correct. Issue #33 was just received by puppet Cain M Imp v0 with a non-religious twin of a religious option inserted. Specifically, there is now an option 3, presumably for non-religious nations, inserted between the old option 2 and the old option 3. The text of option 3, now option 4, has also been changed.

Here is the issue as received by my puppet, with the option number translated from the API's 0-origin to the usual 1-origin. Differences between the new option 3 and the spoiled option 2, as well as between the spoiled option 3 and the new option 4 are underlined.

1. “I, for one, applaud their work,” says scientist Wangchu Ratican. “And not just because I’m the project leader. This is an example of how @@NAME@@’s brains can mix it with the world’s best. Can you imagine how wonderful it will be to have feather-bellied @@ANIMAL_PLURAL@@ frolicking in the meadows again? I say full steam ahead, and more government funding!”

3. “This is absurd!” says avowed fatalist Cato Yeats. “These animals are extinct because evolution selected against them. Cloning them would merely be fighting the inevitable! If we proceed down this path, it’ll be humans, not the feather-bellied @@ANIMAL@@, who will be extinct.”

4. “Now, come on,” says Hillary Dylan, well-known philosopher. “You don’t need to believe in some outside force to be unnerved by the top of this particular slippery slope. Today it’s @@ANIMAL_PLURAL@@, tomorrow it’s dinosaurs, and we all know how that turns out. This research shouldn’t be banned, but there must be strict government controls over its use.”

by **Sedgistan** » Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:14 am

Trotterdam wrote:I guess Verdant Haven's project to fix issue behavior under atheist states is beginning?

It's complete. He estimated 83 changes were made to issues options.

On a separate note, I don't know if the random names list is maintained any more, but we added a load more a month or two ago.

by **Rocain Founder** » Fri Jun 02, 2023 5:12 am

Issue #626 is another of the 83. I will post details once I have a little spare time to write them up in. I've just started answering the morning's issues - so it wouldn't surprise me if I discover some more, in which case I'll do a single post for all of them together.

Edit: Well, to my surprise, my scripts did not detect any other changed issues this morning. (At any rate, it would only detect a change in the number of options, not just a wording change.) So here is the info on issue #626.

A new option 4 was added after option 3. This is presumably an alternative to option 3. My puppet did not get the new option, so I don't have its text. The text to option 5 (previously option 4) was also slightly modified. Here are the options my puppet received, altered to start counting options from 1 rather than 0. The change to option 5 (nee 4) is a removed word, shown as struck out..

2. “I wonder if you understand the implications of this technology,” whispers National Science Director Bill ‘Mind-Wizard’ Gibson, looking over the state-funded laboratory’s reports. “Virtual immortality. Sleeving. Backed-up mind-states. All we need is TONS of fundi- I mean, minimal funding. Oh and a license to cut up the brains of vict... uh... volunteers. We’ll not see results for some time, for sure, but the sooner you invest, the sooner we can usher in Reality 2.0.”

3. “This. Is. ABOMINABLE! EXECRABLE! DETESTABLE!” yells the Minister of the Church of Weird Gaits, as he marches, then tromps, then slithers into your office and rises before you, his face turning the same color as an old peach pit on your desk. “This is a total abandonment of the world that the Great Lumberer created for us! How will we show our gratitude for the greatest gift bestowed on us, our legs, if we can’t use them! Tens of citizens in @@NAME@@ will be either transferred to a line of 1’s and 0’s and banished from The Lumberer’s Sidewalks, or left behind to die in the ruins of civilization. Shut down this venture! Make it no more, ceased to be, expired, bereft of profit, history!”

5. “You don’t need to be a Luddite or a ~~religious~~ fanatic to object to transhumanism,” mutters ethicist Sera O’Connor, glancing nervously at the wall clock. “Developing these technologies increases the odds of human self-extinction. We need to be sure that any intelligence that ushers in the next century is wholly human, grounded in human biology and human morality. There is no fate but what we make. What future do you want to create?”

by **Valentine Z** » Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:11 am

Sedgistan wrote:
Trotterdam wrote:I guess Verdant Haven's project to fix issue behavior under atheist states is beginning?

It's complete. He estimated 83 changes were made to issues options.

On a separate note, I don't know if the random names list is maintained any more, but we added a load more a month or two ago.

I can take a look into that myself, or.. is there a way for the admins or issue editors to give me an updated list so that I can add it in?

by **Sedgistan** » Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:16 am

Hmm.... I don't mind providing that:

Male names:

Code: Select all: Aang Aaron Abdullah Abraham Ace Achenar Adama Ahmad Airey Akira Al Alan Alaric Aldo Aldous Alejandro Alex Alexander Alexei Alfons Alfred Algernon Ali Allen Amadeus Amahl Amari Amir Ammon Amos Anakin Andreas Andrew Andy Angus Anselm Anthony Anupam Appa Apu Aragorn Archibald Arcturus Arist Aristotle Arlo Arnold Artemis Arthur Ash Ashitaka Ashurbanipal Ashwin Askia Asok Atlas Atrus Atticus Attila August Auguste Augustus Avinash Aziz Bahram Balthazar Barack Barry Bartholomeus Bartholomew Basil Bawu Bazza Beau Beavis Beckett Ben Bennett Bert Bharatendu Bhooshit Bill Billy Billy-Bob Björn Blanket Bob Bodhi Bolin Bongani Bonifacius Boris Boromir Boutros Boutros Boyson Brandon Brian Bruce Bruno Bryson Burl Byron Caesar Cain Caliban Calvin Cameron Caradoc Carter Cary Casimir Cassius Castiel Cato Charlemagne Charles Chepal Chijioke Chip Chiri Chongba Chris Christopher Chuck Chungba Cillian Cinna Claudius Clement Cleveland Clint Clovis Colin Colt Commodus Conan Cooper Coriolanus Cornelius Crispin Cristobel Cyrus Dafydd Dallin Damien Daniel Danu Darius Darren Dave Daveo David Dawa Dawang Dazza Declan Dendi Denethor Denim Dennis Desmond Dick Diego Dirk Divit Django Dmitri Doménikos Don Donatello Dorji Doug Douglas Draco Duncan Earl Earnest Ebenezer Ed Eddard Edgar Edmund Eduardo Edward Elijah Eliot Elmo Elrond Emenike Emil Emile Emmanuel Emory Engelbert Enrico Enrique Enzo Eobard Éomer Erasmus Erik Ernie Esher Evan Ezra Fahd Faramir Fats Federico Felix Ferdinand Fergus Ferris Filipe Finn Finnick Fitzy Florin Ford Francis Francisco François Frank Frasier Fred Freddy Frederic Fyodor Gabriel Gaius Ganondorf Gary Gawain Gehn Geli Gelu Gene Genghis George W. Gerald Giuseppe Gombu Gordon Graham Gregg Gregory Grogu Groot Gruffydd Gunner Gunther Gustavus Gwilym Gyaltsen Gyelbu Gyunmin Gyurme Haakon Hack Hadrian Hamlet Hammurabi Han Hannibal Hans Harald Harambe Harry Harsh Harun Hayao Haymitch Hector Henry Herb Hercules Hermes Herschel Heston Hiawatha Hiro Homer Horatio Hosea Howard Huckleberry Hugh Hugo Hyrum Iago Ian Ibrahim Ichabod Idris Ilya Inder Ingmar Ingram Inigo Iroh Isaac Ivan Jabulani Jack Jacob Jaden Jake Jamal James Jamie Jamil Jamling Jan Jared Jar-Jar Jason Jasper Jayamma Jean-Luc Jean-Paul Jeffrey Jemaine Jermajesty Jerry Jethras Jiang Jim Joe Johann John Johnno Jonas Jorji Joseph Josephus Josh Juan Judas Jude Julius Justice Justin Kai Kaji Kalden Kamehameha Kanye Kareem Karl Karma Karol Karsang Kasper Keenan Ken Kencha Kerath Kevin Khethelo Kim Kima Kirby Klaus Koa Konrad Konstantin Kristian Kurt Kusang Kvothe Kyidawa Lachlan Ladislav Ladomir Lamar Lance Lancelot Landon Larry Lars Leandro Lebron Lee Leif Lenny Leonardo Leroy Liam Llewellyn Llywelyn Loki Lorenzo Louis Lucas Luciano Lucius Ludwig Luigi Luis Luka Luke Luther Lysander Macca Magnus Mako Malcolm Malekith Manuel Marco Marcus Marek Mario Marius Mark Marlon Martin Matt Matteo Matthew Matthias Matty Maverick Max Maximilian Maximus McKay Mercutio Merrell Micah Michael Michelangelo Mike Miles Milhouse Milo Ming Moff Mohammed Mohandas Montezuma Montgomery Mordecai Morty Mowgli Murat Namgel Namkha Napoleon Nasir Nate Nawang Nebuchadnezzar Ned Neil Nelson Newt Nicholas Nick Nico Nigel Nikita Nikolai Niles Noah Noddy Norman Nuru Oberon Obinze Octavius Ola Oliver Omar Ongchu Orion Orson Orville Oscar Oswald Othello Ozai Ozy Pablo Pachacuti Panu Paolo Parighosh Pasang Patrick Paul Pax Pedro Per Percival Percy Pericles Pete Peter Philip Phineas Phinjo Piers Pietro Plato Plutarch Prathik Prospero Quasimodo Quentin Quincy Rajesh Rama Rand Randy Ranil Raoul Raphael Reginald Regulus Rembrandt Remus Rex Richard Rick Rinzi Roberto Robyn Rod Rodrigo Roger Roman Romulus Ronald Rory Rowan Rudy RuPaul Rupert Ryan Sage Salvatore Sam Samde Samuel Sancho Sange Sanjeev Sarkan Sayid Scotty Sean Sebastian Sejong Severian Severus Shaka Sheldon Sherlock Shigeru Shinzo Siddhartha Silas Silvio Simba Simon Sincere Sipho Sirrus Slartibartfast Smeagol Socrates Sokka Solomon Solya Somchai Somkenechukwu Sonam Stan Stanislav Steffan Stephen Sterling Steve Stevo Sufjan Suleiman Sven Sylvester Tadek Taika Tandi Tanner Tarquin Tayyip T'Challa Tendi Tenzin Thaddeus Themba Theo Théoden Theseus Thiago Thomas Thundu Thupten Tiberius Tim Titus Tobias Tom Tommo Trajan Tristan Tsewang Tsongba Tukti Tutankhamun Tybalt Tyler Tyrion Ula Uriah Urkyen Usman Uther Valour Vandal Victor Vincent Virgil Vladimir Vodalus Volodymyr Waldo Wally Walter Wangchu Wangdi Warwick Waylon Wei Wesley Westley Weston Wil Wilbur Wilkins William Willie Winchester Winston Wojciech Wolfgang Woody Wulfric Xanatos Xerxes Xu Yasuyuki Yokpu Yoshi Yulha Yuri Zachary Zack Zaheer Zain Zane Zangbu Zebediah Zeke Zephyr Zeus Zhiku Zuko

Female names:

Code: Select all: Ada Adele Agatha Agnes Agnieszka Aislinn Alani Alexandra Alice Alina Amanda Amber Amelia Ami Amina Angela Anna Anne-Marie Aphrodite Arabella Aria Ariel Ashley Ásmunda Athena Aurelia Avery Ayla Bajrakitiyabha Barbara Barbie Belinda Bella Beth Beverly Beyonce Bianca Birgitta Björk Blake Blodwyn Brenda Britney Brynlee Buffy Carmen Carrie Cassandra Cassidy Charlotte Chastity Chloe Cho Chun-Li Cindy Clara Colleen Coraline Cortana Cresta Cruella Daenerys Daisy Dana Danni Darya Debra Destry Dixie Doris Dorothy Efthamia Elaine Elena Elizabeth Ella Ellie Eloise Elsa Emily Emma Erica Esma Ethel Eve Everly Faith Falala Fanny Fatima Felicity Finlay Fleur Francine Freya Fumiko Georgina Gertie Gillian Ginny Grace Gretel Guinan Hana Harley Harriet Hayley Heather Heidi Hermione Hillary Holly Hope Imogen Indira Ingrid Iris Isabelle Ivanka Jadzia Jane Jaz Jazz Jenna Jennifer Jessica Jill Journee Judi Julia Juniper Jyn Kanya Kate Kathleen Kathryn Katniss Kayla Kelly Kellyanne Kendall Kendra Khalida Khethiwe Kim Kimberly Kitty Kristen Kristy Ksenya Lana Lara Lauren Layla Leela Leia Leilani Liara Lisa Lisbeth Lucina Lucy Luna Maeve Malon Mamiko Margaret Margot Maria Marin Marina Marisol Marjorie Marleen Mary Matilda Mavis May Megan Melania Melissa Mia Michelle Michonne Miley Minerva Miranda Moana Moiraine Molly Monica Moxie Naki Naomi Natalia Natalie Nefertiti Nelianneke Nomathemba Nomfundo Nosipho Nova Nyota Olive Olivia Oprah Otohime Palutena Paris Patty Peggy Penny Preeti Prudence Rebecca Reignbeau Renee Rey Robin Rochelle Rory Rosalia Rosalie Rosalina Rosita Roxanne Ruby Rylee Sabina Sabrina Samus Sandra Sarah Sasha Sashona Selma Shazza Shelia Shiloh Sierra Sigourney Siko Sloane Sofia Sonequa Sophie Stanislawa Stefanie Stella Stephanie Sue-Ann Sun Susie Sybil Sydney Tabitha Tamara Tanya Taylor Theresa Tina Tracy Vanna Veda Velma Venus Vera Victoria Violet Virginia Weena Wendy Whoopi Willow Yasmin Yoko Yolanda Yui Zainab Zelda Zola

Surnames:

Code: Select all: Abbott Adams al-Assad Allen Alvarez al-Zahawi Ambrose Amin Anderson Andersson Annan Aran Archer Armstrong Assange Atwood Bach Bacon Bagmanov Baker Bakker Baldwin Ballerini Banks Bannon Barber Barbossa Barker Barnes Barrow Barry Bautista Beachcroft Beaver Beckham Beethoven Belcher Bell Bender Bennett Benteen Berenstain Berenstein Bergman Berlusconi Biscuitbarrel Bishop Black Blair Blofeld Bonaparte Bonar Bond Bone Boothroyd Bottomley Bourdain Boutros-Ghali Bouvier Bowie Bowman Bradbury Breitbart Brewer Broadside Bronte Brooks Brown Bullock Bulsara Burke Burns Burton Bush Butler Butt Caesar Cage Calder Caldwell Campbell Capulet Carey Carpenter Carr Carter Cartman Case Castro Cesternino Chan Chandra Chapman Chatwin Chau Chavez Chekov Chen Cheswick Chew Cheyney Chicago Cho Christensen Christmas Clark Clarke Clason Claus Clean Clinton Cobbledick Cobblepot Cockburn Cohen Colbert Cole Coleman Collins Columbus Connery Contri Conway Cook Cooper Cosham Cotchin Coulson Cox Crapo Croft Cruise Cruz Cullen Cumberbatch Cummings Curtis Dahl Davenport Davis Dawson Dax Day de Vil deCastro deGroot deJong Delauter Deming deVries Dimitrov Disney Dixon Djarin Dlamini Dodinas Doe Doolittle Douglas Dovey Drake Dredd Drinkwater Dubois Dumas Dunn duPont Duras Duterte Dvořák Dylan Ebert Edwards Egan Einstein Eko Elgar Eliot English Ephron Erso Evans Fallon Falopian Farmer Farnsworth Fawlty Fellow Fernandez Fforde Fields Filoni Fils-Aimé Fitzgerald Flanders Ford Foster Fowler Fox Franco Franklin Fraser Frederickson Freeman Galavan Gammons Garak Garcia Garrison Garza Gates Gaudí Gennaro Gibson Gilbreth Gillard Gilligan Giono Glenn Glover Goatly Goethe Goff Goldsmith Golightly Gonzalez Goodwillie Gorbachev Grant Graves Gray Green Grieg Griffin Grimes Grossman Grossweiner Gruber Guilliman Gutenberg Guterres Gutierrez Gutnick Haaland Hackett Hadfield Haggard Hall Hamilton Hammarskjöld Han Hanover Hansen Harel Harishchandra Harkness Harman Harper Harris Harrison Hart Haskell Hawke Hawkins Hayes Haynes Head Henderson Hendrikson Hernandez Herrelko Hesse Hester Hicks Higginbotham Hill Ho Holst Holt Hopkins Horner Howard Howell Hudson Huffington Hugandkiss Hume Humperdink Hunt Hunter Huxley Hyde Iglesias Ives Jackman Jackson James Jamieson Jammeh Janeway Janssen Jefferson Jekyll Jele Jobrani Johannsen Johnson Jones Jordan Juran Kaine Kamen Kane Kapoor Kardashian Kasher Keating Kelly Kennedy Kennett Kenobi Kent Kettering Khachaturian Khan Kidman Kiefaber Kilkenny Kim Kimmel King Kirk Kokernot Kowalski Krauss Kringle Krugman Krustofsky Kumar Kwan Lacombe Laine Lane Lannister Larkin Larson Latham Lawson Lazenby Leach LeCarré LeChiffre Lecter Lee Lennon Levi Levy Lewis Li Licorish Lincoln Little Liu Lobachevsky Locke Long Longbottom Longfellow Longstaff Looney Lopez Love Lovegood Lowe MacDonald MacIntyre Magellan Maldonado Malik Mankiller Mann Mansbridge Márquez Marshall Martin Martinez Mason Matei Matsenjwa May McAlpin McBoatface McCarthy McCartney McClaine McCloud McDuck McFly McGhee McGuffin McKay McKinnon Mealor Medina Meier Mendeleev Mendez Merkel Meyer Miller Mistletoe Mitchell Mitty Modi Mombota Moneypenny Montgomery Moore Morgan Moriarty Morricone Morris Mozart Mulcair Mulder Mullins Mumford Murdoch Murphy Myers Nagasawa Nahasapeemapetilon Nakatomi Navarrete Navratilova Negan Nelson Neumann Nguyen Nimoy Nixon Normous Norris North Nxumalo Nygma O Obama O'Bannon O'Brien Octavian O'Hara O'Leary Oliver Onion Ono Orbison Organa Osborne Oz Palpatine Park Parkarvarkar Parke Parker Pasteur Patel Patton Pavlov Payne Pelosi Peña Pence Perez Perkins Perry Peters Phillips Picard Plantagenet Plath Poe Poindexter Pond Pong Ponta Popov Pound Powell Powers Prefect Preisner Price Pugwash Pushkin Putin Quagmire Quayle Quimby Quinn Rabin Räikkönen Ramirez Rasputin Ratican Reagan Redwood Reed Reid Reyes Rhee Rhodes Ricardo Rice Richards Richardson Rifkin Riker Rikkard Rios Ripley Rivera Roberts Robinson Rodriguez Rogers Rolfe Romero Roosevelt Rose Ross Rubin Rubio Rudd Ruddock Ruff Ruiz Ryan Sajak Sanchez Sanders Sandler Santiago Santos Sato Savage Scheer Schmidt Schmo Schultz Schwarzenegger Scott Scrooge Scully Serling Sestero Shaft Shakespeare Sharp Shatner Shaw Shewhart Shiomi Shongwe Shore Shufflebottom Silk Silva Simpson Sims Singh Siskel Sisko Skinner Skywalker Smetana Smiley Smit Smith Smithers Snape Snow Snyder Solo Song Sorin Sosa Sparkle Spirit Springsteen Stallone Stark Starkey Steele Stephenson Stevens Stewart Stoker Stoltenberg Stone Strange Stromburg Stuckmann Sullivan Sulu Summers Suparman Suzuki Svensson Swallows Swift Taffs Takei Tallchief Tan Tano Targaryen Tarkin Tate Tavener Taylor Tesla Thawne Thiesen Thomas Thompson Tin Tolkien Torres Trax Trevelyan Trudeau Trump Turnbull Turner Uhura Underwood Ungar Urquhart Usman Vader Vajiralongkorn vandeBerg vanDyke Vangelis vanGogh vanStraaten Vargas Vasquez Vega Venkman Vercingetorix vonBismarck Vonnegut Wade Wagner Waialiki Walker Wall Wang Ward Warner Washington Watson Watterson Watts Wayne Weasley Weatherhead Weaver Weber Webster Wells Wessex Whedon Wheeler Whitlam Wickremesinghe Wickwire Wiener Wiggum Wildish Williams Wilson Windass Winters Wiseau Wolfe Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff Wolowitz Wong Wonka Wood Woolf Wright Wu Wynne Xavier Xiaoping Yates Yeats Yeltsin Yew Yoo Yossef Young Zahm Zaius Zelensky Zhimo Zhu Zimmer Zoidberg Zukerburg

by **Tinhampton** » Fri Jun 02, 2023 7:15 am

Valentine Z wrote:#1496: A Place For Everything [Candlewhisper Archive; ed: Candlewhisper Archive]

The Issue:
Opposition Leader @@RANDOM_NAME@@ recently made a televised speech at a party conference, and did so with @@HIS@@ brand new uPhone85 prominently visible on the lectern throughout. Several times @@HE@@ used the "Sippy" virtual assistant feature to bring up relevant statistics during @@HIS@@ speech. While @@HIS@@ supporters are pleased at this clever attention-catching variation on the usual political rhetoric, @@HIS@@ opponents have cynically noted that Pear — the manufacturers of the uPhone series — are notable campaign donors to her party.

should read "...donors to @@HIS@@ party" instead

by **Valentine Z** » Fri Jun 02, 2023 8:52 am

All right, thanks for all the input! I will see if I can update on Monday or within the next week. ♥

by **Rocain Founder** » Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:02 pm

Another change which I presume is related to "Verdant Haven's project" has turned up in my afternoon issues. A new option has been inserted after option 3 of issue #136 (Much Ado About Abortion). The puppet that received the issue is quite religious, and did not receive the text of the new option, just that there was a gap between option 3 and a new option 5, the text of which seemed to be identical to the spoiled option 4. Here are the options as received by my puppet, with the 0 origin from the API replaced by the traditional 1 origin. I did not detect any difference in the spoiled option 4 and the new option 5, nor in the two versions of options 1 through 3.

1. Chungba Bottomley, lawyer for the woman known only as Miss X, says, “It is Miss X’s right to choose! It’s her body; she can do whatever she wants with it. In the interest of women’s rights, abortion MUST be legal throughout the country!”

2. “I most vehemently disagree,” says Ingrid Han, a pro-life activist. “I’m all for women’s rights in general, but what about the child? Does it have no rights either? Abortion is totally immoral and I insist that it be outlawed except in cases of rape, or when the mother’s life is in danger.”

3. “You’re not going far enough! Abortion is murder!” shouts Reverend Micah Nxumalo, waving a placard with a picture of a foetus on it. “God decides which babies live and which will die, not us! The government must maintain a stern anti-abortion stance to preserve the morality of @@NAME@@!”

5. “Abortion has to be legal if we’re going to last as a nation,” says Siko Urquhart, President of the Society of Bitter Old People. “Have you ever thought that with our nation’s growing population of @@POPULATION@@, we soon aren’t going to be able to squeeze any more people into @@NAME@@? If we use abortion to control the population, we’ll make great savings and can spend the money elsewhere. One child per family should just about do it I think. Extraneous ones can be sold to other countries.”

by **Rocain Founder** » Sat Jun 03, 2023 7:47 am

Here is Issue #1571, "Let's Fix Our Matches", just received by my puppet Cain EF v1. I have not attempted to macroize proper names.

In the @@DEMONYM_ADJECTIVE@@ Premier League, perennial giants West @@CAPITAL@@ Albion, @@CAPITAL@@ United, and Sporting Club @@NAME@@ were all punished with relegation in the biggest match-fixing scandal in the league’s history. Subsequent investigations have revealed mafia involvement, with their sticky fingers in every part of the footballing pie.

The Debate

1. “How could we allow the mafia to get so brazen?” questions your burly head of the @@NAME@@ Gendarmerie, showing off with a display of push-ups. “There are a lot of malicious activities going on in the underbelly of sports: match-fixing, bribery, financial doping, actual doping, and not to mention their thugs who threaten rivals. These mob criminals, and those who consort with them — like the shady owners and even some players — must be prosecuted. Give me and my agency more power and we will clean up all of the rot.”

2. “Good riddance to the Unholy Trinity!” shouts Desmond Doe, a die-hard fan of minnow club @@ANIMAL@@ City Wanderers, as he sheds a crocodile tear at the demise of the ‘big three’. “They have been controlling the entire league for decades with their serpentine corruption. It’s good that these evil teams have been punished, but we must prevent it from happening again. I insist that the government implements a sports watchdog to oversee the integrity of the game in order to save @@DEMONYM_ADJECTIVE@@ football from these vultures.”

3. “Hey, just fuggedaboutit!” exclaims Arnie Redstone, elegantly dressed in his “Chicago outfit” as he proffers you a giant check with a whole lot of zeros on it. “What are those rascals whining about? We are financing @@DEMONYM_ADJECTIVE@@ football to make sure only the best win the title. It’s good for fans, good for the sport, and good for @@NAME@@. Make the footballing authorities reverse the relegation of those clubs my associates and I have an interest in, and get the five-oh off our backs. Otherwise @@DEMONYM_ADJECTIVE@@ football will never be able to compete with those foreign super leagues. Capisce?”

4. “Again, why have we allowed sports itself to corrupt our nation?” opines Orion LeCarré, a chess grandmaster who prefers pastimes that don’t require any physical strength. “Think of all the bad things professional sports have resulted in. You got the aforementioned mafia scandal, the doping scandal of Vance Armstorm in the Tour de @@NAME@@, Althaniq hosting the bloody IFF Global Cup, it’s all too much! We’d be better off without the corrupting influence of organized sport.”

Issue by The Kingdom of Outer Sparta

Edited by Baggieland

The HTML did not reveal any numbering gaps indicating suppressed options.

by **Rocain Founder** » Sat Jun 03, 2023 1:54 pm

Here is what I imagine is another of Verdant Haven's atheism changes. Issue #1 has had an option inserted after option 1. The nation which received this issue did not get a copy of the inserted option, but I presume it was a doppelganger of the old option 1, which features a clerical speaker. Here is the issue as my puppet received it, changed from the 0-origin favored by the API to the more familiar 1-origin. I did not observe any differences between the spoiled options 1, 2 and 3, and he new options 1, 3 and 4.

1. “There’s a simple solution,” says Pastor Felix, of the Catholic Church. “Divorce should be illegal. ‘For better or worse,’ anyone remember how that goes? We should return to the good old days, when you got married for life and stuck by your partner no matter how much of a drunken, abusive, adulterating disappointment they turned out to be.”

3. John Black, author of the hit book, ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Some Whole Other Place,’ has a simpler solution. “If couples would just call each other ‘darling’ once in a while, there would be far fewer relationship breakdowns. A little affection is all it takes. So the government should make it mandatory: call your spouse ‘darling’ at least once a day, or face a fine.”

4. “There’s a simple way to boost the marriage rate,” says gay rights activist Frank Weber. “Abolish those archaic laws that discriminate against same-sex marriages. It’s obscene to treat people differently because of their sexual orientation. Besides, everyone knows gay relationships are more stable than straight ones.”

EDIT: And here's another one. Issue #365 has had a new option inserted after option 2, surely a doppelganger of option 2 for atheist nations. My puppet did not receive the inserted option 3, so I have no information on its wording. Option 4, however, which used to be option 3, had some language changed to not assume that anti-gay individuals were religious. Here are the options received by my puppet (renumbered as usual to start with option 1), with changed text in option 4 underlined.

1. “This is disgusting, and I shouldn’t have to see it,” pines prominent homosexual, Kurt Beachcroft, for once abandoning stereotype to be seen without feather boa. “@@NAME@@ should be a nation intolerant of intolerance, and what could be more intolerant than this? Have you any idea what damage this fundamentalist advertisement will do to young people struggling to come to terms with their sexuality? We should ban this ad, and instead educate children to be free about their sexual orientation, without deference to religious or cultural orthodoxy.”

2. “This is disgusting, and I shouldn’t have to see it,” declares Falala Gorbachev, a particularly prudish representative of @@FAITH@@. “Have we forgotten that @@NAME@@ is a country founded on traditional values, not least the sanctity of the relationship between man and woman? These deviants have no respect for what is natural and are spreading a sickness through my country, so I have a god-given right to educate the people about it. I say we ought to ban these LGBwhatever posters and divert some government funds to reminding the people of @@NAME@@ what it truly means to be a virtuous soul!”

4. “Last I checked, free speech meant listening to people you didn’t like,” yawns your advisor, Klaus Mulcair, slouched over a sofa with a newspaper over his face. “A principle your office seems utterly devoted to... Look. Should a bunch of bigoted nutjobs stop homosexuals from saying it’s alright for Jim and Jones to hold hands in the street? Of course not. Equally, should a bunch of tarted-up fruits stop reactionaries from banging on about their beliefs? Obviously no. So why stop either of them? Freedom of expression is more important than either party’s sensibilities, no matter how distasteful that might be.”

5. “This whole culture is foul, and we shouldn’t perpetuate it,” argues daily commuter, Rebecca Tate. “Surely the point of public transportation is to quickly get people to work or wherever, not to bombard them with fringe political causes. We should do away with advertising on government services and properties altogether, as well as pour some more money into our public transportation network. Then @@CAPITAL@@ would have the best transport in the world.”

by **Rocain Founder** » Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:27 am

Here's the next post-atheism-update issue. (I decided to make this a new post rather than editing it into my previous one, since the amount of text in that one started to look overwhelming.)

An atheist puppet of mine got issue #728, and found that an extra option had been added to the end. (This option would not have been present for a religious nation, and so that nation would have no clue that the issue had been modified.) The new option 6 is a doppelganger for option 5, for the case where some in our atheist nation believe in a conscious-post-life condition despite not believing the usual religious foundations for such a belief. The new option bears little resemblance to option 5, which causes me to wonder whether it has a different talking point from option 5. As my puppet did not pick the new option, I can only speculate.

Here are the issue options as received by my puppet, changed from 0 origin to 1 origin for familiarity.

1. “DAH-ling, when I play the Oedipal Prince I want your rapt attention!” explains the pretentious actor, shaking his uncle’s left femur at you for emphasis. “Did not the jester’s head held aloft in my hand both capture and captivate your gaze? Was I not momentarily a solitary tableau vivant to behold and admire? A replica would have lacked authenticity, and the Art demands authenticity! Owning human bones should be perfectly legal for all, as should gathering any unclaimed remains. My wondrous panoply of accoutrements is not complete without these fragments of mortality!”

2. “I agree that owning cadavers should be legal, but it should be restricted solely to members of the medical and scientific community with stringent regulations to establish proper consent and to safeguard the proper use of the remains,” recommends Jessica Richards, a medical student and keen anatomist. “Human specimens are needed by archaeologists, doctors, transplant surgeons, researchers and the like. Letting a liver rot underground is just a waste.”

4. “What you people are failing to see is the enormous social resource,” mentions morbid mortician Sheng-ji Yang in a monotone. “Bones can be turned to human ivory, skin can be tanned into good leather, and trace elements reclaimed for state industry. Indeed, it should be seen as every citizen’s final duty to go into the recycling processing centre, and become one with the People’s economy!”

6. “What about DIGNITY?” screams Neil Zhimo, who claims to represent a ‘silent majority’ you’ve never heard of. “Have all of you lost your minds? Do you understand what you are saying? When people die, they must be respectfully buried whole, not used for profit or some kind of nefarious experiment! Would you like to spend all eternity as a pile of loose body parts? I’m sure I wouldn’t, and neither does anybody else. The dead must be allowed rest in peace, not pieces!”

by **Trotterdam** » Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:43 am

Rocain Founder wrote:The new option bears little resemblance to option 5, which causes me to wonder whether it has a different talking point from option 5.

There's an effect line in my logs that might be this. It seems to be about the remains of the dead in some way, but I still don't understand how the exact wording could be relevant to this option. For now I'm still going to hold off on assigning it.

by **TalAkMaChen** » Sun Jun 04, 2023 1:01 pm

Speaking of new things ...

#1571 Let’s Fix Our Matches! [Outer Sparta; ed: Baggieland]
The Issue
In the @@DEMONYM_ADJECTIVE@@ Premier League, perennial giants @@CAPITAL@@ Albion, @@CAPITAL@@ United, and Sporting Club @@NAME@@ were all punished with relegation in the biggest match-fixing scandal in the league’s history. Subsequent investigations have revealed mafia involvement, with their sticky fingers in every part of the footballing pie.

The Debate
1. “How could we allow the mafia to get so brazen?” questions your burly head of the @@NAME@@ Gendarmerie, showing off with a display of push-ups. “There are a lot of malicious activities going on in the underbelly of sports: match-fixing, bribery, financial doping, actual doping, and not to mention their thugs who threaten rivals. These mob criminals, and those who consort with them — like the shady owners and even some players — must be prosecuted. Give me and my agency more power and we will clean up all of the rot.”

2. “Good riddance to the Unholy Trinity!” shouts @@RANDOM_NAME@@, a die-hard fan of minnow club @@ANIMAL@@ City Wanderers, as he sheds a crocodile tear at the demise of the ‘big three’. “They have been controlling the entire league for decades with their serpentine corruption. It’s good that these evil teams have been punished, but we must prevent it from happening again. I insist that the government implements a sports watchdog to oversee the integrity of the game in order to save @@DEMONYM_ADJECTIVE@@ football from these vultures.”

3. “Hey, just fuggedaboutit!” exclaims Arnie Redstone, elegantly dressed in his “Chicago outfit” as he proffers you a giant check with a whole lot of zeros on it. “What are those rascals whining about? We are financing @@DEMONYM_ADJECTIVE@@ football to make sure only the best win the title. It’s good for fans, good for the sport, and good for @@NAME@@. Make the footballing authorities reverse the relegation of those clubs my associates and I have an interest in, and get the five-oh off our backs. Otherwise @@DEMONYM_ADJECTIVE@@ football will never be able to compete with those foreign super leagues. Capisce?”

4. “Again, why have we allowed sports itself to corrupt our nation?” opines @@RANDOM_NAME@@, a chess grandmaster who prefers pastimes that don’t require any physical strength. “Think of all the bad things professional sports have resulted in. You got the aforementioned mafia scandal, the doping scandal of Vance Armstorm in the Tour de @@NAME@@, Althaniq hosting the bloody IFF Global Cup, it’s all too much! We’d be better off without the corrupting influence of organized sport.”

Arnie appeared in two nations, it seems a set reference. The other two named speakers had different names, perhaps #2 could also be a female.

by **Rocain Founder** » Sun Jun 04, 2023 4:02 pm

Here's another issue with an option inserted which is likely to be another update for atheism. A new option has been inserted after option 3 of issue #1432. The puppet that got the issue was religious, so I haven't seen the text of the inserted option. I'm really dying to see it, as I am guessing it's a going to be substantially different from option 3 rather than a slight edit.

Here are the options my puppet received, renumbered to start at option 1 rather than option 0.

1. “I heard this rascally rabid cryptid has cloven hooves, like a devil. It’s clearly a dangerous threat to @@NAME@@ and must be terminated!” exclaims Defence Secretary Elmo Thudd, adjusting the earflaps on his rabbit fur hunter’s hat. “If we allow this beast to continue roaming our land, it will surely lead to the death of hundreds! I say we deploy a couple of army battalions to hunt down and kill it before that happens!”

2. “Whoa, whoa, let’s not be so hasty now!” pleads scientific researcher Reynard Moulder, whose T-shirt declares that he wants to believe. “Look, I agree that this leather-skinned beast cannot be allowed to roam @@NAME@@, but instead of killing it, we should be looking to learn from its mysteries. I propose we use Kirlian cameras and dowsing to locate its mystic trail, then capture it for study.”

3. “No way man, that’d be a blasphemy against nature!” yells New Age mystic and religious leader Jefferson Aeroglider. “I glimpsed this glorious creature and saw it had antlered horns, like Cernunnos or Naigamesha! Trying to capture the divine would be an insult against Gaia! We should just block off the forest where it lives and create a sanctified nature reserve where profane humanity is forbidden, save for the occasional religious rite or fertility ritual.” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

5. “Kill it, experiment on it, worship it... Come on everyone, are we really this stupid?” asks unemployed TV personality Adam Fierce. “This so-called ‘new creature’ is obviously a hoax to troll people, or maybe some marketing gimmick to promote an upcoming movie. I mean, the quality of the videos is terrible! One so-called witness claimed that the beast couldn’t see him because he was dressed in orange. Does that sound like a real thing to you? What I propose we do is promote critical thinking, with a state-funded TV show centred around myth-busting. Why yes, I am available...”

The presence of "worship it" in the list of possibilities in option 5 might indicate that there is also an option 6, unseen by my puppet, which rejects an option, different from worship, suggested by option 4.

by **Trotterdam** » Sun Jun 04, 2023 5:19 pm

Rocain Founder wrote:The presence of "worship it" in the list of possibilities in option 5 might indicate that there is also an option 6, unseen by my puppet, which rejects an option, different from worship, suggested by option 4.

Or maybe the atheist version of the last option just comes first, since I haven't seen any effect line that would make sense for an atheist version of option 3, unless it's an atheism repeal so you still end up religious by the end (in which case, still no option 6 necessary, as "worship it" is still an option).

Or maybe that's actually the effect line that I was considering for #728, but it'd be an even bigger stretch here than there.

by **Tinhampton** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 1:53 am

I'm also fairly confident that "It'll cost a few deniers to convert" in Option 319.1 should say "It'll cost a few @@CURRENCY_PLURAL@@ to convert" instead. "Denier" is one of the game-default currencies you can randomly generate when creating a nation.

by **Rocain Founder** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 5:05 am

Well, here's the first of today's religion-related changes to an existing issue. In this case, a new option has been added after option 1 of issue #1171. This time, the receiving nation was atheist, so I was able to snag the text of the option. Its text is almost identical to that of option 1, which a few wording changes. Here are all the options of the new version as received by my puppet, renumbered to start with 1 rather than 0. I have not attempted to deal with all the proper names in the issue, but I presume appropriate macros can be copied from the spoiled original issue. I have underlined the few changes from option 1 in option 2 below. I haven't checked the other options for changes, but I have no reason to expect any.

2. “Publicity seeking pervert!” yells moral crusader Dickens Manhole. “Uh... Freddy, that is, not you, dear leader! Propriety compels you to denounce him, to denounce his foul promiscuity, his bisexual deviance, and his depraved sexual past!”

3. “If you’re game for a match, you could be set for a serious popularity boost,” suggests Liara Ballerini, the grinning chat show host who conducted the now notorious interview. “Doesn’t matter if he’s your preferred type, or what your availability is, or even what your gender preference is - the name of the game here is playing to the crowd. Let’s do a televised one-on-one with some spin and we’ll make you both look smashing!”

4. “Oh he is my favourite! I’d love to show him MY Gran Willy,” says Thiago, your lewd elderly uncle, wiping the steam from his spectacle lenses. “Sure, he’s just courting publicity, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take the break. Give him a front page picture with you at a movie premiere, and in return he can make a racket with you down the line. Hey, it’s the world’s oldest profession!”

5. “This exhibition is distracting from serious politics,” complains Adama Mitty, your grey-suited Minister of Revenues. “Just laugh off the whole thing as a joke, and use the camera time to talk about important issues, like your proposition to reallocate roles from the Working Tax Auditors to the Association of Tax Pre-assessment. After all, things like insurance breaks, junior exempts and pre-qualifiers are what interests the population, not yawn-worthy old tennis.”

6. “Okay, so the media, the public and everyone else is labelling him a publicity-hound and saying this is all about exposure,” observes gossip columnist Debra Suzuki from Not Bad Magazine, “but don’t you want to consider the possibility that he’s for real? Why not take him seriously, and woo him sincerely? You never know, this might be the start of something really beautiful!”

by **Valentine Z** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 10:54 am

Ooooh boy, that's a lot of edits to be done. Which is fine by me! I love making these edits. ♥

by **TalAkMaChen** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 11:30 am

Valentine Z wrote:Ooooh boy, that's a lot of edits to be done. Which is fine by me! I love making these edits. ♥

I'm also working on an updated version of my efforts to check for possible changes in the issue options. Still work in progress, but I'll check in a summary of my findings and/or compile a short list of changes including those discovered by Rocain's puppets. :unsure:

by **Rocain Founder** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:12 pm

TalAkMaChen wrote:I'm also working on an updated version of my program to check for possible changes in the issue options. Still work in progress, but I'll check in a summary of my findings and/or compile a short list of changes including those discovered by Rocain's puppets.

Hooray! Someone to share and possibly relieve me of this burden!

You wanna know how I'm finding these things? They crash my issue-answering scripts. Then not only do I need to investigate, find the cause, and report it on this Forum, I have to install a bypass for the situation into my code, until such time as Trotterdam's database is corrected to agree with the new reality. I think it's wonderful that you have (or at least will have) a better way!

by **Rocain Founder** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:37 pm

Speaking of which... a new option has been inserted in issue #183, between option 3 and option 4, for the non-religion. This time, my puppet received option 4, the new non-religious version of option 3. I should note that the puppet does not have the Atheism Policy. It just is very secular and very non-religious. (All the other nations which have gotten a new non-religious option have had the Atheism Policy.) The new option 4 is quite similar to the spoiled option 3. Here are the new options, translated from 0 origin to 1 origin. I have underlined differences between the new option 4 and the spoiled (and as far as I know, still spoiled correctly) option 3.

1. “Embryo selection isn’t really genetic engineering in the technical sense,” explains Dr. Caradoc Haggard, owner of the Babies-2-Go Clinic. “It’s more like being able to have a dozen abortions per month until you get the foetus you desire. I can’t really see what’s wrong with parents who can afford it being able to eliminate foetuses with undesirable genetic traits - like stupidity.”

4. “We will pay for our hubris!” screams Heidi Norris, waving a banner. “This is just meddling with the sanctity of life. If these children are born with horrible defects then it’s just nature taking its course. Who are we to question it? This technology must be banned at once!”

5. “This technology shows promise,” muses Marius Urquhart, Minister of Health. “But we can’t trust the private sector with the future of our nation’s children. We must place it under strict government regulation, so that we only screen out embryos with serious genetic conditions.”

6. “This has got me thinkin’,” says General Sashona Claus, thumbing through a big folder marked ‘X’. “If this technology lets us reduce genetic defects, then couldn’t it work the other way? We could create ourselves an army of genetically superior soldiers! With our army of Super Soldiers, no nation would dare stand in our way!”

by **Trotterdam** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:58 pm

Rocain Founder wrote:I have underlined differences between the new option 4 and the spoiled (and as far as I know, still spoiled correctly) option 3.

You missed at least one difference ("God's will" versus "nature taking its course"), not that it's a big deal since you still posted the full text.

On the other hand, the speaker still says "sanctity", which is originally a religious term (literally meaning "property of being sacred"), although I guess people might use it figuratively for anything they consider to be particularly important, even if not literally holy.

Just saying "we will pay for our hubris" without explaining how that's supposed to happen feels rather generic to me. "Nature" isn't going to smite us for disrespecting it's will, although there are conceivably other ways that reckless eugenics could end up badly for us.

by **Rocain Founder** » Tue Jun 06, 2023 7:29 am

An atheist puppet just got issue #3 (the Harry Potter one). It now has 4 options. Both option 1 and option 2 have been cloned to avoid mention of religion. Here is the full text of the issue as received, with the usual caveats (renumbering to start with option 1 and underlines of differences with the options from which they were cloned. Maybe this time I won't overlook any.

)

2. “I quite enjoyed the book, until I got to the part where Harry summons evil demons to do his bidding,” says nervous PTA member Nico Beachcroft. “Now that’s just wrong. We need to restore some sense to this debate, by which I mean we should remove this book from the shelves, salt it thoroughly, and burn it.”

4. Teachers union President Sydney Gorbachev says, “Come on, the book is fantasy! And it’s a damn good read. I’d like the government to issue a statement of support for our teachers and librarians, so kids can enjoy good books without interference from ignorant wackos, like their parents.”

by **Trotterdam** » Tue Jun 06, 2023 7:44 am

Another of those cases where the atheist text feels forced. Why would an atheist be concerned about Harry summoning evil demons? Atheists don't believe that evil demons are real, so it's not like religious people who might be concerned that the book would inspire children to perform actual dark magic.

Some atheists might be strongly enough opposed to superstition that they object to magic ever being portrayed as real, even in a fictional setting. But then the objection would be to any magic, not only evil magic.

(And yes, I'm pretty sure that Harry does not, in fact, summon evil demons in any of his books. That's an intentional part of the joke, and not what I'm complaining about.)

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