User choice stats

[The Free Joy State]

As you say, Trotterdam's list is not official.

There is a difference between a player collecting the information they are able to gather and site staff handing out all the information we have in full. It changes the dynamic -- from a game of unintended consequences and hard decisions -- if it's an official resource. My point stands.

The official resource wouldn't be available until the option is selected finally. All you would be able to see before that would be some unofficial (and partly out of date, inevitably) reproduction of the official resource.

1. If it's anything like the poll stats, as the OP theorises, they can be viewed -- in up to date format -- before and even without answering the poll.
2. To do so would still mark a big change with the official way nature of the game is viewed: from a game one of unintended consequences, where the player reads the issue and endeavours to make the best choices for their nation, to one marred by concepts of "popular choices", of predictable choices, where reading was optional.
3. As Sanc said, the stats are already basically useless to issue editors. They would be utterly useless frontstage.

It is a terrible idea.

[Merni]

1. If it's anything like the poll stats, as the OP theorises, they can be viewed -- in up to date format -- before and even without answering the poll.

What the OP says is:

I would like the option to see what percent of users picked a certain option on an issue after we select it. I think it could be really interesting

Of course, this would mean the presentation of the information would have to be different from those of polls.

2. To do so would still mark a big change with the official way nature of the game is viewed: from a game one of unintended consequences, where the player reads the issue and endeavours to make the best choices for their nation, to one marred by concepts of "popular choices", of predictable choices, where reading was optional.

I quite agree this would be the case if the statistics were shown prior to choosing the issue. If they were visible only after choosing it, then it would have as much of an effect of "predictable choices" as Trotterdam's unofficial list of stat effects (which is that the average nation wouldn't know of the existence of an unofficial resource reproducing the official one).

3. As Sanc said, the stats are already basically useless to issue editors. They would be utterly useless frontstage.

Agreed.

[The Free Joy State]

1. If it's anything like the poll stats, as the OP theorises, they can be viewed -- in up to date format -- before and even without answering the poll.

What the OP says is:

I would like the option to see what percent of users picked a certain option on an issue after we select it. I think it could be really interesting

Of course, this would mean the presentation of the information would have to be different from those of polls.

I read the OP. I also read that the OP thinks it would work "the same way forum polls work."

2. To do so would still mark a big change with the official way nature of the game is viewed: from a game one of unintended consequences, where the player reads the issue and endeavours to make the best choices for their nation, to one marred by concepts of "popular choices", of predictable choices, where reading was optional.

I quite agree this would be the case if the statistics were shown prior to choosing the issue. If they were visible only after choosing it, then it would have as much of an effect of "predictable choices" as Trotterdam's unofficial list of stat effects (which is that the average nation wouldn't know of the existence of an unofficial resource reproducing the official one).

You said it, correctly, again: "unofficial". For good reason, this is not the kind of information that is handed out by the issue editors.

3. As Sanc said, the stats are already basically useless to issue editors. They would be utterly useless frontstage.

Agreed.

If you agree, why do you seem to be trying to drag this out into some kind of an extended argument?

I stated that -- from my perspective -- this will have a deleterious impact on the way the game is played. People will take information that's offered, and that will change issue-answering from the best option for the nation to option-popularity contests. This can only be negative.

[Sedgistan]

At present, I'm not seeing a point in considering this as a change, due to the stats being so badly skewed by Card puppet farmers. If that situation changes, we can look at it again.

[Rocain Founder]

I just want to point out a couple of things relative to this discussion. First, my main nation and my WA nation are not the same. In fact, my WA nation is the least of my nations, because passed resolutions change its stats in unpredictable ways, possibly negating choices I have deliberately made in its issues. Second, I am an issues-oriented player. I have around 60 puppet nations all of which are answering issues, each in their own individual way, as a way of understanding how different ideologies end up reflected in the game's outcomes. Every one of them is a legitimate NationStates nation, and if tabulation of issue choices is to be made, counting only one of my nations is unfair to the rest.

By the way, I do not play the card game: all of my nations have getting cards for issue answering turned off, so they aren't distorting anything. 60 puppets is a drop in the bucket compared to the effects of card farming.