When and how did you find NationStates?

[Valrifell]

I was in a phase where sandbox games were particularly appealing for some (or no) reason, this evolved into nation management as I was beginning to develop a political self at around the same time. I tried out a bunch of simulators but for some weird reason, NationStates stuck.

Perhaps it was the minimal, comprehensive, and satirical interface. Maybe I just have a fetish for bar graphs, either way, I stuck around and answered issues until I migrated to the forums. All the while, I assume, making a fool out of myself, as is the only thing a 12-14-year-old knows how to do.

The best thing about NS for me so far are the stats, the factbook writing, and best of all, no pay-to-win mechanics whereby you can buy your way through and kill other nations' armies quicker than others.

So... that was actually the best thing for me.

All of these were definite draws.

[Valentine Z]

Kurgon's other account says:
We should really do a union thingy.

Ooh, definitely!

All of these were definite draws.

To add on to that, it's not just the pay-to-win, but also the lack of a curb stomping/bullying system. You cannot have a 30+ billion people strong nation (NS-stats-wise) bullying and pushing around the 5 million strong newbies. Those NS Stats are just for show, for challenges that doesn't really affect the game, and also for shiny badges. I personally am badge-hunting for NS Stats, so there's that.

So yeah, as long as you write coolly and well enough, it's all good! And I love it.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

For me it was seeing a game that was pretty good but needed some changes. Never been able to resist a challenge like that.

[Wunderstrafanstalt]

Tbh I think I'm destined to find this site one way or another, when clearing my laptop of excess data I can see miles of miles of past worldbuilding and maps (a lot of them are edgy, but what can you expect from a 13 y/o me?) Then one of my favorite gaming YouTuber started talking about it, and oh boy the hype I experienced.

[Dumb Ideologies]

Found the site sometime close to its creation, via school friends trying to stage invasions of communist regions. Proceeded to inform the targets so every attack mysteriously failed. Hung around a small region that people from my school were in during GCSEs and A-Levels, never very active.

Spotted the forums but posted a grand total of about a dozen times under that old nation. Thought that everyone looked very smart and that I'd be likely to embarrass myself. Came back when I went to University, realised everyone was not very smart, and have been embarrassing myself ever since.

[Bluelight-R006]

You live in SG? Me 2.
Anyways, I was engrossed in countries, interested in stats and stuff. I typed up create your own country and saw Nationstates. I swept that aside. However, I decided to take a look and found it fun. The fun wore out though and I CTEed, only to be found last August. And tada!

Hey, me three! Living in Singapore for 12 years now! (Previously in Myanmar for 11 years).

Ayyye! We should meet up some time

I live in the Buangkok area, just near the train station.

[Likar]

I always wanted a micronation, so I decided to google it. I made a bunch of nations, each time I changed my mind and made a new one. The first one I got dedicated into was Doobala. Then, Likar.

[Wunderstrafanstalt]

Found the site sometime close to its creation, via school friends trying to stage invasions of communist regions. Proceeded to inform the targets so every attack mysteriously failed. Hung around a small region that people from my school were in during GCSEs and A-Levels, never very active.

Spotted the forums but posted a grand total of about a dozen times under that old nation. Thought that everyone looked very smart and that I'd be likely to embarrass myself. Came back when I went to University, realised everyone was not very smart, and have been embarrassing myself ever since.

Now that you said it, do you think "knowledgeable" and "witty tongue" is connected or is not connected?

[Valentine Z]

Ayyye! We should meet up some time

I live in the Buangkok area, just near the train station.

I'm the Westerner here, haha. Not too near to the factories, mind you.

[Abarri]

Found it myself.

I was looking for a social media alternative to Facebook (It was getting crappy and becoming like other SM platforms). I could not remember the name of said forum-like alternative, but I swear I stumbled upon the website a few months prior to August 2017. Then I checked a Wikipedia article on the list of social networking sites available. Afterwards I clicked a link in the article about a list of Internet forums: one of them is NationStates. The idea of simulating a nation sounded pretty interesting, so I went for it. I had no problem making up a nation name: that was my pastime (making imaginary countries, to be exact) when I was an equivalent of a middle schooler. At first I just answered issues, then come several months I replied in forums.

To this day I haven't found or at least remembered the name of the simple-looking social networking site that I was looking for.

[Likar]

Found it myself.

I was looking for a social media alternative to Facebook (It was getting crappy and becoming like other SM platforms). I could not remember the name of said forum-like alternative, but I swear I stumbled upon the website a few months prior to August 2017. Then I checked a Wikipedia article on the list of social networking sites available. Afterwards I clicked a link in the article about a list of Internet forums: one of them is NationStates. The idea of simulating a nation sounded pretty interesting, so I went for it. I had no problem making up a nation name: that was my pastime (making imaginary countries, to be exact) when I was an equivalent of a middle schooler. At first I just answered issues, then come several months I replied in forums.

To this day I haven't found or at least remembered the name of the simple-looking social networking site that I was looking for.

Making imaginary nations as a pastime?

What is this mysterious thing!?

[Third Asopia]

Hey, me three! Living in Singapore for 12 years now! (Previously in Myanmar for 11 years).

Ayyye! We should meet up some time

I live in the Buangkok area, just near the train station.

I think I'll telegram you.

And let's not get out of topic.

[Araraukar]

Out of curiosity, what brought y'all to nationstates? A friend? Found it yourself? Adverts?

A friend was a teacher in university, he had his class make nations here to see how the best intentions (with issue choices) of policy-makers can lead to chaotic and unpredictable results. This was back in early 2000's. He told me of some of the funny results and I decided to give it a try. This is my second account (lost the first one back before email registration was required).

[Christ Triumphant]

Here was the previous thread, Candlewhisper, in case you're interested in learning more:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=459189

I was getting really into reading alternate histories and was trying my hand at creating my own. Was searching the web for ways to create flags and maps, and came across a mention of "nation simulators." Intrigued, a google search for that brought up NationStates as the top result.

I was fascinated by the text-based nature of the platform -- no graphics really, very little in the way of imagery at all, just answering issues as they come and watch your nation slowly evolve. This, combined with the ability to upload your own flags and banners, while being able to write factbooks to flesh out your nation, really hooked me.

I'm curious, Candlewhisper, what did you see in 2015 that could use some improvements? I only joined in 2017, so I wasn't around then.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Some random internet poll back in 2012

[Gran Toreno]

I literally googled "Country Makers"

[Havarland]

I have always liked games like Tropico and Civilization, so I googled games like Tropico and strangely enough this one was on the list.

[Heloin]

Someone whom I forget told me about it on the AGS forums I think. I had just started playing Paradox games so I was into some statecraft style games.

[Stellar Colonies]

I got bored with a nationbuilding game and searched online for more.

I was looking for more of a "video" game, but NationStates was interesting enough for me to stay. I don't log on as much as I used to, but I am still here.

[The Blaatschapen]

Didn't we just have this thread (again)?

I'm not often on General, so we may have done. Happy for a merge, of course.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=459189

Ask a mod I guess

[Pax Nerdvana]

A friend of mine found it, and knowing I'm a history buff, he recommended it too me. This was back in Spring of 2017. I didn't sign up till May.

[Dormill and Stiura]

Repost from the other thread.

Way back in 2015, it was just after my 3rd attempt for a collaborative worldbuilding thing on r/Worldbuilding I was contacted about a different worldbuilding website (I cannot for the life of me either remember or pull up the relevant messages to remember) that, after a lot of time bouncing around, I found myself somehow on NS. The ease of access was what brought me here because the other websites I attempted to use had their different forums and other linked websites that made it hard to really get into them.

I initially hopped around regions until I found Auralia, where I was drawn to its lack of an Earth map for RP, and I've been in the RP scene ever since. I had a brief hiatus for summer of 2016 but came back as I was in my high school government class.

[Sunstruck]

Googled "make your own country games"

[Equalsun Empire]

Back even before I joined Nationstates in 2013 my friends and I had this... Well, it's hard to describe. It was called The Game. Not a game, not our game, but The Game. As overly imaginative middle-schoolers who talked all the time and had an acute willingness to not pay attention in gym class, we had been formulating a world in which our various races and technologies that we created could interact and effect one another. Just in our heads and on paper. Honestly, it's amazing all we did. Then our de facto leader found this cool site NationStates, where you could create a nation and flesh it out through issues effecting stats and writing about all your secret projects...

So, well, we transferred everything to here. This was probably our fifth time revamping and restarting The Game and we took to it, taking decisions that we felt our country would do and all pushing our military budgets to 11 for maximum dick-measuring. Funnily enough that's where I first learned how important economics are to everything else a country does, and here I am now majoring in accounting. We've come full circle. We ended up starting a spectacularly failed RP in which I relocated my entire homeworld to another dimension, a bunch of space dragons got BBQed by hull electricity, and we talked on the forum boards like it was text messaging. Needless to say the entire The Game on Nationstates didn't end up working out, and we moved back to talking about it in school and writing things down on pen and paper.

I'm the only one left, now- the nations of the Norgan Alliance, Comitolia, New Scaleza, the Empire of the Siberian Flaming Eskimos, and even more have long since ceased to exist. I ended up getting involved with the forums pretty heavily, participating in Danhanjeedh's Middle Earth RP as Elrond (I did not relocate Rivendell to Valinor, despite my track record) and the first Pandora's Requiem RP, where 15-year-old me got flustered partaking in internet romance writing. I've since made many more embarrassing and self-gratifying stories (primarily the former) on the site, becoming a right pain in the butt for my current region until settling down enough to actually be a decent officer.

But hey, after all that I can only say my best friend was a massive nerd who probably googled nation builder game, and we were a bunch of massive nerds that followed him.

[South Caleblan]

Well...here how i find NS. First, i want to play a nation-simulation games, then i checked Google Play Store. There was some nation simulation games but it was crappy (totally). I searched for months and still never found it. Eventually, i checked Google and typed "Nation simulation game"....and there was it! NS was on the first page, so i checked it and turns out....it was great!!