Alteration to FAQ

[Marcuslandia]

This would be a simple thing to do, but I think it might have a profound effect on the NS community:

Take the last two entries of the FAQ from "Etiquette" and place them in "Gameplay" after "How do I go to war....?" and before "Who wrote all these issue?"

[Defaultia-10]

Why would this have such a major effect? All I ever remembered from the FAQ was what things were illegal and would get you banned.

[Marcuslandia]

Because I'm pretty certain that the majority of new players never read the entire FAQ. I figure we would be fortunate if they read as far as the WA. But the point is, in the very middle of the FAQ is quite bluntly says, "How do I go to war....? In one sense, you can't." It goes on to say "Into the breach, however, steps the NationStates community, which has independently devised an entire system covering war, trade, and just about anything else you can think of. This takes place entirely on the forums (mostly in "International Incidents"), and is role-played." This gives the impression that the _only_ place combat takes place is through RP on the forums. It isn't until you get down to the very last two sections at the very end, under "_Etiquette_" that the Invader/Defender game is even hinted at. Without realizing that their regions are subject to invasion, where original inhabitants can be swamped and expelled from their own region, many players, and even Founders don't understand why the Regional Controls are important.

Plus, in case you haven't noticed, for a game with over 10,000 players, only a relatively small percentage ever come to the forums. Meaning that their opportunity to learn just why and how to defend their regions kind of slides under their radar. And this is an aspect of gameplay that raiders most definitely capitalize on.

Moving those two sections to the middle of "Gameplay" would undoubtedly make for a better educated player population. Can't see as how that can not be anything other than a Good Thing. (Undoubtedly, raiders would beg to differ. Defenders, too, otherwise they wouldn't have nearly as many region to go and rescue.]

[Romanar]

Makes sense to me. If someone wants to know about war, they're just as likely to be interested in region-crashing as they are in RP war. I don't know how much difference it would make; I suspect many people don't read ANY of the FAQ. But it does make sense to mention region-crashing along with war.

[Naivetry]

Makes sense to me. If someone wants to know about war, they're just as likely to be interested in region-crashing as they are in RP war. I don't know how much difference it would make; I suspect many people don't read ANY of the FAQ. But it does make sense to mention region-crashing along with war.

And we'd be back under "Gameplay" where we belong. It might have been left under Etiquette as an oversight, or without any real impetus for change, when the griefing rules were switched to the Influence system. (That's just a guess, I wasn't around to see the switch. )