The Writers' Block

[Bears Armed]

Might there be room for an issue about an equivalent to Dutch Elm Disease, or would that be considered too similar in theme to the 'Mad @@ANIMAL@' Disease' one?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Might there be room for an issue about an equivalent to Dutch Elm Disease, or would that be considered too similar in theme to the 'Mad @@ANIMAL@' Disease' one?

Depends on your angle. If it's just "disease is breaking out what do you want to do?" then that's well trod ground. However, if the particular problem has particular dilemmas associated with it, then cool.

I've always thought the blackcurrant ban in the US was interesting, for example. It's be interesting to have to decide whether to deliberately eradicate a plant species in order to protect another more commercially valuable one.

[The Sherpa Empire]

At the risk of sounding like a 1950s chauvinist, I have to say that I really can't follow the politics of female friend groups a lot of the time. Guy groups (or at least my guy groups) seem so much less concerned about who said what, and who supports who, and who is most loyal to who, or who gets invited to what. Maybe other guys understand it more, but I've never understood the point of social politics.

Sometimes I don't get it either, when it's a really cliquey group. And I'm female.

[Bears Armed]

Might there be room for an issue about an equivalent to Dutch Elm Disease, or would that be considered too similar in theme to the 'Mad @@ANIMAL@' Disease' one?

Depends on your angle. If it's just "disease is breaking out what do you want to do?" then that's well trod ground. However, if the particular problem has particular dilemmas associated with it, then cool.

I've always thought the blackcurrant ban in the US was interesting, for example. It's be interesting to have to decide whether to deliberately eradicate a plant species in order to protect another more commercially valuable one.

Thank you.
"Hr'rmm..."
*<starts thinking about possible details for this>*

[Jutsa]

Updated my list of issues ideas; forgot about my list I made for drafts I had made but wasn't content with and wanted to remake one around the same idea.

(only 6 new ones sadly)

[The Texas Faction]

Is there a issue dealing with a lottery? I want to write a issue about a unclaimed lottery prize.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Is there a issue dealing with a lottery? I want to write a issue about a unclaimed lottery prize.

371 is about having a lottery or not.

An issue about unclaimed prizes could be done as a follow up to that one though.

[The Texas Faction]

Is there a issue dealing with a lottery? I want to write a issue about a unclaimed lottery prize.

371 is about having a lottery or not.

An issue about unclaimed prizes could be done as a follow up to that one though.

Thanks m'lad

[Candlewhisper Archive]

371 is about having a lottery or not.

An issue about unclaimed prizes could be done as a follow up to that one though.

Thanks m'lad

It's pronounced milord, but one will allow you the error.

[Jutsa]

I can't remember. Do we have an issue about prisoners doing enforced manual labour?

[Verdant Haven]

I can't remember. Do we have an issue about prisoners doing enforced manual labour?

Issue 75 and Issue 878 both include options to put people in forced labor, but I don't know that there's an actual issue specifically making a policy decision about its existence on a philosophical level.

[The Super Fork]

Got an idea from the Trading Card update.

Description: A popular trading card game recently came under fire from the @@DEMONYM@@ Nationalist Party when the new "World Countries" deck portrayed @@NAME@@ as a lowly common card.

Feedback?

[Fauxia]

Curious about an interpretation.

Do people here generally think Issue #610 (Only @@LEADER@@ Could Go to Daguo) is more about a former enemy nation offering closer diplomatic relations or a typically isolationist nation offering closer relations?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Got an idea from the Trading Card update.

Description: A popular trading card game recently came under fire from the @@DEMONYM@@ Nationalist Party when the new "World Countries" deck portrayed @@NAME@@ as a lowly common card.

Feedback?

Depends on execution but could be simultaneously too meta and not meta enough, as it'd be clearly referencing something that exists outside of the fictional reality of the game while simultaneously disregarding a nation's actual rarity.

In-universe, it'd be hard to say why anyone feels it is government business to regulate a CCG for something like this, and stretching verisimilitude for a game published / created in @@NAME@@ not to assign some significance to @@NAME@@. After all, one of the prime motivations of game publishers is to sell games, and you don't achieve that by offending your target audience.

Though sure, there are lots of examples that disprove that. But generally speaking, you would expect a game based on real world nations to prominently feature the nations being sold to.

[The Blaatschapen]

Got an idea from the Trading Card update.

Description: A popular trading card game recently came under fire from the @@DEMONYM@@ Nationalist Party when the new "World Countries" deck portrayed @@NAME@@ as a lowly common card.

Feedback?

Depends on execution but could be simultaneously too meta and not meta enough, as it'd be clearly referencing something that exists outside of the fictional reality of the game while simultaneously disregarding a nation's actual rarity.

In-universe, it'd be hard to say why anyone feels it is government business to regulate a CCG for something like this, and stretching verisimilitude for a game published / created in @@NAME@@ not to assign some significance to @@NAME@@. After all, one of the prime motivations of game publishers is to sell games, and you don't achieve that by offending your target audience.

Though sure, there are lots of examples that disprove that. But generally speaking, you would expect a game based on real world nations to prominently feature the nations being sold to.

Have you ever played Cards Against Humanity? It offends all humans.

And sheep too

[Jutsa]

We have a Cards Against Nationstates...

which is ironically different from the Nationstates card trading game.

[Jutsa]

@75 and 878: Huh! Might be interesting to have a couple issues from a flag installed by options like that.

Possible ideas:
1) arrestee workers are not being paid and
2) arrestee are forced to work in extraordinarily bad conditions
3) arrestee workers are taking jobs away from non-convicts (:lol:)
4) prisoners keep fleeing when doing their manual labor

Hypothetically you wouldn't even need prisons, per say.
Idk, just some possibilities... though it could be a fun idea to build up on.

edit: 475.2 would also possibly install such a flag.

[Socio Polor]

So I got two issues in my draft folder. One if about street racing going wild and the other is about cryonic suspension. Has any of these been worked upon?

[Jutsa]

We have one about street racing, though I don't recall one involving it going off-the-ramps (literally or otherwise).
Cryonic suspension... uuuuh...
something like that?

Idk if we have other issues relating to this, but uh... yeah, it might overlap regardless. O_o

[Mzeusia]

Hello all.
I want to try and write an issue for our more primitive friends out there. What about an issue about a tribal object being stolen by another tribe, and you have to decide how to react. Option suggestions could be Kill the other tribe, purge your own tribe, make greater sacrifices to the gods.

Thanks for your help.

[Trotterdam]

Don't take primitiveness too seriously - mostly it means "industrially-underdeveloped nation that needs to import its cell phones rather than manufacture them locally" or "nation where people hitch their cars to horses because fuel is too expensive for everyday use", not "nation where people have never even heard of electricity". People in a primitive nation often use primitive tools because more advanced ones are hard to come by, but they have heard of them and can get their hands on a few when it's really important. (Unless certain technologies are outright banned, which does happen in some issues, but even then you'd still be aware of their existence and actively shunning them.)

Also keep in mind that you are still the leader of a nation - any tribal conflict is either between two tribes that are both still subordinate to your national government (maybe just nominally so, if you're also a lawless anarchy), or they represent invasion by another nation (which would imply another similarly-primitive nation near you, although that makes sense - first-world and third-world nations tend to cluster geographically in real life). You can't write it from a purely "our tribe versus their tribe" context without regard for international politics - you don't get to ignore that this game is called NationStates just because you're primitive.

[Socio Polor]

Ok, so I got a few ideas brewing around. One is inspired by the government shutdown issue that the U.S is currently going through, another is regarding people with poor eyesight getting bionic eye implants. Also, has there ever been a issue made that deals with autonomous vehicles?

[The Sherpa Empire]

@75 and 878: Huh! Might be interesting to have a couple issues from a flag installed by options like that.

Possible ideas:
1) arrestee workers are not being paid and
2) arrestee are forced to work in extraordinarily bad conditions
3) arrestee workers are taking jobs away from non-convicts (:lol:)
4) prisoners keep fleeing when doing their manual labor

Hypothetically you wouldn't even need prisons, per say.
Idk, just some possibilities... though it could be a fun idea to build up on.

I think this has a lot of potential.

[Trotterdam]

One is inspired by the government shutdown issue that the U.S is currently going through,

Don't they go through one of these every few years? I'm getting a serious sense of deja vu from this whole thing.

another is regarding people with poor eyesight getting bionic eye implants.

Are real-life implants at the level for that to be viable yet? (Then again, with robots and vat-grown replacement organs being canonical technology in NationStates, it probably doesn't matter.)

Also, has there ever been a issue made that deals with autonomous vehicles?

Plenty. #272 2 and #479 3 can promote them, while #463 deals with the ramifications.

[Socio Polor]

.

another is regarding people with poor eyesight getting bionic eye implants.

Are real-life implants at the level for that to be viable yet? (Then again, with robots and vat-grown replacement organs being canonical technology in NationStates, it probably doesn't matter.)

Yes we're getting pretty close to it. Though currently what we have is a little something called visual prosthesis that is an experimental device that acts sorta the same way a bionic eye does and has been successfully tested on several individuals who suffer from partial or total blindness.