- █ Antiquity - 2002-2003 (Creation - Nazi Wars - Farkers - Atlantic Alliance - Spammers)
Pre- August Revolution. - █ The Great War - 2003-2006 (ADN vs. NPO/PRP - RLA - ACCEL).
Francos Spain's revolution in the Pacific invites international condemnation. - █ The Great Decline - 2007-2009 (Influence - CyberNations - The Empire - DSA - NPO 2.0 - FRA - NS2 - End of Jolt/NSUN).
Panic over the game's future turns players to desperate measures to revitalize/reinvent NS. - █ The Great Revival - 2010-2012 (Macedon - WASC - Devonitians - UDL - Balder/Osiris - TBR - NS IPO).
An era defined by its optimism and idealism, especially for the future of the game. - █ The Cold War - 2013-2015 (SPPR - Ind. Manifesto - UIAF - SovCon - PRL - OFO - Sovereignty Conference - NLO - Hileville).
Coalition-building draws major regions into a series of hotly contested proxy battles, conferences, and unsteady alliances.
But I think I've thought of a good title for the subsequent era...
- █ The Great Discord - 2016-2018 (Predator Scandal - TGW - UDoL - Khanate - St Abbaddon Crisis - Rahls)
It's a play on words: "Discord" refers the social platform, of course (which was especially important to this era, a period marked by its interpersonal activity) but it also signifies the era's moral confusion and ambiguity, the series of civil wars, and Gameplay's directionlessness at times as it operated in an institutional void.
I suspect 2019 marked a turning point of sorts, especially with the Rahls suffering a major political blow. But I don't know where it's headed and these things always take time to analyze.
(In my heyday I'd have written a 5000 word essay on the Great Discord, but today I thought I'd just throw it out there and see what people thought! )