Jolt closes NationStates 2

[Takaram]

I went on NS2, looked around, saw the 'pay for everything' and ran back to NS. Why offer something that you basically have to pay for everything when there's another perfectly good, almost identical, thing sitting around for free.

[Princebarry]

I Have only one thing to say in response to this....


...........Long Live Nationstates!

[Veilyonia]

I Have only one thing to say in response to this....


...........Long Live Nationstates!

Did Nationstates 2 ever have any real hope?

[Anemos Major]

I Have only one thing to say in response to this....


...........Long Live Nationstates!

Did Nationstates 2 ever have any real hope?

If the possibility of it closing pretty much overshadowing it at every turn, with NS2 barely escaping every time, is called hope, yes, of course.

[Princebarry]

I registered on there and lasted maybe a week, the lack of community was awful.

[Anemos Major]

I registered on there and lasted maybe a week, the lack of community was awful.

It was too mechanised. The freedom of NS is what makes it unique.

I'm glad to see others share my opinion.

[Blackshield]

i guess im going to have to revert back to playing this when ns2 shuts down ;/
it was the better game
War&Diplomacy
this one is just roleplay..

[Reploid Productions]

i guess im going to have to revert back to playing this when ns2 shuts down ;/
it was the better game
War&Diplomacy
this one is just roleplay..

War and diplomacy don't do much if the systems by which they're run are broken and don't function properly. Let alone the other problems with it that have been harped about at length here.

Though for reasons also harped about at length, I'm rather decidedly biased against NS2

[Maurepas]

i guess im going to have to revert back to playing this when ns2 shuts down ;/
it was the better game
War&Diplomacy
this one is just roleplay..

War and diplomacy don't do much if the systems by which they're run are broken and don't function properly. Let alone the other problems with it that have been harped about at length here.

Though for reasons also harped about at length, I'm rather decidedly biased against NS2

seriously, I never noticed a war function at all, and the diplomacy consisted of joining "alliances" that had absolutely no affect on the gameplay...

to me it was like NS1 with funny graphics and a wiki, that you had to pay for in order to keep your custom things, lol...

[Allrule]

Good riddance to this piece of shit.
LONG LIVE NATIONSTATES!!

[Daistallia 2104]

i guess im going to have to revert back to playing this when ns2 shuts down ;/
it was the better game
War&Diplomacy
this one is just roleplay..

Wow. I honestly think you are the first person asside from that awful reviewer who I've seen say they like it.

War and diplomacy don't do much if the systems by which they're run are broken and don't function properly. Let alone the other problems with it that have been harped about at length here.

Though for reasons also harped about at length, I'm rather decidedly biased against NS2

seriously, I never noticed a war function at all, and the diplomacy consisted of joining "alliances" that had absolutely no affect on the gameplay...

Before I quit, it was only turned on and working in one world (although the devs said it was on in two more, AFAIK, it wasn't), and it had serious problems there - like 1 million pop. nations always beating 100 million pop. nations.

[Anemos Major]

i guess im going to have to revert back to playing this when ns2 shuts down ;/
it was the better game
War&Diplomacy
this one is just roleplay..

Before I quit, it was only turned on and working in one world (although the devs said it was on in two more, AFAIK, it wasn't), and it had serious problems there - like 1 million pop. nations always beating 100 million pop. nations.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but RPing is better than losing every time because you picked the wrong issue one day ago.

Because that always happens in real life.

[Romanar]

i guess im going to have to revert back to playing this when ns2 shuts down ;/
it was the better game
War&Diplomacy
this one is just roleplay..

NS2 certainly had more features, but the way many features were implemented made it much harder to start decent communities. Not only the multiple world concept, but the fact that you had to actually join an Alliance to see their forum/RMB. And you had to get an invite rather than just dropping in like you do in NS1. The extra features weren't enough to offset those (and other) drawbacks.

[Zutroy]

NS2 blew, it makes me feel better for not wasting too much time on it

[Steel Butterfly]

RPing takes more brain power and social skills than simply pressing buttons or putting numbers into a formula. NS2 was a failure because there was never anything wrong with the original.

[Risottia]

I can't say I'm surprised. They really f'd up with NS2.

A total mess if you ask me.

[UNIverseVERSE]

RPing takes more brain power and social skills than simply pressing buttons or putting numbers into a formula. NS2 was a failure because there was never anything wrong with the original.

More importantly, RP demands and rewards literacy, creativity and cooperation on the part of posters, while number games simply require mechanical skill. By its very nature, there's incentive to form a strong community, and the respected players are those who are pillars of this community. When war/trade/whatever is solely numerical and calculated, this drive for community is no longer present.

To a lesser extent, the same applied for the WA. While there is a mechanical aspect, the design of the WA is such that respected players are those who debate and interact well. The same with the gameplay, regional politics side -- if players did want mechanical warfare, they still had to be able to organise and politic with the best of them. The noted factions, the big, respected players, were those who could effectively organise a group.

When all of these aspects are handled automatically by the game, and players input is basically restricted to a few clicks here or there, it's much harder for a community to form. And without some sort of community forming, more social forums like General won't be able to come into existence, beyond mere spammy chat*.

*Right at the moment, I think we're seeing a new General forming here -- it's a slightly different batch of players. This may be somewhat responsible for the current level of debate being lower than it was before the move (or at least that's how it feels to me).

[Lanteanar]

RPing takes more brain power and social skills than simply pressing buttons or putting numbers into a formula.

Then again, not everyone who does RP automatically does it in a good way. I may be new around here, but I've seen a lot of things that make me wish for better regulated regions with certain standards enforced (if there are some, then they certainly aren't advertised enough). Call me elitist if you wish, but I prefer a high level of immersion - and having rather silly nation names and banners right next to believable ones does nag on the atmosphere. And let's not even get started on those dreaded tech-levels or nations who apparently churn out a dozen aircraft carriers per month. Meh, enough of the newbie-rant.

But yeah, of course I'll also admit that it boils down to individual preferences, and that more automatization always goes hand in hand with less customization and potential for RP. You can easily see this in modern MMOs as well (of course, the majority of players does seem to prefer this *shrugs*).

[DragonKhorse]

I freely admit to having my own bias very firmly against Jolt (see the News post for details as to why), and while I feel bad for the folks who gave NS2 more of a chance than I did, or heaven forbid paid them actual money for their so-called 'premium' extras, mostly I find myself enjoying a malicious sort of glee.

Burn the servers and salt the remains and all that. I just hope other indy game developers learned from what's happening and steer clear of Jolt/OMAC. They've done nothing except add ads and destroy communities with their shoddy work; just look at the people posting here that are celebrating that they can post with their nations now! We'd been trying for years to get uncommunicative Jolt to work with us on fixing that forum integration problem that was systematically screwing users over.

And they want people to pay money to get screwed? Sorry, but if I'm going to pay to get screwed, it's NOT gonna be by a game company.

Agreed. I'll rather pay a prostitute to get screwed than Jolt. At least I can enjoy it. Jolt, however, grabs a game, twist it up and spit it out under a new name before herding the players to it. After a while, the company herds the players to a better money-spinner before discreetly shutting down the previous game.

[The Fanboyists]

And they want people to pay money to get screwed? Sorry, but if I'm going to pay to get screwed, it's NOT gonna be by a game company.

I know. Really, if I want that, I'll just look at government-run services. I'll get all the paid-to-get-screwed I want from there.

[Romanian Indochina]

I (was) am one of the second-ranking members of the Diet of Clogs in NS2, (and now NS1) which was an incredibly powerful alliance. We actually managed to take down all other alliances that were up to challenging us (except one, and it was because of the time) in world 33. The best thing about NS2 (and most games) is really the community. We got a region started over here, and are all starting nations here. We all pretty much knew that Jolt was taking down NS2. There really wasn't that much to do in it, which is why like ~5 people managed to get 200 posts on our Politics+Religion thread. The payments were really useless, we only had one person who ever did it, and it was only used for mass-telegramming.

The game I originally played, eRepublik (http://www.erepublik.com), uses the same "pay for features" model, but the specific features they offer, ingame money included, are good enough that they have so far been able to run it as a viable business. Once again, it really depends on the community, the game itself totally sucks.

It's really the community that matters. You'd be surprised with the things people will pay for.

[Wilkshire]

The main problem with NS2 is that it was brought out 4 or 5 years too late.

If it had been brought out in 2004 or 2005 when NS1 was at its peak it would have had a fighting chance of getting off the ground.

[Maurepas]

The main problem with NS2 is that it was brought out 4 or 5 years too late.

If it had been brought out in 2004 or 2005 when NS1 was at its peak it would have had a fighting chance of getting off the ground.

w00t for gravedigging, lol...

But, it wouldnt have, the same fundamental flaws wouldve reared their ugly heads, Cybernation/NationStates sexbabies just arent enough to get people to cough up hard earned currency...

[Inchland]

R.I.P NS2.......... haha

[TheCapitalWasteland]

why was it so bad?