NationStates

NationStates is a multiplayer government simulation browser game. It was created by Max Barry and was publicly released on 13 November 2002, based loosely on his novel Jennifer Government. Barry originally founded the site as an independent vehicle publicizing the book one week before its release. The site continues to promote books written by Barry.

Gameplay

Players set up their nation by answering a short questionnaire about their intentions for its economy, civil rights and political freedoms, giving it a name, a flag from current countries and territories or their own, a national animal, a currency, and an official motto. The player's response to the initial questionnaire defines the type of government they are running.

New nations appear in one of five main game regions (known in the game as "feeders") located in the NationStates version of the Pacific Ocean (The, East, West, North, and South Pacific), but nations are able to move to other regions, or create their own. Nations that remain inactive and are resurrected are put into three "sinker" regions called Osiris, Balder, and Lazarus, all named after characters that purportedly rose from the dead. Nations ejected or banned from a region are moved to a region known as "The Rejected Realms".