An Explanation...

So just what is this weird website all about? Well, it all starts with a man and his book... Max Barry and his book Jennifer Government, to be precise. Mr. Barry had an idea to promote his new book: why not make a game on the internet to help promote the book? So Max set to work on it, and on Thursday, the 13th of November, 2002, NationStates was born. Max didn't think much would come of the game, but he was wrong. Dead wrong.

As this graph shows us, the number of nations that were created in NationStates skyrocketed. What are those numbers on the bottom, though? They're not months. They're not weeks. They're days. As of this writing, over a million nations have been created, and the game has a current population of slightly over 120,000 nations. Max was, and still is I'll wager, utterly flabbergasted. In one of his news items he said: "I often get asked where all these people came from. Because surely communities don't just materialize -- surely demographics must need to be targeted and marketing plans executed. But apparently not. You all just turned up." Now if you're thinking of playing NationStates, I will give you a friendly warning: If you like fast-paced, twitchy, and action-packed games, NationStates may not be for you. It is a very slow game. It doesn't have any amazing graphics, being totally browser-based, and it technically doesn't have war or trade (though more on the exceptions later). However, it has many good points: it has a very large and diverse community, ranging all over the world, and it also has many "subgames" which have sprouted up essentially on their own, the most notable being "region-crashing" and the Role-Playing communities. There are also "regions" you can move your nation to as well; there is a region for all sorts in NationStates (you can also make your own region). The best thing about NationStates is that it is totally free. Aside from the time spent managing the nation, the game costs you nothing, though Max would like it if you at least took a look at his book(s).

So how does my website fit into all this? Well, I was browsing through the forums at one of my old haunts, www.bg2customs.com, way back in September of 2003, and found a topic labeled NationStates. The game described therein piqued my interest, and I quickly set to work making my nation: and Arizona Nova was born. I quickly found a region to move my nation to, and became acquainted with the people within. For a while I sort of avoided the forums, but eventually my curiosity overcame me and I went in. In those days, the servers were terribly overburdened and slow, but I liked the forums anyway. Soon I grew to like the game so much, that I thought: why not make a website for it? I started working on it, and on Friday, January 9, 2004, a website about a nation in a game made to promote a book, was born. Since then, I've logged over 800 unique hits on it, and it has grown substantially. During the fall of 2004, I started becoming more involved in the Role-Playing community on NationStates, and have joined the Extra Solar Union of Systems, an alliance of nations who use futuristic technology, which introduced me to yet another great subcommunity of individuals, who even have their own forums. Also, I also reside at 20pi.com as Anithraldur, as one of the NationStates Mods.

Oh yeah, now that I've put in all these shameless plugs for my friends, why not one for me? Enter my Website: anikari.zioncreation.com!

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