A Roleplayer's Observations on NS Gameplay
By: Lamoni
5/31/2017
Though I am sure that there are lots of people in the world of NS roleplaying who already know me, I am the Free Republic of Lamoni. I have served as the World Assembly Delegate for Greater Dienstad for years, been commended by the WA, design NS military equipment (sometimes in conjunction with the Protectorate of Lyras), and also help to serve the NS roleplay community as a Mentor. I have also been involved in the NS Sports scene, having previously resided in the region of Atlantian Oceania, and winning their regional soccer tournament three times. It would be entirely fair to say that with the contacts that I have made on NS over the years, that I hear quite a bit about what is going on in multiple NS communities.
I can already see certain questions coming my way here, like “when did Lamoni start talking to gameplayers, the traitor,” or “why should roleplayers care one way or the other about gameplay, since they just invade roleplay regions, and spread misery by doing it?” Well, let me answer those questions. My interest in talking to gameplayers started when United Gordonopia (better known to gameplayers as Kazmr) decided to undertake his own journey into the world of Nationstates gameplay, especially after Greater Dienstad had been raided. I then took advantage of the opportunity that the NS World Fair offered to start talking to various gameplay regions, and became friends with people in various gameplay regions.
These initial talks and friendships would eventually result in being allowed to join the regional off-site message boards of various gameplay regions, as well as their Discord servers. This would lead to certain unexpected, but pleasant discoveries about the gameplay regions with which I am in contact, but I will talk more about those later on. For some time now, I have noticed a lack of understanding among many roleplayers about what gameplay is, and just how much like roleplayers that gameplayers really are. I do not even pretend that this lecture will heal the rifts between roleplayers and gameplayers, but maybe understanding the other side will help to reduce the number of new rifts created between the two groups on Nationstates.
For those of you who don't know how gameplay works, they essentially make use of certain game-side features, most notably those related to regional World Assembly Delegates, as well as regional “World Factbook Entries.” Like roleplaying, gameplay was created organically by the users of Nationstates, only gameplay evolved as a large and complex meta-game involving regional governments, organizations, and the relations between them. Eventually, what is known as “military gameplay” would come into being; military gameplay being better known to roleplayers as raiding and defending.
Gameplay is a different type or form of roleplaying, in a sense. It is not the same as that which is in the various roleplaying subforums of Nationstates, but it is roleplaying nonetheless. Given that the only functional roles in a region are those of the region's founder, and that of the World Assembly Delegate; a region's “Minister of Foreign Affairs,” or “Chief Justice” are simply roles created by a regional government in order to fit a set of rules that everyone in the region agrees to abide by, frequently called a regional constitution. While regional officers do exist now, they are less important to both raiders and defenders. Citizenship with a given gameplay region (it is also possible to be a citizen of multiple gameplay regions at once) is also important in gameplay, though the requirements vary from region to region.
Of course, individual gameplay regions are as different from each other as an apple is from an orange, or even a cat. Some of them are liberal democracies with regular elections, and others are dictatorships which are held together by a secure and charismatic delegate. There are isolationists who prefer to play amongst themselves, and other regions which seek to impose their will on others through invasions, coups, or other, more subtle means. There are also others who work to prevent such invasions and coups.
It is also common for gameplay regions to have an individual regional theme, which makes it easier to have a regional identity, as well as enhancing the roleplaying aspects. For example, Equilism has a township theme, Osiris has a theme based on ancient Egypt, The Land of Kings and Emperors has a monarchy theme going, Texas has a theme based on the real life state of Texas, and Balder has a Viking theme to it. Other gameplay regions have their own themes going, and it is interesting to see what they all are. The themes that gameplay regions come up with typically become just as complex, just as outlandish, and just as alive as anything that worldbuilding does for roleplayers. This cannot be emphasized enough.
There are also gameplay regions which are known as “warzones.” Warzones are regions that are designed to be fought over by various raider and defender factions, though there are plenty of raiders who feel that the various warzone regions are not enough to fulfill their desire to raid. Though I have crossed the barrier between roleplay and gameplay, I do still have a latent bias in favor of defenders, and against raiders. That is not to say that I cannot make friends in, or work with the raider community in order to get needed tasks done, but that I prefer defenders.
For the sake of completeness, I should also talk about military gameplay, which as i've mentioned before, roleplayers generally know better as raiding and defending. Both raiding and defending take advantage of the fact that one becomes the delegate of a given region based on the number of endorsements (which can alternatively be called votes) that you can get from World Assembly nations. The person with the largest number of endorsements becomes the region's World Assembly Delegate.
Raiders take advantage of this fact by using World Assembly member nations to invade other regions, and through numbers, take the World Assembly Delegate spot away from the region's native delegate. Most of the time, raiders will simply occupy the WA Delegate position, and change a region's World Factbook Entry, and especially the tags there. This is what is known as a “tag raid,” and while it is annoying, it need not be fatal to a region. Greater Dienstad was once subject to a tag raid, and we have done just fine since then. It all depends upon the determination of the natives to remove the raiders, and get things back on track, and can even be used as a roleplay event, if done right. While raiders will likely attempt to suppress the little message board on your region's NS page, this will not affect your region's ability to roleplay on either the on-site, or off-site forums. Please remember that the raiders themselves are not roleplaying when they raid your region, and nothing in this lecture should be construed to imply that they are.
Defenders are people who use their World Assembly member nations to help other regions to defend themselves against raiders, whether it be through adding endorsements to the native WA Delegate in order to frustrate raiders, or helping the natives to refound their region. I won't cover all the means that both raiders and defenders use. This is both because I don't know all of them, and because I have no desire to weaken any defenders in their efforts against raiders. I will say that various defender regions have groups of people who will listen when people bring them information about when and where raiders might strike. This is not a great secret, and many of them are called intelligence agencies. It is one of the ways in which defenders try to get a lead on what the raiders are doing, or might do next, and roleplayers can contact them if they come across knowledge of raider activity. One way to contact them is to contact the delegate of a defender region, and asking them if they can point you in the right direction.
Now that we have definitions out of the way, we can get back to my personal observations about NS gameplay, and gameplayers. One thing i've learned about gameplay regions which might surprise roleplayers is that gameplay regions often have roleplays on their regional off-site forums. These are quite like the roleplays that one might find in International Incidents or Portal to the Multiverse, though the quality of the individuals roleplaying on these forums varies, just like it does for residents of roleplay regions. They also conduct regional business, have spam games, have debates on real life issues, and do other things on their off-site forums, just like roleplayers do.
The Discord servers of gameplay regions are just as full of social chatting as their roleplay equivalents are. Indeed, in both the gameplay world and open world roleplay, social cross-pollination between regions is encouraged, unlike in closed world roleplaying regions. I personally am part of twenty-two Nationstates related Discord servers. Of these fourteen of them are related to NS gameplay, with the vast majority of those belonging to various gameplay regions. For those who don't know how Discord works, each Discord Server is like an IRC channel. However, a Discord server can contain multiple different channels, so it is like giving a group a single place to have multiple channels of their own, and you have to be invited into a Discord server by someone who is already in that particular server.
Frankly speaking, there is little real difference in banter between gameplayers, or between roleplayers. Both groups produce shitposts that are just as bad as the other group's shitposts, bad jokes, memes, and all. Both groups like to rag on their members just as much as the other one does. About the only difference between the two groups when it comes to banter is that gameplay regions love their regional bars. Every gameplay region that I have been to has a regional bar or pub on their off-site forums, and quite a few of them even have a channel on their Discord server for their regional bar or pub. Not all gameplay regions have a regional bar or pub, but a fair number of them do.
Though I would never force anyone to cross-pollinate between the roleplay and gameplay worlds, it can be a very rewarding experience, as well as an educational one. There have been many individual roleplayers who have crossed the divide between the roleplay and gameplay worlds, and certain notable individuals stand out. Solm and United Gordonopia/Kazmr have participated in both roleplay as well as gameplay, and they seem to have enjoyed the experience. I have as well, though i've never personally taken part in any gameplay regional government or taken part in any raider/defender actions. Maybe I will do those things someday, but even through just interacting with gameplayers and taking the time to observe gameplay in action, I have learned much about both gameplay and gameplayers.
It is always possible for you as an individual to participate in both roleplay and gameplay, making friends on both sides, and using any experience that you gain from gameplay to help other roleplayers to understand gameplay. Just as United Gordonopia once used his gameplay experience to provide assistance to myself, and many other roleplayers, I am using my gameplay experience to help roleplayers by sharing my observations of the NS gameplay world in order to help smooth over some of the tensions between the two communities. I'll say this again, but I don't expect this lecture to heal the long-standing rifts between the two communities. Maybe it will help to reduce the number of rifts between the two in the future.
While gameplay and roleplay are divided, they do not have to be. Understanding both gameplay and gameplayers is the first step that roleplayers can take in healing the rifts between the two communities. Simply taking the time to learn what gameplaying is, and who gameplayers are, can reduce tensions considerably.
If you are a roleplayer interested in seeing what gameplay and gameplayers are like, here is a short list of gameplay regions which I would recommend. There are certainly more gameplay regions who would welcome roleplayers learning about gameplay into their ranks out there!
* The East Pacific
The East Pacific (otherwise known as TEP) has a large roleplaying community, and is welcoming to those who are new to gameplay.
* Taijitu
A large gameplay region, Taijitu also has an active roleplaying scene on their off-site forums.
* Equilism
Equilism's off-site forums are less active than those of other gameplay regions, but they are still welcoming of those those new to gameplay, and can teach you the ropes. Equilism has an active relationship with Warzone Europe, and recently held a Star Trek themed celebration with the region “The United Federation of Planets.”
* The Independent Order
This region has a strong roleplay background, and may appeal to certain roleplayers.
* The Rejected Realms
While there is not a lot of roleplaying in this region, they do have the largest newspaper in all of gameplay, which is an excellent place for writers to take part.
* Albion
Pretty friendly for an imperialist region. Medieval roleplaying theme, for those who might be interested in that.
* The North Pacific
The North Pacific (TNP) also has a roleplay scene on their off-site forums, making it a good choice for roleplayers who are interested in gameplay.
Finally, if your region has been invaded by raiders (or you simply wish to learn more about how to defend your region), the following link has plenty of useful information, and I highly suggest that you read it, as well: Natives and Regional Defense
By: Lamoni
5/31/2017
Though I am sure that there are lots of people in the world of NS roleplaying who already know me, I am the Free Republic of Lamoni. I have served as the World Assembly Delegate for Greater Dienstad for years, been commended by the WA, design NS military equipment (sometimes in conjunction with the Protectorate of Lyras), and also help to serve the NS roleplay community as a Mentor. I have also been involved in the NS Sports scene, having previously resided in the region of Atlantian Oceania, and winning their regional soccer tournament three times. It would be entirely fair to say that with the contacts that I have made on NS over the years, that I hear quite a bit about what is going on in multiple NS communities.
I can already see certain questions coming my way here, like “when did Lamoni start talking to gameplayers, the traitor,” or “why should roleplayers care one way or the other about gameplay, since they just invade roleplay regions, and spread misery by doing it?” Well, let me answer those questions. My interest in talking to gameplayers started when United Gordonopia (better known to gameplayers as Kazmr) decided to undertake his own journey into the world of Nationstates gameplay, especially after Greater Dienstad had been raided. I then took advantage of the opportunity that the NS World Fair offered to start talking to various gameplay regions, and became friends with people in various gameplay regions.
These initial talks and friendships would eventually result in being allowed to join the regional off-site message boards of various gameplay regions, as well as their Discord servers. This would lead to certain unexpected, but pleasant discoveries about the gameplay regions with which I am in contact, but I will talk more about those later on. For some time now, I have noticed a lack of understanding among many roleplayers about what gameplay is, and just how much like roleplayers that gameplayers really are. I do not even pretend that this lecture will heal the rifts between roleplayers and gameplayers, but maybe understanding the other side will help to reduce the number of new rifts created between the two groups on Nationstates.
For those of you who don't know how gameplay works, they essentially make use of certain game-side features, most notably those related to regional World Assembly Delegates, as well as regional “World Factbook Entries.” Like roleplaying, gameplay was created organically by the users of Nationstates, only gameplay evolved as a large and complex meta-game involving regional governments, organizations, and the relations between them. Eventually, what is known as “military gameplay” would come into being; military gameplay being better known to roleplayers as raiding and defending.
Gameplay is a different type or form of roleplaying, in a sense. It is not the same as that which is in the various roleplaying subforums of Nationstates, but it is roleplaying nonetheless. Given that the only functional roles in a region are those of the region's founder, and that of the World Assembly Delegate; a region's “Minister of Foreign Affairs,” or “Chief Justice” are simply roles created by a regional government in order to fit a set of rules that everyone in the region agrees to abide by, frequently called a regional constitution. While regional officers do exist now, they are less important to both raiders and defenders. Citizenship with a given gameplay region (it is also possible to be a citizen of multiple gameplay regions at once) is also important in gameplay, though the requirements vary from region to region.
Of course, individual gameplay regions are as different from each other as an apple is from an orange, or even a cat. Some of them are liberal democracies with regular elections, and others are dictatorships which are held together by a secure and charismatic delegate. There are isolationists who prefer to play amongst themselves, and other regions which seek to impose their will on others through invasions, coups, or other, more subtle means. There are also others who work to prevent such invasions and coups.
It is also common for gameplay regions to have an individual regional theme, which makes it easier to have a regional identity, as well as enhancing the roleplaying aspects. For example, Equilism has a township theme, Osiris has a theme based on ancient Egypt, The Land of Kings and Emperors has a monarchy theme going, Texas has a theme based on the real life state of Texas, and Balder has a Viking theme to it. Other gameplay regions have their own themes going, and it is interesting to see what they all are. The themes that gameplay regions come up with typically become just as complex, just as outlandish, and just as alive as anything that worldbuilding does for roleplayers. This cannot be emphasized enough.
There are also gameplay regions which are known as “warzones.” Warzones are regions that are designed to be fought over by various raider and defender factions, though there are plenty of raiders who feel that the various warzone regions are not enough to fulfill their desire to raid. Though I have crossed the barrier between roleplay and gameplay, I do still have a latent bias in favor of defenders, and against raiders. That is not to say that I cannot make friends in, or work with the raider community in order to get needed tasks done, but that I prefer defenders.
For the sake of completeness, I should also talk about military gameplay, which as i've mentioned before, roleplayers generally know better as raiding and defending. Both raiding and defending take advantage of the fact that one becomes the delegate of a given region based on the number of endorsements (which can alternatively be called votes) that you can get from World Assembly nations. The person with the largest number of endorsements becomes the region's World Assembly Delegate.
Raiders take advantage of this fact by using World Assembly member nations to invade other regions, and through numbers, take the World Assembly Delegate spot away from the region's native delegate. Most of the time, raiders will simply occupy the WA Delegate position, and change a region's World Factbook Entry, and especially the tags there. This is what is known as a “tag raid,” and while it is annoying, it need not be fatal to a region. Greater Dienstad was once subject to a tag raid, and we have done just fine since then. It all depends upon the determination of the natives to remove the raiders, and get things back on track, and can even be used as a roleplay event, if done right. While raiders will likely attempt to suppress the little message board on your region's NS page, this will not affect your region's ability to roleplay on either the on-site, or off-site forums. Please remember that the raiders themselves are not roleplaying when they raid your region, and nothing in this lecture should be construed to imply that they are.
Defenders are people who use their World Assembly member nations to help other regions to defend themselves against raiders, whether it be through adding endorsements to the native WA Delegate in order to frustrate raiders, or helping the natives to refound their region. I won't cover all the means that both raiders and defenders use. This is both because I don't know all of them, and because I have no desire to weaken any defenders in their efforts against raiders. I will say that various defender regions have groups of people who will listen when people bring them information about when and where raiders might strike. This is not a great secret, and many of them are called intelligence agencies. It is one of the ways in which defenders try to get a lead on what the raiders are doing, or might do next, and roleplayers can contact them if they come across knowledge of raider activity. One way to contact them is to contact the delegate of a defender region, and asking them if they can point you in the right direction.
Now that we have definitions out of the way, we can get back to my personal observations about NS gameplay, and gameplayers. One thing i've learned about gameplay regions which might surprise roleplayers is that gameplay regions often have roleplays on their regional off-site forums. These are quite like the roleplays that one might find in International Incidents or Portal to the Multiverse, though the quality of the individuals roleplaying on these forums varies, just like it does for residents of roleplay regions. They also conduct regional business, have spam games, have debates on real life issues, and do other things on their off-site forums, just like roleplayers do.
The Discord servers of gameplay regions are just as full of social chatting as their roleplay equivalents are. Indeed, in both the gameplay world and open world roleplay, social cross-pollination between regions is encouraged, unlike in closed world roleplaying regions. I personally am part of twenty-two Nationstates related Discord servers. Of these fourteen of them are related to NS gameplay, with the vast majority of those belonging to various gameplay regions. For those who don't know how Discord works, each Discord Server is like an IRC channel. However, a Discord server can contain multiple different channels, so it is like giving a group a single place to have multiple channels of their own, and you have to be invited into a Discord server by someone who is already in that particular server.
Frankly speaking, there is little real difference in banter between gameplayers, or between roleplayers. Both groups produce shitposts that are just as bad as the other group's shitposts, bad jokes, memes, and all. Both groups like to rag on their members just as much as the other one does. About the only difference between the two groups when it comes to banter is that gameplay regions love their regional bars. Every gameplay region that I have been to has a regional bar or pub on their off-site forums, and quite a few of them even have a channel on their Discord server for their regional bar or pub. Not all gameplay regions have a regional bar or pub, but a fair number of them do.
Though I would never force anyone to cross-pollinate between the roleplay and gameplay worlds, it can be a very rewarding experience, as well as an educational one. There have been many individual roleplayers who have crossed the divide between the roleplay and gameplay worlds, and certain notable individuals stand out. Solm and United Gordonopia/Kazmr have participated in both roleplay as well as gameplay, and they seem to have enjoyed the experience. I have as well, though i've never personally taken part in any gameplay regional government or taken part in any raider/defender actions. Maybe I will do those things someday, but even through just interacting with gameplayers and taking the time to observe gameplay in action, I have learned much about both gameplay and gameplayers.
It is always possible for you as an individual to participate in both roleplay and gameplay, making friends on both sides, and using any experience that you gain from gameplay to help other roleplayers to understand gameplay. Just as United Gordonopia once used his gameplay experience to provide assistance to myself, and many other roleplayers, I am using my gameplay experience to help roleplayers by sharing my observations of the NS gameplay world in order to help smooth over some of the tensions between the two communities. I'll say this again, but I don't expect this lecture to heal the long-standing rifts between the two communities. Maybe it will help to reduce the number of rifts between the two in the future.
While gameplay and roleplay are divided, they do not have to be. Understanding both gameplay and gameplayers is the first step that roleplayers can take in healing the rifts between the two communities. Simply taking the time to learn what gameplaying is, and who gameplayers are, can reduce tensions considerably.
If you are a roleplayer interested in seeing what gameplay and gameplayers are like, here is a short list of gameplay regions which I would recommend. There are certainly more gameplay regions who would welcome roleplayers learning about gameplay into their ranks out there!
* The East Pacific
The East Pacific (otherwise known as TEP) has a large roleplaying community, and is welcoming to those who are new to gameplay.
* Taijitu
A large gameplay region, Taijitu also has an active roleplaying scene on their off-site forums.
* Equilism
Equilism's off-site forums are less active than those of other gameplay regions, but they are still welcoming of those those new to gameplay, and can teach you the ropes. Equilism has an active relationship with Warzone Europe, and recently held a Star Trek themed celebration with the region “The United Federation of Planets.”
* The Independent Order
This region has a strong roleplay background, and may appeal to certain roleplayers.
* The Rejected Realms
While there is not a lot of roleplaying in this region, they do have the largest newspaper in all of gameplay, which is an excellent place for writers to take part.
* Albion
Pretty friendly for an imperialist region. Medieval roleplaying theme, for those who might be interested in that.
* The North Pacific
The North Pacific (TNP) also has a roleplay scene on their off-site forums, making it a good choice for roleplayers who are interested in gameplay.
Finally, if your region has been invaded by raiders (or you simply wish to learn more about how to defend your region), the following link has plenty of useful information, and I highly suggest that you read it, as well: Natives and Regional Defense