NationStates Jolt Archive

In reguards to the statement about this being either a waste of time or a brillant marketing idea. I would have to say it worked to get me (and it seems many others) to purchase this book. Im amazed at the response this sight has gotten and am a bit curious how it got so popular so fast. (if I recall 2000 people signed up in the first week?) Personally Ive just joined and know nothing about the author except what Ive read here and on his sight. My friend just sent me an Aim link saying "build your own government weeee: www.nationstates.net" I clicked it and you secured yourself another guarenteed sale of the up coming book. How many others are goin to buy this book. Maybe ill make a poll.

On another note (I suppose proper form should put this in another section of the forums) Your system seems to be vastly swamped all the time, as in constantly slow. I was wondering if you guys needed some one to host some of the database or some such as that. Being in a technical college grants me access to a OC-42 network. I dont know what you run your server on but I imagine that it might help to carry the load if I set something up. Just thought Id throw that out there.

Thanks for the awesome game, and the anticipation of reading your book.

Thanks! Those poll results are pretty good so far too. :)

Thanks also for the offer of technical help. Our big problem at the moment is that we don't really know what we'll need. The game was written to handle a couple thousand nations, and now we have 22,000. And we're growing by 1000-2000 nations every day. How big can the numbers get? It's hard to know, and so hard to make long-term plans.

I didn't vote in this poll because I didnt' feel any of the choices applied to me. I think I am very likely to check the book out when I see it in the stores, but I doubt I'd be buying it. Books for me are a wasteful purchase, as once they're read I have to find space to store them or get rid of them. I prefer to get books on the discount racks or borrow them from friends, or the library. Seriously, there are so many books I want to read I'd have to be a millionaire to buy them all. Purchases are saved for the really important ones.

This game is fascinating though, and I'll bet the book is too.

That's okay too. ;)

Violet: I'll prolly get the book too though political thrillers arent my style this game is too fun otherwise.

I might suggest that the best way to speed up the site is get more bandwith and a faster server that can process all the transfer of data. I know a possible host that might be intrested and what not.

Perhaps it might be wise to shut down registration of new countries till you can speed things up. At the current growth rate it might completly crash the system.

any thoughts on the irc chatroom i started? If you phase it in more *using a java chat client* you could take a huge load off the forums because more people would be chatting on irc.

I figure I'll be buying it- not so much because of the site (other than that I wouldn't have known of its existence otherwise) but because it sounds like my kind of book.
I'm being honest here. I'd still love the game even if the book sounded pants, but I wouldn't be buying the book.
As it is, I'm impressed by one, intrigued by the other.

(Of course, if the book turns out to be poo, I'll send yez a rude e-mail critique!)

If I didn't already have a stack of unread books higher than my computer desk, I'd be more likely to buy the book. I think the game is an excellent marketing tool.

I'd recommend getting as much server capacity as you can afford to invest in; I doubt you're anywhere near leveling off in the number of new nations people want to create.

All Im hoping is that the bookl reaches the top 10 so my bases store will have it on the shelves!!

None of those choices really applied to me either. I mean, this game had no bearing on wether or not I'd buy the book, short of making me aware of it being written.

Not knocking the idea though. I think this was a clever marketing ploy as many who are not usually into that genre of writing may be compelled to try it as a result of the fun they had with this game.

As a side note I must say I love this game, it's about time there's a well done and slightly humourous political game available (And free to boot!). I would very much like to see it evolve from a side project into a full-blown project unto itself (Though you may need to hire some staff to maintain and update it on a regular basis because of this. My knowledge of your Admin setup of this game is limited, so what I said might sound inane to you, in which case, disregard :wink: )

Well, I only found out about the book via having the game introduced to me. (sorry if the Safehouse has completely /.'ed your game, but it is fun!)

However, I was not considering buying the book until I read the excerpt of "Syrup". I like Max's writing style, based on that excerpt.

Now, I don't know if Jennifer Government will make it up there with one of my favorite books "1984", but it seems to be promising.

Looking forward to 22 days from now.

-Dragynphyre, former chaotic despot of the Rogue Nation of Dragynphyre

]"The game was written to handle a couple thousand nations, and now we have 22,000. And we're growing by 1000-2000 nations every day. How big can the numbers get? It's hard to know, and so hard to make long-term plans.

LiveJournal, a weblog service, grew from a handful of users to 800 thousand in a few years. They had to add special incentives for people who pay to support the service and take some measures to limit the exponential growth of free users.

They also experienced site "black outs" in the beginning, until they redid the software to use a server farm.

I first visited NationStates.net about, oh, half-an-hour ago. And I also learned of Jennifer Government. Letting people know it exists is half the battle, esp. since you probably won't change the content of the book or tricky subversive marketing (this site isn't designed to market the book, I assume; just draw traffic.)

First thing: I don't buy many books. Most of the books I read are classics like 1984 and Foundation, which are available at the local public library. Of course, I don't read that many books either (not enough time.)

Second thing: I happen to have a lot of gift certificates from the holidays for Amazon.com. Anything "long term" (as opposed to food or tickets) I buy will probably be from there. Since it apparently is, I'll consider it.

Third thing: I'd like to see excerpts of the book.

Fourth thing: Why is the author on Amazon.com listed as Max Barry and Maxx Barry?

Regarding the server: Is the scalability problem due to hardware limitations, (third-party) software limitations, design limitations, bandwidth?

If it's hardware or bandwidth, you'd need to throw money at it (or get donations)

If it's software or design, you'd probably have to spend precious time to fix it (or get volunteers). Or spend money on better supporting software, hardware, etc.

I first visited NationStates.net about, oh, half-an-hour ago. And I also learned of Jennifer Government. Letting people know it exists is half the battle, esp. since you probably won't change the content of the book or tricky subversive marketing (this site isn't designed to market the book, I assume; just draw traffic.)

First thing: I don't buy many books. Most of the books I read are classics like 1984 and Foundation, which are available at the local public library. Of course, I don't read that many books either (not enough time.)

Second thing: I happen to have a lot of gift certificates from the holidays for Amazon.com. Anything "long term" (as opposed to food or tickets) I buy will probably be from there. Since it apparently is, I'll consider it.

Third thing: I'd like to see excerpts of the book.

Fourth thing: Why is the author on Amazon.com listed as Max Barry and Maxx Barry?

Regarding the server: Is the scalability problem due to hardware limitations, (third-party) software limitations, design limitations, bandwidth?

If it's hardware or bandwidth, you'd need to throw money at it (or get donations)

If it's software or design, you'd probably have to spend precious time to fix it (or get volunteers). Or spend money on better supporting software, hardware, etc.

I first visited NationStates.net about, oh, half-an-hour ago. And I also learned of Jennifer Government. Letting people know it exists is half the battle, esp. since you probably won't change the content of the book or tricky subversive marketing (this site isn't designed to market the book, I assume; just draw traffic.)

First thing: I don't buy many books. Most of the books I read are classics like 1984 and Foundation, which are available at the local public library. Of course, I don't read that many books either (not enough time.)

Second thing: I happen to have a lot of gift certificates from the holidays for Amazon.com. Anything "long term" (as opposed to food or tickets) I buy will probably be from there. Since it apparently is, I'll consider it.

Third thing: I'd like to see excerpts of the book.

Fourth thing: Why is the author on Amazon.com listed as Max Barry and Maxx Barry?

Regarding the server: Is the scalability problem due to hardware limitations, (third-party) software limitations, design limitations, bandwidth?

If it's hardware or bandwidth, you'd need to throw money at it (or get donations)

If it's software or design, you'd probably have to spend precious time to fix it (or get volunteers). Or spend money on better supporting software, hardware, etc.

I first visited NationStates.net about, oh, half-an-hour ago. And I also learned of Jennifer Government. Letting people know it exists is half the battle, esp. since you probably won't change the content of the book or tricky subversive marketing (this site isn't designed to market the book, I assume; just draw traffic.)

First thing: I don't buy many books. Most of the books I read are classics like 1984 and Foundation, which are available at the local public library. Of course, I don't read that many books either (not enough time.)

Second thing: I happen to have a lot of gift certificates from the holidays for Amazon.com. Anything "long term" (as opposed to food or tickets) I buy will probably be from there. Since it apparently is, I'll consider it.

Third thing: I'd like to see excerpts of the book.

Fourth thing: Why is the author on Amazon.com listed as Max Barry and Maxx Barry?

Regarding the server: Is the scalability problem due to hardware limitations, (third-party) software limitations, design limitations, bandwidth?

If it's hardware or bandwidth, you'd need to throw money at it (or get donations)

If it's software or design, you'd probably have to spend precious time to fix it (or get volunteers). Or spend money on better supporting software, hardware, etc.

I first visited NationStates.net about, oh, half-an-hour ago. And I also learned of Jennifer Government. Letting people know it exists is half the battle, esp. since you probably won't change the content of the book or tricky subversive marketing (this site isn't designed to market the book, I assume; just draw traffic.)

First thing: I don't buy many books. Most of the books I read are classics like 1984 and Foundation, which are available at the local public library. Of course, I don't read that many books either (not enough time.)

Second thing: I happen to have a lot of gift certificates from the holidays for Amazon.com. Anything "long term" (as opposed to food or tickets) I buy will probably be from there. Since it apparently is, I'll consider it.

Third thing: I'd like to see excerpts of the book.

Fourth thing: Why is the author on Amazon.com listed as Max Barry and Maxx Barry?

Regarding the server: Is the scalability problem due to hardware limitations, (third-party) software limitations, design limitations, bandwidth?

If it's hardware or bandwidth, you'd need to throw money at it (or get donations)

If it's software or design, you'd probably have to spend precious time to fix it (or get volunteers). Or spend money on better supporting software, hardware, etc.

I first visited NationStates.net about, oh, half-an-hour ago. And I also learned of Jennifer Government. Letting people know it exists is half the battle, esp. since you probably won't change the content of the book or tricky subversive marketing (this site isn't designed to market the book, I assume; just draw traffic.)

First thing: I don't buy many books. Most of the books I read are classics like 1984 and Foundation, which are available at the local public library. Of course, I don't read that many books either (not enough time.)

Second thing: I happen to have a lot of gift certificates from the holidays for Amazon.com. Anything "long term" (as opposed to food or tickets) I buy will probably be from there. Since it apparently is, I'll consider it.

Third thing: I'd like to see excerpts of the book.

Fourth thing: Why is the author on Amazon.com listed as Max Barry and Maxx Barry?

Regarding the server: Is the scalability problem due to hardware limitations, (third-party) software limitations, design limitations, bandwidth?

If it's hardware or bandwidth, you'd need to throw money at it (or get donations)

If it's software or design, you'd probably have to spend precious time to fix it (or get volunteers). Or spend money on better supporting software, hardware, etc.

Or well, I already bought- preordered off of amazon. And I only really first looked at the site today. :) hehehe. Normally, I'd wait to see it marked-down in bookstores, if I couldn't get away w reading it in b&n with my latte.... but I'll support someone starting out - the book DOES sound interesting, and the game concept is great - and I used to want to "be a writer" *sigh* So I'll support a would-be fellow author.

Tichel (and everybody else whom it may concern) - if you happen to have sended multiple instances of your posting, because of server slowness and resending:
1. don't worry, happens to all of us some time
2. but PLEASE delete all but one of the postings.

Thank you. :)

As soon as I get this whole Identity theft thing cleared up (Which will take a great deal of time) I'll get the book. That barcode on the face is kinding drawing me, and the name being that of an ex doesn't hurt either. What genre would it be in though. Seems kind of sci-fi to me. Though it's probably something else.

The delete button is unfortunately obscured by the right-hand border for some reason, so it only shows up sometimes. Last time I tried deleting a post, it said the thread didn't exist, but I suspect that's part of the disappearing thread problem. I'll try again sometime.

I just today realized THIS Max Barry is the same one who wrote Syrup, which i loved. Looks like i have to check JG out now.

I finished reading the book, which I bought today, a few minutes ago. The game is the sole reason I heard about the book, and therefore the sole reason I bought it.

The genre would be action-satire, I guess. In case you couldn't tell from the fact I finished in in less than a day, it's a good book. Buy it, read it, love it.

I had Waldenbooks order me one. When I went to go pick it up with my girlfriend the other day I was telling her how brilliant this idea was for marketing. She looked at me after I told her all about the game and said, "What does that have to do with the book?" And I told her how this game was created by the guy who wrote the book, at which point she asked again, "Yes, but why would you buy the book based off the game, they don't sound similar."

I still don't have an answer. But somehow, in some way, this was brilliant.

I dont normally buy many books, the only ones i have are discworld books, which are brilliant..
but this will definately be one that I want to buy.. just after playing this game for not very long.. and also after reading that short bit from chapter one, looks like it will be nice and funny.. the way everything should be :)

I ordered the book....can't wait to get it! Hope the marketing scheme works, it's pretty innovative.

In the email we received, which announced the book's release, I noticed on one of the webpages the word 'Syrup' on the bottom and clicked on it. Much to my surprise I found that Max Barry had written one of my favourite books, called, of course, 'Syrup'.

The reason I didn't put it together earlier is that Max Barry's name was spelled 'Maxx Barry', with two 'x's'...if it had been that way on this site, it may have clicked.

I think I laughed out loud when I finally put this together....'Syrup' was a fast read...Max, or Maxx Barry plunked you right into his world and the story unfolded fast and furiously....it was great.

I'm reallly looking forward to this book, I really hope a good percentage of us ordered, or already bought it.

If you haven't already, go out and get it!