Nanakaland
20-03-2005, 18:17
I am tired of countless times at countless areas with people saying that playing NationStates only takes a few minutes. That is the minimalist way of playing NationStates and many people are ignorant of other ways to spend time. Thus, it must be explained here ways to spend time in NationStates. This helps people understand the full aspect of NationStates gameplaying.
Issue Answering
Estimated Time: 2-10 minutes a day
Description: The basic NationStates aspect is basic gameplay. This is answering issues and checking up on your nation daily to see how it affects it as well as other things that are the most basic of NationStates. When you first create your nation, it will probably take ten minutes at most. Perhaps creating a custom flag or moving to/creating a region would increase the time, but it would basically take two minutes. Most nations just do this. In order to spend more time on NationStates, however, you must do more than this.
UN Membership
Estimated Time: 0-10+ minutes a day
Description: United Nations membership takes a few days to sign up, but afterwards a whole new realm of gameplay is opened up. You can vote on UN issues and endorse other nations in your region (thus allowing delegates, who usually have regional access). Another thing you can do is debate on issues in the UN forum, thus adding time to the usual ten minutes a day on UN. However, sometimes being a UN membership takes no time at all. You can only have one nation in the UN, however.
Region Invading / Defending
Estimated Time: 2-4 hours at first; afterwards 0-30+ minutes a day
Description: To invade or defend a region would take anywhere from no time to about a half hour. Basically, the invaders move to a new region and try to endorse an invader for the delegacy. This adds another aspect to the gameplay and pretty much is as far as you can go in gameplaying. However, it sometimes takes more. Hours can be spent planning, intelligence gathering, and waiting for the actual invasion.
Foruming
Estimated Time: 10+ minutes a day
Description: Going on NationStates' forums and/or offsite forums for NationStates groups such as regions or alliances adds another dimension to NationStates. You can debate things, discuss gameplay, help people, and more. This probably takes at least ten minutes a day but could last all day. If you want to take that one step further you can go roleplaying.
Roleplaying
Estimated Time: 15+ minutes a day
Description: Roleplaying is where in the NationStates and International Incidents forums you basically write forum based stories. You can have diplomatic, war, character, and other kinds of RPs. For more help on RPing, it is recommended that you read the stickies in NationStates or International Incidents.
NSwikiing
Estimated Time: 5-20+ minutes a day
Description: In the words of Goobergunchia himself (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=361994), "This is a wiki (a collection of interlinked web pages, any of which can be visited and edited by anyone at any time from any place) designed to give information about NationStates in an easy-reference manner. Essentially, it's an open-source, open-content encyclopedia about NationStates." NSwiki is a place where you can make encyclopedic articles on your nation. It is increadiblly fun and a long time can be spent on it. It can be found here (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page).
Chatting
Estimated Time: 10-25+ minutes a day
Description: Either by IMing to other NSers or using IRC channels such as #NationStates_General, chatting is a way to spend a lot of time. You could spend anywhere from ten to twenty-five minutes or all day.
Researching
Estimated Time: 20+ minutes
Description: Whether researching for making a UN proposal, another post in a general forum debate, or an RP post, researching could take all day.
Total Time That Can Be Spent on NationStates Per Day: 2 minutes - all day
Conclusion: Yes. NationStates sometimes "only takes two minutes," but not two minutes at most. If you think that only two minutes can be spent on NationStates, you are obviously uninformed of the facts. You can spend all day on NationStates if you really wanted to. In fact, there is so much you can do with NationStates that everything cannot be done in one day. Even issues could take more than two minutes.
If you find any errors in this, tell me and I will fix it. If you find more ways to spend time in NationStates, tell me and I'll try to add it. Any suggestions for a better format and I'll try to fix it.
Issue Answering
Estimated Time: 2-10 minutes a day
Description: The basic NationStates aspect is basic gameplay. This is answering issues and checking up on your nation daily to see how it affects it as well as other things that are the most basic of NationStates. When you first create your nation, it will probably take ten minutes at most. Perhaps creating a custom flag or moving to/creating a region would increase the time, but it would basically take two minutes. Most nations just do this. In order to spend more time on NationStates, however, you must do more than this.
UN Membership
Estimated Time: 0-10+ minutes a day
Description: United Nations membership takes a few days to sign up, but afterwards a whole new realm of gameplay is opened up. You can vote on UN issues and endorse other nations in your region (thus allowing delegates, who usually have regional access). Another thing you can do is debate on issues in the UN forum, thus adding time to the usual ten minutes a day on UN. However, sometimes being a UN membership takes no time at all. You can only have one nation in the UN, however.
Region Invading / Defending
Estimated Time: 2-4 hours at first; afterwards 0-30+ minutes a day
Description: To invade or defend a region would take anywhere from no time to about a half hour. Basically, the invaders move to a new region and try to endorse an invader for the delegacy. This adds another aspect to the gameplay and pretty much is as far as you can go in gameplaying. However, it sometimes takes more. Hours can be spent planning, intelligence gathering, and waiting for the actual invasion.
Foruming
Estimated Time: 10+ minutes a day
Description: Going on NationStates' forums and/or offsite forums for NationStates groups such as regions or alliances adds another dimension to NationStates. You can debate things, discuss gameplay, help people, and more. This probably takes at least ten minutes a day but could last all day. If you want to take that one step further you can go roleplaying.
Roleplaying
Estimated Time: 15+ minutes a day
Description: Roleplaying is where in the NationStates and International Incidents forums you basically write forum based stories. You can have diplomatic, war, character, and other kinds of RPs. For more help on RPing, it is recommended that you read the stickies in NationStates or International Incidents.
NSwikiing
Estimated Time: 5-20+ minutes a day
Description: In the words of Goobergunchia himself (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=361994), "This is a wiki (a collection of interlinked web pages, any of which can be visited and edited by anyone at any time from any place) designed to give information about NationStates in an easy-reference manner. Essentially, it's an open-source, open-content encyclopedia about NationStates." NSwiki is a place where you can make encyclopedic articles on your nation. It is increadiblly fun and a long time can be spent on it. It can be found here (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page).
Chatting
Estimated Time: 10-25+ minutes a day
Description: Either by IMing to other NSers or using IRC channels such as #NationStates_General, chatting is a way to spend a lot of time. You could spend anywhere from ten to twenty-five minutes or all day.
Researching
Estimated Time: 20+ minutes
Description: Whether researching for making a UN proposal, another post in a general forum debate, or an RP post, researching could take all day.
Total Time That Can Be Spent on NationStates Per Day: 2 minutes - all day
Conclusion: Yes. NationStates sometimes "only takes two minutes," but not two minutes at most. If you think that only two minutes can be spent on NationStates, you are obviously uninformed of the facts. You can spend all day on NationStates if you really wanted to. In fact, there is so much you can do with NationStates that everything cannot be done in one day. Even issues could take more than two minutes.
If you find any errors in this, tell me and I will fix it. If you find more ways to spend time in NationStates, tell me and I'll try to add it. Any suggestions for a better format and I'll try to fix it.