| Cyber Nations | |
|---|---|
Cyber Nations logo |
|
| Developer(s) | Kevin Marks |
| Version | Beta 2.1 |
| Platform(s) | Web browser |
| Release date(s) | January 6, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Text based MMO strategy |
| System requirements | |
Cyber Nations (also known as CyberNations and abbreviated to CN) is a massive multiplayer online geo-political simulator. Players assume the role of a national leader of a fictional nation they create and then run.
Cyber Nations was created by Kevin Marks, modelled on a game he invented as a child involving a world map and push pins.[1] In 2003, Marks started a website for the game, although the domain sat idle for two years. On December 24, 2005, he began to code the game, and Cyber Nations was finally released to the public on January 6, 2006.
In the beginning, Cyber Nations was heavily linked to the game Jennifer Government: NationStates and a lot of its oldest members were recruited from there. Several of the oldest teams from NationStates became Alliances in Cyber Nations.
Contents |
When a player first creates a country, they choose a national name, a capital city name and location on Cyber Nations's planet, known by various names including Digiterra (from digital and Terra, Earth), Cyberverse (from cyber and universe) or Planet Bob (originated as a reference to the film Titan A. E. and often attributed to one of the in-game alliances), the income tax percentage, and various other settings such as the structure of government, the national religion and positions on various issues, all of which may be changed, by the player, after nation creation. Nations may collect taxes and pay bills daily, or wait for an update cycle (24 hours) to gain interest. Many factors affect the happiness of a nation's citizens, which in turn directly impacts that nation's income.[2] By buying more infrastructure, a player can improve the economy and increase the population of their nation. Factors that affect a nation's income include the nation's technology level, infrastructure level, resources available, war readiness, position in colour team, and inter-colour team trading. In addition to these primarily economic decisions, numerous social, political and diplomatic decisions are possible. These can be modified in a special menu which displays a variety of choices regarding things like immigration, nuclear proliferation, and human rights; these all determine the welfare of the nation, though the effect is relatively minute.
Much of the gameplay of CyberNations is found on its usual link, however, a large part of the game is played on various offsite forums and on IRC channels. Nations and alliances often create such offsite pages that are linked to, and play a key role in, the game. The most common offsite pages are alliance forums and IRCs, though there are other ones used too. There is also a large amount of offsite tools for calculating things such as purchases of infrastructure, or organizing trade circles.
A large amount of game play is alliance based, and players are recruited almost immediately as they join the game. Alliances are created by players but have been coded into the game. An alliance offers many benefits, including protection from attacks, camaraderie, aid (money or technology or military) and information on basic game play and nation building. Most alliances have off site forums and charters to explain their rules and several IRC channels. Typically, alliances strive to operate with a full-fledged governmental power structure, with varying levels of democratic influence but almost always possessing heads of state and departments (often: internal affairs, foreign affairs, war, economy and communications) among other specialized positions, leading to an internal political atmosphere that is for many players the driving force of the game. In this way it is the alliances (particularly larger ones) rather than individual player's nations that are more analogous to real-world nations. Alliances of alliances in Cyber Nations are referred to as 'blocs'.
On January 2, 2007, an in-game alliance of nations known as Nordreich caused controversy when a Norwegian newspaper posted a story about a neo-Nazi group posting propaganda on YouTube, using the Norwegian national anthem. The Norwegian government and press did not check up on the story further, but were outraged over their national anthem being used in the background for a "neo-Nazi cell based in Germany" and requested YouTube to pull the video immediately.[3] The Norwegian Foreign Ministry contacted YouTube about the video sometime prior to December 25, 2006, but YouTube did nothing at the time.[4] The stated reason for the removal request was the "Nazi references and symbols" present in the video.[5]
The next day, after an official statement from Nordreich in which one of the leaders of Nordreich stated that they were not neo-Nazis and did not condone such behaviour, the incident was cleared up. The Norwegian papers which attacked Nordreich in print were also verbally reprimanded for their poor research and journalism.[6] The video in question was later removed by YouTube on the grounds of copyright violation.[7] The second Aftenposten article's mention of Cyber Nations made Cyber Nations more popular - causing Fark to link Cyber Nations to their main page, as well as nearly doubling the number of people who signed up for the game daily.