History Website / NationStates

* BigInternationalClubs: Definitely one of these. Membership is voluntary, though.

** "Unintelligent Oversight" revolves around the controversy that your Intelligence Agency has been funding, among other things an "[[VisualNovel/SteinsGate interdimensional time travelling microwave]]" which your Minister of Defense thinks is a waste of money given that the only thing they have to show for it is a gellified banana while the project is defended by a [[Characters/SteinsGate red haired Chief Scientist named Sarah Kurisu.]]

* FalseDichotomy: The limited options for some issues have been known to frustrate players despite the ever-present [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] (simply dismissing the issue). It's considered part of good issue writing to make sure that every choice [[MortonsFork feels like a bad choice]]. The issue writing guide suggests that any decision made should always leave a player wondering if they've made the right choice. Of course, this doesn't always happen, usually because the choice given just isn't bad at all. One issue is about slavery and clicking the appropriate answer reads "Slavery is outlawed." That's it.

* AIGeneratedEconomy: Nations have private sectors on which their policies can influe, whether for good or for bad.

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: The game's simplistic economic engine leads to oddities such as nations with the strongest possible economy ratings having 100% tax rates (but sometimes higher for the wealthy), no private sector, and no government funds spent on economic production. And that's before we get into the economic models some players propose their nations run on. [[InvokedTrope Some nations even deliberately fail economics]] for the sake of roleplaying.

* GambitPileup: See the NS entry on the TXP page. Roleplays tend to turn into this once they've been alive for long enough. Regional political structures often do it right from the start. There are numerous players trading favors and outmatching each other to get World Assembly resolutions passed or killed. Most regional alliances are set up as growing space for these. The more branches of the BrokenBase one is familiar with, the more it appears that the ''entire game'' is one big GambitPileup that's been building up for eight years.

** Blackacre is another dictatorship, seemingly engaged in a ColdWar with your nation. In addition, [[EvilIsPetty its dictator harasses and threatens other nations on]] [[BlandNameProduct Twitcher]].

** The "What's in a Name?" issue directly references ''Series/ThePrisoner'', with a suggestion that the nation's children be [[YouAreNumberSix given numbers instead of names]].

* FantasticMeasurementSystem How almost every statistic is measured in the game.

* ''Roleplay/{{Troperia}}''

* AHellOfATime: If your Region's Founder or (if empowered) Delegate is displeased with you, they can banish you to an outbox region called "[[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace The Rejected Realms]]". After years of GameplayDerailment, players have given this region its own culture, identity and government, and it's now a well-respected participant in interregional politics that prominent players frequently emigrate to on purpose.

* AnarchyIsChaos: Played straight. An anarchist nation is described as "in a state of perpetual fear, as a complete breakdown of social order has led to the rise of order through biker gangs." Contradicted and averted by the various performance indicators of a nation, however, most notably in that almost all nations of this sort have very strong economies.

* AntiPoopSocking: Taken to the extreme. Issues cannot come up faster than four per day, and it only takes a few minutes to read each issue and make your decision. Same goes for your occasional World Assembly votes. Beyond that there is nothing to do in this game. The MetaGame, on the other hand, can easily take all day if you let it.
** That's only for nations that have been established (IE: have resolved more than about 20 issues). When you first establish your nation, the first ten or so issues come one every half hour. After that, it cuts down to one issue per hour, then one every two hours, then one every four hours, before finally settling on one issue every six hours.

* AuthorAvatar: Pretty much the premise of the whole thing. Not all players though; many people use it to play as different characters than themselves.
** Also, the creator of the game has been known to appear in issues in various forms. Most notably there are many references to author Max Barry, such as Max Barry the author in issue #46 (''[[BreakingtheFourthWall Jennifer Government Censorship Row]]''), Max Barry being named a beauty pageant queen as a result of pro-equality choices in ''Tiara Sign Of Oppression, Declare Feminists'', and even a computer game called Super Barry Brothers.
** Even the staff working on the game have references to themselves inserted within the issues. For example, the Pokemon-pastiches of Charchivemander, Noqoran, Gnejgar and Sleepypuff are all derived from the nation names of the Issue Editorial Staff.

* BlandNameProduct: There are several different types of products like this in the game which may appear in some issues. There's some irony here, in that [[Literature/JenniferGovernment the book that the game is based on]] openly uses the names of several real world brands as villainous mega-corporations, but in NationStates it's standard practice to use parodic names. Examples include video-sharing site ''[[Website/YouTube WhoTube]]'', a role-playing game called ''[[TabletopGame/TunnelsAndTrolls Trials and Trolls]]'', films called ''[[Film/TerminatorSalvation Exterminator 4: Salvation]]'', ''[[Film/AlienResurrection Xenoform Resurrection]]'' and ''[[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen Transmorphers Vengeance of the Failbots]]''.
** There's also ''Maxémon Woah'', a ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' stand-in.

* CrapsackWorld: As an often-grim parody of the real world, there's all sorts of horrifying things going on, including nations which openly have [[MadeASlave slave-based economies]], [[PollutedWasteland dumping of radioactive waste in international waters]], [[BigBrotherIsWatching intrusive surveillance societies]], and so-on. Play your cards "right", and you can do this even in an otherwise "free" nation.
** On the other hand, this trope is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] when you look at some of the worldwide stats in detail. For example, the NationStates world has far better average income equality than the real world, and crime has been eliminated or virtually eliminated in a majority of countries.

---> "You know, there's always a compromise," says local pervert Tim Christmas while watching you from a nearby tree. "As I see it, the best way to keep both sides of the argument happy is to remove all restrictions on what adults can view and increase restrictions on minors. But at the same time, lower the age of majority by a lot. {{What could possibly go wrong}}?"

* DoubleStandard: You can, after enforcing nudity, make it so that only women are forced to be nude. The game gives this decision, should it pass, an appropriate description.

* FalseDichotomy: The limited options for some issues have been known to frustrate players despite the ever-present [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] (simply dismissing the issue).
** It's considered part of good issue writing to make sure that every choice [[MortonsFork feels like a bad choice]]. The issue writing guide suggests that any decision made should always leave a player wondering if they've made the right choice. Of course, this doesn't always happen, usually because the choice given just isn't bad at all. One issue is about slavery and clicking the appropriate answer reads "Slavery is outlawed." That's it.

* FunWithAcronyms: The "'''C'''itizens '''R'''aging '''A'''gainst the '''P'''olice" in the "Police too Pushy?" issue.

* GuideDangIt: A nation's World Assembly Classification is determined by (among other things) Economic ''Freedom'', but the stat displayed on a nation's front page is Economic ''Output''. This can get confusing if your nation is a Psychotic Dictatorship with no freedom whatsoever but a powerful economy.

*** For example, every time an issue involves animals they insert the name of the national animal, even if it wouldn't work with the given situation.
*** Also, said animal will actually be affected by the nation's environment, even if they are fictional animals, so you can sometimes see dragons and phoenixes "teeter on the brink of extinction due to air pollution".

* InNameOnly: Whether you're a President, a Prime Minister, or a dictator, you always have complete say over the nation's issues, and neither the Congress or Parliament or any other organization can overrule any of your choices. There are seemingly no checks and balances.
* ImNotAHeroIm: Parodied in one newspaper headline: " I'm No Hero, Says Heroic (Insert Demonym Here)"

---> “Look, we’re not living in a comic book. This is real life, not a work of fiction,” reminds by-the-book police officer [[HelloInsertNameHere RANDOM NAME]], leaning on one of the four walls of your office.

---> "After the kidnapping, rape, and murder of a young blond girl made national headlines in [[HelloInsertNameHere COUNTRY]], the concerned parenting organization Mothers Against Youth Doing Stupid Stuff (MAYDSS) has raised concerns over the use of social networking sites by the nation's teens."

** The same issue goes on to mention within the options:
*** [[ThreateningShark A shark breaking into an oil refinery,]]
*** An ant epidemic ruining farmers,
*** The nation's capital being coated in pink frosting.

* RetGone: The highest possible punishment the moderators can dole out is to outright delete the nations of rule violators.
** On top of that, continuing to violate the rules with replacement nations can lead to a Delete-On-Sight (or [[FunWithAcronyms DoS]]) order—an effective permanent ban from the site.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Quite a few of the issues; one referring to a particular Supreme Court case was written in less than a week. A lot of the time, when a real life tragedy occurs a whole bunch of copycat [=RPs=] emerge with similar things happening to their nations.

* RunningGag: Until late 2010, "Repeal "Condemn NAZI EUROPE" " and "Victory for gatesville!" were extremely common, and slightly annoying.

** When a player creates a new nation, the "default" flag of the nation is the UsefulNotes/AustralianAborigines' flag.
*** Which can stem from CreatorProvincialism, seeing how Barry himself is Australian.

* TakeAThirdOption: Even when you feel an issue could only have two logical solutions, there's often another option that may or may not make sense. Example: allow public nudity, ban public nudity, or ''enforce'' public nudity. Others are just a nonstandard extreme/ideal that would be really hard to bring about in real life. Not to mention you can just dismiss the issue altogether if it appears to be FailureIsTheOnlyOption.
** This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by the issue "Hey Kid, Have A Cigar!" with the third option saying...:
---> ''"I have a reasonable third option!" interrupts passing minister (RANDOM NAME), right around the time someone normally interjects with a crazy third option.''

* [[VideogameCrueltyPotential Videogame Cruelty]] [[VideogameCaringPotential or Caring Potential]]: You can either make your nation a utopia, or a "Psychotic Dictatorship" where you refer to your citizens as "[[CosmicPlaything Your Little Playthings]]" and the phrases "Political Freedoms" and "Civil Rights" do not exist in your vocabulary.

* ZergRush[=/=]VotedOffTheIsland: You can't go to war with other regions in the actual simulator. However, you can get a large group of nations on your side to join a region, have them vote your nation the one in charge, then kick out the original members. It's cruel, but not against the rules.

!! The World Assembly & Security Council (UsefulNotes/UnitedNations Simulator, minus the [[ScrappyMechanic veto]]) contains examples of:
* BalanceOfPower: Varies between the WA Delegates in each region, depending on their influence and number of endorsements in their regions.
** Present WA superpowers (Type A) include [[http://www.nationstates.net/nation=just_guy Just Guy]] and [[http://www.nationstates.net/nation=alsted Alsted]], whereas Type E consists of regional delegates with less than 10 endorsements.

!! Some Nation States [=RPs=] with their own pages are:

* Roleplay/{{Aeia}}
* Roleplay/AmericanParanormalSociety
* Roleplay/AncientOnes
* Roleplay/AWorldWithoutAmerica
* Roleplay/BattleOfTheElders
* Roleplay/CoalitionOfPonyistStates
* Roleplay/DemonCastleWars
* Roleplay/{{Esquarium}}
* Roleplay/FallOfGods
* Roleplay/FreeRepublics
* Roleplay/{{Gama}}
* RolePlay/{{Gregoryisgodistan}}
* Roleplay/AHogwartsTale

* Roleplay/MassEffectRelinquish
* Roleplay/MefhorCanonBloc
* Roleplay/{{Mystria}}
* Roleplay/{{Noctur}}
* Roleplay/PersonificationLife
* Roleplay/RexEightyFour
* Roleplay/StrikeWitchesTwentyTwelve
* Roleplay/SuperHeroHigh
* Roleplay/{{Tiandi}}
* Roleplay/{{Troperia}}
* Roleplay/VaporASteampunkRp
* Roleplay/AWorldBeyond
* Roleplay/TheYonderlands
* Roleplay/Nation States All Welcome Chill Thread

* HypocriticalHumor: A general in the "Budget Time: Accountants Excited" issue supports increased military spending with a warning that "tinpot dictatorships" will invade otherwise, which can come off as a little awkward if you yourself are playing as a dictatorship.

Based off the story ''Literature/JenniferGovernment'' by Max Barry. But not really.

* GreyAndGreyMorality: More freedom isn't necessarily a good thing by the game's standards; maximum freedom in all respects is classified as "[[AnarchyIsChaos Anarchy]]". Even an "[[GoldenMeanFallacy Inoffensive Centrist Democracy]]" can have ethically dubious policies. In the end, [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement much of it depends on personal opinion and interpretation.]]