IIRC the one I played ca. 2006 was called Globalia. It was super nerdy shit where you had to structure your posts like official government statements, very “model UN” kind of thing.
Shoutout to my based younger self getting to play Cuba and immediately allying with Al-Qaeda and trying to get nukes (they kicked me out for this)
Hahaha we used to have a NationStates when we were ChapoChat. Thanks for reminding me about it.
I wasn’t around back in the day, but that sounds hilarious - and more fun than than the very straight-laced game I joined back then (although tbf I was in my early teens and playing in my second language, definitely out of my depth)
Aw shit now I’m playing this lib ass game again…
The Issue
Your ever-enterprising brother was recently arrested for running a surprisingly large numbers racket; the earnings allowed him to purchase several foreign luxury cars. Your advisers, surprised by gambling’s potential profitability, have begun debating the possibility of a National Lottery to raise government funds. The idea has drawn fire from social groups, who have come to warn you of the evils of gambling.
The Debate
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“A National Lottery would be a great idea,” says your money-obsessed Minister of Finance, Lauren Rudd. “This is just what the economy needs. Everybody is attracted to the idea of becoming a millionaire overnight. And best of all, this is as close as you can get to taxing the poor without actually calling it that! That surplus could even subsidize our struggling strategic basket weaving sector. A government-owned lottery would permit small games of chance while keeping out the sleazy, parasitic casinos.”
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“A gambling ban is essential to the moral fibre of the nation,” counters social worker, Faith Ambrose, wearing a t-shirt with the slogan ‘Don’t be a Fool; Gambling’s not Cool’. “Gambling addiction causes countless broken homes abroad, and having a national lottery would only introduce the problem into Pravic. For the sake of Pravician families, we MUST stand firm against the sin of gambling!”
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A man sporting a ten-gallon cowboy hat rolls in an impressive scale model of a casino city, complete with a flashing neon light display. “Well howdy folks! I couldn’t help but overhear that your gambling industry is in the toilet. That’s the problem with you commies: you don’t know how to generate a profit. Why not allow the private sector back into your nation’s economy and celebrate that with turning over the lottery to my company? I have a plan to use that lottery money to create massive casino cities. I’ve built casinos in Maxtopia, Bigtopia, and North Lilliputia and by gum, it put them on the map! Just think of all the tourists who will flock to Pravic: The Gambling Center of ChapoChat!”
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“And why are we letting some guy with a ridiculous hat profit from this new industry?” exclaims your brother, who was not invited to this meeting. “We’d be much better off with a government monopoly of all gambling institutions, so the profits don’t all end up in that foreigner’s bank account. But instead of wasting that sweet, sweet lolly on a basketcase subsidization plan, imagine the fun WE could have. You know, for a world leader, your digs are kinda shabby. What’s say we use that gambling money for your own personal pleasure palace? It would be all for you. And family of course.”
Doug Dimmadome ass mfer
I chose #2 btw and…
Religion: +120%
Niceness: +1%
Tourism: +0.06%
Rudeness: -0.70%
Secularism: -2.9%
when you ban gambling people become nicer and start believing in god
this game is like crack to me. so fucking dumb
God, I’d forgotten about this thing!
Also… new 3D, triple-tier, heatmapped political compass just dropped courtesty of NationStates:
Inoffensive Centrist Democracy, Democratic Socialists, and Father Knows Best being the 3 most prevalent nation categories sounds about right for this centrist ass game.
New York Times Democracy having more political freedom than Democratic Socialists is very funny to me though.
I will bring back the Chapochat region.
It’s a shame you can’t mix and match really. I want to know the geopolitical ramifications of running an Inoffensive Iron Fist Bordello.
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No but i played a lot of Mafia and werewolf on forums.
Also I’ve played diplomacy with 48 hour turns and all forms of communication allowed that was silly
I’ve played diplomacy with 48 hour turns and all forms of communication
Damn, that sounds insane! How long did the game last?
Few weeks. I may be remembering the timelines wrong it may have been 24hours discussion/planning 12 hours submitting moves. I was eliminated pretty quickly it was my first game
I did a lot of worldbuilding RP sessions in group chats, where depending on the time period (always 2020s-2100s), I’d play as South Africa having transitioned to FALGSC and immediately renuclearizing, starting another Cuban Missile Crisis and blowing up Tel Aviv with orbital gauss artillery.
Oh and South Africa became a superpower at a scale resembling the Stalin’s first Five Year Plan, with the equivalent of an Ibrahim Traore/Muammar Gaddafi/Julius Malema taking power in 2027.
This was also at the time where I had just gotten into politics after moving back to South Africa in 2014 and had only begun my ascension to the “Stalin did nothing wrong, Mao was based; Death to ameriKKKa, Death to piSSreal” phase, lol
That could’ve been my Cuban-led axis of evil if only the mods weren’t so square
Missile crisis 2: teen al qaeda boogaloo
I had friends in high school who played a homebrew space opera game like this. I could never figure it out so I stuck to regular, character driven RPGs.