Project: NationStates Development 
Date: 2002 
Tips: Create your own country and run it!    

NationStates is an online simulation game. Players create their own country on the internet, fashioned after their own political ideals. Players can either care for the people in their nation-state, or deliberately oppress them. Players need to constantly monitor their state's economic and cultural health. It enables players to experience governance and consider different methods of control. NationStates is a based on the novel Jennifer Government by Max Barry. In the novel, the world is run by giant American corporations, taxes are illegal, employees take the last names of the companies they work for, the police and the NRA are publicly-traded security firms, and the U.S. government can only investigate crimes if they can bill a citizen directly. In short, it is a free market paradise, and a plausible model for the way that nation-states may be run in the future. The NationStates game inviters players to model different realities for governance. It was conceptualised and designed by Max Barry. Geoff Wong from Zikzak developed the software architecture.

Artist: Max Barry 
Visit: http://www.maxbarry.com + http://www.nationstates.com  

Max Barry is a writer. He was born on March 18, 1973 and lives in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of the acclaimed novels, Syrup and Jennifer Government. As a former employee of Hewlett Packard and a teacher of marketing, Barry is aware of the dynamics of corporations and marketing, and his writings often address the rapid corporatisation of society. His second book, Jennifer Government, published in 2002, is a satire of the a not too distant future where American capitalism has taken over the world. Government is privatised, the Police are for hire, the NRA is publicly traded, people take their employer's name as their last name, and the true war is between the loyalty programs. Barry developed the game, NationStates based on this book. It is a nation simulation game, where players create their own country, fashioned after their own political ideals. Barry is presently working on his third novel. (Honor Harger)