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RIP David Prowse, the force was with him. 💫
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSm9DDxQv8E
At one point in my NationStates career, I had over 200.
Densaner, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Norgiestoileckylockj, and 1 otherPanther
R.I.P David Prowse, Welcome to the Dark Side 😢
Densaner, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Norgiestoileckylockj, and Panther
Post self-deleted by The unified missourtama states.
All last night the phrase “You can't have your cake and eat it” was floating around my head for some reason. This morning, I get an issue with a title that is a variation of that phrase. Life is weird.
Yes. That, is a lot.
How do you guys even manage to handle multiple accounts??
Frankly, it is really commendable.
I cannot even manage two of them properly.
Yeah. That is quite a headline. I agree, lol.
Some NS issues are really interesting.
Came across this dispatch, a couple of hours back, while browsing the website. Seems like someone has figured the algorithm out.
Greetings, wretched sacks of flesh.
Now, unlike others in this game, my tech knowledge has barely advanced past the caveman stage, so my analysis is not going to involve some ungodly data set which I managed to drag off of the API using some form of programming witchcraft. I do, however, have absolutely no life at all, so have spent the last however many years constructing a thicc spreadsheet to allow me to play the issues game as efficiently as possible. Behold:
Now, let me give you a quick rundown of the organised insanity going on here. Each row corresponds to an issue (whenever I get a new one I just paste it at the bottom and then sort alphabetically to get it into position), and each column corresponds to one of my nations. Whenever I get an issue, I will put the option I chose for that nation in the corresponding cell. I will then look at the results of the issue and colour-code the cell accordingly. It’s a fairly simple traffic light system that isn’t worth getting into here.
The next time I receive that issue on that nation, I will go to that cell again and either choose the same option as before (if it was good), or choose another option or dismiss (if it was not). Dismissals, by the way, are the blue highlighted cells with a dash in them. In order to prevent myself from rechoosing a bad option in the future, I will put it in brackets to let future me know that I definitely shouldn’t pick that. Otherwise, I would keep wondering ‘I wonder what this option does?’, and continue to choose bad options like a pigeon repeatedly electrocuting itself because it’s utterly moronic.
Asleep yet? Continuing reading because you pity me? Good.
For this analysis, I’m only interested in the options that I’m currently choosing, i.e. the number at the front which is not in any brackets. As such, I used Excel’s handy little ‘LEFT’ formula to extract just that number for every issue for every nation. I then used a ‘SUMIF’ to see which options I chose the most on each nation, which is the entire point of this analysis. Oh yeah, there is some analysis happening here in between my therapy session, remember?
Let’s have a look at the data:
Aah my eyes! This isn’t useful at all. The problem is that due to issue eligibility criteria, my nations have all answered different numbers of issues. Let’s get these numbers as a percentage of total issues answered and make it colourful.
Well that’s much better. The interesting thing to look at here is my differing dismissal rates. The nations which are quite finely balanced, or have few stats which I am targeting, (Pencil Sharpeners, Pallidonia) have higher dismissal rates than the nations which focus on a wide range of stats (Pterodoria, Pencil Sharpeners 2). There’s still a problem, Options 5+ rarely appear in issues, so are screwing up my colour system. Let’s get rid of them, and the dismissals, and just focus on issues where I answered options 1-4.
Ah, now we have some patterns! The one which jumps out at me immediately is option 2, and how it is far more prevalent among 3 nations: Pterodoria, Pallidonia, and Pencil Sharpeners. These nations are all run in a sort of Ancap way (some better than others…), so it seems that option 2 is often the ‘leave the government out of it’ or ‘the problem can be solved with MORE freedom’ kind of option.
Option 1 is answered most often in Iguanarctica, which is loosely based on my IRL views. Now, unlike most people who choose to forgo human contact in favour of staying in their parent’s spare room and making spreadsheets all day, my political views are pretty much Centrist. It seems that option 1 is often presented as a sensible(ish) solution to whatever problem the issue poses, before the wackier later options arrive. Option 1 is also pretty popular in Thalasse (the governmental manifestation of Twitter wokeness), and Heliosphere (imagine if Stalin loved computers and science more than he hated humanity), which implies that the sensible first option is often left wing? #NSModsAreBiasedProof.
Option 3 is a bit more even across the board with my nations, which makes it difficult to say anything about it. So I won’t
Option 4 doesn’t appear very often in issues, so answer rates are pretty low across the board. It seems that my religious nations answer this more often though, so maybe there’s something in that.
In conclusion, this is inconclusive. However, some patterns do appear. It seems the most common (though not particularly prevalent) issue format is as follows:
Option 1: “let’s solve this problem by getting the government to do something sensible”
Option 2: “Let’s solve the problem by giving people more freedom”
Option 3: “Let’s solve the problem with some kind of non-specific insanity”
Option 4: “Let’s pray”
Limitations:
Because of an apparent crippling desire I have to talk about how everything I’ve ever done is wrong, let’s have a look at some of the limitations of this analysis:
- My spreadsheet still has plenty of red cells in it, i.e. issues where I have no good option yet. My analysis is done on the basis that all the options I choose are ‘good’ for my nations, but this isn’t the case.
- Due to eligibility criteria, options may not have the same number between nations.
- My issue-answering is constantly evolving due to changing priorities, changes in the issue coding, and changes in how stats affect each other. Therefore, the options I’m choosing now may change in the future - they aren’t always locked in.
However, all of these cases are pretty rare in the big scheme of things, so I doubt they’ll have a had an impact on my analysis.
I don’t think anybody will read to this point. Potatoes.
Though... can you explain how to work out with the Trading Cards?
Haven't yet figured out how to use them.
Bruh, I'd have problem with keeping track of all the respective entities, if I were having such a huge number of puppets.
2 is well-enough for me.
Your device is/maybe tracking you. 😱
Densaner, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Norgiestoileckylockj, and 2 othersPanther, and The unified missourtama states
It depends how serious you are about them. I would say I’m semi serious. I’ll never be #1, but I’m in the top 150, which isn’t that bad going. I keep all Epics and Legendary cards and transfer them here. I keep a stash of other cards with my puppets. This is if they’re not worth a lot or not worth transferring, all other cards are junked and that bank pays for future transfers.
I would also say that 95% of the cards you get from answering issues are crappy and low value. I build up bank and make purchases of better cards too.
A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Norgiestoileckylockj, Panther, and 1 otherMauryavarsha
How do you give money to other nations?
Densaner, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Panther, and 2 othersThe unified missourtama states, and Sahcara
Post self-deleted by The unified missourtama states.
You can do whatever you want with trading cards, and that’s the beautiful thing. You can open packs and keep them all, or keep only the Legendaries and Epics like Den, or sell them all, it is up to you.
The craziest thing is that I wasn’t even saying it out loud, I was only thinking it in my head. The universe works in mysterious ways.
As I said previously, you cannot. You can join the World Assembly and endorse nations. Endorsing is a sign of friendship and also helps keep peace within a region.
Densaner, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Panther, and 3 othersThe unified missourtama states, Mauryavarsha, and Sahcara
Oh, thanks, all donations gratefully received.
Make checks payable to: Densaner: The Foundation for the furtherance of evil Inc.
:P
Dorig, The Voice of ARB, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, and 3 othersPanther, The unified missourtama states, and Sahcara
Arise, dead! Arise!
https://i.imgur.com/W19rvPG.jpg
Life is weird.
I think the most likely explanation for such occurrences is that we are all barraged by so much information, on a daily basis, through the internet. This includes searching and reading articles, streaming television and movies and music and podcasts, scrolling through posts in social media, browsing online shopping sites, playing online games. Then, with a game like NationStates, which is text-based, you are barraged with even more words and phrases.
Therefore, should you get a phrase stuck in your head, especially a commonplace saying like the one you mentioned, the chances of you coming into contact with it in your life are fairly high...or at least higher than you might first think.
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequency_illusion
https://www.healthline.com/health/baader-meinhof-phenomenon
https://www.omnibusproject.com/311
Densaner, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Norgiestoileckylockj, and 2 othersThe unified missourtama states, and Sahcara
That's pretty cool. I have a somewhat passing interest in the history of marionettes. I like the aspect of tradecraft that is involved, how folks passed the knowledge down like any other skilled trade. Then, like some other crafts, there is the aspect of artistry involved, too. But, I've not really read any good books on the subject.
I initially became interested after reading the novel The Golem, written by Gustav Meyrink around the beginning of the 20th century. It's a sprawling, bit of a mess of a book, but also wonderful and eerie. The main character is a marionettist, and expounds on the topic at some length. This is later somewhat connected to the legend of the golem, as something "brought to life" by a puppetmaster working behind the scenes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golem_(Meyrink_novel)
Also, while living in Chicago, I encountered an individual who would peddle around the city on his "Puppet Bike" and give impromptu performances on street corners. It was delightful. I always made a point to stop and watch for awhile whenever I came across him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppet_Bike
By the way, here's my collection of marionnettes :P
page=deck/collection=7564/nation=alexandria_eschate
Densaner, Dorig, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, and 3 othersNorgiestoileckylockj, The unified missourtama states, and Sahcara
Alas, I've lost the spells that animated them!
A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Norgiestoileckylockj, and Sahcara
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M59tSWsMvuk
A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, and Sahcara
Happy St Andrew's Day! 🏴
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c42dvgPIfSk
Panther, there is a German Expressionist Film from 1915 called Der Golem.
You can see it here --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A0lMPde6q8
Densaner, Dorig, Holly United, and Sahcara
I didn't realize it was Scotland's national day today. It's so close to our Thanksgiving, so that will make it easier to remember.
I assume it's a day to meet up with family?
I just finished a weekend of family get togethers, and am quite wiped out. Everything is so hard, these days... Hope it goes/went well for you all.
Oh, I'd not come across that before. Thanks for pointing it out.
A funny bit from the wiki page:
Wegener claimed the film was based on Gustav Meyrink's 1915 novel The Golem, but, as the movie has little to do with existing Jewish traditions, "it is more likely that (the screenwriters) simply drew upon European folklore".
Densaner, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, and Sahcara
Yes it was, though it, as a film, was one of the first horror films along with Nosfratu. I saw the latter when I was maybe 7 and it scared the heck out of me.
Densaner, Holly United, Panther, and Sahcara
Erm, not really. It only became an official holiday a few years ago. It's in no way comparable to Thanksgiving or Christmas. Plus St Andrew is the patron saint of Greece, Russia and several other places as well.
Nice flag tho. 🏴
Dorig, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Johanneslanden, and 3 othersPanther, Sahcara, and Tosara
That's right, I forgot we had a related discussion many months back, where you said that there wasn't really a national day in Scotland akin to our Fourth of July. Though the closest perhaps being the Burns Supper?
When you posted the Scottish flag along with your comment, it made me remember that the flag design is called St. Andrew's Cross. And then, the wiki page for the holiday claimed it was your national day, but I failed to dig any deeper. Interesting that you would have so recently adopted it as an official national holiday.
I looked up other Scottish holidays. I must say, Hogmanay seems like quite a time. Anytime there's something referred to as a "Fireballs Ceremony," that's something I would like to see. Looks like they were cancelled this year for covid, sadly...
Yep. Burns was a great poet. He even has a decent statue in Central Park, not bad for a bloke from Ayrshire. Burns night suppers are indeed an interesting national tradition, however nowhere near as significant as July 4 or Bastille day etc.
There's lot of interesting local traditions across Scotland. The common ridings in certain parts of the borders is one. However, probably the best known here is the Up Helly Aa festival in the Shetlands. They all get dressed up as Vikings and set fire to a longboat. People in that part of the world are more Viking than Scot as they used to be part of Norway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Helly_Aa
Dorig, A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Johanneslanden, and 1 otherTosara
I have now decided that taking part in a Viking Funeral is something I have to do once in my life.
I was recently talking with Johan about that part of Scotland, as he brought up Caithness / Katanes. I hadn't really known anything about the far north of Scotland, or its associations with the Norse, until watching the show "Shetland." Seems like a fascinating and beautiful place.
https://i.imgur.com/DENYfC8.jpg
Yes, never watched that show, but up north does look stunning, however it always strikes me as having a bleak quality about it, a bit like Russia or parts of eastern Europe. I think the reason they set fire to the boat is to get a heat. I'm told Shetland is absolutely bloody freezing. 🥶
A Down and Dusky Blonde, Holly United, Panther, and Sahcara
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