NationStates News

by Max Barry
Thu, 13 Nov 2003

Hard to believe, but it's true: this baby is one year old today. What started as a weird idea for a game that might help promote my novel has seen around half a million nations created, taken 750 million hits, become one of the most popular browser-based games on the internet, and, most impressive of all, developed an amazing community that sprung up from nowhere at all. (I often get asked where all these people came from. Because surely communities don't just materialize -- surely demographics must need to be targeted and marketing plans executed. But apparently not. You all just turned up.)

Many more people have now played my game than read my books, possibly by an order of magnitude. This is pretty ironic, given the standard of my programming skills. But it's an awesome display of the internet's power. I hope the net always stays like this, a place where a person with no IT training can create a quirky site and have a million or so people stop by to check it out.

I'm very proud of this site, but I also feel that all I did was put up four walls and a ceiling -- it's you guys who came along and turned it into a party. So many people have put so much time and thought into adding spice and color to NationStates! Thanks to every one of you.

-- Max Barry, 13-Nov-03