Cybernations Experience

I have registered a nation at cybernations.net to see how it works. My nations is called HFCVland. We are committed to alternative fuel research and free love. We started out Jewish, by ethnicity and religion, but the people of my nation wanted to journey "the eightfold path" so I converted the national religion to Buddhism. I don't know how these things work into the simulation other than that if you listen to your people their happiness rating goes up.

The interaction with other players seems to be where the excitement is. I've received many private messages asking me to join various alliances and offering me substantial amounts of game money to do so. The alliances have their own off-site forums where members plot and plan. I haven't joined one yet. Some of them require oaths and initiation processes. One of them even has a code of honor.

The players have built their own world on top of the game. The game itself seems a bit tedious at this point, collect taxes once a turn (day), buy some soldiers, land, or infrastructure and read your messages. I've invested less than an hour into the game soI'm sure I don't understand it fully but I my suspicion is that the players stay with the game because it provides a context for interesting interactions.

Cybernation.net is not a "serious game," which is what we will be doing. However, it is a popular example of computer simulation gaming. Since I'm reading up on game design theory it is helpful to get to know games that have commonalities with our expected project.