Post by Admin on Jun 14, 2021 20:19:21 GMT
Author: Destructive Government Economic System (author), Bormiar (editor)
Source: www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1345583
Tags: Cards, Destructive Government Economic System, North Pacific Cards Guild
Text:
Source: www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1345583
Tags: Cards, Destructive Government Economic System, North Pacific Cards Guild
Text:
Hello Everyone,
Some of you may know me for many reasons, most importantly for being a current Deputy Guildmaster of the North Pacific Cards Guild. However, I come to you today as to speak from the perspective of an independent player. Why? Being an independent player was how I originally came to possess the deck I have today, and doing so from a non-regional perspective allows for a non-biased overview on what I am about to discuss:
And that topic of discussion will be the History of NationStates Cards, How it's Developed, and How it is Still Evolving to This Date.
[Cited sources are all linked at the bottom of this document.]
...
Before we get into its actual history, everyone here should note that trading cards, by itself, does absolutely nothing to your nation (minus adding the international artwork badge), and that the involvement in this feature is completely self-explanatory: you simply trade cards with other players. Naturally, there will be some advanced methods developed along the way to make trading more efficient [which are primarily discussed within this (Citation 1) document], but that still does not justify the reason(s) as to why cards themselves have become a widely noted feature within the playerbase.
It had taken quite a while for cards, despite its inherent fun factor, to get to that objective of actually being credible, and here we shall break down each accomplishment that made it such a popular part of the game today:
Originating on March 31, 2018, NationStates Cards was nothing more than a mere toy (being an April Fools joke and all), and that this charade was supposed to last a week after its introduction (Citation 2). Due to its (intended) limited duration, players could do things that would have been considered broken by today's standards [more accurately, you were able to... 1) gift as many cards as possible to your main account, 2) directly purchase packs - and an unlimited amount at that - with bank, and 3) were able to easily gain cards of regions had you possessed a single card-obtaining puppet in that region]. However, the cards minigame was, thanks to a massive petition (Citation 3) from players of all areas of NationStates, later remade into a permanent feature of the site (this time without the overpowered qualities that characterized the April Fools event).
[Interestingly enough, the date in which it was re-implemented was (unknowingly) predicted (Citation 4) by user Vancouvia, who stated that they would check on the re-introduction (Citation 5) of cards in late December!]
To think that (despite this minigame being originally intended as a joke) the admins would devote an extreme portion of their very limited (Citation 6) time to this feature was a massive wake-up call for many people within the NationStates community, and it allowed many who might have originally doubted of the potential of cards to finally realize of this minigame's true viability within the greater site as a whole.
After its re-introduction on December 21, 2018, things began to truly take shape for the future of NationStates Cards. At first, people were first doubting as to whether this feature may even last, but now, due to the introduction of the first-ever season of cards, the questions that people began asking were "Will this feature become highly used?" or "How can this feature's potential be truly brought out?". In other words, many users (from all over NationStates) were questioning as to how cards would become credible when so many other features (including raiding, defending, and roleplaying) were already in place.
...And that's when cards began to be used for region building.
Starting from April 3, 2019, the first-ever continuous cards giveaway was launched by The North Pacific (Citation 7), which dealt with gifting out free cards as long as a nation maintained a nation within the region (at least originally so). This giveaway, in combination with the cards lottery of April 28, 2019 (Citation 8), would see a noticeable spike in nations joining the region (along with the number of members applying for citizenship) due to the incentive of winning valuable cards (whether it be ones of personal value or ones as sought-after as legendary ones).
...
The delegates during the formation of these two programs had been Pallaith and El Fiji Grande, both of whom provided their own input regarding the inspiration behind these regional additions:
El Fiji Grande: "The primary source of inspiration was in using what was then a new medium - Cards - to promote community interest in public service and build on the progress WADP had made in strengthening our region. Cards were meant to support ongoing efforts to increase Keepership and improve regional endorsement levels by providing a physical reward for contributing.
r3n was incredibly helpful, as his puppet farm and the willingness to write scripts to support the program are the only reason it exists today. While r3n has always been clear that these programs were a community effort and conducted in cooperation with the sitting administration and Security Council, he deserves credit for his remarkable achievements with these programs."
Pallaith: "Yeah I was the delegate who took office right after Season 1 resumed, and I was an avid cards player so I saw the opportunity they brought. I wanted to use them as the default rewards for events and competitions and use them to take other initiatives to a new level. We got an enhancement to WADP, a lottery, and a request program prior to the formation of the guild, which was in development for months and beyond my delegacy last year.
We’ve always had an awards program for endorsements and WA participation. This was a natural extension of that, we just added cards to the rewards. The incentive to endorse is even stronger with an actual tangible reward. The only real change from the original programs to today is that card guild membership became the key thing. This was most evident in the card request program. We wanted to encourage people to go to the forum and get citizenship but they had to be a Keeper of the North to get a card. Now it’s for guild members.
We still heavily push endorsements with most of our rewards, but the guild is doing the other goal of getting more citizens and participation from players we otherwise wouldn’t have seen.
In short, a couple of longstanding initiatives to boost endorsements and get greater Gameside participation in our forum were what we wanted to build on using cards."
[Note: the term "guild", in the context of cards, will be discussed more thoroughly later.]
...
Additionally, this same region (i.e. The North Pacific) would go on to create several groundbreaking tools [though not before the one created by 9003 was made, which was the first cards tool to be introduced (Citation 9)] to enhance the cards experience, most notably the Card Queries (Citation 10) and Card Market Watch (Citation 11) utilities. With the addition of these tools (along with many others later on), the credibility of The North Pacific's card programs were able to increase by a wide margin, and the introduction of such tools allowed many players to see that NationStates Cards can be improved not just by enhancing the basic buying/selling experience, but through the implementation of much more complex and useful ideas (including observing the playerbase's trading activity in the case of the Card Market Watch).
Not too long after the introduction of the first regional cards program, the first cross-regional cards event began to take form. This was the Pacifica Cards Festival of July 25, 2019 (Citation 12), and this event (instigated by Democratic Republic Of Unified States) allowed card players from all parts of the community to gather in a single region (in this case, Pacifica) to offer trading advice to prospective users who might consider joining said community in the future. In addition, this event offered free legendary cards to those who were in the region (at the time), therefore emulating the rewarding prospect like that of The North Pacific Cards Lottery.
This event was attended to by some of the greatest traders at the time, including Mikeswill, Destructive Government Economic System, 9003, Samudera, Ballotonia, and Refuge Isle, all of which readily offered personal input as to how a person should go about within the trading sphere (an example being made here: www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=36030951). The presence of these traders, combined with the (undoubtedly) enticing prospect of free legendary cards for simply attending the event, allowed the Pacifica Cards Festival to achieve moderate success, and this was the first time where it was officially proven that cards could unite the entire playerbase (through the use of a community-wide event).
One may believe that, due to cards still being a new feature, that most regions would still disregard it as nothing more than a fun minigame. However, in addition to [region]The North Pacific[/region], [region]The Rejected Realms[/region] also began to introduce its own cards program. On August 10, 2019, TRR officer Bormiar began awarding legendary cards to those whom (similar to [region]The North Pacific[/region]) endorsed the region's delegate (Citation 13). At this point in time, cards were slowly (but surely) beginning to make an impact within the mainstream Gameplay sphere, and this was thanks to the incorporation of this minigame into the programs of entire game-created regions (GCRs for short). Had these two regions (i.e. [region]The North Pacific[/region] and [region]The Rejected Realms[/region]) not have taken direct advantage of the opportunities of this feature, then the widespread credibility of cards might have been delayed for another year, and that delay might have prevented the passage of the following...
On September 5, 2019, the first-ever World Assembly resolution was passed that solely dealt with card trading. Security Council Resolution #287 - Condemn Koem Kab (Citation 14) was written by Bormiar (the one who spearheaded The Rejected Realms's card program), and this user, taking into account the growing popularity of cards, finalized the credibility of this minigame (though not regularizing cards within SC proposals; this has yet to be achieved at the moment) within the entire site by writing a World Assembly draft of one of the greatest (or to be more accurate, infamous) traders within the entire game: Koem Kab, and, through massive campaigning efforts, Bormiar was able to achieve the necessary approvals + votes to pass it.
Through the passage of Security Resolution #287, not only was cards was fully confirmed as a force to be reckoned with, but it encouraged many newer players to join the now-strengthened trading community, all thanks to Bormiar's efforts.
Two months later, starting on November 19, 2019, The North Pacific's card programs had become successful to the point where introducing not just card programs, but also a cards-based organization, was possible for the region. This possibility was realized through the introduction of The North Pacific Cards Guild (Citation 15), a group that aims to promote trading and collecting activity within (both) the region and the entire site as a whole. Through this group, an even larger variety of players began to join the region in order to gain benefits from the Guild's activities. Such players included 9003, Valentine Z, Recuecn, Bormiar, and Destructive Government Economic System, and many of these players would go on to make significant contributions to the guild (with the most notable example being mentioned later).
Now we get to the most interesting period. Many things were introduced starting in late November:
Firstly, on November 28, 2019, Testlandia makes its first appearance in the NationStates Cards Discord server (Citation 16). Testlandia is a mythical nation that is suspect to be the toy account behind the game administrator [violet] (Citation 17), and the Cards Discord server (Citation 18) is known to be (despite Discord servers not being officially supported by the site) one of the most prominent areas for traders, so this particular nation's presence allowed the assurance that (both) the cards community had advanced to the point where even some of the most influential nations created since the site's founding would become interested, and that, due to Testlandia's vastly superior coding skills (them being a suspected admin of the site), this minigame-turned-important-feature would continue to be updated to accommodate new ideas [several of which have been listed at the bottom of this (Citation 19) source] that would no doubt serve to benefit the livelihood of the cards sphere.
Secondly, an entirely new set of cards was released (likely by the aforementioned Testlandia as well) during December 3, 2019 (Citation 20). These cards had a completely different appearance in comparison to the originals (coined as Season 2 cards), and the introduction of this new set of cards revitalized the entire site's interest for trading cards due to the 1) aesthetically appealing format the cards possessed and 2) the fact that players, who might have missed out having a card made for them (originally, due to either being ceased-to-exist or unfounded at the time), now have that potential downside remedied, therefore spurring the drive for those players to purchase their own cards from the market. (Note: the introduction of new sets of cards, otherwise known as seasons, is expected to continue as a feature for the sake of future generations of players.)
Thirdly, even more game-created regions (also known as GCRs) began to make their presence within the cards community. We already know that The North Pacific and The Rejected Realms already possess their own cards programs, but [region]The Pacific[/region] also began (on November 30, 2019) to take advantage of the growing popularity of trading cards by gifting these items cards to members whom endorsed the delegate at the time (which, if you wish to know, was East Durthang) (Citation 21).
Not too long after, the West Pacific would make its appearance as well. Thanks to Recuecn, this region would create one of the earliest examples of a cards-based reference tool for the benefit of all players, with this tool being titled "TWP's Trading Card Glossary" (Citation 22). Using this tool, players (especially newer ones) could read it and gain a basic understanding of the terminology used within the cards community, and the fact that a literal GCR chose to release a cards-based aid gave many users the idea + encouragement that trading should be pursued (as a passion) even more than it currently is.
And finally, [region]The East Pacific[/region] would also begin (during January 12, 2020) its own entry into cards by instigating its own regional contest (with said contest being that each participant must create an aesthetically pleasing design for the region) (Citation 23). Like [region]The Pacific[/region]'s giveaway, [region]The East Pacific[/region]'s contest would be one of the earliest examples in which cards were offered as a direct reward for participation, making the release of this event [along with other ones (Citation 24)] a key milestone in which cards could be used to encourage regional participation (only this time it was more for a celebratory purpose).
With the sudden involvement with these 3 regions, the total number of GCRs officially participating in cards (which, as a further note, were [region]The North Pacific[/region], [region]The Rejected Realms[/region], [region]The Pacific[/region], [region]The East Pacific[/region], and [region]the West Pacific[/region]) had numbered to 5 out of 9 (solely including the feeder and sinker regions), or 5 out of 15 (should you include the six Warzones; it may be worth mentioning that the current delegate of [region]Warzone Sandbox[/region], otherwise known as One Small Island, also participates in cards). With such a noticeable proportion of GCRs now having been involved (one way or another) in trading, it can only be assumed that the rest will also follow suit and capitalize upon the increasing popularity of cards in the future (therefore, as a result of its projected increase in usage, making this feature even more noteworthy than it already is!).
Fourthly (and perhaps the most notable of all of these), on December 12, 2019, an entire NationStates stat badge had been implemented through the work of several administrators (Citation 25). Particularly, this badge was coined to be "international artwork", which takes direct inspiration from the same terminology used in Bormiar's resolution of Condemn Koem Kab. And, like World Assembly endorsements and influence, the international artwork badge can not be gained via answering issues [rather, it is a direct measurement of your nation's deck value (Citation 26)]. Having its status as a credible part of the game being confirmed many times before, it would only make sense for cards to become an even more regularized factor by having an entire statistic being created in its honor, and there was no doubt that the badge's introduction led, seeing that stat badges appear directly on all nations' main pages, towards yet another heightened interest for cards, all thanks to everyone's sudden wish to improve their current standing with this badge.
And lastly (and released slightly before the glossary released by [region]the West Pacific[/region]), there was the first-ever guide that discussed topics in relation to all areas of card trading (Citation 27). Released on December 31, 2019, this particular dispatch was single-handedly written by one user (a.k.a. Destructive Government Economic System) as part of one of the key goals to accomplish within The North Pacific Cards Guild, and said writing process spanned for well over a month, with the guide itself being a summary of several years of experience within the trading community. The release of this dispatch had led, due to the vast amount of content (despite the guide itself simply talking about cards) being covered within the guide, to well over a hundred upvotes as soon as it was published, and it currently stands as one of the most widely referenced and credible sources of card information for (both) newer and professional traders.
It remains an eternal mystery as to how so many groundbreaking events could have ever taken place within this small time frame, but we wouldn't have it any other way. To advance the standing of cards, something spectacular was needed to occur in order to gain widespread notice, and these 5 additions were just what the trading community needed in order to firmly establish themselves as a regular part of NationStates.
Despite being a feature for a relatively small timespan of over two years, a multitude of players chose to immediately capitalize on the potential of this feature and went through many obstacles in order to project the presence of cards within the already-existing communities of NationStates (particularly NationStates Gameplay). With cards now being a regular part of the game, it only remains a matter of time before new heights will be reached, and this optimistic future has only been accomplished due to the efforts of everyone who saw the true validity of this (supposedly) irrelevant minigame.
- This is DGES here, and thanks for reading.
...
- Special thanks is given to Bormiar for editing, along with El Fiji Grande and Pallaith for providing info regarding the original cards programs. -
...
[Bibliography]
1. www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1301085
2. www.nationstates.net/page=news/2018/03/31/index.html
3. forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=439622
4. forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=450726&p=35073110#p35073110
5. www.nationstates.net/page=news/2018/12/21/index.html
6. forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=440327&p=33949399#p33949399
7. forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/9190256/
8. www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1202626
9. forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=35580201#p35580201
10. forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=470015
11. forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=467908
12. www.nationstates.net/page=display_region_rmb/region=pacifica?postid=36028593#p36028593
13. www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1245974
14. www.nationstates.net/page=WA_past_resolution/id=287/council=2
15. forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/9191328/
16. i.ibb.co/17C2tcY/Fire-Shot-Capture-1504-grand-concourse-discordapp-com.png
17. forum.nationstates.net/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2
18. forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=458820
19. www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1308870
20. www.nationstates.net/page=news/2019/11/28/index.html
21. www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1289026
22. www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1302036
23. www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1306736
24. forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=476340
25. forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=36522665#p36522665
26. www.nationstates.net/page=deck/value_deck=1
27. www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1301085
Some of you may know me for many reasons, most importantly for being a current Deputy Guildmaster of the North Pacific Cards Guild. However, I come to you today as to speak from the perspective of an independent player. Why? Being an independent player was how I originally came to possess the deck I have today, and doing so from a non-regional perspective allows for a non-biased overview on what I am about to discuss:
And that topic of discussion will be the History of NationStates Cards, How it's Developed, and How it is Still Evolving to This Date.
[Cited sources are all linked at the bottom of this document.]
...
Before we get into its actual history, everyone here should note that trading cards, by itself, does absolutely nothing to your nation (minus adding the international artwork badge), and that the involvement in this feature is completely self-explanatory: you simply trade cards with other players. Naturally, there will be some advanced methods developed along the way to make trading more efficient [which are primarily discussed within this (Citation 1) document], but that still does not justify the reason(s) as to why cards themselves have become a widely noted feature within the playerbase.
It had taken quite a while for cards, despite its inherent fun factor, to get to that objective of actually being credible, and here we shall break down each accomplishment that made it such a popular part of the game today:
Originating on March 31, 2018, NationStates Cards was nothing more than a mere toy (being an April Fools joke and all), and that this charade was supposed to last a week after its introduction (Citation 2). Due to its (intended) limited duration, players could do things that would have been considered broken by today's standards [more accurately, you were able to... 1) gift as many cards as possible to your main account, 2) directly purchase packs - and an unlimited amount at that - with bank, and 3) were able to easily gain cards of regions had you possessed a single card-obtaining puppet in that region]. However, the cards minigame was, thanks to a massive petition (Citation 3) from players of all areas of NationStates, later remade into a permanent feature of the site (this time without the overpowered qualities that characterized the April Fools event).
[Interestingly enough, the date in which it was re-implemented was (unknowingly) predicted (Citation 4) by user Vancouvia, who stated that they would check on the re-introduction (Citation 5) of cards in late December!]
To think that (despite this minigame being originally intended as a joke) the admins would devote an extreme portion of their very limited (Citation 6) time to this feature was a massive wake-up call for many people within the NationStates community, and it allowed many who might have originally doubted of the potential of cards to finally realize of this minigame's true viability within the greater site as a whole.
After its re-introduction on December 21, 2018, things began to truly take shape for the future of NationStates Cards. At first, people were first doubting as to whether this feature may even last, but now, due to the introduction of the first-ever season of cards, the questions that people began asking were "Will this feature become highly used?" or "How can this feature's potential be truly brought out?". In other words, many users (from all over NationStates) were questioning as to how cards would become credible when so many other features (including raiding, defending, and roleplaying) were already in place.
...And that's when cards began to be used for region building.
Starting from April 3, 2019, the first-ever continuous cards giveaway was launched by The North Pacific (Citation 7), which dealt with gifting out free cards as long as a nation maintained a nation within the region (at least originally so). This giveaway, in combination with the cards lottery of April 28, 2019 (Citation 8), would see a noticeable spike in nations joining the region (along with the number of members applying for citizenship) due to the incentive of winning valuable cards (whether it be ones of personal value or ones as sought-after as legendary ones).
...
The delegates during the formation of these two programs had been Pallaith and El Fiji Grande, both of whom provided their own input regarding the inspiration behind these regional additions:
El Fiji Grande: "The primary source of inspiration was in using what was then a new medium - Cards - to promote community interest in public service and build on the progress WADP had made in strengthening our region. Cards were meant to support ongoing efforts to increase Keepership and improve regional endorsement levels by providing a physical reward for contributing.
r3n was incredibly helpful, as his puppet farm and the willingness to write scripts to support the program are the only reason it exists today. While r3n has always been clear that these programs were a community effort and conducted in cooperation with the sitting administration and Security Council, he deserves credit for his remarkable achievements with these programs."
Pallaith: "Yeah I was the delegate who took office right after Season 1 resumed, and I was an avid cards player so I saw the opportunity they brought. I wanted to use them as the default rewards for events and competitions and use them to take other initiatives to a new level. We got an enhancement to WADP, a lottery, and a request program prior to the formation of the guild, which was in development for months and beyond my delegacy last year.
We’ve always had an awards program for endorsements and WA participation. This was a natural extension of that, we just added cards to the rewards. The incentive to endorse is even stronger with an actual tangible reward. The only real change from the original programs to today is that card guild membership became the key thing. This was most evident in the card request program. We wanted to encourage people to go to the forum and get citizenship but they had to be a Keeper of the North to get a card. Now it’s for guild members.
We still heavily push endorsements with most of our rewards, but the guild is doing the other goal of getting more citizens and participation from players we otherwise wouldn’t have seen.
In short, a couple of longstanding initiatives to boost endorsements and get greater Gameside participation in our forum were what we wanted to build on using cards."
[Note: the term "guild", in the context of cards, will be discussed more thoroughly later.]
...
Additionally, this same region (i.e. The North Pacific) would go on to create several groundbreaking tools [though not before the one created by 9003 was made, which was the first cards tool to be introduced (Citation 9)] to enhance the cards experience, most notably the Card Queries (Citation 10) and Card Market Watch (Citation 11) utilities. With the addition of these tools (along with many others later on), the credibility of The North Pacific's card programs were able to increase by a wide margin, and the introduction of such tools allowed many players to see that NationStates Cards can be improved not just by enhancing the basic buying/selling experience, but through the implementation of much more complex and useful ideas (including observing the playerbase's trading activity in the case of the Card Market Watch).
Not too long after the introduction of the first regional cards program, the first cross-regional cards event began to take form. This was the Pacifica Cards Festival of July 25, 2019 (Citation 12), and this event (instigated by Democratic Republic Of Unified States) allowed card players from all parts of the community to gather in a single region (in this case, Pacifica) to offer trading advice to prospective users who might consider joining said community in the future. In addition, this event offered free legendary cards to those who were in the region (at the time), therefore emulating the rewarding prospect like that of The North Pacific Cards Lottery.
This event was attended to by some of the greatest traders at the time, including Mikeswill, Destructive Government Economic System, 9003, Samudera, Ballotonia, and Refuge Isle, all of which readily offered personal input as to how a person should go about within the trading sphere (an example being made here: www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=36030951). The presence of these traders, combined with the (undoubtedly) enticing prospect of free legendary cards for simply attending the event, allowed the Pacifica Cards Festival to achieve moderate success, and this was the first time where it was officially proven that cards could unite the entire playerbase (through the use of a community-wide event).
One may believe that, due to cards still being a new feature, that most regions would still disregard it as nothing more than a fun minigame. However, in addition to [region]The North Pacific[/region], [region]The Rejected Realms[/region] also began to introduce its own cards program. On August 10, 2019, TRR officer Bormiar began awarding legendary cards to those whom (similar to [region]The North Pacific[/region]) endorsed the region's delegate (Citation 13). At this point in time, cards were slowly (but surely) beginning to make an impact within the mainstream Gameplay sphere, and this was thanks to the incorporation of this minigame into the programs of entire game-created regions (GCRs for short). Had these two regions (i.e. [region]The North Pacific[/region] and [region]The Rejected Realms[/region]) not have taken direct advantage of the opportunities of this feature, then the widespread credibility of cards might have been delayed for another year, and that delay might have prevented the passage of the following...
On September 5, 2019, the first-ever World Assembly resolution was passed that solely dealt with card trading. Security Council Resolution #287 - Condemn Koem Kab (Citation 14) was written by Bormiar (the one who spearheaded The Rejected Realms's card program), and this user, taking into account the growing popularity of cards, finalized the credibility of this minigame (though not regularizing cards within SC proposals; this has yet to be achieved at the moment) within the entire site by writing a World Assembly draft of one of the greatest (or to be more accurate, infamous) traders within the entire game: Koem Kab, and, through massive campaigning efforts, Bormiar was able to achieve the necessary approvals + votes to pass it.
Through the passage of Security Resolution #287, not only was cards was fully confirmed as a force to be reckoned with, but it encouraged many newer players to join the now-strengthened trading community, all thanks to Bormiar's efforts.
Two months later, starting on November 19, 2019, The North Pacific's card programs had become successful to the point where introducing not just card programs, but also a cards-based organization, was possible for the region. This possibility was realized through the introduction of The North Pacific Cards Guild (Citation 15), a group that aims to promote trading and collecting activity within (both) the region and the entire site as a whole. Through this group, an even larger variety of players began to join the region in order to gain benefits from the Guild's activities. Such players included 9003, Valentine Z, Recuecn, Bormiar, and Destructive Government Economic System, and many of these players would go on to make significant contributions to the guild (with the most notable example being mentioned later).
Now we get to the most interesting period. Many things were introduced starting in late November:
Firstly, on November 28, 2019, Testlandia makes its first appearance in the NationStates Cards Discord server (Citation 16). Testlandia is a mythical nation that is suspect to be the toy account behind the game administrator [violet] (Citation 17), and the Cards Discord server (Citation 18) is known to be (despite Discord servers not being officially supported by the site) one of the most prominent areas for traders, so this particular nation's presence allowed the assurance that (both) the cards community had advanced to the point where even some of the most influential nations created since the site's founding would become interested, and that, due to Testlandia's vastly superior coding skills (them being a suspected admin of the site), this minigame-turned-important-feature would continue to be updated to accommodate new ideas [several of which have been listed at the bottom of this (Citation 19) source] that would no doubt serve to benefit the livelihood of the cards sphere.
Secondly, an entirely new set of cards was released (likely by the aforementioned Testlandia as well) during December 3, 2019 (Citation 20). These cards had a completely different appearance in comparison to the originals (coined as Season 2 cards), and the introduction of this new set of cards revitalized the entire site's interest for trading cards due to the 1) aesthetically appealing format the cards possessed and 2) the fact that players, who might have missed out having a card made for them (originally, due to either being ceased-to-exist or unfounded at the time), now have that potential downside remedied, therefore spurring the drive for those players to purchase their own cards from the market. (Note: the introduction of new sets of cards, otherwise known as seasons, is expected to continue as a feature for the sake of future generations of players.)
Thirdly, even more game-created regions (also known as GCRs) began to make their presence within the cards community. We already know that The North Pacific and The Rejected Realms already possess their own cards programs, but [region]The Pacific[/region] also began (on November 30, 2019) to take advantage of the growing popularity of trading cards by gifting these items cards to members whom endorsed the delegate at the time (which, if you wish to know, was East Durthang) (Citation 21).
Not too long after, the West Pacific would make its appearance as well. Thanks to Recuecn, this region would create one of the earliest examples of a cards-based reference tool for the benefit of all players, with this tool being titled "TWP's Trading Card Glossary" (Citation 22). Using this tool, players (especially newer ones) could read it and gain a basic understanding of the terminology used within the cards community, and the fact that a literal GCR chose to release a cards-based aid gave many users the idea + encouragement that trading should be pursued (as a passion) even more than it currently is.
And finally, [region]The East Pacific[/region] would also begin (during January 12, 2020) its own entry into cards by instigating its own regional contest (with said contest being that each participant must create an aesthetically pleasing design for the region) (Citation 23). Like [region]The Pacific[/region]'s giveaway, [region]The East Pacific[/region]'s contest would be one of the earliest examples in which cards were offered as a direct reward for participation, making the release of this event [along with other ones (Citation 24)] a key milestone in which cards could be used to encourage regional participation (only this time it was more for a celebratory purpose).
With the sudden involvement with these 3 regions, the total number of GCRs officially participating in cards (which, as a further note, were [region]The North Pacific[/region], [region]The Rejected Realms[/region], [region]The Pacific[/region], [region]The East Pacific[/region], and [region]the West Pacific[/region]) had numbered to 5 out of 9 (solely including the feeder and sinker regions), or 5 out of 15 (should you include the six Warzones; it may be worth mentioning that the current delegate of [region]Warzone Sandbox[/region], otherwise known as One Small Island, also participates in cards). With such a noticeable proportion of GCRs now having been involved (one way or another) in trading, it can only be assumed that the rest will also follow suit and capitalize upon the increasing popularity of cards in the future (therefore, as a result of its projected increase in usage, making this feature even more noteworthy than it already is!).
Fourthly (and perhaps the most notable of all of these), on December 12, 2019, an entire NationStates stat badge had been implemented through the work of several administrators (Citation 25). Particularly, this badge was coined to be "international artwork", which takes direct inspiration from the same terminology used in Bormiar's resolution of Condemn Koem Kab. And, like World Assembly endorsements and influence, the international artwork badge can not be gained via answering issues [rather, it is a direct measurement of your nation's deck value (Citation 26)]. Having its status as a credible part of the game being confirmed many times before, it would only make sense for cards to become an even more regularized factor by having an entire statistic being created in its honor, and there was no doubt that the badge's introduction led, seeing that stat badges appear directly on all nations' main pages, towards yet another heightened interest for cards, all thanks to everyone's sudden wish to improve their current standing with this badge.
And lastly (and released slightly before the glossary released by [region]the West Pacific[/region]), there was the first-ever guide that discussed topics in relation to all areas of card trading (Citation 27). Released on December 31, 2019, this particular dispatch was single-handedly written by one user (a.k.a. Destructive Government Economic System) as part of one of the key goals to accomplish within The North Pacific Cards Guild, and said writing process spanned for well over a month, with the guide itself being a summary of several years of experience within the trading community. The release of this dispatch had led, due to the vast amount of content (despite the guide itself simply talking about cards) being covered within the guide, to well over a hundred upvotes as soon as it was published, and it currently stands as one of the most widely referenced and credible sources of card information for (both) newer and professional traders.
It remains an eternal mystery as to how so many groundbreaking events could have ever taken place within this small time frame, but we wouldn't have it any other way. To advance the standing of cards, something spectacular was needed to occur in order to gain widespread notice, and these 5 additions were just what the trading community needed in order to firmly establish themselves as a regular part of NationStates.
Despite being a feature for a relatively small timespan of over two years, a multitude of players chose to immediately capitalize on the potential of this feature and went through many obstacles in order to project the presence of cards within the already-existing communities of NationStates (particularly NationStates Gameplay). With cards now being a regular part of the game, it only remains a matter of time before new heights will be reached, and this optimistic future has only been accomplished due to the efforts of everyone who saw the true validity of this (supposedly) irrelevant minigame.
- This is DGES here, and thanks for reading.
...
- Special thanks is given to Bormiar for editing, along with El Fiji Grande and Pallaith for providing info regarding the original cards programs. -
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[Bibliography]
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