NationStates in recent months has evolved into mainly a Role-Play game with a little bit of CGI code on the side. Because of the limited "answer-issues-look-at-rankings" forma of the actual gameplay, the players have decided that it's much more fun to simply talk to the other players and essentially imagine what's going on. The fora are now the heart of the game, and the center of a sprawling online community which includes many other sites set up by rabid, devoted players of the game. It is also worth noting that Max Barry's original nation, Maxtopia, has been deleted and now if he plays the game at all he is not telling us, the players, who he is.