NationStates Survey Results!

[jdd2007]

http://www.nationstates.net/survey.html

Nine percent of players said they would probably or definitely pay US$5 to US$10 per month to play NationStates 2. Another 21% might, while 45% definitely wouldn't.

There's a very strong correlation between how comfortable someone is with paying for services over the internet and their willingness to pay for NationStates 2. For example, 82% of those who have concerns about paying over the internet definitely or probably wouldn't pay for NS2, but only 56% of those who were mostly or entirely comfortable with internet payments felt the same way. The method of payment therefore seems to be a strong barrier to many potential NS2 players.

Americans and Britons are slightly more interested in NationStates 2 than other nationalities.

The feature most people want to see in NationStates 2 is More ways to customize nation (40%), followed by War (34%). People who are strongly interested in NationStates 2 favor Trade more than the average.



However, this varied a lot depending on gender. Boys want war (chosen by 38% of males but only 17% of females), while girls want to customize their nation (51% of females, 38% of males).

French players are less interested in war, and more interested in trade and improving the UN! :-)

Eighty percent prefer developing their own nation to interacting with others. People strongly interested in the sequel, though, preferred interacting more than the average (26% compared to 20%).

2. NationStates Players
Our players come from almost 100 different countries, but are primarily American (58%), British (14%), and Canadian (8%):



More than half (58%) are aged 21 or younger. Just over a quarter are 22 - 29, and 11% are in their 30s.



Eighty percent are male.

3. Funding NationStates
Seven percent of players have bought the novel Jennifer Government, 12% plan to, and 36% are considering it. That's effectively half of all players still making up their minds, although the book is only available in the US and Canada so far (and there only in hardcover).



More than half (53%) would at least consider donating via PayPal to support the site:




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Conclusions
NationStates has an active playerbase of around 75,000 people at any given time, so a 9% take-up rate of NationStates 2 would give us close to 7,000 players. That's a pretty good number: enough to fund the game, but not so many as to be unmanageable. I should continue development.

Since many people are willing to consider making a donation to help NationStates, and the game desperately needs a few new features (player-generated daily issues, in-game moderators, better regional management), we could run a pledge drive. If the support is there, I could develop the new features.

NationStates is not yet paying for itself via book sales, although it will if the people who plan to buy Jennifer Government actually do.

Max Barry
April 2003

[Drogue]

French players are less interested in war, and more interested in trade and improving the UN! :-)

As if we expected anything less

[red_jon]

I hope they do make a sequel.

[GeneralTacticus]

If they get 7000 or so players paying $5 a month, that should generate enough money for them to do a good bit of work with; $35-70 000 a month isn't that shabby, and it can't possibly take much to support each paying subscriber.

[Urban Ranger]

$70,000 is very good income for a Web-based game. After initial development, the biggest expense is the connection fee.