Nation-simulation Games
A nation-simulation game is a type of simulation game which simulates all or part of one or more nations.
Scale
Nation-simulation games range from the small scale, where the players are officials in a small local government (such as a county in the United States or a barony in a medieval kingdom), to the national level (where players are officials in a national government), to the international (where players are rulers of nations). In some, the players may be officials in organizations such as the United Nations, a political party, or a corporation, or may control different organizations. Some nation-simulation games combine elements of all of these; they may allow players to choose their role, or they may require players to start at a small scale work their way up.
Nation-simulation games which simulate a single government are commonly called government simulators or political simulators. The players control figures within the government, such as cabinet ministers, members of the legislature, or heads of political parties. The government involved may be a local or national government.
Nation-simulation games which simulate the world or a group of nations are commonly called geo-political simulators. Each player controls a nation or an organization.
Many examples of both government simulators and geo-political simulators are provided in the relevant articles.
Genres
Government simulators and geo-political simulators generally represent the real world. Simulations which represent countries or worlds which do not exist (whether because they are set in the past or the future, or because they represent fictional worlds or fictional universes) are sometimes referred to as micronations. However, the term micronation is seldom used for nation-simulation games; it more often refers to fictional nations which claim genuine existence, are established as a joke, or are established for academic study. There is no specific term for nation-simulation games which simulate fictional nations.
Some nation-simulation games are paper-and-pencil tabletop games. Others are computer games. Most tabletop and computer nation-simulation games originated as war games or role-playing games. Others are computer-assisted games. Computer-assisted nation-simulation games first developed as academic experiments. Some were originally played through live-action role-playing and later became computer-based. Nation-simulation games are the only form of simulation game in which the computer-assisted variety is more common than either the tabletop or computer variety.
See also