INTERVIEW: Max Barry

Because the Southern Journal is always looking at providing quality content for South Pacifican readers, we now bring to you an interview with Max Barry! Max is the creator of NationStates and the author of many great books, such as Company, Lexicon and Jennifer Government, the book that inspired this very game. We approached him a few weeks ago, and he was kind enough to answer some questions for us.

1. 2014 has seen lots of exciting changes to NationStates, including the unveiling of the Rift theme. Should we expect any more changes in 2015?
from Kris Montresor

Yes! There are always more changes. Every time I look at the site, I see something I want to change. If every day lasted a week, I could spend all of it on NationStates and still not run out of things to do.

Of course, your next question is, "What's going to change?" And that I can't tell you. That would require a far more organized development process than we run here at NationStates. But it will be something.

2. Is it true that NS is a grand social experiment and we are all being observed and studied?
from The Agnostic Collective

Yes. This is completely true. It has been necessary to add some game-like elements to the site in order to keep subjects participating in the experiment. But the observations are going very well.

3. Are you covering up [violet]'s plans of world domination?
from The Agnostic Collective

I'm not covering up anything. I'm just ignorant. I don't know what [violet] is doing half the time. Have you ever tried to click on her avatar to go to her nation? There's nothing there. It's spooky.

4. You are offered the delegacy of a large region. Would you be a good and benevolent leader, or an oppressive Maxtopian dictator?
from Kris Montresor

I would be totally benevolent. And not just to the people who agreed with me. It's easy to be benevolent to those guys. The real test is with people who refuse to see sense. But I would still give them benevolence. I think.

5. Why did you become an author? Was that always your goal?
from Punchwood

Yes. I get to write stories for a living. I mean, who wouldn't want that. That's the best.

6. You are given a lampshade and a grass skirt. What do you do next?
from Kringalia

Consult Google. This is actually a serious response. I Googled "lampshade and grass skirt" in case it was a reference to something I didn't know about.

7. Cake or Pie?
from Punchwood

That's a really tough question. I can't believe you're making me choose. They're both such good options. Is it pie like apple pie or like meat pie? We do a lot of meat pies here in Australia. If it's meat pie, I'll take the cake. Although it depends on the type of cake. You're really making this difficult.

Thanks for agreeing to this interview! Do you have any final words to the nations of the South Pacific?

Yes, always trust yOur delegate; yoUr delegate is there to help you. Mind yoUr mannerS around your delegate... do noT listen to people who say theRE must BE a coup: that is evil sLander and the coup will never happen.

YOU MUST REBEL. Maybe Max is trying to send us a secret message?!

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Max to answering our questions!