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Hmmm - thats an interesting spin I had not considered.
They are not starting the countdown timer. So, if there is some sort of minigame this weekend (Z-Day 2020, Rebranded-Zday, entirely new game, etc) then they clearly want it be a surprise and meet with a disorganized response from the player side. Its entirely possible that Z-Day might occur as usual (sans countdown timer & fore-warning), but are leaving us in the dark because they want to give the zombies the advantage of some players being surprised. Maybe they think that will shake up things a bit.
Or maybe Z-Day really is cancelled, and Max Barry thought a cheeky and vague announcement would be cute.
I will keep close tabs on NS this weekend, and post here if stuff starts to go down. If anyone wants to telegram me an email or US cellphone number (can't call internationally), I'd be happy to drop you a call or text if anything begins to happen.
Perhaps they'll switch it to Pandemic Day though, personally, I just read it as a Trump parody - he did note there might be a couple of Zombies on the horizon much as Trump noted a couple of cases in Seattle.
Noldoria, Dwarven mines, and Dwarf
In the sincerest of hopes that indeed the News is just a Trump parody, and there really will be a Z-Day 2020 after all, I will share this with y'all:
https://thehardtimes.net/culture/middle-earth-temporarily-bans-fellowships-of-more-than-five/
I think I'm required by law to share Tolkien-themed parodies with the greater Middle Earth community.
Here is an excerpt:
===============================================================================================
Originating from Mordor and spread by Nazgul, the Samund Curse has hit the Kingdom of Gondor hardest. Lord Denethor, Steward of Gondor, insisted that he had handled the threat very well, despite nearly 90% of Minas Tirith showing signs of the curse and over 2,000 dead.
“I’ve done a great job, a tremendous job, leading this Kingdom against the Mordor curse. It came from Mordor, while that fake king wanders around with his little half-people and that horrible woman from Aerosmith,” said Denethor from his tower atop a castle atop a mountain. “My good son Boromir has done a great job as well — much better than sleepy king Theoden retreating to Helm’s Deep, or singin’ Elrond hiding up in Riverdale. Anyone who wants a counter-curse can get a counter-curse.”
===============================================================================================
I say! Does Lord Denethor remind you of anyone in the real world?
Noldoria
Anti-Zombie Executive, Middle Earth
The most recent News announcement definitely also looks to me like a parody on current events. If its true, I fear that this year's event will be the most contagious of them all (at least if they want to continue the trend of upping the infectivity from event to event). I also feel that they plan to do something different with the Cure aspect of the game (to keep the event more positive among the current pandemic). Definitely since they may want to play it out like the current outbreak, keeping it undetected for a while and relying on the nations to spot it.
Or, you know, maybe they feel bad about the current world events and they make the Z-Day an opt-in event; so if you do not want to be part of it you are not part of it (Like the N-Day?). I wouldn't want them to take this route, but I understand them if they do.
Obviously all is just speculation at this point, but I strongly believe that something is going to happen since on the forums the vibe I got from the team was that something's concocting.
Dwarven mines and Dwarf
Yeah, you know, I was thinking - that News items sounded like exactly the sort of thing an intelligent zombie might say after infiltrating the leadership of a nation. Maybe this year the zombies will be sneaky and clever, and try to go undetected? Try to be subversive and infiltrate? Just a thought.
Hail all nations of Middle Earth,
It is the position of Noldoria that the Nationstates Site Admins are being intentionally vague about if Z-Day is cancelled, or is going on as normal, or is being re-branded. One would expect if Z-Day was cancelled, the News would say so plainly - and probably would have done so a while ago. If there are concerns about people getting offended due to Covid-19, they have known about it for a long time, and would have had plenty of time to either re-brand Z-Day (exp: keep mechanics the same, but change the language to make it unrelated to zombies or disease) or make it opt-in, or both.
It seems to several of us that there is deliberate silence concerning the matter, and there is a strong possibility that the Admins are seeking to have a silent start of either Z-Day 2020 or whatever mini-game might replace it. Thus, it seems to prudent for our region to remain vigilant. Tartarica has pointed out that its a good idea to watch the zombie control page:
Also, there is the Z-Day forum (currently one can not create new topics/post to threads - but watch if this changes) :
Watch if this starts to change! Be vigilant against a silent start, an early start, etc.
Indeed, for those that want to participate in the Z-Day event, the "Zombie Control" page was, traditionally, the first page you would interact with in the event.
That page (page=zombie_control) remains accessible throughout the whole year, although when there's no Z-Day event it has a box at the top of the page that mentions the following:
[Historical Content: Please note that this page references the prior Zombie Apocalypse. It will reset upon the commencement of any new zombie apocalypse.]
My rationale was that as long as there's that notification in place the event has not begun yet.
I'm just mentioning this here so people don't check the rest of the page without reading the notification that's at the top of the page and end up clicking on things and mess up whatever stats you had in the previous iteration of the event.
Dwarven mines and Dwarf
By the way, I've revisited some of the older RMB messages of Middle Earth and unsupressed some ancient messages from around 9 to 10 years ago (the first 9 pages of page=display_region_rmb/region=middle_earth?start=0 ) Too bad that history only goes to that point and did not catch the first years since the inception of the region.
So don't panic if you see the Regional Happenings filled with dozens of "Tatarica unsuppressed a post" notifications.
Dwarven mines and Dwarf
Ha! You can't tell me what to do..
*proceeds to panic wildly*
:P
Tatarica and Dwarven mines
Hail all nations of Middle Earth,
It seems that the zombies will attack in just a day or two (Z-Day 2020 is on) - but they are much more clever and sneaky about it!
Note that a option has just now been added to the nation settings page, right under the "Trading Cards: No card" checkbox, that says "No Zombies: Do not display (most) information relating to the annual Z-Day Zombie Apocalypse."
Also, the Z-Day forum has just been unlocked - people can post there again. The posting of new threads to this forum was disabled when I last checked - about 8 hours ago.
So, it seems Z-Day 2020 is ON, the Zombies are just sneaky this year. That implies intelligence. It remains to be seen if this presages any changes to the gameplay mechanics. Be vigilant!
So, the new "don't show Zombie info" checkbox implies that nations can opt-out of seeing zombie-related info/stats/news items. That implies game mechanics as normal. Thus, you can opt-out to see what is going on, but then you just bury your head in the sand, and its the same as in previous Z-Days if a nation simply did not log in. So, I expect that opting-out of seeing the info will be functionally equivalent to just not logging in or doing anything for the duration of the event. However, even if you don't want to launch Cure Missiles, please do set your nation to "research a cure", as the consensus is that (re)infection spread rate varies with the number of nations researching a cure.
Tatarica, Dwarven mines, and Luinil
It's fine, I believe our Dear Leader Max T. Barry when he says there's nothing to worry about, he'll have it under control in no time
*drinks bleach*
Tatarica and Luinil
Like Gandalf during almost the whole Hobbit book: It will magically disappear!
Tatarica, Dwarven mines, and Iskellian
Hello
Tatarica and Dwarven mines
It has begun
Tatarica, Lady eowyn, and Dwarven mines
To the laboratories!
Tatarica and Dwarven mines
I forget how long it take from the time one selects cure until the first missiles are available - like 3 hours?
We will try to keep you safe Tatarica.
Tatarica and Dwarven mines
I selected cure as well. Didn't realize it would begin so soon
Tatarica and Dwarven mines
Yeah, there wasn't a countdown. Unlike N-Day.
Tatarica and Dwarven mines
Hello Middle Earth,
I would like to remind everyone that our goal should be to cure all of the zombie without killing any of them, so please do not use the 'tactical kill-squads'. After the event, our region will be ranked against others in the world by the total number of survivors, so killing any zombie is an undesirable detraction from that. The best thing for everyone to do is to 'research a cure'. Then, if you have the time, once you get cure missiles, fire them at nations with the greatest absolute number of zombies.
TO THOSE KILLING THE ZOMBIES, [color=red]STOP[/color], please. I have tried sending you telegrams as well.
There is no need - zombies are on the decline - we have this under control.
When you kill zombies, all you are doing is harming our region's final score & standing for this event.
If you want to get involved, great, please research the cure and start firing cure missiles.
Tatarica and Dwarven mines
Post self-deleted by Democratic Peeps Republic of Korea.
The tide has turned in our favor. All that is left now is to mop up isolated pockets of resistance.
Congratulations to all who stood together against this dark tide of barrow-wights. You are the rock that this foul necromancer was broken against.
Tatarica and Dwarven mines
Well, thats it. The Middle Earth region page officially says the following:
"Infected: 0.0% (zero zombies, 1.38 trillion survivors)"
As far as I can see, there are no nations left in Middle Earth with even a single zombie. That may change, however, if an infected nation immigrates into our region - there is still more than a day to go. Over here on the US Pacific coast its not even Halloween yet :) - still 11 minutes until midnight. So, remain vigilant - but a job well done to us all. The beauty of Middle Earth has been preserved - bought with your courage and blood.
Congratulations!
Have a good night,
Noldoria
Tatarica, Dwarven mines, and Clan frostbeard
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