The problem of population

[Mr. President]

Population figures increase way too quickly for my liking. I've been doing some snooping around, and I have discovered that some regions assign each country a population for role-playing purposes (so they don't have nations of 5 million going up against nations of 1 billion, or nations of 2.34 billion going up against nations of 4.0686 billion).

Answer me these questions three:

1) Good idea?

2) Wanna try it?

3) Want me to do it (but not this week because I'm busy)?

[joncha]

The population figures bug me too, but I'm not sure how assigning them would be any less arbitrary. I say we live with it, and find creative ways to incorporate it into our roleplaying. At any rate, the population figures are no more or less ridiculous than any number of other aspects of the game.

[Rasputin]

pop numbers in no way should determine how large a country is or how powerful it is. Otherwise the USA would not be as highly pwerful today as it is. It would languish behind China and India.

Loook to the past and see that many smaller countries have held l;arge empires with much smaller populations than other countries, England, Rome, Dutch, Portugese etc.

Forget trying for more meaningful numbers lets just role paly and have fun

[Mr. President]

All right. But I just felt I should mention it.

[GeneralTacticus]

Well, my opinion on the subject:

1) If a country wants to make itself less powerful, in any way, for any reason (economically, militarily, etc, including population), they can.

2) Equally, if you want to say that your actual population is smaller but your 'effective' population for economic purposes is higher (i.e. having a very high GDP per capita), this is also fine.

[Rasputin]

I agree. this al lfor fun and we dont want too many rules, lets jsut see how things goes and hope no one trys to spoil the region by making "godlike" economies and armies.

Diplomacy and discusion should be fun for al lof us.

[Paddy]

Originally posted by Rasputin
pop numbers in no way should determine how large a country is or how powerful it is. Otherwise the USA would not be as highly pwerful today as it is. It would languish behind China and India.

Loook to the past and see that many smaller countries have held l;arge empires with much smaller populations than other countries, England, Rome, Dutch, Portugese etc.

Forget trying for more meaningful numbers lets just role paly and have fun

looks good to me

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Rasputin
pop numbers in no way should determine how large a country is or how powerful it is. Otherwise the USA would not be as highly pwerful today as it is. It would languish behind China and India.

I disagree. Population is an important factor in determining size of a nation and its power, given technological parity. Your examples all hinge on unequal tech levels, particularly the British Empire one. That's why it remained on small islands in Europe, because it could only overpower the primitive natives in the New World and the East.

[Mr. President]

I respectfully disagree with you but I don't feel like arguing about it.

[Lazerus]

Didn't we successfully fight off the dutch, spanish and french superpowers a couple of times ?

[Rasputin]

again we all make assumptions about the tech level of any nationstates nation. Too many factors are inknown in the nationstates world and role play in a common snese way is the only way to deal with it .

[Mr. President]

Common sense is not so common

[Paddy]

well said

[Squeblish Nef?]

I agree with Crimson Sunrise.
Small nations just don't stand a chance in Apolyton.

[Paddy]

oh, but that would be when allies are needed, and bringing into play great diplomacy