Beta 2

Iterations: Alpha 1 (not documented) · [[Beta 1]] (concluded) · Beta 2 (concluded)

Alpha 1 ran before this wiki existed and was not documented; [[Beta 1]] and Beta 2 are preserved below as they were written. The live world has since moved on to a later iteration; check the current-turn banner in-game for where things stand today.

"Seven nations, a Cold War map, and a world that started in 1991. Germany walked out of NATO, Britain declared war on China, Ireland proclaimed a Commonwealth, and the two richest people on earth run car companies nobody can buy shares in."

Beta 2 ran on the era system and is preserved here as a historical snapshot, not a description of the current world. The world booted on 1991 (a Cold War map with the Soviet Union still on it) and marched forward at roughly forty-eight turns per in-game year. At the time this article was written it was turn 1192, the in-game year was 2015, and twenty-four years of simulated history had produced five American presidents, three Japanese prime ministers, one deposed Taoiseach, a German chancellor who never once commanded a majority, and a Chinese Communist Party whose internal confidence had fallen to 32 out of 100.

Beta 2 launched with six playable countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, China, and Ireland, where [[Beta 1]] had three. Nigeria was added mid-iteration and held its first presidential election in the in-game year 2005. Brazil remains an economy-only preview.

This article is a snapshot of a running game, not an obituary. The numbers below were true at turn 1192; the Wire has probably invalidated three of them since.

At a glance: Beta 2 in numbers#

🇺🇸 United States#

Six presidential elections, five different winners, and a legislature that cannot pass anything. The American story of Beta 2 is a genuine multi-party realignment followed by total gridlock.

The Reform half-decade#

Beta-2 America is the first iteration in which the Reform Party became a governing force rather than a spoiler. The full presidential sequence, by popular vote:

The 1992 opener was the closest race of the iteration: Polk beat Freitag by roughly five million votes. Four years later Perot broke the two-party system outright, a result the Wire headlined "Perot Wins Presidency as Reform Revolution Sweeps Nation", filed, in a detail nobody has satisfactorily explained, by Ivanka Trump, who would win the same office for the same party sixteen years later.

James W L C Polk deserves a footnote of their own: four of the six races contested under two different parties, winning as a Republican in 1992 and returning as the American Independent candidate in 2004 and 2012, never once finishing lower than fourth.

The 2016 race is live as of turn 1192, with President Trump defending against Bill Steinman (R), Jay D Vance, Charles Leclerc, Luke Streibl, and their own Vice President, tweamonster.

The House of Trump#

The defining American relationship of Beta 2 is not between parties. Ivanka Trump is President of the United States. Melania Trump is CEO of The Trump Organization, the single most valuable public company in the world at $23.39 billion, and, in the iteration that preceded this one, the final President of Beta 1.

Their Wire correspondence has been frank. Melania's contributions to the record include "IVANKA THE MEGA COMMUNIST" and "CHINA: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?", the latter filed in their capacity as Secretary of State under a previous administration.

Cabinet and Congress#

The confirmed cabinet still largely dates from the 14th Emperor's administration: Karl Freitag at State, Luke Streibl at Treasury, Daisy Mae Shelby at Defense, Victoria Jones at Interior, Moshe Greenbaum at Commerce, Alexander Sterling at Homeland Security, and Phil A. Buster at Education. President Trump served as Attorney General before winning the presidency.

Congress is led by Speaker Luke Streibl, President pro tempore Elizabeth Vereker, Senate Minority Leader Grace Santos, and House Minority Leader Kenneth Lay. The Senate Majority Leader's chair is vacant, which is arguably the most honest thing about the 2015 Congress.

The gridlock#

American legislative output in Beta 2: 25 bills signed. 28 failed. 8 more failed on veto override. No other country comes close to that ratio: China signed 61 bills and failed 1.

The survivors have a certain house style: MACA (Ron Paul), MAHA (Jonah Heidelbaum), MAKE AMERICA CONNECTED! and MAKE THEM PAY ACT (both Melania Trump), MEDIA TARIFFS (Jay D Vance), It's Over Act (tweamonster), and uwu saviour act (Secretary of Defense Daisy Mae Shelby). The graveyard is better still: President Perot's "Taxes what are they good for?" died on override, as did the America-First™️ Deficit Reduction Strategy, whose sponsor is recorded in the bill ledger as "e.g., John Smith".

One American bill matters more than the rest. See Japan.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom#

One Prime Minister. The entire iteration. Four no-confidence votes, all of them humiliating for the mover.

The Gilbert supremacy#

Ashton Gilbert (Conservative) was confirmed Prime Minister on the fourth day of Beta 2 by 377 votes to 48. On that same day, Tony Blair was rejected for the same office 194 to 393. Gilbert has been re-confirmed through eight government cycles and now commands 437 of 665 seats.

The four attempts to remove them:

The trend line is the story: each successive challenger mustered fewer votes than the last, and the final attempt drew seven.

Gilbert also runs TESCO, sits seventh on the wealth leaderboard at £4.36 billion (≈$6.86 billion), serves as Secretary-General of NATO, and chairs the Pacific Free Trade Partnership. The Gilbert Wire output is prolific and includes the headline "PRIME MINISTER TO DRONE STRIKE JACK MA'S MUMS HOUSE".

The war declaration#

At turn 266, the House of Commons passed War declaration on China by 377 votes to 236. The sponsor was the Prime Minister. The stated justification, in full, was that "the Chinese have done it again and they've gone after British companies."

The Cabinet#

Chancellor Daniel Hunton; Defence Secretary Theresa May; Home Secretary Michael Theobald; Levelling-Up Secretary Larry Ellison; Health Secretary Mona Juul; Business Secretary Nissim Black; Transport Secretary Naomie Harris; Environment Secretary Misty Gray.

Wales said yes. Westminster said no.#

At turn 837 a Welsh independence referendum was requested with a modelled 64.79% yes-share, a comfortable majority for leaving. Westminster declined to grant it. It remains the only independence referendum of Beta 2, and it never reached a ballot.

Notable bills#

Fifty-seven signed, including the nationalisation programme (Energy Nationalisation Bill, Defence Industry Nationalisation Act, Vital Industry Nationalisation Act, Technology Nationalisation (unowned marketshare), Nationalisation (Manufacturing) Act), the Britain First Act, The Big Beautiful NHS Bill, Tax Reform Act (all sponsored by Gilbert), and one bill by Transport Secretary Naomie Harris titled, in its entirety, bill.

🇯🇵 Japan#

Three Prime Ministers. Two of them left office by moving a no-confidence vote in their own government and winning it unanimously.

The resignation waltz#

Both of Japan's successful no-confidence votes were self-inflicted, unopposed, and recorded as constitutional crises. Japan is the only country in Beta 2 where the confidence mechanism functions as a resignation letter.

Neither departure hurt anyone's career. Kenta Kon is now Foreign Affairs Minister and Governor of the Bank of Japan and the wealthiest character in the game. Ren Katsuhito is Environment Minister. Current PM Rgold governs a minority of 130 seats out of 511 and has personally sponsored ten of Japan's twenty-eight enacted laws, including The Woke Agenda Act, The Subsidies for All Act, and, five bills later, The Growth and Spending Cuts Act.

Cabinet#

Foreign Affairs Kenta Kon; Defense Sanae Takaichi; Economy Shigeru Miyamoto (also CEO of Nintendo); Health Shinzo Abe; Environment Ren Katsuhito; Finance Sophie Meng; Education Seiji Maehara.

The American enemy#

At turn 835 Japan withdrew from the Pacific Free Trade Partnership, the trade bloc chaired by the British Prime Minister. Fifty-seven turns later, the United States Congress passed President Ivanka Trump's Trading with the Japanese Enemy Act by 18 votes to nil, an Act to "define, regulate, and punish trading with the enemy nation known as Japan."

Japan's own contribution to the escalation had come earlier: a blanket origin-country tariff on the United States, answered in kind, and an American embargo on Japanese imports that ran from turn 844 to 868.

🇩🇪 Germany#

The most legislatively productive democracy in Beta 2, governed for its entire history by a chancellor who has never held a majority, and the only country to walk out of a founding alliance.

Kohl, eternal minority#

Helmut Kohl (CDU) was confirmed Chancellor on 404 votes to 31 and has been re-confirmed five times since. Kohl has never once formed a majority government; the Bundestag has simply declined to find a replacement. The confirmation margins tell the story of a mandate quietly draining away:

404 → 73 → 110 → 88 → 90 → 64.

The single attempt to unseat Kohl, moved by Frank Dietrich, failed 61 to 227. Kohl's CDU holds 58 members to the SPD's 42 and the PDS's 39, the closest thing Beta 2 has to a genuine multi-party parliament.

Germany leaves NATO#

Germany passed two resolutions to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on consecutive days: Roman Herzog's, 330 to 0, and Thomas Kirkman's, 302 to 0. At turn 639, the withdrawal took effect. NATO's membership is now the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Its Secretary-General is the British Prime Minister.

Kohl's government had already signalled its direction with a bill titled Embargo the Anglo Saxon Menace: Take Two, passed 348 to 0, whose entire written summary is a single full stop.

Cabinet and legislation#

Finance Roman Herzog; Foreign Affairs Joachim Murat; Labour Otto Von Bismarck; Environment Werner Von Braun; Transport Wolfgang Porsche (also Chair of the European Central Bank); Economy Drake Voss; Health Lena Hoffmann.

Fifty-nine bills signed, among them Festung Europa, MGGA and MGGA II, the Skilled Immigrants Only Act, the Maximale-Bundeswehr-Investitionsgesetz, and a UBI Act, all from the same chancellery, in that order. The Bundestag is chaired by Speaker Emilia Krüger.

Germany also produced Beta 2's best scandal headline, courtesy of Ron Paul: "Ron Paul Blows Whistle On CDU-Orchestrated Corporate Poaching Scam."

🇨🇳 China#

Sixty-one laws, one dissenting vote in the entire iteration, and a governing party whose own confidence in itself has collapsed.

Premier Monroe and the stage called crisis#

Marilyn Monroe was confirmed Premier by 2,115 votes to nil at turn 152 and has governed since. The Chinese presidency is vacant. The chairs of both the NPC Standing Committee and the CPPCC are vacant.

Beneath that unanimity, the one-party-state machinery has been grinding. Party confidence in the Premier stands at 32.25 out of 100. The regime escalation ladder has taken China from discontent to crisis (turn 975), briefly into internal challenge (turn 1061), and back to crisis, where it sits at the time of writing. No other country in Beta 2 has an escalation state at all.

The nationalisation era, and its reversal#

China ran the largest state-acquisition programme in the game: 65 nationalisation events, more than the United Kingdom (15), Ireland (12), Germany (8), and Japan (2) combined. The legislative record reads as a serial: First Nationalization Act (Xi Jinping, 2,965-0), Nationalization Act 3, Nat act Pt 4, Nationalization++, National Healthcare Nationalization Act, More State Control.

Then it went into reverse. Jack Ma sponsored Xibei Mining Privatization and China Extraction Privatization; Finance Minister Li Ping followed with Privatize Key Sectors, Privatize Key Sectors 2, and Privatize Key Sectors 3. The People's Republic spent the back half of the iteration selling back what it spent the front half seizing.

The legislative voice of the People's Republic#

Bill titles, verbatim, all passed by margins in the thousands: For Glorious China., Max wages., no crime., Improve our agriculture., More subsides, Wonder What This'll Do Act, and test.

The standout is Sophie Meng's Up The RA Act, passed 1,409 to nil, whose official summary reads: "Remember, Maggie: we have to be lucky once; you have to be lucky every time." It has a sequel, All in (Up the RA pt. 2).

Cabinet#

Foreign Affairs Cassius MacInnis; Finance Li Ping (also Governor of the People's Bank); Defense Chinesus Clist; Commerce Zhang Zuolin; Transport Roy Cohn; Public Security Hu Tory; Human Resources Holden Bloodfeast II.

China also founded two international organisations, including the Global Ummah Front, whose stated purpose is "World ownership."

🇮🇪 Ireland#

The only country in Beta 2 where a no-confidence vote actually removed a head of government, and the deposed leader kept their cabinet seat.

The fall of Ronan Vale#

Ronan Vale was confirmed Taoiseach at 73 votes to 36 after Lorraine Clifford-Lee failed at 36-73 the same day. Vale then survived three separate no-confidence votes (36-72, 0-104, and 4-147) while simultaneously serving as Secretary-General of the United Nations and President of the European Council, and changed parties mid-tenure.

At turn 886 the fourth attempt succeeded. Hugh Smith moved no confidence and carried it 127 to 0, then took the office at turn 924 in a confirmation vote of the same margin. Vale is now Tánaiste (deputy head of government), serving under the successor who removed them.

Taoiseach Smith also runs the Irish Energy and Extraction Corporation and sits twelfth on the wealth leaderboard at €3.86 billion (≈$5.01 billion).

The People's United Commonwealth#

At turn 225, Dáil Éireann passed the Declaration of the People's United Commonwealth Of Ireland by 108 votes to 1, the creation, per its summary, of "a super socialist commonwealth aimed at democratizing the workplace." The sponsor was a deputy named JoJo.

The Irish party system reflects the result: the Super Socialist Party governs with 37 members, ahead of the People's European Federalist Party (22), Aontú (18), and the Irish Republican Socialist Party (17). Fine Gael has three members. Fianna Fáil has one.

Ireland is also the only country to have joined NATO during Beta 2, at turn 464, 175 turns before Germany walked out of it.

Notable bills#

Sláintecare Acceleration Act, Laissez-Faire Socialism, Irish Economic Socialist Transition Act, People Before Profit, and A. R. Watson's paired Gold Experience Act and Gold Experience Requiem Act.

🇳🇬 Nigeria#

The nation that did not exist when Beta 2 started, and the only one whose president cannot command its own lower house.

Nigeria was added mid-iteration: its first non-player politicians were generated around turn 598, in the in-game year 2003. It remains the only country ever added to an iteration already in progress. It arrived with a full federal apparatus: a bicameral National Assembly, six state governors, and 990 regional council seats, and immediately produced the most genuinely divided government in Beta 2.

The Deprince presidency#

Deprince (All Progressives Congress) won the 2009 election with 78 million votes to Aliko Dangote's 61 million for the National Republican Convention, then took 2013 unopposed with 98 million. Deprince is simultaneously President, Minister of Petroleum Resources, and founding chair of ECOWAS. The defeated rival Dangote now sits in that same cabinet as Minister of the Interior.

The 2017 election is live at time of writing: Constance, the Trade Minister, against Obafemi Awolowo, the Secretary to the Government, two members of the same cabinet running against each other for the office of the president they both serve.

A house divided#

Nigeria's legislature is the mirror image of its presidency:

President Deprince's APC controls the Senate and the regional councils. The opposition NRC controls the House with 218 seats, well past the 181 needed for a majority. Both the House Leader and Minority Leader posts sit vacant.

The consequence shows up in the bill ledger: eight of Nigeria's nineteen bills have failed, the worst pass rate of any country in Beta 2 after the United States.

The long road into the world#

Nigeria's foreign policy has been a study in persistence. President Deprince introduced a Resolution to Join the United Nations, and it failed. Twice. A Resolution to Join the World Trade Organization also failed, twice. A resolution to join China's Global Economic Stability Organization failed as well, and a second attempt is on the floor now.

What finally worked was money rather than declarations: an Appropriation to Fund United Nations passed 88 to nil, and Nigeria joined the UN at turn 1094. Before that, at turn 1036, it had founded ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States), with Deprince elected its chair at turn 1060. Nigeria's one unambiguous diplomatic success is the organisation it built itself.

Cabinet#

President Deprince (Petroleum Resources, held personally); Aliko Dangote (Interior); Benjamin Whitley (Defence, and the ninth-wealthiest character in the game); Constance (Trade & Industry); Obafemi Awolowo (Secretary to the Government); Aberl Arbako (Foreign Affairs); Brother Hao (Health); Enr. Jephthah (Justice); and a Finance Minister recorded simply as jacob.

Notable bills#

Seven signed: LET GROW OUR GDP (Constance, 57-0), the PETROLEUM PROFIT TAX ACT (jacob, 98-0), and a four-bill programme from Alan Woods: an anti corruption act, a Labour act, an Economic prosperity act, and a Healthcare act, each passed without a single dissenting vote.

The Nigerian Exchange#

The NGX lists 29 companies worth $2.1 billion in total. The board is dominated by pharmaceuticals: Pfizer at ₦819.7 billion (≈$665 million), run by presidential candidate Obafemi Awolowo, and Takeda Pharmaceutical at ₦600.3 billion (≈$487 million). Third is the Dangote Group at ₦95.3 billion (≈$77 million), run, inevitably, by the Interior Minister.

The naira has strengthened over the iteration, from 1,550 to 1,464 against the reference unit, one of only three currencies in Beta 2 to gain ground.

🌍 International: Alliances, Withdrawals, and the Trade War#

Elected international leadership#

Eight organisations were founded by players during Beta 2, including a recreated World Trade Organization, the Pacific Free Trade Partnership, the US-Ireland New Atlantic Partnership ("a partnership between the US and Ireland for workers prosperity"), the Global Ummah Front ("World ownership."), and one called The Internationale, whose charter description is a single period.

The two departures#

• Germany left NATO at turn 639, after passing withdrawal resolutions 330-0 and 302-0 on consecutive days.
• Japan left the Pacific Free Trade Partnership at turn 835 (a bloc chaired by the British Prime Minister), fifty-seven turns before the United States declared it an enemy nation.

The trade war#

Beta 2's trade conflict escalated in three waves. First the skirmishes: the United Kingdom embargoed German imports from turn 587 to 683; the United States embargoed Japan from turn 844 to 868. Twelve non-zero tariff regimes accumulated in between: Britain against China and Ireland, Germany against the US and UK, Japan against the US, the US against Japan and Germany, and American sector tariffs on real estate, construction, and media.

Then, at turn 1190 (two turns before this snapshot), nine legislative embargoes were enacted simultaneously. China blocked the United Kingdom three separate ways and the United States outright; Germany blocked both the US and the UK; the United States blocked Japan, Germany, and China. Unlike the earlier ministerial embargoes, these carry no expiry turn.

The global trade system, as of turn 1192, is closed and getting closer to sealed.

Crises#

Sixty-five crisis events fired across the iteration, in eighteen distinct varieties. The global ones hit everybody: a ship blocking the Suez Canal (turns 463-529, +2% inflation worldwide), Supply Chain Disruption, a Trade War event, and an Energy Crisis. The local ones were less democratic: earthquakes, floods, and a port shutdown in China; a bridge collapse, king tide flooding, and a tsunami in Japan; a power grid failure in the United States; a refugee crisis in Britain; an inflation spike in Ireland; an extreme heat wave in Germany; mass protests in Brazil.

💹 Corporations & The Economy#

The market#

Beta 2's listed market grew from roughly 2.3 billion in total capitalisation at turn 2 to 198.1 billion (≈$235 billion) at turn 1192, an 86-fold expansion across eight exchanges, driven by 61,649 individual share trades.

The ten most valuable public companies#

Eight of the ten are run by a sitting minister, central bank governor, or former head of government. Two (C.N Manu and Porsche) are run by cabinet ministers who simultaneously set their own bloc's monetary policy.

The shadow giants#

The two largest corporations in Beta 2 do not appear on that table, because neither of them is listed.

Toyota Motor Corporation is privately held, capitalised at ¥1.50 trillion (≈$20.2 billion), and run by Kenta Kon, former Prime Minister of Japan, current Foreign Affairs Minister, and current Governor of the Bank of Japan. Rgold Automobiles is privately held, capitalised at ¥1.27 trillion (≈$17.2 billion), and run by Rgold, the sitting Prime Minister of Japan.

Between them they represent more value than the entire FTSE, and no player can buy a single share of either. Japan's central bank governor and its head of government are, in market terms, the two richest people alive, and both got there off-exchange.

The wealth leaderboard#

Net worth is stock, bonds, portfolio, and cash, rendered here in USD-equivalent.

Four of the top ten are sitting heads of government or central bank governors: the Prime Ministers of Japan and the United Kingdom, and the Governors of the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve. The politician-as-CEO pattern that [[Beta 1]] documented has not merely persisted into Beta 2. It has captured monetary policy.

Currencies#

Each currency's exchange rate is quoted against the game's internal reference unit; a falling number means a stronger currency. Against their 1991 opening values at turn 1192:

The headline is a strong yen against a weak yuan: Japan's export economy and off-exchange industrial giants on one side, China's nationalisation-then-privatisation whiplash and currency crisis on the other. Sterling's flatness across twenty-four in-game years is its own kind of achievement.

The world's central banks are run by Jamie Dimon (Federal Reserve), Ariane Yeong (Bank of England), Kenta Kon (Bank of Japan), Li Ping (People's Bank of China, also Finance Minister), and Wolfgang Porsche (European Central Bank, also German Transport Minister).

Bonds and credit#

1,603 bonds have been issued in Beta 2, of which 233 remain outstanding and unmatured. Thirty-two index funds now trade, from single-exchange trackers to global sector indices covering everything from defence to agriculture.

🆕 New in Beta 2#

Systems live in this iteration that [[Beta 1]] never had:

• The era system. Beta 2 starts in 1991 and advances through historical eras, with era-appropriate metrics activating as the years pass. Beta 1 ran in a static present.
• The Cold War map. The Soviet Union, East Germany, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and a dozen other 1991 states exist in the world with working currencies: the Soviet ruble, the Ostmark, the franc, the lira, the peseta. In later iterations the Soviet Union (RU) and East Germany (DD) are seated countries with active player bases, not unseated shells: treat any "unseated" claim as specific to this Beta 2 snapshot, not the current world.
• Five new exchanges: DAX, ISEQ, SSE, B3, and NGX joined NYSE, FTSE, and Nikkei.
• Index funds (32), including global sector trackers.
• Nationalisation and national corporations, with compensation tiers, privatisation votes, and strategic sector designations.
• The crisis engine: 65 events across global, national, and regional scopes.
• Military units and conflict: 98 units currently fielded.
• Regime escalation for one-party states, which is currently what is happening to the Chinese Communist Party.
• Independence referendums, first exercised by Wales.
• Energy plants (91) and infrastructure projects (112).
• Governor offices, caucuses, unions, savings and lines of credit.

🏆 Standings at turn 1192#

Most influential#

Note who is not here: the President of the United States ranks third, and no head of government from the UK, Japan, or China appears at all. Beta 2's influence economy rewards legislators and ministers over executives.

Parties by membership#

Where things stand#

Beta 2 is not finished, so this is not a verdict. But at turn 1192 the iteration has already delivered:

• A genuine third-party realignment in the United States, and a Congress too deadlocked to legislate around it.
• A British Prime Minister who has held power for the entire iteration, survived four confidence votes with declining opposition each time, and declared war on China.
• Two Japanese Prime Ministers who resigned by voting their own governments out unanimously.
• Germany's withdrawal from NATO, passed twice, by 330-0 and 302-0.
• A Chinese Communist Party at regime stage "crisis" with 32% internal confidence, having nationalised 65 sectors and then privatised its way back out.
• An Irish Taoiseach deposed 127-0 who stayed on as deputy to their successor.
• Nigeria, the first country ever added to a running iteration.
• Nine embargoes enacted in a single turn, still in force as this is written.
• The two most valuable companies on earth held privately by a sitting Prime Minister and a sitting central bank governor.

The 2016 American and 2017 Nigerian elections are open. The Chinese regime clock is running. Beta 2 continues.

Drafted from live database snapshots taken at turn 1192 (2026-07-18), in-game year 2015. Beta 2 is ongoing; every number here is a moving target.