Dimetrodon E.

NationStates is a free browser game, so for the most part, there are no "customers" in the traditional sense. Most people there are non-paying users. That being said, if you join the site, expect to deal with incredibly toxic users who are popular amongst some segments of the user-base. The World Assembly (the site's alternative to the real world UN) has a hostility towards newbies and the nature of the Gameplay (Raiding and Defending) community is horrible. Even hard core Gameplayers labeled their own community as toxic, with personal attacks and dogpiling running rampant. It's more toxic than Twitter and moderation is less than consistent, and does nothing to mitigate it.

The way the moderation team is run leaves much to be desired. While not all moderators are bad, many act like they cannot be bothered to moderate the site. The worst one of them is Frisbeeteria, who at the best of times is snarky and rude, and at the worst, hurls insults at players. He gets away with this despite it technically being against the site rules due to his position of "Senior Game Moderator." The guy likes power and is less than competent. You also don't have to break site rules yourself to have unpleasant interactions with him. If you report something and he handles the report, expect a less than professional response. He is popular though with much of the Gameplay community though, as birds of a feather flock together.

Their servers are prone to issues and crashes, and obviously cannot handle the load of hosting a site as large as NS.

All in all, you get what you pay for. It's a crappy site but it is free.