(CP Entry) - Guns vs Butter: The eRepublik Simulation

Day 496, 08:28 • Published in Canada Canada • by vincent chaotic

Erepublik is designed to be a social, political, economic and military simulation, the largest and most entertaining of its sort available. Because it is a simulation, it thus must strive to be as accurate a reflection of real life as it can be. As with any simulation, there will be areas where goal is met, and others where it fails miserably. In the former, we can see that the economy of eRepublik is incredibly accurate to real life, often even mirroring RL events such as the economic downturns we’ve seen in recent history, while eRepublik’s ultimate failing likely resides in the War Module, which ignores the horrors of modern warfare and instead replaces it with a system that resembles the game Tetris more than it does a modern battlefield.

ERepublik’s greatest success likely stems from the creation of the economic system, which like the modern capitalist economy, is driven by the individual struggles of citizens, and the laws of supply and demand. The economy is a fragile thing, as any event can strike a sudden shift in economic fortunes. Recall the removal of the war module in the transfer from Beta to V1: the entire world economy began to collapse as demand for weaponry, moving tickets, and even gifts plummeted to its lowest point in history. Companies faltered and died, and struggled to continue; some even turning to government assistance in order to remain afloat. This can also be seen in RL, with the auto industry. Demand for American cars has plummeted due to the global economic recession, forcing GM CEO Rick Wagoner to step down in return for federal aid.

The war module itself is an embarassment. Modern soldiers do not just stand around shooting at a wall while enemy bricklayers struggle to build them up. Warfare consists in personal combat on the ground in each region, territory, and often building; mixed with surgical mass offensive strikes. People die in war, people are irrevocably scarred. In the war module of eRepublik, we’d recreate the true horrors, true glories, and true sacrifices just as much if we danced around with sparklers as we do now. A PvP is less capable of taking such large quantities of soldiers, but at least it was more accurate depiction of RL than our current war module.

- Vincent Chaotic