Join the new world

原文作者 : Fremenul
原文連結 : Interviewing Plato: The Future of eRepublik

---

Hello everybody!
哈囉，大家好！

Seems I’m getting a little rusty on the Comics so today I’ve decided to bring you a special interview with nobody else, but Plato. It’s a long one, but if you’re curious about the game’s future, read it, vote & subscribe and don’t forget to shout!
看來我對畫漫畫有一點生疏，所以今天我決定帶給各位一個特別的訪問，他就是柏拉圖（按：無頭雞）。這是一個長篇訪問，可是，如果你對遊戲的未來感到好奇，請讀下去，Vote和sub，並別忘了要shout！


Hello Plato. I mean, hello, the_mihai.
哈囉，柏拉圖。我的意思是，你好，the_mihai。
I wish we can light up a little the future of our beloved game, so I’ve prepared a series of questions for you. I hope you won’t answer them all with “classified information”, so let’s begin:
我冀盼我們可以照亮我們鍾愛的遊戲的未來，所以我為你準備了一連串的問題。我希望你不會用「機密資料」去回答所有問題，讓我們開始吧。

1. You joined the game in Apr 01, 2008, 4 years ago! You were successful as one of the first Romanian Country Presidents, being a skilled politician and clever writer. After a while, you “switched sides”. Tell us about how and why you decided to join the eRepublik Staff and what’s your current position?
1. 你在2008年4月1日加入遊戲，四年了！你曾經是羅馬尼亞第一屆總統們的其中之一，也是一位出色的政治家和聰明的作家，表現得很成功。過了一段時間，你「換陣營」了。告訴我們你是怎樣和為什麼決定加入eRepublik的工作人員，還有你現在的位置是什麼？

M: Indeed, I am a very passionate eRepublik citizen! I used to spend between 8 and 20 hours in eRepublik, not to mention waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning to fight in epic battles.
M: 真的，我是一個充滿熱誠的eRepublik公民！我以往會花8到20小時在eRepublik裡，還未將我在早上5點鐘爬起來打一些重大戰役的時間算進去。

The “switch” you are talking about took place 2 years ago, when the eRepublik team asked me to join and help them coordinate the community department. Although I used to have a strong career in mass media, by being a marketing manager, I decided to accept the offer and try to influence the eRepublik concept in order to keep it as close as possible to what we used to like about this game.
你提及的「換陣營」是在兩年前開始的，當eRepublik團隊邀請我加入和協助他們協調社區部門。雖然我曾經做過營銷經理，有過豐富的媒體經驗，我決定接受這個邀請，並嘗試影響eRepublik的概念，為了讓它盡可能地接近我們當初喜歡的遊戲。

Today I’m the executive director of eRepublik.com, since the moment George left the company, and I have the same mission: to try to keep eRepublik as close as possible to its original values. And now I am more optimistic than ever that we will succeed in this challenge, especially because, like we’ve stated a few weeks ago, we actually managed to make a take over in the eRepublik team (more than 50% from the team are eRepublik citizens!).
今天，我是eRepublik.com的執行董事，因為從George離開這間公司的一刻，和我有一個不變的任務：嘗試讓eRepublik接近它原有的信念。我現在對成功完成這項挑戰感到愈來愈樂觀，尤其是因為，像我們幾個星期前所說，我們真的成功接替了eRepublik團隊（多於50%的成員是eRepublik公民！）。

2. How many employees does eRepublik have worldwide? And how many volunteer moderators? How many tickets are submitted each day and what’s the average number of resolved tickets per day?
eRepublik在世界各地有多少名員工？有多少位義務版主？每天有多少個問題提交了，和每天平均有多少個問題解答了？

M: The entire company has around 60 employees and 75 game moderators.
M: 整間公司有大概60位員工和75位版主。

We’re getting almost 1,000 tickets per day and we’re answering around 90-95% of them in less than 24 hours!
我們每天接收到約1000個表格和90-95%的問題我們都在少於24小時內解答了！

And here I really need to say something! Our average response time is 18 hours, which is maybe the best response time in the entire industry. I don’t want to brag, I just want to let the community know that we know very well how important is to get an answer as soon as possible and we’re very focused on this one. If we are not able to answer in less than 24 hours it means that the issue we’re facing is not that easy. Other than that, this is our target, to answer in less than 24 hours. 😉
我必需有這裡說一點事情！我們平均的回覆時間是18小時，這可能是在整個遊戲界裡的最佳回覆時間。我不是在吹牛，我只想讓遊戲社群知道我們明白盡快得到一個答案是有多重要，和我們非常重視這一點。如果我們不能在少於24小時內答覆，這意味著我們一起面對的這個問題並不容易解決。除了這個原因，在少於24小時內回覆是我們的目標。

3. One of the biggest concerns among players is the lack of communication between them and the staff aka Plato. You could reactivate the forum; restart publishing Insiders, make surveys via PM regarding future changes, etc. Do you have any such intentions?
3. 在玩家之間，其中一個最主要的顧憂是玩家與工作人員，即是柏拉圖，缺乏溝通。你們可以重新啟動論壇；重新發佈內幕消息，透過個人訊息對以後改版進行調查，等等。你們有類似的打算嗎？

M: While I was a regular player, I used to believe that eRepublik is the only game with multiple communication channels: media, forum, tickets, insider, blog, facebook, twitter, private messages and shouts (the current feeds). And back then I used to ask myself how can other players complain about lack of communication? When I joined the staff I realized that although eRepublik has a lot of channels, the quality of communication may not be that great. As a result, we decided to lower the number of channels and focus more on the quality.
M: 當我仍然是一般玩家時，我曾經相信eRepublik是唯一一隻遊戲有多個溝通的渠道：新聞、論壇、表格、內幕消息、博客、面書、推特、個人訊息和shout牆。然後我又問過自己，為什麼其他玩家會抱怨沒有溝通的方法？當我加入團隊後，我意識到雖然eRepublik有很多交流的途徑，不過它們的質素並不足夠好。因為這樣，我們決定降低它們的數量，和集中去提高它們的質量。

Due to the fact that communication improved a lot (at least for us, by being able to actually read feedback from the community - in the contact form), we decided a while ago to get back media on the homepage. About future intentions I can share with you that we’ll come up soon with a survey and we’ll add a link where we’ll publish releases about current or future changes. As for the forum, we really believe that media is something unique in gaming industry and we should concentrate to improve this concept that to split our efforts between media module and a forum.
鑑於溝通的渠道已經改善了很多（最少對於我們來說，現在能夠讀到來自遊戲社群的回饋－以聯絡表格的形式），我們決定過一陣子會將報紙放回主頁。對於未來的打算，我可以告訴你，我們不久之後就會進行一次調查，而我們會加上一個連結，並會將現在和未來的改動透過連結發佈開去。對於論壇，我們真的相信報紙是在整個遊戲界裡一個獨特的元素，而我們應該專心去改良這個概念並將對報紙模組和論壇的工夫分開。

Last but not least, since two months ago we’re very active on our facebook page by publishing news, reading comments and even answer questions.
最後一點是，在兩個月前我們在面書上積極地發佈新聞，閱讀留言和甚至回答問題。

A new survey sounds good and it will be great if you will share afterwards the results.
進行新的調查感覺很好，如果你能夠分享結果的話就會更好。

4. In the media there are lots of articles full of interesting suggestions for improving the game. Is anybody from the staff reading them? Are those ideas from players ever debated? Do we need to send them via tickets?
4. 在報紙裡有很多文章對改善遊戲提出了很多有趣的建議。有沒有員工正在讀這些文章呢？這些來自玩家的意見有沒有爭議過？我們需要透過表格發出去嗎？

M: By sending a ticket you can be sure, like I stated before, that 90-95% of them will be read with attention. Mistakes can appear and I am sorry for this, we’ll try to lower the percentage in the near future. But we’re reading media as well, lots of great ideas are present on our plans, ideas that we’re getting from the community. For example, I am reading between 3 and 10 feedback articles daily. But keep in mind, if you want to get votes, you can use media. If you want to get attention from the team, the contact form is the best choice.
用表格發出去的話，你可以肯定，像我之前所說，90-95%的表格都會被細心地讀過。一些小錯誤可能會出現，我對於這一點感到抱歉，我們會嘗試在不久之後降低這個百分比。不過，我們也在閱讀報紙，很多好的想法出現在我們的計劃裡面，是我們從遊戲社群裡得來的想法。舉個例來說，我每天正在讀3到10個文章的留言。不過請緊記，如果你想拿Votes，你可以使用報紙。如果你想讓團隊注意到，填聯絡表格是最好的選擇。

If you want examples of ideas inspired from tickets or even media... take for instance the true patriot medal, party feed, bring back media on homepage, military units, upgrade training grounds (yes, this was highly requested in hundreds of tickets)...
如果你想我舉一些從表格甚至是報紙得到啟發的主意作為例子…像是愛國章，政黨shout牆，將報紙帶回主頁，軍團，升級訓練營（是的，數以百計的表格都強烈要求）…

5. I think a big improvement for eRepublik would be a mobile version. In your last 2 surveys there was a question regarding which platform do we prefer, but still nothing. Are you working on this? If yes, do you have an estimated launch date?
5. 我想對eRepublik一個巨大的改善是推出手機版本。在你過去的兩個調查裡，有一個問題是關於我們喜歡哪個平台，不過沒有事發生。你們正在做手機版嗎？如果有，你們預期什麼時候啟用？

M: Yes, we’re working on this. And we have a pretty short deadline for this version to be live. But let’s say that I’ve learned that in this industry lots of unexpected issues may appear and I would prefer not to take a public commitment for this one. But we’re pushing hard to have a nice eRepublik mobile web page soon, for IOS and Android devices.
M: 是的，我們正在做手機版。我們預訂推出的限期相當短。不過讓我提出一點，在我從遊戲界學到的是很多不可期預的問題可能會發生，而我不想對此事向玩家下一個承諾。不過，我們正在努力去做一個良好的eRepublik手機網頁版，針對IOS和Android裝置的。

6. This picture was taken 2 days ago, in front of eRepublik HQ.
6. 這張圖是從兩天前拍到的，在eRepublik總部前。



Obviously, you’re running on profit. Which countries are the biggest buyers? Can you tell us some numbers, like average gold purchase per day, or the all-time top purchase by a player? (Don’t have to give a name; we’ll never know if it’s Romper or Argrob)
明顯地，你們賺到錢。哪個國家是最大的買家？你可以告訴我們一些數字，像是每天平均購入的金量，或是單次購入的最高量？（不需要告訴我們名字；我們永不會知道他是Romper或是Argrob）

M: Hahaha... good one! But in order for you to be accurate, please try to place me nearby this car:
M: 哈哈哈…好問題！不過為了讓你說得準確一點，請將我放在這台車附近：
.
This is what I’m driving day by day, an older model of our national car.
這是我每天都在開的車，一台型號很舊，我國家的國產車。

You can imagine I cannot share too much numbers because it will be like I’ll share your salary with your colleagues. It is not fair at all.
你可以想像到我不能告訴你太多數字，因為這就像我將你的薪金告訴你的同事。這完全不公平。

About profitability, indeed, eRepublik is a profitable product. But, although the board will not be happy when they'll read this, I can share with you that the profits you’re talking about are low because we’re investing the majority of the money in servers. I really need to remind you that eRepublik is maybe the only game that holds one single world, in real time, without any world/server reset which means enormous load and giant database. And we want to keep it this way, even if this means huge costs day after day, because, like I stated before, I really believe this is eRepublik. Of course, this also means that from time to time issues may appear, because we need to add new servers every time the population increases or we’re facing an epic battle.
關於盈利，的確，eRepublik是一個賺錢的產品。不過，雖然董事會看到這篇文章並不會高興，我可以跟你們分享，你們提及的盈利是很少的，因為我們投放了大部份的資金在服務器上。我確實需要提醒你，eRepublik可能是唯一一個遊戲需要實時地容納整個世界，沒有任何世界／服務器重設，這代表巨大的負荷和大型的資料庫。而我們想保持這個方式，儘管這代表每天的龐大支出，因為，像我之前所說，我真的相信這就是eRepublik。當然，這也代表著問題會偶而發生，因為當人口增長的時候，或是我們面對一場浩浩蕩蕩的戰役，我們就需要加入新的服務器。

The solution other games are using is to split their players in several worlds. If you ask me... for eRepublik this is a joke, it means you’ll have different experiences depending on the server you’re registered in. This also means that you can have a different world map on every server, different presidents on every server and so on. I really hope the community will realize that this is a big plus for eRepublik, even if we’re facing unpleasant moments from time to time.
其他遊戲採取的解決方法是將他們的玩家分到不同的世界上。如果你問我…這對eRepublik來講是個笑話，這表示你的體驗建基於你註冊的伺服器上。這也代表在不同的伺服器會有不同的世界地圖，有不同的總統，云云。我真的希望社群會察覺到這是eRepublik的一個很大的好處，即使我們有時候會面對些不愉快的片刻。

7. The players have tons of suggestions and complaints. But what do you wish from the players (besides buying more gold)? If you could change one thing about eRepublik just by snapping your fingers, what would it be?
7. 玩家有數不完的建議和投訴。不過，你們希望從玩家得到什麼（除了買更多的G）？如果你敲敲指頭就能夠改變一件eRepublik裡的事，這會是什麼事？

M: Since you were a bit unfair with your bracket, I think I should remind you that 2 years ago you were able to fight for free once per day for about one minute. Today, by eating food and coming back in the game we’re able to put some real damage in the battles. eRepublik is really not about gold but about having fun, the gold is created only if you want to have more fun right in this very moment and not later.
M: 因為你的括號有一點不公平，我想我應該會提醒你，兩年前你們可以每天有一分鐘免費的時間去打仗。今天，透過吃食物和回到遊戲，我們可以投放一些真正的傷害到戰場上。eRepublik真的不是G，而是樂趣，如果你想立即得到更多的樂趣，你才會需要G。

And I would like to have a magic wand to make the game more balanced in terms of battles and economy and to create the mobile version just by snapping my fingers.
而我想敲敲指頭就有一支魔法棒去令整個遊戲變得平衡，在戰場和經濟上，並且做好手機版。

8. We see a tren😛 more and more upgrades around the military module and almost none regarding the other ones. Many even consider the latest changes in Economy / Monetary Market a downgrade. Will this trend continue? Will the game became exclusively a military simulator? You consider the current Economy module good and we won’t see major changes in the near future?
8. 我們看到一個趨勢：愈來愈多圍繞著軍團模組的更新和幾乎沒有關於其他模組的。很多人甚至會認為經濟／貨幣市場最後一次改動是走下坡。這個趨勢會持續嗎？這隻遊戲會變成純粹是一個軍事模擬器？你認為現在的經濟模組很好而我們在最近都不會看到重要的改動嗎？

M: No, I do not consider the economy module to be good. Actually, we have a lot to improve also in politics or media. And this is not just a military simulator and you can count on some changes for other modules as well. Since the military module is the ones that involves the higher number of citizens, it’s normal from our side to try to bring him in a final form. And hopefully, in a balanced form. Right after that we’ll get back on fixing the economy and politics.
M: 不是，我不認為這個經濟模組是好的。其實，對於政治和報紙，我們也有很多可以改善的地方。而且，這裡不只是一個軍事模擬器和你可以指望一些對於其他模組的改動。因為軍團模組涉及比較多人，我們認為設定一個最終的形態是正常的。最理想地，是一個平衡的形態。緊接這個之後，我們會回頭修理經濟和政治模組。

9. A common question is if you intend to upgrade the bazookas (to 15 000 per hit)? Are we going to see bazooka parts & energy bars factories soon? Asklepije suggested that we could find energy bars part while working (something like butter, cocoa, milk, flour and wrapping). Doesn’t it sound delicious?
9. 一個普通的問題是，你們打算升級火箭炮（到一發15k輸出）嗎？我們很快會看到火箭炮部件和能量棒工廠嗎？Askelpije提議我們可以在工作的時候獲得能量棒（有些時候像牛油、可可、牛奶、麵粉和包裝紙）。這聽起來不是很美味嗎？

M: We’re analyzing several options. But if you want my personal opinion, I wouldn’t like to see a bazooka or an energy bar industry. For this we have weapons industry and food industry. And as you’ve stated before, the economy is not perfect and this will not help economy to get better.
M: 我們正在分析幾個方案。不過，如果你想聽我的意見，我不希望看到火箭炮或是能量棒工廠。就此，我們有武器工廠和食物工廠。而且，一如你之前所指出，經濟模組還未完善和這不會改善經濟情況。

About Asklepije idea... it’s interesting! I’m gonna put this idea on our board, could be something really nice.
有關Asklepije的主意…這相當有趣！我會將這個主意放到我們的留言板上，這可能是一件很好的事。
🙂

10. Are we going to see soon new countries? Examples as Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Senegal, Vietnam, Cuba, and Jamaica would definitely spice up the New World. Are there requests from the community concerning this matter?
10. 我們在最近會看到新的國家嗎？像是格魯吉亞、亞美尼亞、摩洛哥、塞內加爾、越南、古巴和牙買加肯定會為新世界帶來更多的樂趣和刺激。有一些來自社群的要求是關於這件事嗎？

M: I really can’t answer this one, this depends entirely on traffic. Plus, we’ve learned that not every country that has traffic will be a strong community (we can easily find a few examples), so my temptation is to cool down a bit the tendency to add new countries. But in the same time I cannot say this is a statement, if we’re gonna face a baby boom from Georgia or Jamaica, for instance, for sure we’re gonna take into consideration adding those countries.
M: 我真的不能答這道問題，這完全取決於人流量。加上，我們知道並不是每個國家有人流量就會成為一個強大的社群（我們可以輕易地找到幾個例子），所以我的意見是緩和加入新國家的傾向。不過，與此同時，我不能明言這是一個聲明，如果，舉例來說，我們面對來自格魯吉亞或是牙買加，肯定我們就要考慮加入這些國家。

11. Rumor has it that there is no real Romper (mainly because he doesn’t use chat). In fact, they say, it’s the admin account used to balance battles for TEDEN. This conspiracy theory claims Romper stands for Romanian Persuader, as he ‘persuades’ the wall to move. Can you deny this?
11. 有個謠言指出Romper並不存在（主要是因為他不使用聊天室）。事實上，他們說，這是一個管理員帳號，作用是平衡TEDEN戰役。這套陰謀論聲稱Romper代表Romanian Persuader（羅馬尼亞的說服者），因為他「說服」牆去移動。你們否認嗎？

M: Of course I can deny this.🙂 Not just because I can, but because Romper is not only an important eRepublik player but also a really cool guy! Still, every player has the right to decide if he wants to go public with his identity or not. Probably Romper prefers to stay in the shadow. Still, from what we know, he has this habit to help a lot of players in different ways so a lot of them can testify, for sure, that he exists.🙂 If he is a persuader, this is because he wants to and for sure he’s not Romanian.
M: 當然我可以否認這件事。並不只是因為我可以，而是因為Romper不單是一位重要的eRepublik玩家，更是一個很酷的傢伙（按：我肯定這次google translate給我最貼心的翻譯結果，怎樣也想不出第二句話可以代替）！雖然事實是這樣，每位玩家有權選擇他是否公開自己的身份。大概Romper選擇留在影子裡。儘管如此，以我們所知，他習慣去用用不同的方法去幫助很多玩家，所以這些玩家們都能證明，無可疑置地，他存在。如果他是一個說服者，這是因為他想這樣做和他肯定不是羅馬尼亞人。

---

12. Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese? George R.R. Martin or J.R.R. Tolkien? Metallica or AC-DC?
12. 喜歡昆汀還是斯科西斯（導演）？喬治RR馬丁（冰與火之歌）還是托爾金（指環王）？ Metallica還是AC/DC（重金屬搖滾）？

M: Martin Scorsese - Shutter Island was a perfect movie!
J.R.R. Tolkien - I saw Lord of the Rings 15 times!
Between Metallica and AC/DC is impossible to choose. I’m listening Metallica every day and my ring tone is by AC/DC. Plus, I’ve had the chance to see both bands live and again it’s almost impossible to choose. But if you really force me, I’d say Metallica, by having the influence bar at 50,01%!😃
M: 當然是斯科西斯，禁閉島真是個完美的電影
托爾金，我看了15遍指環王。
Metallica還是AC/DC,難以抉擇。我天天聽metallica，手機鈴聲是AC/DC。一定要選擇的話我還是選metallica，像戰場影響條50.01%的感腳。

---

[1]
（按：第十二是電影宅的對話，絲毫沒有基礎知識的小咖表示翻譯不能的說…）


Thank you for your time & patience and have fun at counting money!
If you want to send a message to my readers, shoot!
謝謝你的時間和耐性，祝你數鈔票愉快！
如果你想發訊息給我的讀者們，射吧！

M: I’ll have fun when I’ll be able to count more and more happy player, like I used to be when I was playing eRepublik like crazy. The money are counted by the guys hosting our servers...🙂
M: 當我可以數到更多更多快樂的玩家，像我當初瘋狂玩eRepublik一樣，我會更開心。鈔票就是交給服務器供應商數的…

And for your readers, I would like to remind them that eRepublik is a phenomenon beyond Plato or gold or whatever. eRepublik is also about friendship, fun and even about learning. 3 years ago I have learned important communication lessons and even management lessons by playing eRepublik.
至於你的讀者們，我想提醒大家，eRepublik是一個超越柏拉圖或是G或是其他一切的事物。eRepublik也是跟友誼、樂趣，甚至是學習有關。三年前，我透過玩eRepublik學會了重要的溝通和管理技巧。

And to close this interview with a funny fact, I’ll tell you that while I used to be President in eRepublik I was promoted in real life because my superiors thought that my management skills improved, I started to be a better listener in my department and I managed to delegate tasks better. So... play eRepublik and you may get a promotion! )
讓我以一件有趣的事去結束這次訪問，當我仍然在eRepublik裡當總統的時候，我在RL裡升職了，因為我的上司覺得我的管理技巧更進一步，我在我的部門裡開始成為一個更好的聆聽者，和我能夠更好地給下屬分配工作。所以…玩eRepublik就能升職！ 😁

Thank you for reading and special thanks to Mihai for making time for answering all this question at midnight! Hope it was useful for everybody! If so, please vote and shout the article!
謝謝閱讀，和特別鳴謝Mihai抽出時間在午夜回答所有問題！希望這對各位都有用！如果是的話，請Vote和Shout這篇文章！

---

For shout:
Where is eRepublik going? Plato is answering.
Huge interview -a must read
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/plato-the-future-of-erepublik-2026125/1/20

如果要Shout：
eRepublik何去何從？無頭雞正在回答。
大型的採訪 - 必需要看
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/plato-the-future-of-erepublik-2026125/1/20

---

We would like to re-invite you all to the 2nd eRepublik International Meeting, here in Romania! Click the banner for more details.
我希望能夠再次邀請你們所有人去第二個eRepublik國際聚會，在羅馬尼亞！點擊海報去取得更多資訊。


Greedy for new subs,
求sub，



Vive la Résistance!

---

後記：
肝爆了……Orz


修正：
[1] 有關第12題的對答，採用sagaWF的翻譯文，在此謝過。
[2] 有關斜體字，目前已經改過來，以後也會加倍注意斜體字的可讀性問題。


如果有任何不洽當的地方，請務必來信或是留言指導。謝謝。