[KT89] Disillusioned and Disenfranchised: Part 3 The Wrong Role Play

Day 1,085, 14:11 • Published in Canada Canada • by Kilgore Trout 89


I would like to thank everyone who has been reading and voicing support for this series. Many of you have already provided me with some new insight to bring into the series and I am glad to see that some discussion has cropped up around this issues I’ve been raising. Please be sure to read the whole series and provide feedback.
Part 1: The Financial Juggernaut
Part 2: The Brand Name Zombie Swarm

The last week has been interesting as I’ve been preparing to write this article. Many of you have probably noticed that the media has exploded with articles about role playing which leaves me with two points to consider. First, it will be difficult to discuss this topic without repeating what others have said. More importantly though, role play is clearly an issue that many people are concerned about right now. I find it interesting that the term “role-play” has become a pejorative in eCanada and many people are rallying against the role play institutions that create our community. I will be the first to agree that in many cases, role play gets in the way of progress, drags things out longer than they need to be and turns everything into sensationalism. On the other hand, without it, out parties would be even more ineffective than they already are, our militaries would be nearly useless and quite frankly, there would be almost no meaningful interactions. So, join me as I explore the differences between right and wrong role play.



We all know the problems with useless role play. Just take a look at the kangaroo court on the eCan forums right now. More than once, we’ve had cases sit there for months that everyone already knows the outcome of. Those who play at enforcing laws and those who play at defending themselves spend weeks on end pretending we’re all in a never ending episode of night court and issues that could be addressed in a matter of hours drag on for months at a time. I remember a case where we spent two weeks “interpreting the law” to determine if it was actually against the law to steal from the government or not. The overly eloquent repository of legislated restrictions presupposed that it was unlawful for an individual to remove assets being in game organizations, companies or monetary in nature that belonged to the government of eCanada which is defined by the Constitution of eCanada as blah, blah, blah. Realistically, who cares? In trying to role play that we are a srz bzns country, we’ve got endless lines of role play laws that could be summed up in a simple “Don’t steal”. What’s more, the most we can do by ways of punishment is a forum and irc ban (assuming the criminal doesn’t start a new account) and publishing articles about their guilt. That can be done in all of ten minutes and we would avoid months of arguing over the same insignificant issues.



Now I don’t think that all role play is useless and I’m going to use our armies as the prime example. The CAF and TCO both require role play to work. When Bruck’s Canucks started, the thought process was “Shoot, Hungary owns all of Canada. Okay, I’ll be the general, you be my Lieutenant and everyone else is a Private. Follow orders and let’s get our country back!” Not only is this role play, but it worked. The CAF is exactly the same, there’s a chain of command where people put in the time and effort to get promoted and then sit around in the command room and decide how we can best benefit our country and our allies. These groups are open to everyone to join and everyone gets a chance to try to make a difference. So long as the group remains true to the goal of making things better and is able to avoid self aggrandizement, this role play is ideal. Once a group strays from the goal of improving the community and instead makes their goal sensationalism or trolling, the role play benefits are lost. In theory, the same goes for parties, but that’s a whole can of worms I won’t fit into my maximum word limit.



So then how do we avoid bad role play and how do we figure out what is good? Simple and the same message as always, stop and think before you act. Are you participating in something outside of the basic eRepublik gameplay such as a forum discussion? Chances are, you’re role playing. Is what you are talking about going to make things better or worse for other people? Are you arbitrarily excluding people? Is what you’re doing going to promote or impede progress? How will what you are doing impact the country? These are the questions you need to consider. If you put on your professor hat and start teaching new citizens how to play, that’s good role play. If you put on your soldier hat and help lead the country into battle, that’s good role play. If you put on your congress hat and find a new way to reduce political division, that’s good role play. That’s what we need.



If you liked this article, be sure to subscribe so you can follow the series. The next and final article will be Get Involved Now, Ask Me How and will look at how citizens can get involved in the eCanadian community.