[Legion] With dogged determination

Day 1,999, 08:36 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Elle Roslin


Hello eUKers,

Today I wanted to write to give some perspective on the eUK’s largest and most consistent source of battle damage (Legion MU), and illustrate why we are in need of some assistance at present time.

The History

The Legion was founded as the ESO Legion within a few months of the introduction of the MU system. It was initially conceived of as a method for developing the potential of younger citizens with the ultimate aim that they would be repatriated back into the national military. Over time, the national military fell into disarray. Coupled with the fact that the admins introduced changes that cut into national budgets, it quickly became obvious that it would be impossible for there to be a consistent and well-funded MU supported by taxpayers.

During this time, the original Legion founders embarked on an investment scheme that saw thousands of gold transferred from established players to less wealthy players with the sole requirement that they ‘pay it forward’. At the time, RM was selling for 0.33 GBP, and it was not unusual for the Legion collective to make profits in the tens of thousands of GBP per day. Granted, gold was much more expensive, but the overall result was an unparalleled building spree that created an enormous amount of wealth which was translated into supplies. The ESO Legion was one of the wealthiest MU’s (if not THE wealthiest), and this was accomplished without a single purchase of gold using RL money.

Fast forward to mid-2012. With the national MU (BEF) declining in activity, the Legion founders entered into an agreement with the CP at the time (Talon Karrde) that the Legion would serve as a government-sponsored MU. Legion was granted a nod in the CP’s introduction message, and Legion agreed to disassociate itself from ESO entirely. This agreement was also based on the premise that any government-sponsored MU would not receive a penny in UK taxes.

So, with all that in mind, what has the result been? Since its inception, the Legion has almost without exception been the perennial damage leader in the UK. Since it became a government-sponsored MU, daily damage has been approximately double any other MU, and has often matched the damage production of the majority of the other MU’s combined (see eGov here: Your text to link here...). More importantly, this success has been accompanied by the fact that: a) not a SINGLE message has been approved or sent which encroached on members ability to belong to whichever political party they so choose, and b) not a SINGLE unit of GBP has been requested or accepted from the government.



So what am I on about?

Though the MU numbers continue to rise, and the number of people requesting supplies has ballooned, this has not been accompanied with a similar rise in revenue-generating potential. Over the last several months, those of us who fund Legion have experimented with ways to increase our income. Suppliers moved to Poland, people began to donate their earnings, tiers of supply were introduced, and lately we have employed a precious few government orgs to generate small amounts of extra capital.

With all that in mind, the people who are supplying the Legion are….the exact same people who did so when it was ESO Legion. Jamesw, Emergy Maxfell, Carlini8, Rodney McKay, Justice Boomticket, Zonmei, N W G, CrispyDragon, and dmgd. Not a single additional supplier has been added since the conversion to Legion, though many individuals have kindly helped supply and distribute. The net result is that the same finances that at one point supplied 50 people fabulously now supply ~120 people adequately. More importantly, these finances have reached their limit and are now under severe pressure, particularly as the admins have ratcheted up the pressure on the bottom lines of every citizen.



So what is going to happen if things don't change?

1) Supplies for existing members will decline
2) No new players will be allowed to receive supplies unless an existing member leaves/dies/agrees to give up their share
3) New revenue sources will have to be found

We prefer these steps in descending order (i.e. new revenue is better than limiting supplies).

A sense of scale:

Each week Legion supplies ~7,500 tanks (7,500*6.11 = 45,825 GBP = 195 gold per week). The individuals that supply commit the entirety of their production to supply, so effectively none of us has made any progress on building a financial base since we went ‘national’.

Final message: Can you help?

To account for the number of people we supply, we need some help. If any player reading this is willing to help out in our collective, please contact me or Emergy Maxfell ASAP. Note that we are not asking average players for help – the whole goal of Legion has been to help these players reach their potential. We are asking for help from those who can afford to. We will not seek government assistance, we will not purchase gold using our own RL money, and we will not boot players off of supply. We have been thrilled to support the eUK for so many months, but we cannot continue to do so as effectively on our own.



TL😃R
Legion suppliers have reached their financial capacity. They do not ask for government support, refuse to favour any political party, and donate all their income to ensuring the UK has a well-funded fighting force. Any funding assistance from eUKers who can afford to would allow us to keep supplies high for as many players as possible, ultimately leading to a stronger and more productive eUK.

As always with ❤
Roz
Legion addict