The Stag Report

Now, upon reflection, I've seen "Congress" mean a lot of things. When it was first introduced in December of 2007, Congress was, basically, a joke. It was 40 people (originally I think it was set at 10% of the National Population) who had no idea of what they were doing. I know, I was one of those people. Not many people knew how the economy worked, what taxes did, how to properly negotiate a workable National Income vs Restricting Private Spending and so on.

Basically, we weren't ready for that.

Even then, we practiced. Some countries took it easier than others. The United States took a very long time to have a functional Congress, even through my Presidency (which, in essence was me going "Hey, you need to vote Yes on this"). Countries like the UK picked up Congress (or Commons) very well, as did others such as Sweden, Portugal, Italy, Romania, and so on. Believe it or not, this actually pre-dates the Indonesian Babyboom which would set their dominance for a long time to come.

Over the next year, we all improved on our Congressional abilities, even though most of the "Proposals" were only available to the President. Even then, we worked together.

The problem was, in this era, you found each country with about 20-30 people who stayed in Congress the entire time. This stunted growth for each country, meaning new people had little chance in Politics. During this era you saw many "Mercenary Groups" form, mostly out of frustrated newbs (I usually classify the Theocrats in this group, even though they were a little higher in Exp simply because if I recall this was why they left Italy to begin with) who felt they couldn't really get involved in politics.

Then, V1 comes and most of the halfway decent proposals went to the Congress (especially donate). During this time, many many countries had a hard time both integrating a new influx of players into their countries and keeping cash and other important factors (such as tax income) steady. Most countries experience a "Joke Impeachment" once per month, simply for the Exp for voting, which continues to this day.

Now, moving on, countries have once again further progressed. Most have long standing committees for just about everything in Erepublik's realm of operations (Military, Economy, Taxes, etc), which they use to horde Congress into decisions that "are good for the country". Most new Congressmen and women don't know what is or isn't good, but they'll believe more experienced members in that regard.

Back to the point, there is a fine line between Role Playing in Politics, and endangering your countries ability to survive. Many countries go through this, and you usually see at least one article per election cycle complaining about "X Newbie" beating me in "Y Region", blaming for multi-accounts, and so on. But why is this bad?

Role Playing in Politics is all well and good. No matter what your ideal affiliation, be it Libertarian, Socialist, Communist, Capitalist, somewhere in the middle, you have to have a certain understanding of one basic concept:

Erepublik is a game with various technical tools. It's not that difficult to grasp, but if you play Erepublik based completely on idealism, you're entire Manifesto is pretty worthless. No one wants to read about how you like kittens, kiss babies, help old women cross busy streets, or so on. That doesn't really matter in Erepublik. In Erepublik, you're measured on how well you can technically perform the following tasks:

-Coordinate large amounts of people into doing the same thing
-Consider all aspects of the technical side of Erepublik, including tax proposals, hospitals, donations, war declarations, Economic and Employment Statistics, and so on.
-Know your own limitations.

That's it. It's not that difficult, really. Quit making things too overcomplicated.

Erepublik's political system is too easily misunderstood, which is the root of it's problem. Most younger players, joining after V1 was released, cannot see this until they've sat through a term of Congress somewhere. Every country is the same. You spend a month arguing about proposals about "Society Programs", "Games", and every now and then you get proposals about taxes and whatnot to discuss. Just about anyone can move to a lowly populated country, vote for yourself, perhaps get lucky with no other candidates (same with PP Elections, which are very easy to do in smaller parties with just a little bit of planning), and win 5 G.

Should it really be that easy?

Overall, Political systems are crap. I didn't like them much even when I was actively involved in them, but they're way overhyped. Most countries in the World, including those who claim "democracy" and "freedom", regardless of Alliance, are run by a smaller group of older experienced players. Those players have ties to just about every aspect of the Community, and can influence decisions long after their titles run out.

And to be perfectly blunt, it shouldnt be that hard to understand what Congress, Parties, and Presidency is about: Working together. Does it really take a month and a small group of 40 to do that?

In the end, you'll find that you get less done that way. The System needs changing. It needs reworking to be easier for younger players to understand their limits (ie NO YOU CANNOT HAVE A Q5 HOSPITAL) and know what they're talking about.

Sincerely,
Dish