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For a long time in the UK, there has been talk, actions, arguments and debates centred upon a great 'divide'. Until now, the majority of this talk has been about a divide amongst party lines. Regardless of actual intent, this divide was taken to be 'new' versus 'old' - or rather, UKPP, NE and OV, versus TUP, UKRP and ESO.

To begin with, I cannot stress enough how untrue this is. First and foremost, it should be clear to most that ESO and OV are hardly aligned in this divide. Certain members of OV are certainly aligned, and to an extent, certain members of ESO are attributed membership of alignment too. But as entities, neither party is interested in, truly aligned with, or ever shows any indication of engaging with, the 'divide' on a national level.

Further, the situation came to a head when I joined UKPP as part of a swap a few days ago. Now, I feel it is important to delve into my past, not only to show how things that happen today, are all but identical to that which has already happened many times before, but also to ultimately show that this divide is not on a party level, but rather, there is a continuous and necessary divide on an individual level. That is, by the end of this article I hope to show that rather than parties being aligned against one another, there are rather, individuals that because of their past, their beliefs, their history or their approach to the game, are the embodiment of the divide



The first party I was a 'functioning' member of when I joined the UK over three years ago, was the UKRP. It was the second biggest party at the time, however was floundering against the well organised electoral machine of TUP. Inside the party there was little activity, and recruitment was non existent. I joined purely out of fluke; I didn't even check the party's beliefs, alignment or policies; I saw reform and assumed it would be a left-leaning entity, and as this was my real life view, joined.

But enough about that; the nuts and bolts of this delve into history comes in my second month of activity on the game: when I was appointed as the Recruitment Manager of UKRP. It was through this that I became IRC active, got involved in discussions with other UKRP members, other parties members, and other UK players. What became abundantly clear quite quickly, was that UKRP was split. There was the 'old guard' that had ruled the party, but due to their in game age and boredom, were largely inactive. Then, there was the 'new guard', players like myself, like Raziel Darkheart, Wooso (or Woosoo? I forget) and ultimately, the now awfully croatian, Thatcher.

The old guard were interested solely in beating TUP: in congress, in membership count, in Presidential elections. Whereas us newer players, whilst somewhat indoctrinated by our older peers, were more open to other forms of operating. Ultimately, the picture became clear when I left UKRP and joined their arch rivals TUP - the internal splits of UKRP meant that I, a member of UKRP for quite some time at that point, actually had more in common with the majority of TUP, than I did with my own party members.



Fast forward a few months in office, both in running the country and alliances, and the same became clear to me once again. TUP was not, is not, and never will be, a united front. No party ever will be. I will go into this in more detail, but for now, a return to history once more.

After a month which saw some TUP colleagues actively undermine a friend of mine at the time, Artela, who was unquestionably one of the best MoDs the UK has ever had, it again became clear to me that I was out of place in TUP: once again, I seemed to have more in common with those outside of my party, than those inside.

Whilst I counted these players as friends, it became abundantly clear that they, as well as PCP members, had done their best to politicise a military figure, and this ultimately lead to congress interfering with the government owned, run and funded military for a few months. It caused no end of headache and trauma in government (both my own and others) and ultimately lead to yet another upturn; I left a party which had given me the worl😛 access to the upper echelons of the UK, not just as a minister, or a President, but as a respected figure. I left a party which housed players who I not only respected because of their game knowledge, but because of their approach to the game, and I ultimately left the party which housed possibly the best eRepublik player, and to this day probably one of my closest eRepublik friends, Iain Keers. I then founded my own party, the 'genuine alternative' of ESO, which to this day I remain a member of.



And this, ESO, my home for so many months now, is where the truth hit me. There is no such thing as a united UK. There is but, a UK focused on other things. For whatever reason, as a country its simply impossible for us all to ever get along, because this game is wholly unattractable to normal people. The normal people are playing games which are run fairly with top accounts as actual people, and not admin sponsored players. They are run in such a way that doesn't trick new players out of their gold or currency, or all but resign them to mediocrity in the main areas of the game (economics and war) unless they buy gold. But this is for another article.

The main theme I want to outlay here, and I hope I have pointed out, is that no party in the UK is a member of the divide. UKPP, TUP, New Era, ESO, UKRP, One Vision, PCP, etc etc, are inanimate entities that house players. It is us, the players who make up the divide. Whilst parties may present an active front, internally it is anything but unity.

The UKPP divide has shown itself after the UKPP vs Navy argument. On one side you have members such as Sir Nick, BigAnt, Saiwun and Thatcher #2. On the other, you have your Waynekerrs, Lady Macbeths, etc etc.

TUP historically has two 'sides', before I left there was the side focused on game mechanics with players such as Iain Keers, myself, Dan Moir and a few others, and then there was the side which took the game less seriously, housing John Forseti, Mr Woldy, tomf60, etc etc.

UKRP has also had 'sides', and to this day these 'sides' remain - although because I have not been a member for nearly three years, of course I couldn't comment on their makeup.

New Era did have 'sides', but with a few of those members leaving, I'm not sure if those 'sides' are really there anymore: but even if you ignore approach-based differences, there is most definitely a distinction to be made between New Era members, and the New Era supplied.

ESO does have 'sides', but I am not really sure I could ever really define them. There are those that are too disillusioned with the game to do anything more than click work and fight, and those that aren't even members in game for whatever reason, such as NWG, Reincarnate. There are those that left ESO for fear of tarring Legion as an ESO aligned entity. There are also those of us that remain in ESO, myself, Ms Roslin, Ullok, the infamous Mr Maxfell.

PCP also had its sides: although I again am wary of commenting.

Ultimately, what I want to hammer home here, and reinforce infinitely is that the 'divide' that has been referenced, is not one of groups. Groups do not unite against each other until the end of time: for evidence of this look at TUP and UKRP: once bitter enemies, now happy to work together.

Divides are based on groups of people. Whether this divide comes from history (see: BigAnt vs TUP, Goku Jones vs anyone who was around to argue with him ~2 years ago, Iain Keers vs the verbally challenged or those who favour war war war, and so on and so forth), from differing approaches (oddly, see UKRP vs ESO on this one: for use of forums) or for other reasons (see: Don Dapper vs whoever is todays 'dons most hated') the fact remains that political arguments, the paradigms that shape them and peoples reactions to them, are nothing more than arguments being played out and recycled from the disputes of yesterday. No argument is 'new', whether it be about the role of new players or parties supplying new players, whether it be about the role of the UK internationally or how someone is an awful President.

The fact is these have all been recurring since I started the game, and sometimes, they're arguments that centre from the same people.



To summarise, when you hear someone reference a party, note that they are not talking about every member: because no party has 100% agreement on every issue. And even if there is agreement on issues, it is for different reasons.

When you hear an argument or a shitstorm / crisis / incident / awful event, note that it is not parties that are responsible. It is people. The sooner we start to account for this, and stop trying to tarr parties that are not our own because of personal grievances, the sooner the UK will be a better place to be. Obviously we will still have arguments, it would just be nice to know that at the end of the day, people will at least be able to accept that no-one plays this game to spite the UK. I haven't played for over three years just to put people down, or to harm people. I have better things to do with my time, so does everyone who does the UK the honour of logging in more than once to play this 'game'. Everyone, regardless of their approach, wants what they think is a 'better' UK. And if we can all at least agree upon that, we can start to have real progression once more.