[WGC] eRep Imagined: Part I – “I Blame the Media!”
Day 507, 21:23
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Published in Canada 
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by
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by Plugson
In the beginning, God created the Atari…
Boom Headshot!!! l337plug: I pnw3d U n00b! w00t!
My first days of online gaming
Before there was eRep, e-life was about blasting some pixelated dude again and again with a BFG or getting that perfect kill, the glorious headshot – a sniper’s dream. Leet-speak rulzord as the way to taunt your latest kill or accuse of the round leader of being a haxxor. The gaming experience was beyond anything a Nintendo game cartridge could offer You weren’t taking on a repetitively obvious game algorithm, but a real thinking person that learned and adapted. Ironically, chatting with them on the sidelines between rounds often became more fun than the battle itself.
Then I found a game called Travian. It was supposed to be a 5 minute time-waster between rounds of Quake or Medal of Honour. Soon the OSS MOH clan was abandoned as Travian consumed hours of gametime for calculating attack times, planning military expansion, and manipulating delicate alliances between rivalling tribes. Travian had no moving graphics, no headshots, not even the *beeps* of the old time Atari console. So why did it become one of the biggest game obsessions in my life? Politics, alliances, in game PMs, and clan forums. Each alliance formed out of a complex system of rank, creating an virtual autocratic tribe. When you destroyed villages that took 9 months for a player to build or brought down an alliance that involved dozens of players, the feeling was unlike any other gaming victory, ever. All of which was only possible through the hundreds of messages amassed on a BBS forum, the central nervous system of 250 players. And so, the GAME0VER clan conquered all who stood before it.
Nevertheless, the hours spent raiding villages and the waking in the middle of the night to send out attack parties began to wear thin. The grind of accumulating resources, building armies, and managing build queues began to take its RL toll. Then it was over and the winner declared after more than a year of battling for virtual territory. Endgame brought the Big Reset and hours of work vanished as a new world was recreated. “What a waste of life,” I thought, “No more MMORPGs for me.”
Everytime I try to get out…it pulls me right back in
A year later I clicked on a nondescript banner a
eRep invades you, changing you into an e-citizen, warping reality. I blame the media. It’s that familiar RL catchphrase for so many of our social problems. “It’s the media’s fault for ruining my son’s attention span, for making violent teens, for dumbing down our kids as they watch hours of TV.” “The government controls you with it.” “Hollywood brainwashes you with its fantasies.” “The news reporter scares you stupid with their fear mongering headlines.” And it's true we are immune/When fact is fiction and TV reality/And today the millions cry/We eat and drink while tomorrow they die. - "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" - War.
Media – the community scapegoat.
So I blame the eRep media module for again making me a MMORPG e-addict. Reading and writing articles consumes more time than any other eRep activity. To ‘know’ is to ‘win’ and there’ plenty to keep tabs on. How else can one win at this game without following the dozens of articles published each day? How else can I know when the next Hungarian invasion is coming? When the next series of ‘farticles’ is out?
There’s only one reason I continue to play this buggy game. eRepublik has brought together two of my biggest passions: reading and gaming, literature and competition, art and war.
“Here alone [Urizen] in books form’d of metals
Have written the secrets of wisdom
The secrets of dark contemplation
By fightings and conflicts dire.”
--William Blake, The Book of Urizen
A Member of the Writers' Guild of Canada
Boom Headshot!!! l337plug: I pnw3d U n00b! w00t!
My first days of online gaming
Before there was eRep, e-life was about blasting some pixelated dude again and again with a BFG or getting that perfect kill, the glorious headshot – a sniper’s dream. Leet-speak rulzord as the way to taunt your latest kill or accuse of the round leader of being a haxxor. The gaming experience was beyond anything a Nintendo game cartridge could offer You weren’t taking on a repetitively obvious game algorithm, but a real thinking person that learned and adapted. Ironically, chatting with them on the sidelines between rounds often became more fun than the battle itself.
Then I found a game called Travian. It was supposed to be a 5 minute time-waster between rounds of Quake or Medal of Honour. Soon the OSS MOH clan was abandoned as Travian consumed hours of gametime for calculating attack times, planning military expansion, and manipulating delicate alliances between rivalling tribes. Travian had no moving graphics, no headshots, not even the *beeps* of the old time Atari console. So why did it become one of the biggest game obsessions in my life? Politics, alliances, in game PMs, and clan forums. Each alliance formed out of a complex system of rank, creating an virtual autocratic tribe. When you destroyed villages that took 9 months for a player to build or brought down an alliance that involved dozens of players, the feeling was unlike any other gaming victory, ever. All of which was only possible through the hundreds of messages amassed on a BBS forum, the central nervous system of 250 players. And so, the GAME0VER clan conquered all who stood before it.
Nevertheless, the hours spent raiding villages and the waking in the middle of the night to send out attack parties began to wear thin. The grind of accumulating resources, building armies, and managing build queues began to take its RL toll. Then it was over and the winner declared after more than a year of battling for virtual territory. Endgame brought the Big Reset and hours of work vanished as a new world was recreated. “What a waste of life,” I thought, “No more MMORPGs for me.”
Everytime I try to get out…it pulls me right back in
A year later I clicked on a nondescript banner a
😛“A new war is about to begin.” What I found was no resource grind, no need for elaborate attack plans, and no headshots or gory violence or concussive BOOMs from the subwoofer. But there were the forums and in-game PMs, goofy chats and serious plotting. Without the need to click for hours on resource and military tabs, one was freed to experience the online community. eRepublik seemed to offer the promise of online strategy gaming without the time commitment. Boy was I ever wrong.
eRep invades you, changing you into an e-citizen, warping reality. I blame the media. It’s that familiar RL catchphrase for so many of our social problems. “It’s the media’s fault for ruining my son’s attention span, for making violent teens, for dumbing down our kids as they watch hours of TV.” “The government controls you with it.” “Hollywood brainwashes you with its fantasies.” “The news reporter scares you stupid with their fear mongering headlines.” And it's true we are immune/When fact is fiction and TV reality/And today the millions cry/We eat and drink while tomorrow they die. - "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" - War.
Media – the community scapegoat.
So I blame the eRep media module for again making me a MMORPG e-addict. Reading and writing articles consumes more time than any other eRep activity. To ‘know’ is to ‘win’ and there’ plenty to keep tabs on. How else can one win at this game without following the dozens of articles published each day? How else can I know when the next Hungarian invasion is coming? When the next series of ‘farticles’ is out?
There’s only one reason I continue to play this buggy game. eRepublik has brought together two of my biggest passions: reading and gaming, literature and competition, art and war.
“Here alone [Urizen] in books form’d of metals
Have written the secrets of wisdom
The secrets of dark contemplation
By fightings and conflicts dire.”
--William Blake, The Book of Urizen
A Member of the Writers' Guild of Canada
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Comments
Alright let me just open a large package of junior mints and get started on this. English final be damned!
Part 1 complete. I give it 13 inappropriate bum pats out of 15. Fantastic!
Great article Plugson!
I wanted to put hyperlinks in my article to give credit for the headline images. It wouldn't work - blank screen.
They're all taken from William Blake's _Book of Urizen_. It's dark stuff, but cool in its own way. Here's what the Wiki has to say about it:
The Book of Urizen is one of the major prophetic books of the English poet William Blake, illustrated by Blake's own plates.
The book takes its name from the character Urizen in Blake's mythology, who represents alienated reason as the source of oppression. In form the book is a parody of the Book of Genesis.
Ya plug I have problems with hyperlinks too. eRep seems to have a low tolerance for them.
omg this is awesome!
wicked awesome...but instead of travian, the game i play just goes out and says it: tribal wars.
heh, its like seeing me, cept a coupe years older, and 6 IQ points smarter. 6 was a random number in case you were wondering.
voted
1) damn good work plugson
2) hey dade long time no see 😛
voted
I know this comment is way overdue, but this article is amazing.. 😃