Arken Publishing

I have gotten questions regarding the general game situation. Since most employees of this company are relatively new, I though that this might be of general interest. If you already have a good handle on things, feel free to ignore this article. Bear in mind that this is simply my take on events. Other players will have a different perspective.


International Situation
The world is split into two blocks, ATLANTIS and PEACE. We are the largest eRepublik country, but we have not always been that well organized and our military endeavors have met with limited success. Romania and Indonesia have fewer citizens, but have both waged a series of successful wars and conquered a large territory. They are considered the two rival Super Powers of the game. We are part of ATLANTIS with Romania. Indonesia and its allies make up PEACE.

We are technically in several wars, though there has been no actual fighting in most of them for some time. Awhile back we invaded France as part of a multi-pronged attack with the Spanish, British, and Canadians. We took some French provinces initially, but other PEACE countries came to their aid and drove us back out. About the same time we had an equally fruitless war with Portugal. We are also aiding Argentina, which was attacked by Indonesia and Brazil. All of these wars petered out a while ago, but we haven’t technically made peace.

Recently, we invaded Mexico on the grounds that Polish infiltrators had gotten control of the government. We rolled over most of the country, but when we reached a province with access to Portugal, the Portuguese invaded the American occupied territories and a number of other countries invoked defense pacts with Mexico. Outnumbered, we backed off so that the Portugal couldn’t simply annex the whole country.

We are currently involved in war games with Mexico. Essentially, we paid them to allow us to invade and temporarily occupy Baja. Resistance wars are being declared in Baja at regular intervals, allowing us regular opportunities to fight, thus earning experience and building up our potential to inflict damage.

A complete list of our current wars and alliances can be found here: http://www.erepublik.com/en/country/military/USA


Domestic Politics
We have had a rocky period in domestic politics. A little while back, someone managed to gain access to the government accounts and stole the treasury. The government raised taxes to replenish their funds. Since then , there has been some controversy over the level of taxes and the use of funds.

As mentioned above, there was also a war in Mexico that ended in a debacle. Part of the problem (in addition to being outnumbered) was a drop in the supply of iron that caused the cost of weapons to nearly double overnight. The main solution that has been floating around is the creation of government owned weapons and iron companies to ensure that the military has access to guns in time of war.

The straw that broke the camel’s back for the last administration was a scandal involving treasury funds given to a handful of influential players for use in a military operation in Romania. Many questioned the both the propriety and the military rationale for this action. Though it was widely acknowledged that Congress shared in the blame (they had authorized very open ended appropriations with very little oversight) the President was impeached, making the VP, Scrabman, the acting President. In the last election, he was elected to the Presidency in his own right.

Overall, the dominant party is a left of center party called the United States Workers Party, President Scrabman‘s party. The Libertarian Party used to be the strongest right of center party, but the Libertarians became directionless and disorganized. The Conservative Party, led by Desertfalcon, recently eclipsed them as the leading conservative opposition party. The conservatives tend to favor lower taxes and fewer government programs. Desertfalcon also favored breaking ranks with ATLANTIS to try to form a third alliance. After having lost several times, he announced that he would not run for President next election, so it is unclear who will fill the void.

The top 5 finishers of the last election can be found here: http://www.erepublik.com/en/elections/country-24-election-president-date-2009-04/1

The method of election tends to maintain a multiparty system. The top 5 parties are able to put up candidates for Congress. Additionally, since a party won’t be able to field a decent candidate in every state, members of smaller parties are often allowed to temporarily switch parties in order to enter a race. This makes it all but impossible for any party to hold a majority in their own right. The USWP generally has a plurality. Also, successful Presidential bids will involve a candidate from a major party with the backing of several smaller parties. Since both branches of the government involve a lot of coalition building and inter-party negotiation, eRepublik politics can be a bit opaque to those outside the government.


The Economic Situation
As I mentioned above income taxes are a bit higher than usual. There has been controversy over spending. Some have criticized the high price of the war games in Mexico, though the program has been quite popular on the whole. Another major focus is on increasing the number of Q5 hospitals. For a while, Florida was our only Q5 hospital. A second was recently added in New Jersey.

Trade policy is shaped by the availability of resources. The eUSA has several regions with high productivity in grain, wood, and oil. Our best iron and diamond producing states are only medium productivity. In order to be completive, land based companies should be located in regions with the maximum possible productivity level so that you can produce more with a given amount of work. This is why I started Arken Petroleum in Illinois. Anyone intent on starting a land based company in the future should pay attention to the resources available in each state.

Currently, we have low tariffs on iron and diamonds to give our weapon and gift companies an opportunity to buy cheaper raw materials overseas. Some countries, like the UK, take the opposite approach, imposing prohibitively high tariffs to allow protect domestic suppliers of raw materials.


Helpful Links
eRepublik Wikipedia site:
http://wiki.erepublik.com/index.php/Main_Page

eUSA forum:
http://eusforum.com/index.php

Political Party public forums:
http://eusforum.com/index.php/board,14.0.html

World Map:
http://www.egobba.de/

Economic info:
http://ereptools.pl/

Inter-player Trading
eRepublik Ads:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/Other-Announcements/1

eRepublik Contracts:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/Contracts/1

eUSA Flea Market:
http://eusforum.com/index.php/board,32.0.html

Military Enlistment Forms
National Guard:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cHRRSUFEbFdjSHVYNG4zN2t2S0phTHc6MA..

Army:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cC1RejQwOFdZbTIzbDFMQmFhX2RaTGc6MA..

Marines:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=poOhut5wv-oCCJt5F4NyEGA&hl=en