An Old Soldier never dies...but eRep fades away. Before we go, some thoughts.

Day 2,481, 20:35 Published in USA USA by Candor

I think we're about out of time.


Maybe 20 of you will read the following, and that’s fine. I have a few reflections on the last 5 years of “playing” eRep I’d like to get out. And in advance, no I’m not “quitting”. But it does seem to me that this game MAY be seeing its last days. I may wake up some time in the next year and you all aren't “here” anymore. The game is off, the Admins let go, the servers sold, the doors locked.

This article is a blur of real life and game thoughts.

eRepublik is a business in real life. A product is produced and sold. You are the buyers. Recently I've argued that they've been “selling” to the wrong audience, that you yourselves should be part of the product, rather than the customers or buyers. As an audience, your market value likely exceeds your consumption value. Why the folks at eRep never sold ad space like every other community medium is beyond me. But they didn't, so I move on.

Each of us gets something out of participating in this community. There’s no way I can recall everyone I've played with or been friends with over the past 5 years. Nor will I try to recall every great moment I’ve had in this game, or the things that I’ve done.

I WILL say that most of the things I’ve “done”, things that would be “measurable”, happened behind the scenes. The further behind the scenes the better. Out in front, in public, I’ve attempted to add where I see national weakness, and slow or deter where I’ve seen the negative.

One more recent, relatively speaking, activity that I will confirm for the record here and now, though without much detail. Colin, Max and I ran a VERY closed Op as part of our ATO activities a couple of years ago. An operation which took many months to plan, and saw much of our planning come to fruition. I’d say from start to close the operation was almost a year long. I could list three very measurable results here and now, but I won’t. These things go to the grave.

In a closed Op, there are very serious “Need To Know” considerations. I will say that the DCIA was aware and briefed as needed, and that the DCIA may or may not have found it necessary to expand that NTK circle. That’s outside my NTK. Directly, we only briefed in two sitting Presidents. It was that deep.

My thanks go out to that DCIA for tightly controlling that circle and that operational knowledge. That DCIA has a lot of character. That Op to this day never leaked, as far as I know. And had it, it wouldn’t have produced the results it did. A take away lesson, for those who care to take away anything I share: Not everything one does needs kudos or ribbons. Some things provide an inner satisfaction that feels even better.

I also want to say that regardless of anyone’s personal feelings wrt Max and Colin, they’re also two people who have always played with a big-picture view of the eWorld and our communities place in it. They loved our community as an organism.

Josh Whitehead ran the most fun radio program to listen to, though I never heard everyone's to be fair. Josh was a crack up. And here I was, for fun and all.

Next, I want to mention a couple of people who are quite different people but also have had quite a lot to do with shaping our community, and do so still.

Rainy Sunday. A person I’ve always trusted to the core. And you know why? She has a lot of character too. Regardless of what you see overtly, she’s a person who has always played an ethical game with the best long term interests of the community at heart. Whether or not she agrees with a person, to my knowledge no one has ever accused her of spilling any secrets shared in confidence. Rainy is a good person.

Pfieffer. He’d be the first to admit he can be an asshole. But he plays for this team, and at times in his career he’s played nearly 24/7. His influence has waned and ebbed over the years, heck his role model was once Cromstar if I recall. So once even he didn’t see himself as the Top Dog. But if we want to say Pfieffer is now, or was once, Top Dog, we should recognize that via button pushing and politicking, he earned that spot. And so within the realm of eWorld, the guy deserves some respect. Thems one helluva a lot of hours and work he put in over the years. This game was a very important part of his life for years. I hope he takes away lessons from his time here and utilizes those skills in the real world to produce a better widget somewhere out there.

And the rest of us can take lessons from how he “won” the game of politics. The things we would have been willing to do to “win”, and maybe the things we wouldn’t have been willing to do. Or if “winning” even matters to us at all. And how DO we each define, “winning”, in a situationally specific context?

Pfieffer long ago won eRep, if there’s a personal “win” to be had politically. No one else fits my own definition to place in that same category.

Either way. Real life things worth thinking about.

I don’t want to make this a long list of names. Although everyone LIKES long lists of names. We all like to see our own name in lights, or those of others we know. But that would go on for hours. So sorry, my friends. Not being included today doesn’t make you unimportant in my personal game experience. Those of you who I love, loved, and trust, trusted over the years, you KNOW who you are. I hope.

I ramble today. Not writing this with any specific outline.

Some random thoughts:

iNCi: They were a significant happening. They died out on their own as a power. We handled that event…poorly, but we managed. Mostly we survived out of luck, since there was no over all long term strategy. It was always in flux, month to month, POTUS to POTUS.

S.E.E.S: If you know nothing about that happening, apologies. Those who were on the inside during its glory days know NOTHING had more effect on the game than S.E.E.S. during the time they were active. No “political party” before or since had the lifespan or the legend of events. If you were to compare it to the USWP in USWP glory days, you’d be entirely missing the point. SEES wasn’t a party, it was a movement, an idea. They PLAYED the game. The whole game. What shocked me in the long term was that no one else picked up on their lessons and ran with them. But I’d argue that today’s “Unified Command”, the effective control of the eUS by basically amiable T5’s today, is a direct result of SEES polar opposite premise of organized exclusivity. The rubber band effect.

Enough about SEES. But if the body politik has a life, SEES was it’s teen years. They were glorious.

Oblige: Oblige plays for our team. But Oblige also plays for Oblige more than most. And from my perspective, at times he’s been lacking in the character department. Not wholly lacking, but willing to do less than honorable things. Because of that, he lost my trust years ago. I never was active enough during the “Oblige Period” to come to understand him entirely, I’ll confess that much. But he’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met, even in real life. He’s a pretty private guy really, wrt real life. But my GUESS has always been that he has some eastern European background, though maybe not immediate. He just has an…unexplainable sense of right and wrong. It’s malleable, and it’s Oblige-centric except when it doesn’t matter to Oblige, then he does the right thing.

Apologies to Oblige for picking on him. If he hadn’t been POTUS a record number of times, he wouldn’t be worth mentioning. But since he has, he’s become institutional to eRep/Amurikan history. So if I’m writing historical thoughts, I can’t exactly leave him unmentioned. If you play politics, you invite commentary. So I don’t expect Oblige will take my thoughts too personally.

EVERYONE who contributed many, many hours over the years to any position in eUS government. Lots of thankless jobs. What would we been as a team without all that effort? I hope those people learned something about sacrifice and commitment. Service. Kudos to all the hundreds of you.

And few of you know this, its not a glory jerb, but the guys who've run the "bank" over the years. How many of you have thought much about how the money comes in or pays out? These guys have done it. Not Congress. A tiny group of peeps. Thank you guys.

Emmerik: Possibly one of the most artistically talented minds I’ve ever known, inside or outside eRepublik. I describe Emmerik-Speak as Urban Poetry. Very intelligent. And like many great minds, personally troubled in many ways. But no one else in this game in my experience can touch or did touch his level of artistry. I didn’t know Dio, maybe some would argue Dio met and exceeded Emerrik’s mind. I hope that guy finds his place in the world. I miss his work, I truly do. Prayers to Brian.

Cromstar: Technocrat extraordinaire. In a positive way.

All those old Libs: Claire and all the gay fellas: Lots of fun, maybe the best small community within the larger community that ever existed. Worth a mention from my perspective.

My NoS friends: Great bunch of people over the years. Nary a one a very serious player, all here for the community. The NoS were and continue to be the anti-thesis to a political movement. As a group, the cohesive element about being a NoS was fun and community. Brotherhood. The light, good-hearted kind. In our heyday, we participated in a very active way in various nefarious and mischievous activities. And they were glorious times.

Today, NoS is a living memorial. An old hometown that progress passed by. But it’s still home.

My very special friend the illustrious, glorious, super goat-herding Super Grand General Cyber Witch. I’m mentioning her specifically because she represents, to me, the eUS Military, and a whole lot of great friends over the years. Folks who enjoy/enjoyed a segment of the game I never got into, but respected THEIR interest. Some folks over the years have even tried to convince me THIS is a war game! Now I’ve played war games. I’ve participated in real life war games, at that. You could never convince me that eRep is a very GOOD war game, but I’ll defer to those vested in the module. I say eRep is a community that often focuses around international PEOPLE relationships which include a facet of a war game like function. Or something like that. But the folks who’ve made an eLife around the war module, I have so much respect for that community.

When the eUS and the eUS Military separated ways, that was a bad day for our community. And no one will ever convince me otherwise. Multiple independent militias has never worked well toward growing our community TOGETHER. It set us up as hundred “us and them” scenarios over the following years. It splits communities. It’s the opposite of community.

CW is a woman of character. Her word is her bond. And we are all as good as our word. Plus, she’s quite funny. And I’ve been here for fun.

Moving on.

Pizza The Hut. Or whatever he goes by now or in the past. AJ Bruno: The guy must have thick skin. But he’s a person. A person lacking a lot of character, certainly. Those of you who participated in throwing jabs though at the guy…and personal jabs at that…you’ve got room for personal growth as well. It was always interesting to watch. Sad, disturbing, train-wreckish. Sometimes the vitriol was scary, as a community. Like a riot, where individuals lose their personal sense of responsibility. It’s ok cuz EVERYONE’s doing it, right?

Beating AJ, as a community goal, was great. Beating AJ on the individual level was often quite horrific. Lord of The Flies stuff. Some of you need…something. A core sense of…hmmm. I’m just going to move on.

Omg this is getting too long.

The new Congressional Mod has always sucked. The way the T5’s have set up Primaries and worked TOGETHER in elections has sucked, and adds to our demise, honestly.

The eUS Forum: Kudo’s to all in that regard. Could it have been run with a kinder modulation? I never decided. I know I would have demanded it were I more involved it that aspect of the game. If that kinder moding would have helped or hindered the nation’s growth, participation and unity, I’ve never solidified an opinion, frankly. All I can say is that character matters, it’s all we ever really own and take with us to the grave. I have had many interesting conversations on that forum, and I thank those who have kept it running. We would definitely be a weaker community had we NOT had a national forum of some sort. A year or so ago I put my money where my convictions lay and contributed $50 to their upkeep. Those who can afford to give something and have spent as many hours as I have there should equally give something. Imho.

Gaylor😛 Miss that fishy/I think NSA employee/old man 😉 Good guy.

ANY PRESIDENT: The HOURS these people put in. Well, most of them, lol. We tend to think of POTUS as the ultimate "award" in eRep. But I'd think many of those folks would say the work wasn't worth the reward. It's a JOB that lasts all month long, 100+ hours a week. So thanks to those who did it. Admiration galore for those who did it well.

Alright screw it I’m gonna wrap it up with two final thoughts.

1) Character matters. And this community has given thousands of people the opportunity to measure and mold their own. To experiment and grow. To learn a lot about people. eRep has been a great community experiment. Sk yourself where you measured up. And ask yourself if you are 100% the same person for your time here, as you were coming in. How much did power mean to you? How much did kudos and recognition mean to you? How did you treat people?

I wasn’t perfect. But I grew, and I paid attention. My time was never truly wasted. I take away real life lessons.

2) Wasn’t it a trip to meet people from all over the real world? Where else in our personal, real lives, do we do that? We’re all just people, in the end. To my Albanian friends, and all the rest, man it was good getting to know you all.

Ok forget it that’s it for now. Maybe this is all I’ll ever share about this kind of thing actually. Real life, and eRep blurred.

eRep should never be looked back upon as a time suck/waste of a period in our lives. It most certainly wasn't, to those who invested lots of time. It’s been a community, an international community, simply given a collective scenario for focus.

Think about what each of us personally can take away from our time here. And don’t think anything of it if you weren't mentioned by name. I was trying to touch on players who I thought had a lot of impact on a grand scale, not friends alone. I barely touched on friends at all, except where the two roles crossed. In my rushed writing without edits or format, btw.

Love you bunches-

Candor

_________________________________________________________________________________
ADDITIONS
_________________________________________________________________________________

CHICKENGUYS/Walter Bishop:

There are a few folks who probably SHOULD be included, forces of nature or influence. I'm willing to give my perspective on them as people mention them.

Chickensguys: You're legend in certain quarters. Primarily, I've found your over-all game play as entertaining, but not "driving" in any significant way. What I might take away wrt you is that through persistence you found your way into the main stream, if always mostly controversial. Remember the days when no one wanted you on the eForums? The right people eventually found you entertaining enough to get past those opinions and let you play in the sandbox. If for entertainment, mostly.

Btw, was the incoherence when you started playing a total character act? I honestly argued you were probably retarded to many at the time and that we ought to have more tolerance. I don't think you recovered from being retarded, so you never were. So was that just an act?? But I've always liked you 🙂

_________________________________________________________________________________

Ghost of Tom Joa😛 A good guy, an ethical guy, a guy interested in learning. An independent mind. Not a person to be found who's known this guy who has found any reason to dislike this guy, I expect. My friend!