Day 2000 Reflection: It's Remarkable

Day 2,000, 18:39 • Published in USA USA • by Derphoof


It’s remarkable, isn’t it?

This game has hit Day 2000.

This game that we’ve long criticized for so many things is still running. It is still online and still making a profit.

We complain about all kinds of things here. We get irritated with each other. We hate Plato’s gold grabs. The economy module is trash. The war module is extremely simplistic. The congress election system sucks. The admins screwed over the community with V2. The list truly does go on and on and on....

Yet, after all of that, we still find ourselves logging in, mashing the fight button, getting onto forums/IRC, and even buying gold.

It’s remarkable, isn’t it?

Yet, even though many of us have been playing for a long time, we are still searching for reason in this “New World.” Many people claim that they simply aren’t having fun in this game. It’s been all over the media: “We need more fun.” People have been logging in for months and years and have either never found their niche in this game or have lost sight of what makes them have fun in the game.

It’s remarkable, isn’t it?

There are all kinds of ways to have fun in this game. It’s virtually unlimited. You can roleplay as something completely different from what you are in real life. You can be an arrogant a**hole, a staunch elitist, vocally anti-government, a religious zealot, a proficient journalist, a goldbeasting tank and more.

If you can think it up, chances are that you can be that person. You can find your own niche, be it a style of play or a different personality.

Personally, I never found any satisfaction in mashing the fight button. After all, I can’t be a tank cause I’m a frugal college student. In fact, my local bank won’t even authorize international transactions! So I’m a bit out of luck there.... Plus, I don’t have some zealous nationalist feeling that keeps me fighting for my country as though I live in a Balkan nation.

I’ve found my enjoyment in my daily interactions with the community. From general chat to strategizing, meeting on forums/IRC, and annoying/humoring people with the praise of Dio, I interact with various facets of the eRep community. In this diverse community, I’ve found all kinds of people. I’ve found those who troll, those who inspire, those who drive, and those who make me laugh.

It’s the reason I come back day after day. Go ahead and look at my eGov stats. I simply don’t care about much about interacting with the game mechanics. I care about the community and they help me to enjoy my time here. I decided to get myself into government in order to listen to the community and try to translate what I hear from the community into government action. I try to reconcile the wants of the people with long term strategy. I try to help the community.

However, you can’t rely on others to create that fun for you. I have no idea why you people are here! You can’t hope the government creates some initiative, program, or war that will miraculously save you from your boredom. You need to find what you enjoy about this game, and pursue it.

I love when I see other people do this. I delight in seeing US-AIM mess with our enemies in TWO. I’ve gotten inspiration, good reads, and lulz out of articles from people like Glove and Emerick. Its great to see someone like Stewy impose self-exile from his party, join the AFA, and write about his experience, much to our collective enjoyment.

Even so, there are two things I think the government can do in order to help the community enjoy itself:

1) This should be the last month of Unity Elections.

The PTO has been on a serious decline. They have about 900-1000 members in our country. In the last elections, they’ve had declines, most notably in the CP elections. I expect that trend to continue to the point that they are safely below 27.5% in CP elections, giving plenty of room to have a free 2 candidate race considering the percentage earned by the unity candidate.

2) Glorious Conquest

Okay, so it may not be glorious. The only people we can invade are TWO members to the North and to the East. TWO is not going to start the war until they feel completely ready to do so.

So why should we wait on Servia & Co to be ready to invade us? Why let them start the war on their terms?

The citizens of former EDEN nations would likely be split in their allegiances for and against TWO. Not many of them may immediately jump over to help Serbia. Look at Romania: after signing MPPs with TWO nations, their biggest MU hit against Poland and severed their empire.

Why should we let TWO win over the citizens of old enemies with deep seeded hatred? We should seize on the moment, take the battle to TWO and use old EDEN feelings to our advantage. Even it means just attempting to free our neighbors to the north.


Now, these are popular ideas and they may help the country to enjoy itself, but that enjoyment won’t last forever. If we got wiped by TWO, you may not be enthralled with living in an occupied nation fighting constant RWs. You’d continue to have to find your niche and search for what makes you want to play this game. You’d have to make your own enjoyment.

We’d wind up back at square one, but at least we would’ve had a good time fighting TWO and engaging in fierce trolling wars. After all, nothing the government does will keep you occupied and happy forever.

You can’t rely on others to hand you happiness.

You can go enjoy the community, roleplay as someone completely different than yourself, tank for your country, lead your country, found eReligions, form various groups... and so much more.

No matter how much we play, how much we criticize the game, bicker amongst ourselves, or get defeated on the battlefield, we keep finding reasons to login and different ways to play.

However bad the game may get, there will always be an endless amount of ways to enjoy yourselves in this game.

How you play and enjoy yourself is entirely up to you.

It’s remarkable, isn’t it?