Fix eRepublik
Major Lee Hung
Many people will often write "fix economy" to address their issues with the broken aspects of the game; I feel that this doesn't cut it however. The game needs some major fundamental changes to avoid falling any further.
Player-base
Over the last 12 months, we've seen the once flourishing international eRepublik communities diminish to almost non-existence. National forums now lie silent, key community figures from every country have gone. No new people are anywhere to be found in the majority of countries.
This severe drop in players shows that no matter how good a community, the base game itself is impeding all user-led retention efforts. We've been told in the past "but eRepublik is just a platform for the community! You don't need changes!"; unfortunately the world isn't that simple. People will find friends here, yes. Surprisingly, they also remain friends. If they don't like your game? They simply move their community elsewhere. We're seeing this happen every single month.
Changes, Promises
For at least two years now, our eRepublik Team have told us constantly that changes are coming - that they're devoted to keeping eRepublik fun. It seems the old, fun eRepublik has now been buried by short-sited views on how to monetise the product.
Every single month that passes makes me question; is anything Plato has promised going to materialise?
-Talk of big changes to the MU system long ago that never happened.
-Released concept art and various hints of a new economy module have resulted in nothing.
-Rumoured overhaul of the political module never happened.
All we've had in two years on the above? A few changes to the interface. There's been no real fundamental change to anything except ways to get people spending gold on stupid additions like the Power Spin.
I can't help notice that subsequently, old eRepublik friends are vanishing monthly. I myself and I'm sure most of us will vanish soon too with the way things are going.
Fundamental Issues
A lot of the problems in today's eRepublik can be followed down in to two key root issues:
-Very short-term thinking by the powers that be, making eRepublik today almost impossible to enjoy, completely aimless and more of a daily chore than a game.
-A desire to extract as much revenue from eRepublik as possible.
Consider this an example: You joined a few months ago and see today your country is under attack. You want to do your bit. You buy a €100 gold pack and convert it in to energy bars. You use them all, only to discover that people who have played longer than you are able to do about 4 times as much damage - no matter how much rl money you throw at the battle, you just can't make a significant difference. A couple of guys using their hard worker medal & SS medal gold from last week were able to deal as much damage as you.
In terms Plato understands? There's no incentive for the older players to buy gold, and there's no point in the newer player buying it - eRepublik has become a lose-lose situation.
What is the Purpose of eLife?
There's no purpose in the game; Plato is asking the wrong questions. He wants to know what modules we enjoy, I'm sure he can use that for a few more gold sales. However, the key question? Plato should be asking us what our aims are. What are the aspirations of the players?
This is the problem that faces eRepublik now. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that I find the military module, which has been made the core module of the game, very disenchanting. I'm not a new player but I only started gold training a few months ago as I'd lost interest in the economic module and wanted to find a new interest.
No matter how many energy bars I use, I can barely make a difference to most battles. Somebody who isn't even a gold buyer can easily out-do somebody who could be a very significant gold buyer in the future, simply because this strength issue has been allowed to run on for way too long.
My 1,000 kills might get a decent 100,000,000 influence, but if the battle is important, somebody with an equal number of kills is going to do about half a billion damage in the battle, rendering me completely useless in the military module.
Solutions?
As a community, I believe that we should be listened to more. As the game is now basically falling apart and the number of active citizens continues to fall, Plato should now be asking the players, "where did I go wrong?".
So write in the comments, what would you do to change eRepublik? Where do you think Plato has gone wrong? Let's get our ideas finally heard!
Comments
Great article (pertamax), I'll post my thoughts shortly.
this article misses an importan point, sometimes , there's no intelligent listener at the other side.
Change is needed, war should be fun and important, not a pointless waste of money,
to faten Platos loaded pockets!! 🙁
Well about three years back, at least in eJapan, the focus of everyday life was the media and the politics. The game was played on the forums. Simply put, the military module has been overemphasized. It's all about war now, nothing more. Communities don't exist anymore because they don't need to. Just freak out, break stuff, repeat. I say, just as a general suggestion, we close ranks, and establish that core. In eCanada, there IS an active core, it just isn't exploited. As for the game, de-emphasize war and re-emphasize politics and economy.
And bring back Orgs and company names. That was cool. In fact, bring v1 back. That was coolest.
#V1MoreFun
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I swear, one day I'll get a hang of this reply system.
The reason they won't bring V1 back is because eRepublik actually was operating at a loss at that time, but arguably for different reasons than the base module of V1. No matter how bad this current version of the game is compared to the others, it at least generates big profits for Plato. The best solution would not be to bring V1 back, but to start focusing on improving things in the economic and political arenas.
Although Plato has fiddled with the economy every now and then, the framework of it has stayed more or less the same since V2 was removed. Politics on the other hand, has remained almost exactly the same since V1, maybe earlier (I didn't play Beta). War on the other hand has gotten almost all the attention. And while I like what they have done in many regards with it, that doesn't change the fact that the economic and political modules which used to be on even footing with the war module are now completely lackluster.
You're forgetting the change from regional elections to simply voting for a party. While it's arguably more democratic, it also eliminated election day strategy, which some people enjoyed.
In fact, looking back while many of the improvements to the political module (or other modules impacting the political module like, for example, getting rid of national currencies) made a lot of sense they actually made politics more boring, even if it was the attempts to overcome flaws in game mechanics which gave our governments a purpose.
Overall, there's been an incredible simplification of the game which has reduced the need for strategy, planning and coordinated activity right across the board.
Beating a dead horse... people have been saying this ever since I started playing a few years ago.
I am lucky if my 1000 kills give me 1 million influence, may as well just be a farmer and grow grain and fruits lol.
For years very intelligent people have been freely giving eRepublik smart ideas on how to improve the game. The problem? eRepublik simply doesn't care. I suspect they will ride this horse as is until it drops dead, then simply walk away with some very full pockets. Basically, they are still here because we're still here and for as much as we are confused that the game still sucks, they are probably equally confused that we are still playing it.
Seriously brilliant article though. Voted.
Nostalgia.jpg
Well said, but no matter how many of these articles are written, Plato simply will not listen. I think last year sometime around this time or possibly later I wrote an article on similar lines, and I've seen others in the international media too. But each time we want to change something to make the game better, Plato just says "no" and tries to find another way to suck revenue out of the game.
The only thing that would even remotely make them consider changes is if their revenue started dropping. If everyone banded together and started complaining about the bad nature of the game as it stands today, and has stood for the better portion of four years, we wouldn't see anything happen. But if those same people made the same complaints AND stopped lining Plato's pockets, then we might see change. The real way to get Plato to change is to stop buying his product, everyone must STOP BUYING ANYTHING FROM PLATO. Only when we started burning his wallet will we see the changes we want.
Change is always linked to the wallets
This month: 290 votes for CP
January 2014: 328 votes for CP
June 2013: 256 votes for CP
January 2013: 432 votes
June 2012: 560 votes
January 2012: 650 votes
Game's been dead in Canada for a long time, but yikes it's really starting to decompose now...
Any good politician knows that using the phrase "It's under review" can, when appropriately applied, last for a full term of office. Unfortunately, that same phrase can be misused by other than politicians.
I don't understand why people still spend RL money on this game.
I only spend 25$ back in V1 to buy a Q1 house company. 2 days later, I lost the value of my house company since the admin all changed the economic module for the lame checker military module.
I never bought gold again after that and I'm quite happy about it. : )
community, that's the problem and the answer. back when there was a single wall in battles, players would team up together near the end of fights to push the wall.. It was efficient. I was in eUS Military, we coordinated attacks and that helped build up our community and a bond between players. It was also nice to see that you can contribute to something and see that you are actually make a difference in wars. The only time I see that now is whenever I pull out a few hundred EBs and tank for a small battle.
But how do you fix something that isn't broken? This game is absolutely great right now. Plato please give us a new tournament after these missions, I want to get some badges and lay down some more damage! YEAAH BOOOM HA! BDAKMHEKAMHKMAENKAMEAEHKEAMEKMHAKMHEAHBABA.
*is driven off to the looney bin*
CSRF attack detected. WTF, let me type my response again.
The game was better 3 years ago, the admins have dumb down the game to the point there is no real strategy or thought processes necessary to play. I wonder if that is because they have gotten lazy or just no longer care.
"no real strategy or thought processes" I may have been just slightly off, but only as it applies to avoiding the CRSF eat your text bullshit.
Admins don't want intelligent strategists playing this game because they don't spend RL money. Admins want stupid, ego-driven rich kids to play the game and spend RL money to feel superior in the eWorld.
Shaun just steady playa hatin cause he ain't got a rich daddy like me 😃
I'm my own rich daddy 😉 But I choose to spend my money on RL things. I have a fear that spending money on eRep (or any online game I play) will take the fun out of it for me.
For the better or worse I'm Daddy Warbucks and throw fake money that I pay for with RL money around a lot. Mostly to help my country and friends. The 'thrill' I get from dropping 500m dmg and winning a round is not found in the BH. I get all these PM's and comments "Oooh!" & "Aaah!". At least I hope it makes my friends happy when they see me go nuts. If not then I am indeed wasting my money and time as I only do it for them.
TBH, if I had something to do IRL I probably would waste my money here.
Dill's deep pockets do make me jealous. Perhaps I should start performing eFavors for him so he'll buy me some eStuff.
Great article and I agree with it 95%.
But admins already have the solution, new server. one-fix-4-all! LMAO
Voted for V2 Panzer General nostalgia.
Great article
Well... asdf.. ghjk....
It sure is boring, sucks to see so many good ideas wasted.
Good summary though, voted.
Wigs ban articles they don't read'em
I'm a relative newbie here (D1), but I definitely agree with the points you've made.
I don't have any suggestions yet about how to improve the game, as I'm still trying to learn how to play. But just coming here and fighting, day after day, is tedious.
If you go, let us know where you're going!
Thumb
It has been suggested before, a long, long, time ago...
In a galaxy far, far away...
RESET
Everybody goes back to zero.
Yes I'd be pissed. I've spent a lot of RL cash building my commune and helping others in my MU building theirs. I've many pixelated trinkets that I've collected also. But seriously, one big thing that plagues eRep is that you can NEVER catch anyone ahead of you unless they leave the game. Strength, rank just can't be gained any faster than maximum. More fighting and WaM'ing makes more XP, but exactly what does that get you? I remember when I hit 20 XP and thought I had made it. Now I'm at 110 XP and it means nothing.
The people like me will stay if the game is interesting and has some strategy. If a second server is created because they want to keep this old cash cow it will fail because most likely it would divide the community of players even further. But if it must be, the new game should be set up completely different. I won't waste your time and mine explaining my thoughts here but I do have some serious ideas. Perhaps I'll write an article and send a ticket with a link. 🙂
More reason for the new server 😃
Bring the hexagonal fighting module back. A lot of IRC talk and actual involvement in the game play.
You watch your mouth. Every part of V2 was bad and you should feel bad. lol 😉
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Customer service is crap.
Admins steal, lie and cheat. F this game.
I can't even submit tickets anymore 🙁
I do and with my issue they told me the burden of proof was on me. I asked them to simple check there server logs.
Which they did and even so much as agreed with me but still will not fix the issue.
Since there servers never make a mistake the burden of proof is on me. How can I disprove something I don't have access to?
I will not spend anymore real money on this game, nope never.
One time, I tried buying my very first war stash. My paypal glitched, and said that the payment did not go through, but erepublik said it did, although I was not credited, nor charged.
I sent a screenshot of the mess, and an explanation to them as a ticket, and went to bed... I wasn't expecting anything other than a "We're sorry... blah blah... error in the system... blah... try again"
Instead, I woke up to 50 gold richer and a bunch of EB's and small bombs.. Turns out, their servers logged a payment after all 😉
I said thanks and went on my merry way. 10/10 Customer service, would glitch again.