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What is this?

You are reading an article written by a citizen of eRepublik, an immersive multiplayer strategy game based on real life countries. Create your own character and help your country achieve its glory while establishing yourself as a war hero, renowned publisher or finance guru.

I rather missed doing these.

Day 1,968, 00:24 • Published in USA USA

• by Blank Keating

Peekaboo.

So here I was, avoiding college assignments and checking up on the game I left behind quite sometime ago. I read through some of my articles, checked my wiki, and just sifted around the place. I noticed one trend, which is that by and large, I took this game way too seriously. There are times when I would get genuinely mad or depressed with the state of things. I realized along the way that I didn't regret it at all.

Why?

Because I was having fun. Whether it was fighting PTH and Pumpkinette with each hand, shouting until my eyes turned red to get my article to the top, or just screaming in rage at the gold sinks, I was having fun.

I looked around and I saw a lot had changed. Ligtreb, Fingerguns, a lot of people are back. Some people are gone. We're allied with Macedonia now. I can also apparently duel the headless chicken. Some things never change. Pfeiffer has the #1 article. ONE is "TWO". My alert list is still bugged to say there's one when there's not.

I know most people who do these articles come back with a huge legend of real life success. "I used eRep as a resume line and suddenly I'm the president of Lichtenstein." I don't have one of those. In fact, the only thing I got out of eRep were stories. Even though most of my time on eRep was a gigantic waste: mass messaging, fighting in ping-pong wars, flirting with the laydays and hating on the trolls - all the stories are good.

When it comes down to it, it's not about mechanics, or gold, or war. It's never been about mechanics. It's about the people.

It's about the narrative we write. The system we create. The characters we birth.

The good, the bad, and the ugly. The moralists and the purists. The nationalists and the machinists. The buttholes, the haters, and the trolls. The terrible and the elitists. They're all fantastic.

You're fantastic. And I just want you to know~.

Not alive, but not quite dead,

Comments

Blank Keating Day 1,968, 00:24

Do people still take firsts?

Pfeiffer. Day 1,968, 14:26

You're not dead? Nifty.

Publius Day 1,968, 00:31

Your PDBs are declassified now if you want to check out the forums.

Blank Keating Day 1,968, 00:34

The memories ;_;

Jude Connors Day 1,968, 00:55

You should call into NPR from the Death Star

biaxident Day 1,968, 02:50

RAWR!

Silas Soule Day 1,968, 02:57

"It's never been about mechanics."

I can sleep well now. :-]

Paul Proteus Day 1,968, 03:39

Blank Keating \o/

ligtreb Day 1,968, 06:25

Welcome back!

Arjay Phoenician III Day 1,968, 07:34

I thought this argument, the philosophical battle between the mechanics faction and the roleplay crowd, the "You play to win the game" vs. "You play to enjoy this world" debate, died long ago, with the mechanics forces winning the day, or at least the debate watering itself down to "It's both, now shut up and play."

It is about the narrative, completely, exclusively, passionately. Those who buy into the concept that they are a somebody here, who watch their lives unfold as if watching a movie, who fight their battles on the beaches and in the legislatures and in the marketplaces, they get something out of this, they keep coming back, they feel a richer experience than those who, as it was called before, "two-click", follow orders and play passively in the name of patriotism. Even those who manipulate game mechanics for a terrorist, mischievous, playfully pernicious end are forming their own narrative, their own fantasy, becoming the Tyler Durden or the Rasputin they wish they could be to bring the whole façade crashing down.

Thank you, I needed a read like that.