Interview with our Präsidiktator ilphen

Day 2,790, 21:43 • Published in Germany Croatia • by Nathan Maximillian Stark


Greetings, comrades.
In this issue, I bring you an interview with our beloved, most perfect and best Präsidiktator ever: ilphen. He was so kind as to leave his office and the task of single-handedly governing the mighty nation of eGermany for a few hours, just so he could have an audience with a humble reporter, answer his questions and present himself in the best light possible to eGermans and eWorld alike. What follows are his honest answers, opinions and experiences (for the most part). Enjoy.

NMS: Hi! Thank you for giving us a minute of your precious time! For starters, could you tell us something about yourself in RL?
ilphen: Helo, I'm ilpchen \o/
I'm 30y/o, I live in Frankfurt and I sell drugs to children. That's how I earn money to spend on eRep.

NMS: How and when did you find out about eRepublik?
ilphen: Judging by my date of birthday it must have happened on the 2nd of June in 2010, I remember an ad on Facebook and a report about a war between Russia and Ukraine. So I wanted to check it out.

NMS: What's your favorite aspect of the game?
ilphen: My favorite aspect is clearly the community, some of the people I met here have become friends IRL and I'm looking forward to seeing all the wonderful people and Slayer10 in august in Hamburg at NeueN's meeting.

NMS: How much time daily do you spend on eRepublik?
ilphen: That varies drastically, from a few minutes to half a day probably. It really depends on how involved and active I am.

NMS: You’re no stranger to love being a CP, judging by your medals. What got you into politics in the first place, and why did you decide to become a president?
ilphen: I decided to run for CP again because I usually have a lot of free time on my hands in the summer months so I knew I could be active enough to handle the job. Well, there is not much to do in eRep besides strategy, tactics and battles and in order to use our limited power as efficiently as possible you need to be able to coordinate everything with your allies. For that you need a certain amount of power, be it as Minister of Defense/Foreign Affairs or CP/Dictator. That way you don't have to wait for hours/days for someone else to make a decision.

NMS: What’s your current plan for eGermany in this presidential term? Are there any areas you’re particularly focusing on?
ilphen: My plan is quite clear, to liberate Germark, retake our Dutch colony and have some fun while we are at it. One of those goals has been partially fulfilled by removing France from our lands and punishing them with the Chilean menace. Obviously the Canadian refugees that have flooded our regions have to be dealt with, but I expect them to leave rather soon. That leaves Sweden and Argentina, but I am confident we can handle them too. So overall I guess militarization is the main focus for this term.

NMS: Tell us something about the current political situation in eGermany. Are there any major disagreements among the parties, or are they cooperating?
ilphen: There have been no disagreement with any parties in Germany for the past three years. All parties in Germany work together for a common goal.

NMS: In your opinion, what is the biggest problem eGermany is currently faced with?
ilphen: Argentina. Even though the previous government under KTTRS tried to establish friendly relations with them, their attack on our soil has had the opposite effect. We simply can not allow a nation to occupy our union partner Denmark without their approval, hence this is viewed as a hostile act and will be dealt with accordingly.

NMS: What’s eGermany’s current stance on the existing alliances? Is it gravitating towards any alliance in particular, or is it keeping aside?
ilphen: Alliances have basically not changed a lot in the past year, with the exception of Greece maybe. I do not see any alliances currently that would raise my attention, we do have quite a few very good friends as well as countries on bilateral terms that have survived several different alliances. If something new pops up, I'll obviously keep all options on the table.

NMS: You’re a fairly experienced player, according to your experience and playing time. Which moment or event would you like to highlight as your favorite?
ilphen: Uh, that's not too difficult. Before divisions were introduced but after V2 we had a similar battleground as we have now (ascending amount of points given after 30/60/90 minutes), but all players were combined in one division. Back then Poland used their military might to smash the wall about 35 minutes before the round was over, then keeping it above 50% in order to gain the necessary points to win the round. This was before we had a treaty and became allies, so we were basically under constant occupation or threatened to be attacked.
It was one of those days and Poland attacked us, only this time we gathered a lot of our soldiers on IRC and waited until Poland had 1780 points, so they were one minute shy of winning the round, but we started hitting and didn't stop until we won. That was a great success for our small nation, even though we were ultimately conquered. A glorious fight. 😃

NMS: In your opinion, what was the best eRepublik alliance (to date)?
ilphen: Terra. Any alliance without dermont at the helm, n0s3 at the strategy table and me to annoy people is doomed to fail.

NMS: Who do you consider to be eGermany’s best and most faithful allies?
ilphen: I'd have to say we really have a couple of wonderful allies, I think Russia has been with us for the past 5+ years, which is amazing. Lately UK and Thailand have become real good friends and the obvious candidates who have been our partners through several alliances, Croatia, Chile, Turkey and Denmark for obvious reasons. Not to forget Hungary and Poland who have become solid friends of our nation.

NMS: Are there countries you could never be in an alliance with?
ilphen: Former Yugoslavian Republic of FYROM and Ireland as long as MUFC82 is there.

NMS: What changes do you think should be implemented into eRepublik?
ilphen: Oh you... There are millions of things that should be implemented, tweaked, changed or removed. But I have come to terms with the fact, that the developers of this game or the community are not the ones making the decision of what those changes/addons are. The people who are making the decisions are the ones responsible for making eRep dev labs economically successful. Judging by the addons and the amount of stashes that have been introduced in the past, I'd say they are not very smart people. So I do not waste my time by thinking about what could/should be different, I take it as it is and try to make the best of it.

NMS: We see many players (especially older) who stop playing eRepublik due to dissatisfaction with the changes, lack of activity or other reasons. What kept you here?
ilphen: Well, unlike other people I have been part of the German government for years now and the so called Filz who has been running Germany in that time is just as active as they were one or two years ago. So for me, not that much has changed. And to be honest if someone wants activity, there are lots of very active military units that can change your view of the game and the community quite a bit as long as you are interested and open for something else besides what's right in front of your door.

NMS: What do you think about eGermany’s community and eGermany as a whole?
ilphen: eGermany is a decent place, everyone is happy, no exceptions. If someone opposes that he'll be banned. The FSK tried it once, they were exiled to Nigeria for that reason.

NSM: Thank you for your time! Is there anything else you would like to say or add?
ilphen: Uhm yea, sleer is a fgt :~~DD

There you have it folks. The words of our glorious Präsidiktator himself. And no, this was not in any way propaganda article. If you've liked the article, vote, subscribe, endorse & shout. If not, tell me what I'm doing wrong via the comments or PM. I was thinking of making this into a series of interviews. I'd like to interview more famous and significant eGermans, maybe even international players, should they be interested. If you have any suggestions for future interviews, post them here.

Until next time, yours truly
Nathan Maximillian Stark
o7