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Before you read this article, I'm going to shock you with a few facts.

1 – eRepublik isn't real. It's a game.

2 – Games are meant to be fun.

Now that we've settled these things, we can progress through this article.

The government. They're an interesting bunch, of spammers, hot-heads, imperialists, sexy women avatars, and more. But what ties them together is the wish to be in power. To be in congress, or to be the President, or some Minister somewhere.

But why? I think a lot of them don't know the answer themselves. They'll give the same rhetoric - “I want to help the eUK!” or “We need to re-build our empire” or some rubbish like that. Very nice political answers. But..well...do you really know what you're talking about? Because if you ask me, the government is more obsessed with land, or alliances, or some statistics, than anything else.

Improving stats is all well and good. Seeing statistics of the amount of GBP in my bank account is very invigorating. I mean, clicking 'work' every day...wow.

But I believe something else is even more important than that. Something that might shock you.

Let's go back to the first two facts we started with. Erep is a game. Games are meant to be fun. We elect our governments. What do we elect them to do, if eRep is a game? The answer is pretty obvious.

The primary function of government is to maximise the amount of fun we players have in the game.

I go into a lot more depth in an essay I wrote some time ago in the eUK forums, which you can find here. However, I think we can all genuinely accept that conclusion. I feel our government, the eUK, has forgotten that a bit. Why you might ask?

Firstly, I question the emphasis on foreign policy. Yes, alliances and trade is important. But we've gone a little over-board; alliances are now an end in itself, as opposed to a means. That means some are obsessed with getting into an alliance for the sake of an alliance. The government should be looking at what the people in the eUK will most enjoy out of an alliance. Things such as similar language and culture makes it easier for communication, and inter-forum discussion. That's where the focus should be.

Secondly, I worry about the lack of commitment to Education. Education empowers, and makes the game more fun – people don't enjoy games they don't understand e.g. Remember playing chess without knowing the rules? However, no government has been truly dedicated to universities, updating the wiki, or helping new players. At least, not to my satisfaction. I'll be the first to put up my hand and say I didn't do enough – I used to be the Minister of Education, and I didn't do enough. But now, more than ever, we need to go back to it/

So, what should a government focus on? I'm going to give 4/5 brief points here, and expound them later.

1 – Helping new citizens. Anyone checked the eUK's population ranking lately? We used to be 4th, now we're 7th. (correct at time of print). We need to encourage and help new citizens stay in the eUK more.

2 – Providing and maintaining a society. The prime example (and well done to Nelsaidi for creating one oh so long ago) is the national forums. However, there's still a lot the government can do.

3 – Dealing with the market. More tricky, but when you consider the fun people get out of running a business, its easy to think a free market is best. However, communes may also be another step forward.

4 – Maintaining a National Defence. It's no fun if we're conquered by France. And an army is fun to be in.

5 – Education and informing citizens. The more the citizen knows about the game, the more fun they have.

6 – Provide advancements in careers. Citizens who want to be part of the government should, because that adds another fun dimension to the game.



To conclude, I'm saying the current attitude of presidential candidates and congress members is totally wrong. Your focus should be on making the game as bloody fun as possible, not on your secret little deals with other countries or making money. That might be fun for you, but your focus isn't on that. It's on making it fun for us.

Remember citizens, it's all about you. Let's hope the next administration remembers that as well.

To read my full essay on the role of eGovernment, log onto the eUK National Forums, and copy and paste this link: http://forums.erepublik.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12157