Meningsbladet

Let me take you back, about 1400 days back, to the days of the eRepublik beta.

It was an amazing time. The game actually looked good back then. It was one of the simplest games on the web. You logged on, you worked, trained, fought in a war, maybe fought a bit, healed up at a hospital. You made sure you had some food in your inventory, and then you logged out. That was the daily routine the majority of eRepublikans went through. It was a completely different time, and you didn't need a guide to get started. The real beauty of the game was played out on websites representing the different countries. Where the politicians met to discuss taxes, recruitment to the game and warfare. If you wanted to be a politican, you needed to be prepared to put an hour or two aside each day, and be able to log on in the middle of the night if necessary to make decisions during times of grave desperation.

Ah, yes. I remember them so fondly. Of course, you could also go the economic way. That's what players like Big Brother did. I loved that guy, but I stabbed him in the back during my period as a President, and ended up firing him from his position as Minister of Defense. That's just one of the actions I regret. He built up a huge empire based solely on the way the economic module worked back then, and ended up controlling the market in multiple countries. He also developed some tools that he would sell or give away.

Anyway, the story of my most active time in the politics isn't really something I assume you guys want to know about.

When I signed up, I really didn't do much. My brother recruited me to get his 5 gold, and he did that multiple times because he really wanted money. I don't know why. He stopped playing shortly after. I was idling in the back for quite some time. I first started taking the game seriously as Finland started fighting against Norway. You see, Norway was one of the biggest countries back in the beta. We were an imperialistic nation, occupying Finland and Russia, and Sweden was the only country that surpassed us in greatness. But as all other good things, it eventually came to an end. A lot of the older experienced eNorwegians left the game as it started to become stale. The eFins saw this as an opportunity, and managed to seize power after a massive baby boom. You can read all about this in some other articles I wrote way back, recounting the history of eNorway.

What I'm trying to get across with this article, is that I personally believe eRepublik, as it is today, is absolutely shit. I'm not even going to apologize for my use of "vulgar" language, because it's the most accurate description I can procure. After V1 was released, a lot of us left. And by us, I mean the polticians of the time. We were tired of being ignored. The political module was what brought us to eRepublik, and it didn't get any attention whatsoever. We never were recognized, and instead, a more complicated warfare and economy module was released, making the daily tasks more tedious, and forcing the casual players to read up on guides to know how to optimize their days. I honestly have no clue what to do right now. I just logged on, did 600k damage in a battle, and I'm currently blathering my inebriated bullshit on the #eNorge channel on QuakeNet.

I'm not going to lie, I miss playing eRepublik. I made friends on here, friends from all over the world. Except for Sweden, I never liked eSweden. Kept stabbing us in the back and acting all high and mighty, just because they were so damn powerful. Congratulations, you're a nation of nerds.

I just can't see myself getting back into this game as it is right now. Ever since Norway released Finland and Russia, it has been the victim of countless PTOs, and the population has never gotten to the highs it used to be. We've been constantly pestered by people trying to "help" us by seizing power and basically screwing us over, stealing our money, and releasing our MPPs or trying to annex us into another country. The constant warring is a necessity for this game to carry on, but it really shouldn't be. There are so many tweaks that could be done to make it seem more interesting without having to be in an alliance and fighting constantly. I'm not going to suggest anything, as it doesn't even matter. Screw that.

If you've read this far, I salute you. Maybe there still is hope for eNorway. I'd put my trust in anyone bothering to read through this entire wall of text. You show interest. Either that, or you're just here to spout bullshit I don't care about.

I don't hate eRepublik. It introduced me to some great people. Evleos, reboot, raggizz. Eris, Andreas. Racer, Okkius, Schaumann. BB, Alex, Salve. Terje, Durruti, Freke. I have great respect for all of you. The game has also introduced me to some people I cannot stand, and that I don't ever want to see ever again. It has taken up so much of my free time, but I can't say I haven't learned from it. The pressure I experienced during my one term as a President of eNorway, partaking in the discussions in ATLANTIS, backroom deals with Romania and the alliance, and being forced to defend myself against accusations and betrayal from within the congress gave me something.

Aaand that's it from me for now. I guess I just got inspired by my previous articles.

Thanks, eRepublik.
Thanks, eNorway.
Stay strong, fight on, don't let the scum of eRepublik bring you down with their pathetic PTO strategies.