Join the new world

I recently received a message from all-around cool-cat olivermellors wishing me a happy 5th birthday in erep. I checked and the last time I wrote an article was on my 4th birthday here. Wow. What happened?

Well, to be honest, I have continued to play most of the time, just clicking away, but not being part of the community. Part of the reason is new job and part of the reason is the twins, who are now two and a lot of the reason is that erep sorta lost its mojo quite some time ago as far as I’m concerned, and once you drop out of the community, well, there’s lot of other places my gaming time goes now. World of Tanks mainly.

But it’s a long way from the days when I put a lot of thought and emotion into my scribblings here and tried to be a cheerleader for our enation, for true teamwork, and for an unselfish style of play which I thought then (and still do now) would make this a more enjoyable place.

I’ve always marched to the beat of my own drummer here, as everywhere. By the time kleptocracy reached its inevitable result, I had become a wag, tiresome even to myself. The trollers and the thieves killed my love of the game, and now I am here mainly out of stubbornness. I gave a brief thought to getting in on the ground floor of one of the new countries, but I just didn’t have the energy or enthusiasm to do it.

During my time here, there’s been a few of the “bigger” players I’ve bounced off. Each of whom was on their own path, and not likely to alter course for others. When our paths aligned, there were some golden moments. When they diverged, there were sometimes vocal disagreements. When they conflicted, there were recriminations. You know who you are.

In all that time, the player who blew the hottest and coldest was Rylde. Sometimes he made it clear even he didn’t believe the crap he was saying. Sometimes he just got bored and went for the lulz. And sometimes his better angels gave him moments of clarity, and he was a leader in the truest and best sense of the word.

He was the harshest critic of the NB Pride movement in its early days, and by doing so gave it energy and clarity. In the midst of one of his harshest critiques of our work, he sent me a friend request. He later volunteered to help in our project to build a hospital for NB.

He was a so-called “Platinum Level Traitor” in the days of the EPC. Later, he naturally broke with the movement and went back to eCanada to rebuild. With Rylde it was never so much a matter of if he would whipsaw in a new direction, but when.

I called him out publicly. I cajoled him privately. But eventually I lost interest, not so much in Rylde and all his shenanigans, but the whole bloody business. I left eCanada, my newspaper languished, I two-clicked along.
One day there was a resistance war in eCanada (I shall restrain myself from the many “I-told-you-so”’s that our present situation evokes, but read my past journals for my predictions of the folly of failing to consistently stay with our long-time allies) and I put in my 25 battles for eCanada as part of my ongoing merc award acquisition project (current count = 42). And there was a message from the President of eCanada, Rylde. He had seen my avatar pop up in the battle reports and wanted to take the opportunity to remind me that I was persona non grata in eCanada, and a few other things besides. He may well, as he often alludes to, have been drinking at the time, but I did not take kindly to his message. I invited him in very plain language to contact me again when he was sober, but told him he was off his @$$ if he thought that his opinion of where I should go, for whom I should fight, or how I should play erepublik was of any consequence to me. He rejoined that I was a loser (fair enough) and that was the last time we messaged. Some time thereafter I was removed from his friends list in one of his periodic “purges”.

This is all unvarnished, and if it is so, it is in tribute to the man and the way he plays the game.

I recently stumbled upon a link to Rylde’s latest news, which is grave. It is tempting for me to say well, this is right and proper that a man should exit in the way in which he spent his time upon the stage – in this case dramatically and unapologetically. But I don’t believe in that. I do believe that the opportunity to read one’s obituaries in advance is a privilege. I also believe that holding grudges is no way to go through life, nor out of it.

Brother Rylde has a lot on his plate, and doesn’t need to waste his time reading notes from me. A lot of our relationship played out here on these pages, and those of his publication. I believe in clearing accounts. I hope Rylde sees fit to forgive me if he feels any slight which warrants it, and I for my part wish him a full recovery, whatever the odds. I believe in a God who works miracles in this life and the next one, and it is my prayer that He shall make Himself known to Rylde if He has not done so already.

It is a unique thing that people with whom we play this game, even those with whom we clash, are friends. It is the shared time, the opportunities to converse, the battles shared and fought, and over time we find we actually do care about each other, and want good things for the other both here and in the world.

As for this terribad game, it is of itself nothing. It is only something to the degree to which it gives us a place to work through certain important questions. It is because the consequences here are so minimal that the truly consequential things can be mooted here. Some we moot with our words, and others with our actions. When someone leaves the game, that part of them which was reflected here shines less bright, and it is sometimes only at that moment that we realize how great the loss.

I am one of the older players here. I feel it, not just here, but in the world. I know this game is played by a lot of youngsters. I was bulletproof when I was in my 20s too. You’ve heard it said by others, but trust me, the day will come when you say it, too: life is soooooo short. It took me half a century to figure out how to be. Now that I sort of know, I have to struggle to find the strength to be what I know I should.

Your parents bought you a goldfish so you could learn an important lesson about transigence in all things, including life itself. There is an important lesson here too. Take some time to reflect on it. Don’t let it rob you of joy, but let that knowledge allow you to appreciate the joys which each day provides.









N x NE, Volume 13, Number 1