So you want to have a contest eh?
Doggstar
I'm sure I wasn't the only one excited by the prospects of a good old fashioned contest, complete with energy rewards. We all remember the Snowman contest which featured near endless amounts of tanking. Weapons we're about as scarce as unicorn shit and anyone could be a big shot for a week.
Well you can imagine my anticipation this week. I'd stocked up on weapons. I'd amassed a nice little stash of ebars. I was guaranteed to hit Titan*. Hell I was ready to become the local chartbuster and it was going to be great. But a funny thing happened on the way to the party... some guy in a toga knee capped me and stole my god damned wallet.
At the time this article was written there are precisely 3 eCanadians who have completed the mission. There will certainly be a 4th (me). Chances are I will shove the poisoned carrot where the sun doesn't shine sometime on Saturday. I have my doubts we will see a 5th eCanadian complete this mission. Not necessarily a good thing.
Now here's where I'm going to go ahead and put my Monday morning quarterback jersey on. If you're going to make a contest, perhaps make it achievable for even a statistically relevant portion of the population. Your rewards system this week has more bombs than an Iraqi wedding party and is virtually devoid of energy bars. This serves only as a distraction. When the "1%" are doing 300 million damage per battle, a couple of fire crackers are about as useful as sunglasses in a blackout.
What could have been done differently? Perhaps a tiered reward system? Perhaps the ability to get energy without writing a cheque? I'm a fairly wealthy player and I am able to generate a decent flow of gold with BH, CH, SS, AEIOU medals and I'm having a hell of a time. Further, I'm far from the norm and far from the average. Simply put, it would have been easier to skip the contest and give every elite citizen the ability to buy a rabbit medal for a couple hundred gold. Instead we get a spotlight on how there is no real middle class in eRepublik. We get to have what should be a fun week turn into a frustrating week. 13,000 prestige points gets me 25 energy bars? Sweetheart, I was top damage in the country last week and I didn't get there.
Imagine a pendulum swinging. The snowman contest was on the extreme of easy. This contest was on the extreme of hard. Lets try to find some middle ground next time shall we? Let's make it so you don't have to be a morbidly obese tank with a fully stocked pantry to get the job done. After all, it's about making the population feel good isn't it? Instead I think we're mainly feeling like battered spouses.
Comments
I'm not even trying in this shitty contest and I love tanking. I did 13000 prestige points last week but they were actually giving EBs last week as well. I dont play the missions for the sake of completing them, I do the missions when the rewards make sense.
I do the missions to get the clutter the f off my screen!
I hate those pop-up thingies too. I don't give a shit that some one won the grand prize. :/
Great article and most certainly true.
I'm locked @build 1 rocket
xdxd
Good point.
I skipped that contest by the way.
...what's with all the free storage, I currently have 10000 storage and am nearing another 1000; I haven't had more that 2000 storage full at one time -WTF!?!
Then you're doing it wrong 😛 I have 75,000 storage and it's rarely enough lol.
Do I have enough storage?
Storage (11,882/249,000)
You're under-utilizing your storage Dill!
Send me some of your stuff, I will watch it for you! 😉
Actually I bought some of those 20k storage barns you can buy with loyalty points. I stopped at 100k. Now Plato thinks so much of me he keeps giving them to me for free! lol
I don't store any RM's. I would love to run out of storage because I have too many Q7's and EB's!
When Ethel asks for a vote, you give her a vote \o/
Thanks Hugh!
[removed]
Zinaa - a woman on a warpath!
I have been amongst the top in my MU before, not even bothering this time, worthless to even try.
You make money off BH medals? Don't they cost more to get than the gold rewards itself?
Note I did say I make a decent flow of gold. That being said. I have weapons factories and I get supplies from Cordis so weapons are cheap. I am almost self sufficient on food. It's not strange for me to make 30+ gold in a manner of days. Keep in mind if I have full energy that is 2800. With a damage booster I will do over 35 million at that point - which is often enough to win a BH. My cost there is only weapons. Every 3 times I do that I get a true patriot medal. So in that example I have gained 20 gold and not used an ebar.
Ah, I see. That makes sense with 2,800 health at that strength.
Solid points
o7
I think I may hit 5-6K prestige this week. I'll collect my 20 or so small bombs from the prestige prizes and that's about it...
And of course there's no middle class in this game. Because there's no real way to make money in-game in any significant amount, using solely the free-to-play mechanisms. There are only people who buy gold, and people who don't. Those who do not can, at best, slowly become stronger while gold buyers zoom past with Lana and fully-decked-out train-everything-everyday.
If one plays 'by the rules' this is true. However, way back when, I built quite a collection of stuff. Then the game changed. It was made 'fair' and people who were smarter than most could no longer take advantage of game mechanics to make a substantial profit. I had a choice, quit playing or buy gold. I bought gold and took advantage of the only game mechanic left. Massive amounts of RM to WaM. I make Q7 practically for free and share with those in my commune. I also spent gold helping my MU mates get stuff like Q4 TC's and some companies of their own. If there is a "middle class" it is those lucky few who have friends like me who share.
FWIW I would rather spend RL money to make a game friend happy than anything else here. That is the only real enjoyment there is in eRep. I do enjoy the medals and mega damage because of the "holy crap!" comments. I think some of my buddies live vicariously through my escapades. 🙂