The Voice of Reason l [New Faustian Man]

Day 2,327, 05:07 • Published in Republic of Moldova Romania • by Riyusaky


Hello there, everybody !

This is old Riyu speaking. The media project I’m initiating today consists of a series of interesting interviews with some of the most important, successful and influential citizens of our beloved eRepublik. Most of the topics we are going to discuss, during the interviewing sessions, are extremely delicate and controversial. At this moment, we play in an ever-changing eWorld where new alliances are forged overnight, where we no longer find ourselves bored and drawn away from the game, where the military and political map could change drastically any time. All’n’all, very interesting times.

Starting the series, with me today, is the one and only - New Faustian Man. He’s quite famous for being one of the most renowned writers of our time and I warmly recommend his articles. I must say, I admire his writing style and many of his ideas will make you think and wonder about some of the game’s concepts. I believe he deserves our appreciation and full attention and that is exactly why I decided to start this project by interviewing him. In the following paragraphs we talk ( mostly ) about ASTERIA, SIRIUS and some other military and political related issues.

Without further ado, I give you New Faustian Man !




Hello there, Faustian man. I was wondering if there's any chance you would allow me to...maybe...interview you ?


As long the questions mainly revolve around the game, sure, that sounds cool man.

...

Ok, let's start.
So, who ( or what 🙂 ) are you ? What's your story ?


I'm from Northern Ireland in rl, webdesigner/developer.


How did you end up playing eRepublik ?


I originally started playing Erepublik around the time it first started, when the site was being advertised on a lot of social network sites, and I think I followed a link from Bebo. But I wasn't really interested in it at the time, so I let my character die after signing in a few times, and never returned to it. Then, about a year later, I started a new account (this one) and that was more than four years ago now... o_0

I stick around for the war module, its the only decent part of the game left, the rest is either ruined by poor game tweaks or role-players. Wars and being part of a good MU are the only thing worth logging in for. Tho I'd still like to see a load of improvements made to the war mod...


How much time do you spend on eRepublik everyday ?


That sorta changes, I might be logged on for much of the day, but only really with it on in the background, as I'm using my computer for work related stuff. So my actual activity levels are up and down, really depends on what is happening ingame. Tho there's nothing about the site that is really time-consuming, other than reading/writing articles anyway.


Ok, let's get down to bussines now.
The eWorld is moving so fast, these days. It's so hard, for old folks, to keep up with it: New alliances take shape, admins speak about new "features" and such, there is a constant flow of new people around. What do you make of this ? Has our beloved eWorld gone crazy ?


How the game's changed and how it plays now is kind of crazy. I think its become very one-dimesional. For all I like the war mod, that's all the game really is now, which is a shame. Obviously admins have made a decision that's were the greatest profit can be reaped, so that's were all focus goes. Which is unfortunate. Monetizing the economic module with more features/companies/means of production and totally re-inventing the political module could really give this game a new lease of life. I wrote elsewhere about the kind of changes that would add some spice to the political mod but I can't see any of it get implemented, or any of the suggestions made by other players.

We're all still motivated to fight/defend a region that will have to be defended the next day too, and maybe a couple days after that, and a couple days after that, so that the gain of holding it falls way short of the cost of fighting over it is pretty pointless. War activity has become frenetic, something admins encourage with all the little additions and tweaks to inflate our damage -- but ultimately it's the players who play along. What aggravates matters (if we set aside feuds built on RL antipathies) are alliances, which ofc are originally a player-created feature. Polarizing the world the way alliances do just creates constant, and consequently, meaningless wars. A new setup, something like a G8-style forum/council that allows representatives of the most powerful countries to negotiate peace settlements rather than Mastercard doing it, would probs ultimately be an improvement, including for the smaller nations. The present setup rarely does anything for the little countries, unless they're part of an entity like TWO, which was so overwhelmingly strong that it had damage to spare for its smaller members. But something like a G8-style setup is just a pipe-dream because, as I mentioned, RL antipathies play such a huge role in Erepublik.


We both have been around for a while now. We've seen EDEN falling apart, we've seen CoT crumbling and even the mighty TWO going down in flames. What do you think of the newly formed alliances: ASTERIA and SIRIUS ? (Let's start with Asteria )


I should start by saying I'm proAsteria, I have a lot of friends in those countries and (inc. LETO) they’re countries I really like and respect.
Going forward I think they have enough damage to defend themselves, and probably secure decent bonuses for some of the major players. Downsides are it involves two of the oldest enemies in the game (Hun/Rom), whether they can resolve differences and ultimately cooperate to defend themselves against common enemies on their border is up for debate. Another problem is ofc most of Asteria damage is concentrated in SE Europe, so they don’t have the coverage of Sirius, something which in the past gave TEDEN a real edge over ONE.
That said, Asteria have an advantage in that most of these countries were allied in TWO/proTWO in which time they were utterly dominant and proved how effective they could be at working together.


Well there is ,certainly, a massive amount of raw power involved here. We have eRomania, eArgentina, eSerbia and even eHungary. Do you think this alliance can actually become a well-oiled machine ? Can anyone tame this amazing power ?


If co-operation between Syrius/Aurora continues as-is then I think Asteria have a real fight on their hands, but with just under 47-48% or thereabouts of the damage, they should be able to hold their own. Like with all alliances, structural or internal problems are always accentuated when the alliance is on the backfoot, but strong, experienced HQs are a great foil for this. Asteria have no shortage of experienced players who’ve served in former alliance HQs, which should hold them in good stead. On the subject of Aurora, I see that alliance more a marriage of convenience. Chile were obviously better suited to join Sirius outright, a path blocked to Bulg/MKD due to old antagonisms. I’m not sure this setup is a sound foundation to build an alliance. The question is whether Sirius powers will help Aurora in the manner Aurora have recently been helping Sirius – including FOR Aurora powerhouse MKD against Asteria founder Greece. If they don’t, I see Sirius-Aurora on slow drift apart.

Otherwise, a big factor is whether some countries can change their mindset, shelve the conservative – what’s termed “farmville” mentality by some players – attitude and actively get involved in the fight with NEs instead of merely support through MPPs. The damage balance between the alliances demands this. For instance the NAP arrangement in Asia between USA-China/RoC is untenable whilst the US continue to attack China’s LETO allies. A danger with Asteria is there front ends up being exclusively the Balkans. Nothing good can come of that.


About that...
There are some that question the stability of an alliance which involves both eRomania and eHungary. Those two countries have been at each other's throat since forever, can they really work together ?
* UPDATE: eHungary just left Asteria. What are your thoughts about that ?


Pretty surprised tbh. Seems a huge over-reaction, its as though they think Asteria are culpable for what's going on, which is nonsense ofcourse. I can't see how leaving Asteria helps their cause, unless the objective is to come into alignment with Sirius...


Now, these are very interesting times. What's your take on the fragile relationship between eSerbia and ePoland ? They moved so fast into joining different alliances..


That relationship seemed dead a long time before ties were finally and definitively cut. Setting aside the ego politics between the leaders or some highprofile players in those countries, there were still other huge problems in the relationship between Poland-Serbia. For instance, I think the difficulty Serbia experienced in maintaining their high-bonus economy was an eye-opener, it was something that could have been averted with more Polish assistance, but it just didn’t show up. And that directly contributed to Serbia, the strongest country in the game by a country mile, and member of TWO, the most dominant alliance the game's ever seen, losing out bigtime. Then their was Spain, again they offered Serbia very little in the way of assistance on the battlefield, whereas Serb damage was a big reason Spain enjoyed a 10/10 for so long. Plus Spain had issues with the countries Serbia did cooperate with militarily, namely Romania and Argentina, countries which gave more to the Serbian cause than Serbia’s official TWO allies, Spain and Poland.


How about the alliance leaders ? ( especially the rumours regarding Ekto )


I don't really know many of them personally, so I probably am not the best person to ask. Going by previous HQ roles there does seem a lot of experience in both alliances however.



What about SIRIUS ? For me, it just seems like a desperate attempt to compete with ASTERIA. I guess the main reason these contries got together is just the feeling of getting left behind, being abandoned.


I agree in the main, considering the relations many of those countries shared (or didn’t share) in the past, its pretty much just a marriage of convenience. At this point, any alliance which tries to claim its about ‘friendship’ or ‘brotherhood’ is just beating a dead horse anyway. That’s the good thing about having a balanced e-world, neither side can play the victim card or claim because it’s inferior damage-wise it somehow has the moral highground. That nonsense got tired a long time ago.


Well, yes. I'd have to admit that SIRIUS has got a great potential in terms of power and I think the upper hand in terms of strategic positioning on the map.
And now it seems like Aurora will be joining them...


Yeah, in terms of positioning, especially the distribution across western Europe [Pol/Spa/US] puts Sirius in a very strong position, by contrast its much more difficult for Asteria powers to expand barring an air strike because many of them are neighbours. There are some obvious avenues for expansion, but atm old ties established in earlier alliances still restrict the individual member-states. I think that will change over time.
In terms of Sirius/Aurora working together, I think getting Aurora member Chile -- a country I think all Sirius countries are willing to share damage with -- to Europe, proved a real masterstroke, but I haven't seen that level of cooperation between Sirius states and the other Aurora heavyweights, notably Bulg/MKD, and I have doubts whether that situation is going to improve any time soon.


Well, there are many that question the political stability of an alliance between ePoland and eUSA, there's a lot of bad blood between these contries. What do you think ?


Yeah, its not so long ago Poland had the US wiped, they've went from enemies to allies in a very short time. But I think its mutually beneficial that they stick together at this point, whether that manifests in the levels of cooperation other Sirius countries already share, who can say. But at this juncture they have much more to gain maintaining good relations than the reverse.


Yeah, and how about eTurkey ? At some point I was under the impression they would join ASTERIA.


I saw a few early draft line-ups of the new Serb-Greece-led alliance that featured Turkey, but I don't think the Turks were ever on board.


Quick question, what about LETO, the little "sister" of Asteria ?


Atm, apart from Portugal, LETO is in poor shape. Chile in Europe makes it almost impossible to do anything to relieve LETO countries, so until that situation changes its going to be more of the same unfortunately.


What is your take on the relationship between eBulgaria and eRomania ?
The situation at hand is very delicate and...uncertain ATM.


As I understand it, Bulgaria are involved in an NAP with a number of ASTERIA countries, which was recently renewed, even whilst Bulgaria were drawn into a mass attack against a fellow ASTERIA nation (Hungary), so the arrangement seems pretty strong

Neither Romania nor Bulgaria gain anything from returning to war, the cost of prosecuting the war would dwarf any potential gain, and the previous one that lasted months was basically a TW with little motivation behind it on either side. Bulgaria currently find themselves in a situation were they are aligned with countries they've shared a lot of animosity with over the last couple years (Cro/Turk), I think that relationship is more tenuous than the Rom-Bulg NAP tbh, tho I maybe wrong.


I agree with you: a war between eRo and eBg would not be very beneficial for either side right now but, conquering the eRepublic of Moldova is a clear violation of that NAP. Normally, ASTERIA and LETO should take action against eBulgaria.
What are your thoughts about this ?


Tbh I wasn't aware Moldova were included in the pact, on that subject I also felt Hungary's omission was kinda strange. I haven't actually read the treaty in full, but I think its more advantageous for both sides if they can come to an arrangement rather than blows. Considering how well balanced the alignments are now, a diplomatic solution presents the best solution for both sides.


Anyway, all'n all I believe the stage is ready, the eWorld is ready and I think the next couple of months will be so much fun. What do you think, ASTERIA or SIRIUS ?


Who will come out victorious? For me it has to be the Asteria*LETO galaxy and ASGARD 😃

Losing Hungary is a huge loss ofc, but perhaps a new eHungarian government may see the benefit of returning to Asteria. I hope so anyway. The Hun-Rom antagonism was well-documented, and ultimately it seemed a motivator behind Hungary leaving. But Hungary have remained loyal to their traditional allies and their fighters are still to be found fighting alongside us, most of us are still operating in the mindset they're still part of Asteria*LETO, even if they're not 'officially'.

So Asteria*LETO have crossed the hurdle of Hungary leaving without it really impacting damage output. 'Aurius', by contrast, have yet to experience any internal strife. They're probably hoping separating traditional enemies in two different alliances should help in maintaining cohesion, but all I'm really seeing is Aurora make a massive contribution and get nothing in return. MKD fighting with no Sirius help is the prime example of this. Considering their presence in battles against Asteria that are strategically important for Sirius (more so than for Aurora) it seems (with the exception of Chile) they gain very little in return -- how long are they gonna put up with that? Aurius have many more potential cracks in the setup than Asteria, all it would really take is for one of these to be exploited, even if its just one of the midlevel countries, and the writing's on the wall.


Well either way, we are sure to see ePoland and eSerbia waging war on each other, the two giants of our eWorld finally clashing into a unprecedented battle. How will that influence the eWorld ?


Not sure Pol-Serb will ever clash, tho I'd like to see it as it would be pretty epic!

Poland seem content to sit on their bonuses without seeking to cap them with Rubber from the French coast, one of the potential flashpoints with Serbia, so they seem nicely insulated. The only way I could see a Serbia NE of Poland or the reverse is if either side got into the sphere of influence of the other, but as I don't see that happening, I think Serbia-verus-Poland will just be fought via proxy wars.


Last question :
How do you see the eWorld in 5 months ?

In 5 months? Well that would be summertime so an Asteria invasion of the eUS would be pretty epic 😃
Seriously tho, in terms of alliances and whatnot, the easy answer is its all predicated on whether Sirius and Aurora can become another TEDEN, but I don't really see it happening. If they could, we're going to have real balance in the e-world, something we haven't had since TEDEN-ONE, but a lot of ifs and buts in there.

People wanted a balanced e-world for a long time and now that it's here its clear it doesn't favour some of the most powerful and biggest-spending countries, namely Serbia and Croatia. And that could prove a problem in the longrun. In Serbia's case they can't establish 10/10s or get anywhere close; whilst Cro, despite a member in the more powerful alignment, are still unable to regain cores. Neither is ideal for two lynchpins of their respective alliances.
The bi-polar alliance setup coupled with a game administration profiteering to the max has turned the war mod into a charade. For instance, D4 damage totals are hugely inflated now. Yesterdays Slo-Ire rounds probs costed in the region of a couple of k Sterling either side in D4. Yet the campaign had zero geo-strategic significance! Wars used to mean something on Erepublik, but now -- and partly to do with the balance and the fact either side feels it could conceivably win -- no quarter is shown, and we get people dumping silly amounts of damage to score a Pyrrhic victory in campaigns all over the place. Pretty fail if you ask me.

So how do I see the world in 5 months? I'd be pretty surprised if we're in this situation: of frenetic pingpong wars were the outlay to win dwarfs any and all potential gain. That should get boring fast, if it hasn't already. Shelving the adversarial politics in favour of more diplomacy would allow both sides to get what they want without the need to call on MasterCard. We had NAPs between opponents in ONE-TEDEN, and they only really came about due to the (relative) balance between the sides. Asteria and Aurius have restored this situation, so who knows, we may get a return to this kind of international politics. The reverse is these constant meaningless wars ad nauseam that will slowly drives nations apart in an atmosphere we've all seen before, of recrimination and counter-recrimination as this or that country misses out on congress or feels itself ignored by the HQ etc.


Yeah, it seems like we are in for a treat this summer. I can't wait for the epic battles that are coming our way...
Well, I believe I got my answers. Thank you so much New Faustian Man, I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.


Thanks for the opportunity to say my piece, Riyusaky, and I hope your subscribers enjoy the read.
o7






Please vote/sub & shout :
The Voice of Reason l [New Faustian Man]
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/the-voice-of-reason-l-new-faustian-man--2388739/1/20


That's all for today, see you next time, eRepublik !
Riyusaky,
The Beer Whisperer