Time For A Group Hug

Day 1,314, 22:09 • Published in USA USA • by Gnilraps


Department of Optimism
Day 1,314 of the New World
"I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things."
— Tom Waits
Dear Fellow Citizens of the New World,

The eUSA has suffered a military setback that is compounded by a concurrent loss of population. It’s been the perfect storm. Spain, Poland, Indonesia, Hungary, Plato, an ineffective Terra, and piles of rage/grief have conglomerated to infect our morale at a time when the sun is out, girls are wearing bikinis, and there’s a new season of Next Food Network Star (I’ll click my remote, you click yours.)



I myself have not been terribly helpful. It is way too much fun to troll Plato every time his itchy trigger finger fires off a whole new round of unannounced (massive) changes. And as my readers know, when I troll Plato I pull no punches. Unfortunately, my acerbic wit probably does not help National Morale.

I apologize. I am sorry that I have let my satire become outright cynicism at times. Sometimes it’s fun though.

But at some point I decided to stick around, so the least I can do is explain why. What follows is my idea of what is so great about this game. I hope that if you are a new player reading this, you’ll stick around. The Administrators have changed things so that you can get up and running very quickly in the New World. Take advantage of that, it wasn’t that way when I began. You can start contributing to this great community by, like, tomorrow.
So what is so great about eRepublik?

Drama.

eRepublik gets “boring” about one day out of every 45. The other 44 are 24 hours of people bickering over budgets, Political Parties (not REAL LIFE kind of Political Parties… more like College Frats), wars, market wages and product prices, military spending, communication infrastructures, and other sundry trollathons. Honestly, what else do you expect when you put Real Life 13 year-olds, 55 year-olds, racists, homos, homophobes, businessmen, dirtbags, parents, grandparents, dyslexics, geniuses, economists, military men and women, pastors, teachers, truck drivers, Texans, New Englanders, foreigners, xenophobes, techies, nerds, jocks, drug abusers, etc. all on a level playing field?

You get drama.

In real life, much potential drama is forestalled by prejudices, fears, and the cruelty of power belonging to the strong. But in eRepublik, with its wide-open forums for communication, where everyone can run their own company, military unit, newspaper, Political Party, covert spy mission, etc, the Drama is non-stop.

No game ever has had this much Drama. Ever. It is awesome.

You can’t sit back and hope it completely comes to you though. You need to get involved in an offsite forum or two in order for the Drama to start sweeping you away. But this game deserves the credit. It is Gone With the Wind plus ET plus The Manchurian Candidate plus Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind plus Lawrence of Arabia plus One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Hut plus A Clockwork Orange plus The Godfather plus Schindler’s List plus Toy Story plus Brazil. Every day.

Why else am I still playing the same internet game after 2 years? Drama. You won’t find it in Supremacy 1914.

Yes. Sometimes the drama is needlessly created by some faulty wiring in the brains of the Administrators. But you’ve got to admit the days following every stupid change they make produce some of the funniest and most memorable rage-flame-troll-a-go-go’s. I hate it. But I loves it too.
What else?

Accessibility

For the record, this game is still absolutely free. You probably are never going to see a Battle Hero medal unless you either reach for your credit card or else stick around long enough to not have to. But so what? Without ever spending a real life dime you can become a Congressman, publish your own newspaper, and make enough virtual dough to grow a little economy for yourself. This game certainly favors the shrewd.

But if you are impatient, drop a hundred and fifty big-ones. That’ll get you going. People always end up paying for their impatience. This game’s no different.

Gotta have that upgrade, dont'cha?

Also, eRepublik works on my Droid. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shouted to you all while taking a dump. If I’m stupid enough I can even fight Spaniards while driving. Don’t. But I’m just saying, the thing works great on my LG Ally.

And somehow despite the complexity of the game mechanics, it’s damn easy to play. There are rewards for those who dig deeper, but honestly I could teach my 7 year-old to do this if I could figure out how to make sure she NEVER reads anything written by Turk. (She’s too young to stare at boobs.)


There. Now you can skip 90% of the INCI press too...
What else?

Diversity

I can honestly say that I have become eFriends with people from all over the world. I don’t know, that’s p cool. I am sure other games have this too. But this game does a whole lot to make it EASY to play along side people whom I will NEVER have the pleasure of meeting in Real Life. I would like to though. And I get to meet them here, comment on their shouts, learn their cultural idiosyncrasies, and most importantly I get to learn about my own. I am a wiser American Male having played eRepublik along side of INCI and a bunch of other random folks. The New World is a great mirror, and I stare at eRepublik a lot.
There are many other subtle things that also make this game great. I’ll save them for another article on another day.
But here is a short and incomplete list of why I will never play a greater game in my life than eRepublik:
Chutley
Kara Beth
Phoenix Quinn
PigIn Zen
The Federalist Party
Emerick
depici
Cruinne
citizenslave
Blank Keating
Angelini
deSokre
Ronald Reagan Reborn
George Pumpkinette
CRoy
Glove
Harrison Richardson
FireSand
ligtreb
AndraX
havocpwn
Jude Connors
Darkflight
Henry Arundel
s0beit
JufedK Borman
Easy Company
Civil Anarchy
Mourning Star
Bruce Sommer
Kemel Ergenekon
Fitisin
fingerguns
Thedillpickl
Animis
N I K A N

Geeze. Believe me this list keeps going. And there are people reading this who are thinking, “I probably belong in that list too.” You’re probably right, you do. Especially if you’re reading this!
But I’ll stop here. You’ve got your lists too, after all. Take a minute and write yours down. Look at your list of made-up names whose avatars (and whose avatars before their current avatars) you know by heart. Is it too much to say you love these people? I do.
And if you are just getting started in this New World,
~~~~~Accept nearly every Friend Request that comes your way (except for one. You’ll figure out who it is. Don’t worry, you can always unfriend him.)
~~~~~Shout something every time you log in. I don’t know, tell me what you had for lunch if you can’t think of anything else. I will probably find it interesting.
~~~~~Comment on the shouts and articles of someone else.
~~~~~Register on the Forums.
~~~~~Join the Federalist Party.
~~~~~Play this game.
And for crying out loud pick up a gun and kill some Spaniards.
I look forward to remembering you, along with this game, fondly.

Gnilraps