What's Wrong with eAustralia?

Day 2,050, 11:22 • Published in Australia Norway • by Major Lee Hung

Any decent citizen would want to improve their nation. People are leaving, many people I brought here have been driven away by the shocking attitude of some eAustralians, and the population has fallen by around 110 people since I arrived.

While things like new citizen births are beyond our control, you'd be foolish to think that people leaving because they've had enough isn't.

Below are some points to think on for those eAustralians who's ideal night is making others feel worse for fun, and also for those who are just purposely being obnoxious.

Please note: This isn't aimed at anybody in particular - it's aimed at everybody, all of us have done something wrong that has damaged the future of the country. If you think you haven't then please stop reading now - it would be best to avoid involving yourself with the community any further.

Grudges

We all have that idiot we dislike - especially in eRepublik, where the ability to be something you'll never be in RL (And act how you'd never act in RL) causes major tension, because people think they can say and do anything they like.

If you dislike somebody, consider this: nobody cares. There's no reason why the rest of the community needs to be dragged in to your dislike for somebody, it's immature and rather annoying.

Superiority is just a Perception Bias

You have more medals than somebody? More people have heard of you than somebody else on a browser game? Well done. Your parents must be proud.

It's very common to find that in games such as this, people often think of themselves as 'better' than other people. For those who like to continue thinking this without doing a bit of a reality check, here's a tip for you:

Just because you haven't heard of somebody, doesn't mean that what they say doesn't matter. Dismissing everything they say because you don't recognise their name is a little silly.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people on the Internet who act like they're more important than everybody, because of what they've achieved in a game.

Personal Attacks

This is just a general rule that everybody should follow on the Internet - don't talk to people online in a way that you'd be too afraid to do in real-life, to their face.

Fortunately I haven't found this to be an issue in eAustralia.. some level of personal attacks is unavoidable and we've all done it. I guess this one is aimed more at my international readers... (hello New Era)

Refusal to Accept you're Wrong

So you're in a debate, with somebody who disagrees with something you've said. They present you facts that back this up, experiences of things that back up their point and it all dirctly contradicts your point, making you wrong in other words... what do you do?

Well if you're eAustralian, the list seems to be limited to the following options:
a.) Ragelog/quit
b.) Continue to argue your point
c.) Drop a grammar correction or two and consider the argument over
d.) Make up your own facts and argue them so hard that you come to believe them yourself

If you want to be more tolerable and less annoying, it's sometimes a good idea to accept 'defeat', no matter how hard it hurts your ego.

Now for some more 'approach' related things to consider..

Closed Society

A short point: Everything that affects the people should be discussed openly with the people, and their opinions should be sought. Without naming anybody in particular.. just because there are only 10 senators (60% of which belong to one party) doesn't mean that everything should be decided in secret between them.

(Or everything decided in secret by 3 people in a certain party's IRC room)

Transparency

An expansion on the above point:
Everything you say and do should be open. Again, I'm very sorry to victimise the current government but they're the best example I have...

As a citizen of eAustralia, how would you feel about the following:


If I told you this is just one of many stupid ideas discussed by your cabinet's cabinet I have logs on, wouldn't you too consider just leaving the country with the many of others before you?
(Yes unnamable person, dictating from behind the scenes makes you a part of the cabinet - everybody knows you make at least some of the decisions before you use the 'retired' defence - please don't insult people's intelligence by pretending you "don't care" or "have no part". If that were the case, you wouldn't have turned War Crew in to a political party now, would you?)

Also, apologies to Larni for posting this one, but if you don't want things posting publically/to be held accountable for something, don't discuss them behind closed doors. Had you not spent 3 days now attacking/threatning me, I would have talked to you before posting this. Bringing me to my next point...

Treat Others as You'd Like Them to Treat You! - Consider this the golden rule of eRepublik politics. If you attack somebody, expect to be attacked back.



Thank you for your time. You're the only thing that can change eAustralia - the average citizen of it. If everybody improved on just these points, the situation here would be a lot better.

Politics

On a similar note, it's clear that my inability to conform to threats has 'broken the society' in eAustralia. (Or so a certain party claims) After my term is up as party president, I probably won't run again and will be leaving eAustralian politics. (Unless no real challenge in the party elections presents itself) I'll honour positions in those candidate's cabinets that have entrusted me with a position until the end of the term and will be happy to do some rolls in future cabinets, but it's clear that leading a neutral party has forced me out of neutrility, which isn't something I wanted to happen.

I may one day return to frontline politics if the immoral methods of certain parties ceases, but using a Military Unit you didn't build and a party you do nothing for to boost your own ego/fulfill your grudge is the worst polititcal move I've ever seen on eRepublik.

If this article surpasses 100 comments, I'll post more ARP puppetmaster-fail logs in my next article! 🙂