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Jack Flufferton, a Legend

You may not have heard of Jack Flufferton. Most veteran Americans would be horrified at you. Jack Flufferton is considered one of the greatest writers in American history – easily up there with guys like Lieutenant Scheisskopf (whose paper has over six thousand subs) and Gulden Draak. Though he has not been around for over a year, he made his return announcement on Wednesday; it’s unclear at this point how active he will be in the near future.

One might look at his newspaper (The Fluffertonian Times) and say 1,500+ subs is pretty damn good, but certainly not atop the U.S.’s media. Indeed, he is the #34 American writer by subscribers. But one would be making a false assumption about Flufferton’s skill. “If you were active on eRepublik, you read Flufferton,” said Joe Newton, former U.S. vice-president and editor of a 2,000+ sub paper. His articles would consistently earn hundreds of votes, sometimes exceeding a thousand. (“Why the US Isn’t Retaking Washington and Alaska” garnered 1,450 votes – a feat very rarely achieved.) “Flufferton was, by far, the most read writer in eRepublik.”

But what in particular made Flufferton a superior writer? “I would say his humor, and the fact that he took the time to make sure his articles had correct information,” Gulden Draak mused. Draak is the current vice-president, and editor of a very popular paper, The Paper Mache. Newton also said, “He posted quality articles often. Flufferton wrote beautiful articles full of truth and laughs in the most intense time in eRepublik.” Newton is referencing World War III – an invasion into American territory that left the U.S. with only one region (Florida), not to mention Canada and Spain getting wiped off the map.

His humor certainly made Flufferton extremely popular. This is exemplified in “Important Information about Jack Flufferton,” an article often referenced when one explains Jack Flufferton to another. “I haven't stopped weeping since Miley deleted her Twitter account. COME BACK MILEY!” “I have not molested any children, believe it or not.” “I would have intercourse with Canada if it were a person.” His pieces were not always as humorous as this, but he was a master at weaving jokes into his writing.

However, almost more critically than the writing itself is Flufferton’s use of the media options he had available to him. “Flufferton was the master of the shout,” Vice-President Draak said. The veep alluded to shouts in an interview with Kyle321n and, coincidentally, Joe Newton on “Fightin’ ‘round the World,” a weekly video blog. There has also been discussion of shouts on the eUS forum: by adding a lot of eRepublik friends, shouts can reach hundreds and even thousands of people, making for mass easy advertisement. “Word of mouth got him everything,” Newton said. At the same time, “he never ran an ad.” “[A]lso, he would answer reader comments in his comment section, which engaged readers,” continued Draak. “[And] he published articles that had to deal with international events, which got him a lot of foreign subs.”

During WWIII, there were several players who gained national and even international prominence by writing on a consistent basis – guys like Desertfalcon, who penned an article once a day for the entire 100-day length of the war. But Flufferton’s legacy still stands to this day. He hasn’t been forgotten during his time off: the Flufferton Awards, a short-lived but generally popular program that awarded GOLD prizes to American writers in certain categories, like the best troll article or the best economic article. (Vice-President Draak plans to bring back the Flufferton Awards at some point during the Hamilton administration.) His name still pops up every so often around the forums, and amongst old players reminiscing about the “good old days.”

Will we ever see another Flufferton? “Probably not,” said the vice-president. “He was a unique guy. It would be hard to duplicate.” Which is why America is – at least, should be – ecstatic over the return of Jack Flufferton.

Signing off,