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Anarco77 before he unfortunately (and in my mind rather understandably) left asked me to write an article about what it was like being an "eMinority" in "eTurkey." Was going to do this by telling my little narrative of how I ended up here of all places and what I've seen during my stay.

But a few things happened which I think merit publishing something else before that. First him leaving. This is a loss for eTurkey since he is truly one of the good guys who has tried to reach other to other people and try to expand the game beyond the few simple things the code allows us to do. He will be sorely missed. Second admittedly my own loss of interest in the game. Third thinking about what this cycle of rebellions and wars means in writing the other article. And fourth what this all says about the game itself. I like to try to post things in character. But for this I'll be more out of character than usual.

eRepublik started with a pretty nice concept. Develop different nation states, have elections, let people run for offices and form communities. The different nations gave people in real life countries something to feel connected to. And you had a gaming community or two take over a country to try to form their own unique cultures.

The war concept did add something and gave people something to do and ways for countries to compete. Things broke down a bit when countries were actually annihilated since you tended to have angry citizens. In eTurkey you even had the ruling coalition doing spiteful things such as moving people into conquered provinces and then putting absurd taxes on that region to drive people away. Which led in part to mayors unfortunately being abolished.

Rebellion was added as a safety valve. But I don't think in the way it was intended. Rebellion to the extent we've seen it in eTurkey thus far has amounted to nothing much more than nationalistic masturbation. You blow 300 gold, fail, and feel good about yourself.

Here is the rub. Because of how difficult and expensive rebellions they are really a form of warfare between countries where nations that oppose each other stack the deck to try to make a rebellion work to annoy another country. If it were otherwise the minorities seeking independence wouldn't even have to seek it. If the eIsraelis and eGreeks had the people to pull off a rebellion on their own they probably could've just saved the 300 gold, won the election, and petitioned the admin to rename the country and thus force the eTurks to rebel instead.

Or put another way unless eUnited States, eRomania, eSpain or some other large power WANTS an independent eIsrael or eGreece it probably isn't happening.

In the past I said a lot of the problems in eTurkey was the inability of different people to talk with each other. And that is true. There is a history of animosity created through conquest. Mindless nationalism and trolling and of course a language barrier. One of the things I enjoy most about online games is meeting with and talking with people from other countries and other backgrounds. It truly is a shame that isn't occurring here.

But all of that isn't the real problem. It is eRepublik itself. The game is too small and limiting. There really is little for anyone to do except war with each other and try to take over each others countries. And because of the originally noble idea of trying to build a "world community" with real life nations it has amounted to people spending real life money for pretend glory for real life nations. How much money is spent via donations for each war and rebellion? And how much do they really just needlessly bring out the worst in many of us? Just look at eTurkey and eIsrael. In real life they are two of the closest allies each has in it's region.

The answer is there has to be more that can be done internally with our countries so that there is something to do besides bicker with ones neighbors internally and externally. Or at least direct it towards something besides language and ethnicity. For example perhaps a wider arrangement of laws such as say the death penalty so ideological (rather than nationalistic) parties can actually have some meaning or purpose. Better developed economies. Discussion forums that are more integrally built into the game and different aspects of the game so people communicating with each other and discussing issues (like say in a company) are encouraged and rewarded. A restoration of local government.

In short it needs to return to being more of a political simulation where countries can be shaped into something that is unique to this world rather than hollow carriers of emotional baggage from the real world.

Anarco came up with something creative in trying to get people to form labor unions. And perhaps in a country that has less conquered provinces and less history of discord he'll be more successful. But unfortunately the barriers are also structural if we're to become more than just an increasingly boring ethnic war simulator.