Fix eRepublik

Day 2,347, 11:52 • Published in Canada Norway • by Major Lee Hung
Does eRepublik leave you with a feeling of not actually achieving anything? No matter how much you fight in a battle, do you feel you're making any difference to the ultimate outcome of a war? If yes, how long is it until said war restarts? Look at the eUSA for example - they've been fighting a country 20% their size now for months, yet we're still here. No matter how much CC and gold they use to wipe us, we simply open a RW and are back with half our country back within days. It's a never ending war with no winner, as nobody wins on eRepublik.

Many people will often write "fix economy" to address their issues with the broken aspects of the game; I feel that this doesn't cut it however. The game needs some major fundamental changes to avoid falling any further.



Player-base

Over the last 12 months, we've seen the once flourishing international eRepublik communities diminish to almost non-existence. National forums now lie silent, key community figures from every country have gone. No new people are anywhere to be found in the majority of countries.

This severe drop in players shows that no matter how good a community, the base game itself is impeding all user-led retention efforts. We've been told in the past "but eRepublik is just a platform for the community! You don't need changes!"; unfortunately the world isn't that simple. People will find friends here, yes. Surprisingly, they also remain friends. If they don't like your game? They simply move their community elsewhere. We're seeing this happen every single month.



Changes, Promises

For at least two years now, our eRepublik Team have told us constantly that changes are coming - that they're devoted to keeping eRepublik fun. It seems the old, fun eRepublik has now been buried by short-sited views on how to monetise the product.

Every single month that passes makes me question; is anything Plato has promised going to materialise?
-Talk of big changes to the MU system long ago that never happened.
-Released concept art and various hints of a new economy module have resulted in nothing.
-Rumoured overhaul of the political module never happened.

All we've had in two years on the above? A few changes to the interface. There's been no real fundamental change to anything except ways to get people spending gold on stupid additions like the Power Spin.

I can't help notice that subsequently, old eRepublik friends are vanishing monthly. I myself and I'm sure most of us will vanish soon too with the way things are going.



Fundamental Issues

A lot of the problems in today's eRepublik can be followed down in to two key root issues:
-Very short-term thinking by the powers that be, making eRepublik today almost impossible to enjoy, completely aimless and more of a daily chore than a game.
-A desire to extract as much revenue from eRepublik as possible.

Consider this an example: You joined a few months ago and see today your country is under attack. You want to do your bit. You buy a €100 gold pack and convert it in to energy bars. You use them all, only to discover that people who have played longer than you are able to do about 4 times as much damage - no matter how much rl money you throw at the battle, you just can't make a significant difference. A couple of guys using their hard worker medal & SS medal gold from last week were able to deal as much damage as you.

In terms Plato understands? There's no incentive for the older players to buy gold, and there's no point in the newer player buying it - eRepublik has become a lose-lose situation.



What is the Purpose of eLife?

There's no purpose in the game; Plato is asking the wrong questions. He wants to know what modules we enjoy, I'm sure he can use that for a few more gold sales. However, the key question? Plato should be asking us what our aims are. What are the aspirations of the players?

This is the problem that faces eRepublik now. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that I find the military module, which has been made the core module of the game, very disenchanting. I'm not a new player but I only started gold training a few months ago as I'd lost interest in the economic module and wanted to find a new interest.

No matter how many energy bars I use, I can barely make a difference to most battles. Somebody who isn't even a gold buyer can easily out-do somebody who could be a very significant gold buyer in the future, simply because this strength issue has been allowed to run on for way too long.

My 1,000 kills might get a decent 100,000,000 influence, but if the battle is important, somebody with an equal number of kills is going to do about half a billion damage in the battle, rendering me completely useless in the military module.



Solutions?

As a community, I believe that we should be listened to more. As the game is now basically falling apart and the number of active citizens continues to fall, Plato should now be asking the players, "where did I go wrong?".

So write in the comments, what would you do to change eRepublik? Where do you think Plato has gone wrong? Let's get our ideas finally heard!