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As noted in my previous article, Interventions for a Better Meta:



A false equivalence has been floated between a critique of one particular "meta"-layer -- the eUSA Forum -- and the role of all "meta" tools. The straw man argument goes: "How can the SFP criticize the eUSA Forum? After all, there is an SFP Forum too!!! What hypocrites they are!! Bwaaa-hahahaha!!"





I am quite sure that any thoughtful reader can see through the logical flaw in such argumentation. No critic of eUSA Forums, as far as I know, at least not in the recent furores around the SFP's interventions in this area, has claimed that "All eRepublik meta-play is exactly the same and that all use of all meta-software or meta-concepts is equally bad.


That would just be silly.








So here are a few ideas I've stumbled over on my way to the refrigerator. Not all of them are ones that I thought up myself. In fact most of them have been mentioned by friends and comrades, or something I saw made me think of how it might work out in the New World.


Some types of "New Meta" can be done by individuals or small groups. Others would probably need a Party or Milita level of activity. Still others might involve cross-over between such organizations. And there certainly more things that can be done at the governmental and international levels.

I have only touched a few ideas here.


The thing is to think about how to enrich our e-lives without waiting for either for Plato or the various metalords and their minions to "fix" things.




Actual un-retouched photo of e-US Forums Welcome Wagon Volunteer




OK. SO here are some ideas in no particular order. Please add your own in the convenient comment section at the end!


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IDEAS for GROUPS

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( 1 ) Call for and conduct Impromptu General Assemblies

Whether you have a Democracy, a Dictatorship, an in-game Congressional system, or an off-game one: play with getting a wide community together for a Conversation.

The key thing here is openness and involvement. Find out what people are thinking. Share ideas and points of view.

There are many different ways to do this, at multiple levels, both in-game and using extra tools. The key is participation, not representation.

Don't ask permission. Just call for a gathering at given "place" to address some specific topics. Bring treats. 🙂







( 2 ) Form a Shadow or Provisional Government

Here's an idea to stir up activity within your party or commune or militia. Sure, you may not have won the CP election, but why not form a Cabinet anyway and proceed as if you were "in charge"?

Obviously you won't be able to "push all the buttons". With the Dick module in place only one person gets to do that anyway. Get some practice pushing fake imaginary buttons -- then your group will be primed and ready when the time comes to push real imaginary buttons!

This is also a good way to get more folks engaged playing at politics. Offer alternative policy ideas. Perhaps even construct some interesting alternative institutions and infrastructure.







( 3 ) Conduct Your Own Foreign Policy

Who says you have to be a Minister of Foreign Affairs before you can reach out to players around the world? Or that only e-countries can conduct foreign policy and make alliances?

Party-to-party relationships can be built between like-minded groups. Simple diplomacy can be based just on making friends, conducting interviews, and learning how things are done in other places.






( 4 ) Start an International Press Bureau

Another twist on getting your game on world-wide... Travel to different countries, read their press, talk to people and write up some articles on what you are seeing, hearing and reading.

One of the more remarkable things about e-Republik is its global reach. Yet many of us tend to remain bundled up inside our national cocoons.

See the world!





( 5 ) Gather your own Tribe

Who says that our e-Republikan identity has to be bound by Party, Militia or Country?

Maybe you have a group of friends who share similar interests and would like to explore the New World together? Perhaps an international writing group? Or a mutual aid society?

Long-term, short-term. Put on a show. Sponsor an event. Travel the world. Come together to do something wonderful. Or wonderfully shocking.

The possibilities are endless, really.





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IDEAS for NOMADS, INVENTORS and TOUR GUIDES

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( 6 ) Design a Vehicle to Survive e-Homelessness

Assemble a survival kit for wandering and/or impoverished e-Republikans. Make sure that no newbie ever logs off cold and malnourished.

This might be a combination of game tips, no-strings-attached assistance, and an offer of a friendly word or two when needed.

Perhaps too often we approach new players, disenfranchised older players, or e-immigrants with something of proprietary eye -- like, how can I get them to join my party? my militia? an so on.

The idea here is to promote self-empowerment while helping individuals to survive -- not only by being a good egg yourself, but designing a kit to make it so.





( 7 ) Design an Renewable Energy Converter

This would be for someone with really good skillz. The idea is to figure out how to covert all the hot air produced in off-game meta sites into productive energy that could be used to, say, produce amazement and laughter.

It would be sort of a take-off on the real life paraSITE idea (see picture), which routes warm air from air vents to inflatable structures for keeping homeless people warm. But instead would be aimed at keeping our spirits high with laughter.

I am thinking something like a Natural Language Parser that would automatically play back the "hits" from a week Congressional babbling in the form of cut-and-paste hip hop?





Look right there! You can see one of those crazy "boarded-up businesses". LOL!



And here's a lovely painting of a typical American wearing a pancake with butter.

( 8 ) Re-Exploit Bus Tours

Conduct guided tours of conquered or devastated countries and provinces for visitors from the occupying countries. And vice-versa.

Using speech, music, texts, sights, interviews, and so on, poetically articulate, in the form of a tour, the things that bind and divide the oppressor and oppressed countries, or distinguish the "haves" from the "have-nots".

For extra credit, take things to the next Transnational level and promote a theme like "New World / One World" or "No Firm Ground". Go around insisting on theories like "Mexico City is Boston and Boston is Mexico City". Follow up with some kind of event, text, installation or "happening" that occurs in or is presented in both regions.






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IDEAS for OUTLAWS

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( 9 ) Satire, Satire, Satire

There is literally no end to the things that can be mocked and made fun of in eRepublik. Start anywhere. Creating fake government publications is time-honored eRep tradition. Frankly, not enough players engage in it any more and I am disappoint.

It takes a little bit of effort to combine just the right amount of snark with good-natured ribbing. It is entirely possible -- and sometimes quite worth it -- to push the boundaries of good taste when knocking over sacred cows.

The goal is to make people laugh and think at the same time, not just to be nasty and mean. But if you can get it right, you will be loved and hated at the same time. Which pretty much makes you a double-winner!







( 10 ) Trespass, Re-Purpose, Re-Use and Then Throw Pies

Assume there are no boundaries. At all. Go wherever you like. And throw pies.

Assume all e-World "leaders" and "experts" and "veterans" would look more human if they had pie on their face.

Take on a "Guerilla Agent" name that reflects your favorite kind of pie, for example: Agent Blueberry, or Agent Chocolate Supreme, or the Phantom Flan Flinger. It is important to empathize with your targets, who in many cases are operating in a difficult e-world with which it is difficult to connect.

And of course in some cases, they just deserve a pie in the face.

Think of your e-pie as force for good.

Then throw it. Gently. But firmly.






( 11 ) Express Yourself!

Accept no limits on your e-self-expression. Pay no attention to illiterates whose only comment on your genius book length e-dissertation is "TL; DR". They are just jealous.

(However, DO please make good use of white space. I mean, how much effort is it to push the goddamn Enter key a few times, huh??!! Hunh???!!!!)

Don't ever feel like your articles, or your comments have to "make sense" or "be relevant".

Blur the boundaries between e-life and real-life. Why the feck not?





( 12 ) Go Over the Top

Invent a persona that is undeniably "what it is" by picking a type and pushing it to the absolute limit in a way that exposes the underlying absurdity of that type.

This is fairly advanced stuff. You will need to do your homework.

An example would be a "Holy Roller" type of preacher in the "American Heartland" mold, but who enthuses mainly against the evils of Global Capital.

Let's see... Oh! Or one might start an organization called something like, say, "The Principles of Dio", and proceed with a parody so good that people will interview you as an expert on that topic.

(Or so bad that at least they will refer to you as an "anklebiter" or a "butthole hater troll". 🙂 )











In all these things, the question to keep asking yourself is: "Can there be revolutionary meta without an actual revolution?"

The answer, obviously, will be measured by the extent to which such expanded ideas of meta "disappear" into the daily everyday life of the players.






Fire is catching.




XOXOXOXOXOXOXXOOX,
PQ