[Junkrat] 8 Deadly Effects of Training Wars!
Junkrat
The Forewor
😛
First and foremost, I think at the midst of Valentine’s event, while we are all farming at maximum, it’s the best time to release this article.
Secondly, We all know there’s something wrong with Plato. What he does and how he does things is out of our control. So I’m not gonna waste my energy thinking and debating about what is out of my control.
I’m gonna focus on what we actually can control; and analyze the impact of our actions, or in-actions, on the game. And also give some suggestions along the way, if there are ears left to hear them!
I don’t really want to hear about Plato. I want to hear about solutions that are within our control.
Let’s Talk About Training Wars…
Nowadays, Training Wars and Farming are an inseparable part of our eCulture. I’d even go as far as saying they are the main focus of how we play the game. They are also the main thing 95% of eGovernments spend time and energy on.
95% of what an eGovernment does is to schedule TWs! And then there is a tiny 5% effort for some real shit that’s going on in some eCountries.
Yes, I said it! The dominant majority of CPs are only TW schedulers. Nothing else!
They do nothing else, and we, as people don’t expect them or hold them accountable to do anything else than provide us with a good farming infrastructure.
If our farming is taken care of, the majority of us are content.
Yet we complain about why the game is boring. And why the alliance power dynamics are not balanced. (I will have a whole other article about why we can’t change the power dynamics, but let’s for now stick to the TW topic)
I think we are too deep into the Training War culture that it’s almost impossible to change it at this point. But let’s just take a look at the effects TWs have on the game...
1. The Culture of Farming
The main reason why we do TWs is to farm and make more money. We are so deep into this farming culture to the point that the majority of us, consciously or subconsciously don’t even care about the events that are taking place around the eWorld.
Next time you want to complain about the power dynamics of alliances, first ask yourself, do you even care enough to fight for your allies?
In a constant chase for Gold and eMoney in TWs, your interests are in deep conflict with fighting in real battles.
Note: I’m not bashing you for farming. As I already said, all of us, including myself, are so deep into this TW culture that our priorities and interests are completely messed up. We forgot that there should be balance in everything. After all, I make more Gold, so why should I be concerned about others, Huh?
This culture impacted us players in such a way that I've seen some people even ignore their important country's battles. To the point where they lose the battle against an enemy.
2. The illusion of prosperity
If we neutrally review the philosophy of TWs, we see that it's just giving us the illusion of making more money! In actuality, if everyone uses TWs to farm, they are all growing at the same financial level. And if everybody got rich, then nobody got rich!
In simple words, instead of all having 1000 Golds in our accounts on average, now all of us just have 10,000 Golds in our accounts.
Nothing changed! Nobody got richer. The average wealth distribution level is the same. We all just added one ZERO to our number of Golds.
Note: You might argue the fact that country X has more TWs than country Y, Therefore country X is getting richer via using more TWs. Well, my answer to that is, first of all, how a country takes advantage of TWs, does not change the true destroying nature of TWs. Secondly, if country Y does not use TWs as smartly as country X, it’s on them. Again it doesn’t change the nature of TWs whatsoever.
3. TWs kill the meaning of allies and enemies
Well, if everyone can attack their friends, and/or Declare War to their allies, then what is the meaning of an ally? And what is an enemy?
4. Mutual Protection Pacts
Why countries don’t use MPPs anymore?
Because it limits their ability to have more TWs. They can't attack their MPP allies.
Now imagine for a second, if everybody were to use MPPs. What would happen?
Countries would be forced to fight for their allies, against their enemies. Nobody could run meaningless TWs anymore. Being a Neutral country would be very hard, expensive, and boring.
5. Forever Neutral countries like Poland, or Pacifica could not exist even for a week without TWs!
Without Training Wars, no neutral country, big or small, would have the chance to survive for long periods. Let alone a whole alliance!
The whole tactic of a Forever Neutral like Poland/Pacifica is using TWs, And even running weekly scheduled epic TWs. AKA becoming a Farm Heaven.
This is twisting and manipulating all the game mechanics, and forgetting about honor and values in front of your eyes.
Note: Again, I’m not against farming. I’m not even against being neutral in this current TW situation. But I’m definitely against everything that is hugely out of balance. It’s okay to be neutral. It's okay to take your time and breathe. IMO it’s not okay to become forever neutral!
6. TWs are wasting, and draining the damage of soldiers
When the supply number of wars becomes bigger than the number of soldiers, it starts to suck in the damage and focus out of the real wars. And that is why you are wondering why you don’t see any interesting battles, with HUGE amounts of damage anymore.
The game is not dead yet; we are just playing it differently!
7. TWs killing the economy
First and foremost, the basic premise of every economy is one thing. Supply and Demand!
If you mess with the supply or demand, the economy will not remain healthy. The economy of eRepublik was not meant to have this many battles, and this much Gold getting thrown daily at the market.
8. TWs killing the trades
When you are war with a country, you can’t trade with it anymore. Even you buy export licenses.
In my opinion, the above reasons are why TWs are more destructive than they do good for us. And I’m sure, like always, many of you do not agree with this. And that is cool.
I think at this point, we are so deep into the farming culture, that it’s impossible to stop TWs without using force (AKA Plato, and new limiting features).
As always, I want to hear your thoughts and comments on this topic. Let me know what you think about TWs and if they are helping or hurting.
…This message may or may not have been composed by my rat…
…Hakuna Matata!
Comments
First Denied o/
STOP TWs!
I'm gonna give a counter point - access to farming is the motivation for our real wars.
We've fought back and forth over China purely because it is space for TWs. Likewise, USA's space for TWs is a huge resource for our country. There isn't a point for us to fight Code for China (or any of their core regions for that matter), other than that it deprives our enemies of TWs and adds space for us. We invade and conquer spaces to convince neutrals to add TWs with us. It's the only thing of value in this game worth fighting for.
I already addressed that in the article. Point 2, Note 1:
Note: You might argue the fact that country X has more TWs than country Y, Therefore country X is getting richer via using more TWs. Well, my answer to that is, first of all, how a country takes advantage of TWs, does not change the true destroying nature of TWs. Secondly, if country Y does not use TWs as smartly as country X, it’s on them. Again it doesn’t change the nature of TWs whatsoever.
_____
Yes i understand, for example USA, or Poland can come here and say we got richer because of TWs. But still the fact that a country using them more intelligently, does not change the destructive nature of TWs. I’m talking about the “nature” of it. But while we are deep into it, of course it’s wise to use them to our advantage.
My point is the majority of campaigns in the last year have been related to our invasion and defense of China, which were motivated by wanting to control that area to have TWs.
btw, at one point this data was available, but Asteria was farming like 5x more gold than CODE was (this was like 6 months ago).
Oops, 5x is a lot.
I think the data is still available on erep box, just not getting updated.
8-10 years ago TWs were rare, China and USA regions were tranquil and undisturbed, hadn't changed owner for years. Yet, alliances had more motivation to fight than now and the game was more interesting.
o/ get to the Choppa
I'll also note that majority of epics today were real wars:
11 real air epics today, and 4 TW air epics
12 real air epics now.
Yeah my bad i thought hydras were TWs.
13...
Country ultimately seeks its own security and strength, for itself and for citizens. Having resources, gold, is way to increase that, fuel to your aspirations. Without gold, you cant buy good stuff and your country cant prosper as the one that has resources, gold. So seeking new TW, to get people rich and then spend it in your nations ambitions, it is natural and good. But the main thing here, how big importance we put into chasing TWs and fighting real battles. I farm, and then to spend it all in nations ambitions, security, strength, prosperity for citizens.
You are absolutely right. The thing is once you get into the “farming dopamine cycle” it is SOOOOO HARD to keep it balanced. Eventually the conflict of interests between farming vs real battles would dominate the majority of players / nations…
You need to also think about the trade-off of things.
There are fewer and fewer of players everyday who think like you. TWs will make people numb to real battles in the long run and change their priorities. Again i’m talking about the nature of TWs and what they do to the culture. Not about a specific country or individual who uses them more wisely or not.
I see this trend too, unfortunately, that people put more importance on self goals, medals, than nation and community goals...but still, I dont think all is lost and as was said, we should focus on what we can change, in government behaviour, about TWs aso..becasue government officials give the directions, news, policy
100. If somebody can change a thing it’s government leaders.
I would add point 9. TWs killed the game
Infantry and maverick killed the game
so greed from both sides killed the game
Don’t forget that i got banned yesterday morning…
as a relatively new player TW and farming is all I care about, you old dogs can go start some real sh*t
I agree 100%. Training wars and usage of multi accounts is killing this game. It is becoming boring.
Well .... I agree and disagree with your point of view. Yes, the TWs are killing the game but we have to remember that the game is already dead. The only reason most people still login is because of the time they invested in the game already. There are not enough players willing to dedicate their time to this "money grab" game which is now just an ATM for Plato.
The fact there are less and less people who are willing to dedicate time and effort into leading and building things is also another HUGE issue. Requires a whole new article…
For example very few people that are criticizing the in-balances in game / alliances are actually willing to put effort into leading a new one. And it takes real effort to do such things.
Maybe another effect of the TE culture is they made the game more casual than it was supposed to be… this game is in no way a casual game for the competitive (leadership) positions.
And sorry, who’s plato again? xD
I think that because there's no people (or very few) willing to put in the time to lead countries/alliances is the reason why TWs are ok for me; it give me the pleasure of doing what I couldn't do before : gather gold and cc to do what I couldn't do before. I wouldn't have played it otherwise, as I really have no other reason to do so. If there were people willing to put in the time (most of us are grown ups now with IRL priorities) to trully lead countries and alliances to war, I would probably still only participate ocasionally due to the limited amount of time available to play it.
If you never farm you will have uninteresting battles with only food energy spent 😁
If you always farm you will have uninteresting batlles with only TWs 😁
So it comes like an evidence that the right path is to have TWs and real wars. That is what is happening.
If this game can become boring for some of us that's due to 2 factors. 1) when you become an old player of a game the only point that can arise your interest is important updates. 2) important updates comes up with a game having a large audience. Badly Erep is still alive but under perfusion.
Anyway I like the way you write your articles often with a bit of provocation so it can goes fun and open debates and that's what erep players needs. Bravo !
o7
I came back to the game during covid after a 4 year hiatus and i was shocked with the boring farming culture that had developed. 4 years later its still boring so i snipe my fellow countrymen keeping score to pass the time. i also found if you question this culture it quickly attacks you. Hence the sniping in my case lmao.
Great article btw
My pleasure o/
Yes, disagreements and attacks are part of this game. Specially when you question something that many people regularly do.
Nobody wants you messing with there free easy to grind gold. Thats why i snipe them so its not so easy to farm. Plus it creates some competition, activity and banter even if most of them hate me for it.
Key is to have real war battles planned for events that will lead to epics which equals fun for players fighting in them.
o7
You said it right there mate: "Nothing changed!"
So if nothing changed, why not have 10000 golds instead of 1000 golds. The eWorld is like the real world, the breaking point is not reached yet. Majority of people are still content with things. You're trying to change their mind with these articles but nobody knows if you'll succeed. But if and when the time comes, it will change. If not then it just means that the game ran its course. And thats okay. I'm sure everyone will say, "I'm here for the people I meet anyway". I mean if you think that "real wars" will bring people back or make them happier, you're just looking that from the other side of the river mate, nobody ever is happy. Majority or minority. And they make the game we play. I'm pretty sure I know what the majority thinks right now, and so do you.
I’m not trying to change anybody’s mind. Specially for TWs it’s stupid! Obviously i said it myself we are too deep in the farming culture right now…
Reason i write articles is i like discussion and finding balance in things.
Sometimes making people angry, or attacking their mindsets is not bad imo. There’s always a spectrum in category of different things/mindsets.
i. e. IRL some people are too liberal, some people are too conservative. But when 80% of people lean towards the liberal mindset, having a too conservative voice becomes necessary in order to balance things out… if you know what i mean.
relativization 🙂
FU
o7
Playing eRep and being neutral is the same that playing Farmville...
Farmville killed this party scene a few years back. I understand as to why to have TWs: ranking up, building strength and now protector points and other asorted things.
TWs are basically a verion of RL military maneuvers which is a good thing.
But TWs have become a main focus and total farmville is not a good thing.
The turnout for RW engagements is dismal. People have become so conditioned to farm gold that they bypass their eNations real battles for a fistful of shiny rocks. They figure "fuk it somebody else will lay damage so it is cool for me to chase the carrot on the stick."
That is the most negative aspect of Total Farmville. We play as individuals chasing individual goals instead of fighting for our communities.Farmville has had a major negative impact on the social aspect of this game which was the main draw at it's core.
Of course the massive amount of cheating by both allaiances via bot armies does not help the cause.
Anyway thanks for another good article.
Your media gets people interacting with each other (socializing) which ia a major social positive.
Sub. 182
One wor😛
Farmville!
Your article shows you don't really fight in real wars 🙂
I just want my damn retirement with farming 😁
I'm in this game for almost 15 years now, and I personally am fed up with wars
2. Depends on how hardworking people used to be. Some would wake up early and go to bed late just to farm a lot more than the average joe, and in turn after big wars they had bigger ranks because they had more farm to spend. But nowadays with the scrips everyone farms equally agreed.
5. Poland was surviving for a long time even before TWs were used en masse xd
7. I remember the hype when Legend ranks were introduced, it was a big deal to have 1 or 2 Legend ranks. Now you can buy a bunch of EBs with your 50k gold stash and get 500 legend ranks if they werent capped at 20. The scaling got out of hand.
The part about Poland was about, a FOREVER NEUTRAL country like what Poland is currently could not survive without TWs. Poland today is a whole different country that what it was years back…
Well i dont know poland today but in general i would disagree that a forever neutral country would die out with TWs. The humans that make up the country will keep logging in and fap on their stockpiles even if the whole game died, their brain gets accustomed to the low-effort logins.
Well, then it depends what you call “surviving”… yeah, many countries are surviving with a few players and no Golds or Money or Bonuses or Regions… But en Empire, Prospering, with lots of players? Nah… Couldn’t exist like that without TWs.
Having TW with allies is basic strategy to cover, delay, jump and so on that it can be used when attacking as much as while defending