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[Editors Note] Gnilly wrote this so I wrote the following. Blame him.


Hi kids!

So for you lazy bums that didn't even click on the link at the top... Gnilraps asks the question, "With all of the huge piles of greenbacks Plato is rolling in from the MU Contest, what ONE cool feature should they develop for our game?". My short answer? I would like to see a pre-apocalyptic econ mod. What would that look like? Stay tuned.




The Day The Music Died
(And the BS started)

I would like to take a moment to provide a PSA (for the uneducated that's a Public Service Announcement). Happiness was removed from eRep.

Our story begins with a MMOG browser game named eRepublik. When this began close to 5 1/2 years ago it was a novelty. Step by step, with help from the players, admin created a fun little game. Then it happened. People started doing what people always do when there are more than two in a room, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch. This is too hard, that takes too long, IT'S NOT FAIR! Soon admin goes into appeasement mode. Everything is made "easier". Players advance "faster". Seriously, many changes actually helped the game but when was the decision made to throw out the baby with the bath water?




Making It Fair!
(This is where I rant for awhile, feel free to skip ahead.)

I suppose that we should be grateful for small favors. Lower level players have been bitchin' for just as long about the war mod. At least Plato addressed some issues such as adding Divisions to help people with lower Strength and Military Skill enjoy the game. That even provided for a little additional strategy. (Strategy - remember this word.) The econ mod has went a different direction.

One of the first things done to kill the econ was to cut the price of new companies from 20 to 10 gold. This was to make it easier for everyone to be a businessman. Then the brilliant idea came about to give everyone a free Q1 food factory and 3 grains. Within a matter of days the price of food dropped below profitable margins. The "fairness" that put everyone into competition lead to massive overproduction, lower wages and a stagnant econ.

Then the "fix" for everything was introducing WaM (Work as Manager). Where you could work in all of your companies for no cost except Health and the food to restore it. Suddenly employees were not needed. Guess what happened? Wages suck and the poor are suddenly poorer. Econ Skill didn't matter anymore so everyone was in the same boat, not just the n00bs. So everyone eventually became their own boss and invested in companies. Product everywhere and no one to buy it. S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E! Everyone's bitchin' again because eLife ain't fair.

Enter Buy Bots. That's right, admin's econ vacuum cleaners. Let's just create an artificial demand for products. This worked well until some of us figured out how to play the system and reap extra profits. And yes, you guessed it, THIS WAS NOT FAIR! So the Buy Bots got shut off, eventually for good. Now we are where we are. The econ is dead. If you don't work for a commune or own your own companies you are a broke little ****.




To Answer Gnilraps Question

There are several things I wouldn't do but will possibly be done in the name of RL profit. I have no problem with the owners of eRep making a profit. I could not consider myself a Capitalist and deny them their reward. I just wish they would seriously consider the increase of profit potential if they actually went back to a Social/Strategy game instead of a You Buy My Gold game. Do they not have enough reasons to make you buy gold yet?

We don't need Q8 weapons. We don't need Q5 training grounds. PvP is fun in a goofy sort of way but doesn't really add anything to the game for me. Face it guys, piling more and more frosting on a burnt cake doesn't make it taste better, just sweeter. Eventually your eating frosting straight outta the can. Don't keep making the war mod THE only thing here.

The long awaited answer is...

Turn the freakin' bots back on and then just leave it alone. If people cry, bitch and moan just let 'em. Remember that word "Strategy" that I mentioned at the top of this pile? Strategy is how you win or lose a game. Right strategy wins, wrong strategy looses. If I know how to play the bots and you don't too bad. It just means I can play the econ better than you. FWIW, they tried to take the last of the strategy out of the politics mod when then put Congress elections under the parties. That didn't completely work but it was as "fair" as they could make it.

BRAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!