What would I do if I was Plato? (English version)

Day 3,283, 15:10 • Published in Portugal Portugal • by Pony of Darkness

 Hi, folks. Thanks to IDEIAS, here is now the English version of my previous article, What would I do if I was Plato? Here we go!



 The typical response fool players give to the question "what would I do if I was Plato" is something like: "I would remove the packs and make the game even for both visas and free players" (and after that they'll solicite the bankruptcy of the company, due to the brutal reduction of revenues). For good or evil, the damned packs, purchase of golds etc. are the source of revenue eRepublik provides to the company. Without that, the game would not even exist, to begin with, and developers in Romania could not afford to buy food (as they are programmers, this food is coffee). But we know that the manner such packs are placed are, in the long run, a shot in the foot, by dispelling new players (and potential customers) and even making the game so focused on military power, purchased with visas, that small buyers give up the bought of some items - reducing the potential revenue of the game.


He used the packs

 However, it seems to me that even from the point of view of profit maximization there are serious errors in the management of eRepublik and in what should be prioritized. Frankly, changing the MU page to a "wow" style with a hard-to-use interface? Emoticons? This is unnecessary and will NOT lead to more players buying the packs and products. By the way, if you google "ereplabs job review" or something, there is a page called "glass-some-thing" in which there are reports of company employees. Basically, they say that it is a good work environment, the company pays reasonably wages etc., but they complain that developers and designers need to submit to the ideas of the management (Bonte and Co.) since these are "the greatest geniuses of game design."


I think the old MU interface was better... it was easier to find the things you want, specially on mobile.

 It seems to me that they may be afraid of risking: afraid of trying something new by changing the existing game and eventually losing the revenue they have and still not earning the new revenue expected for positive changes in erepublik. Understandable, but not exactly the attitude of a successful entrepreneur (if Trump had this attitude, he would never have won the US Presidency!)


Make the New World Great Again!

 Anyway, if I was Plato, thinking realistically as an entrepreneur, I would do the following:

 1) Aviation Module - that's a perfect opportunity to get new customers... if not for the fact that players with lots of energy (ie, with packs, expensive homes and energy bars) dominate the scene and so prevent noobs to do much thing.

 To balance this module - and at the same time make some money - I would do the following:

  1a)To separate the normal energy resource from the one required to air fights, amybe "fuel" or something like that. This way, energy bars stop working in this module, removing the advantage of the land-based "power gamers". In addition, there is an opportunity for the creation of a new factory, "diesel oil refinery" (and a new raw, "oil" or any think like that), which implies in more golds for the opening of this new factory AND more activity in the economic module.

  1b) Creation of an "air pack". Why? Because this way new players that have money and a willingness to spend can give me lots of money !! And, buying the new pack, they can shine in the air module as much if not more than existing visas (which dominate the land, so they will not lose so much.) Anyway, they can also buy the new air pack, and those who are addicted and rich will give me more money when buying an extra pack!!


 2) Ads (advertisements): to make every player, visa or not-visa, useful for the company, put ads in the game. Simple and annoying - so there should be a buyable "adblocker" for, let's see, 10 golds, which lasts a month, and a more expensive adblocker that costs something like 60 golds and lasts a year. Yes, it's expensive, but we need the revenue! Of course it's expensive, but firstly I do not want the players to stop seeing ads, and secondly players with a little more technical knowledge would already used an AdBlocker add-on in the browser anyway.

 Obviously I would avoid the most annoying ads (like those that open a window in the middle of the page), prefering the more discret ones that remain in the corner of the page. I would also avoid bothering those who use AdBlocker with crybaby messages, like other pages do, because anyone using AdBlocker will NOT click on the ads anyway, and would just be fed up with the game. Ads are an additional, not the main dish of the game revenues. But with them the more players I have, weither they pay or not, more money I got!


If the article is mine, it needs to have the small horses

 3) Ridiculous bugs: there are some absolutely shameful bugs in the game - as in the alliances page, full of dead alliances with "one member" (actually none) and absurd numbers for existing alliances (Nebula with 12 members when in fact has 5, for example ). In my opinion, this seems much more important than aesthetic changes, and it gives a positive image to the players (while the aesthetic changes give the image of futile spending and low concern with the actual game problems).


Yesterday is today: EDEN still exists. And CoT too!

 4) Mobile version: this is important: today the Internet revolves around smartphones and tables, but the mobile version of the game fails in several respects (much of what is in the normal game there is not in the mobile version, such as messages and alerts, Newspaper articles, and especially a logout button; mobile now is for 2-click, not for the actual game). I would take the programmer who is now losing time to redesign tge existing pages and make him work with the mobile version. How can a browser game can live without a good mobile version at the end of 2016?



 Well, with these changes I would expect, first and foremost, an increase in revenues without negatively affecting the free player playing. Secondly, there is an incentive for new players to enter, as with the more accessible air battles against them - especially for those who pay me - they will have more reasons to stay in the game.

 Assuring a more stable source of revenue, I could think of more risky ways to "fix the game", for example to rethink the divisions or to reduce the effects of the two most infamous packs (Maverick and Infantry Kit), to don't discourage so much the new players. What about reducing the cost to upgrade the Q7 weapons factory, or fix the dictatorial module to demand that those who fight in it have CS from the country in question? With these changes, maybe we could experience a revival of the economic and political modules, which are now in a semi-dead state, given the prevalence of the military module (btw, this prevalence is largely the fault of customers taste rather than admins). With more players, the social module naturally will get more activity. And what about to improve the chats, creating chats with more players besides the MU, and maybe even to turn this tool into the standard method of communication between members of governments?

 So, what would you do if it were the Plato?