[WHPR] Special Edition: An Op-Ed by Tyler Bubblar
Day 2,737, 08:55
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Published in USA 
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by
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by James S. Brady Press Room
White House Press Report - Day 2737 – Special Edition: An Op-Ed by Tyler Bubblar
Dateline: Tuesday, May 19th, 2015 (Day 2737)
Location: James S. Brady Press Room, The White House
Announcement:
Today’s Special Edition was written by Deputy Secretary of the Media Tyler Bubblar.
Editors Note:
Special Editions will be occurring in addition to the Media Department’s goal of 2 WHPR’s per week. Special Editions will feature interesting pieces of longer length written by government officials to inspire or inform the people.
Don’t forget that The Pony Express will be released every Sunday. The Pony Express is a government publication that complies all important government articles released throughout the week in one publication for the convenience of the American people.
Today’s WHPR
1. Op-Ed by Tyler Bubblar
The Wrong Game: an Op-Ed by Tyler Bubblar
“I’m sorry you downloaded the wrong game, this is the World of Warcraft not the World of Welfare.” Before I played eRepublik I was a WoW junkie. I played on the Tanaris server a mid level PVE server that they recommended for new players when I first logged in. I played through most of the Burning Crusade expansion, all of Wrath of the Lich King, and the start of the Cataclysm expansion. When I walked away I had a max level Paladin, Druid, Shaman, Death Knight, Hunter, Warlock and I was working up a Mage and Rogue. All of my characters had max professions and max flight speed. As a result of this I would frequently get whispers from other players asking for gold. The opening line was the response I would frequently send back.
There is no comparison between the economies of WoW and eRep. Gold buying was frowned upon and was a violation of the service agreement. Anyone willing to put in the time to work up professions on their various toons/alts could stockpile gold rather quickly. It was a more than even playing field in which only one’s diligence and choices would set you apart from the pack. I played that game for the challenge of Raiding and for the community in the Guild I called home. There was a dedicated 10 person Raid I ran with weekly and the core 25 person Raid that I was privileged to be a part of.
While the 25 man Raid was considered more prestigious, I enjoyed the 10 person group far more because we were all friends and genuinely enjoyed the challenges of progressing through Naxxrammas, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and finally the Icecrown Citadel together. One of the reasons I ended up leaving WoW was that the group I ran with had splintered in different directions, and the new group I began to raid with in Cataclysm while part of the same Guild and competent enough just did not feel the same. The camaraderie, determination, and humor that helped us grind through new challenges and still have fun while doing so was just no longer there for me. So I began to log in less and less until one day I realized it had been nearly a month since my last log in and I cancelled my subscription.
The contrast to eRepublik is fairly obvious. While numbers are dwindling we still have a community here in the eUSA. Yet it is become increasingly rare to find and keep promising new players. It is my belief that this can be almost completely and directly linked to the economic module. Here gold buying is not only legal but highly encouraged to the point of it being near impossible to get max training without the almighty plastic. No level caps and no strength caps have made it impossible to catch older players unless they simply stop logging in. After two years of max strength training I have managed to take my profile from having two super soldier medals to possessing 251 of them at this moment. However no matter what I do I will never catch Molly Emma, Josh Frost, Wild Owl, Deepchill, Pfeiffer, Gnilraps,etc in the strength department.
I have tried to be smart about not leveling up too fast which can offset much of the disadvantage of not having 6 uninterrupted years of strength training to lean on. However for a new player not leveling as fast as you can seems backwards and counter intuitive. Which takes me to the economic module. It does not take much time in this game to realize the economic module is in shambles. The rate of return in spending gold to buy factories and raw material producing lands is measured now in years. Something that this game likely does not have. The Parties of the eUSA, Military Units, and the Executive have stepped in admirably to fill in that void.
There are numerous programs a new player can lean on to subsist and learn the ropes of this game. Bank Up to Strength Up, meals on wheels, Stack the Wall, Bewbs for Newbs, and many more all stand ready to shower new players in food, weapons, and gold to help them start strong. I wonder if that is maybe the problem. A promising player that is going to come in and get involved will usually want to stand on their own two feet. Realizing that without pouring a lot of real life money into this game they will be consigned to subsisting on handouts is likely a deal breaker for many people that would have made strong contributions to this our community.
The trouble with this concept is that it is not truly applicable in the current state of our economy. We can teach new players to spend their XP wisely, along with the ins and outs of running a Party/Department/MU, but ultimately they cannot be taught to run a successful commercial enterprise. Without the outside interference of 16 digits on plastic it just is not going to happen. My monthly subscription to World of Warcraft ranged from $15 a month to $12 depending on the length of time I renewed for. That money purchased me a great deal of freedom in my gameplay. While eRepublik is free to play (technically) taking advantage of each and every monthly pack Plato proffers would cost me upwards of $75 a month. I would have a lot of hit points, double energy bars, some assorted bombs and beefed up bazooka packs, faster energy renewal, but I would still be chained by Plato’s incompetence. We here as a community and a nation have done everything we can to bolster this flagging game, but all of the plastic in the eUSA cannot save the economy, and ultimately this game from Plato’s folly.
Your Inspirational American Gif of the Day
Sincerely, Your WHPR team,
Secretary of Media, Tom Cauchon
Deputy Secretary of Media, Tyler Bubblar
Dateline: Tuesday, May 19th, 2015 (Day 2737)
Location: James S. Brady Press Room, The White House
Announcement:
Today’s Special Edition was written by Deputy Secretary of the Media Tyler Bubblar.
Editors Note:
Special Editions will be occurring in addition to the Media Department’s goal of 2 WHPR’s per week. Special Editions will feature interesting pieces of longer length written by government officials to inspire or inform the people.
Don’t forget that The Pony Express will be released every Sunday. The Pony Express is a government publication that complies all important government articles released throughout the week in one publication for the convenience of the American people.
Today’s WHPR
1. Op-Ed by Tyler Bubblar
The Wrong Game: an Op-Ed by Tyler Bubblar
“I’m sorry you downloaded the wrong game, this is the World of Warcraft not the World of Welfare.” Before I played eRepublik I was a WoW junkie. I played on the Tanaris server a mid level PVE server that they recommended for new players when I first logged in. I played through most of the Burning Crusade expansion, all of Wrath of the Lich King, and the start of the Cataclysm expansion. When I walked away I had a max level Paladin, Druid, Shaman, Death Knight, Hunter, Warlock and I was working up a Mage and Rogue. All of my characters had max professions and max flight speed. As a result of this I would frequently get whispers from other players asking for gold. The opening line was the response I would frequently send back.
There is no comparison between the economies of WoW and eRep. Gold buying was frowned upon and was a violation of the service agreement. Anyone willing to put in the time to work up professions on their various toons/alts could stockpile gold rather quickly. It was a more than even playing field in which only one’s diligence and choices would set you apart from the pack. I played that game for the challenge of Raiding and for the community in the Guild I called home. There was a dedicated 10 person Raid I ran with weekly and the core 25 person Raid that I was privileged to be a part of.
While the 25 man Raid was considered more prestigious, I enjoyed the 10 person group far more because we were all friends and genuinely enjoyed the challenges of progressing through Naxxrammas, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and finally the Icecrown Citadel together. One of the reasons I ended up leaving WoW was that the group I ran with had splintered in different directions, and the new group I began to raid with in Cataclysm while part of the same Guild and competent enough just did not feel the same. The camaraderie, determination, and humor that helped us grind through new challenges and still have fun while doing so was just no longer there for me. So I began to log in less and less until one day I realized it had been nearly a month since my last log in and I cancelled my subscription.
The contrast to eRepublik is fairly obvious. While numbers are dwindling we still have a community here in the eUSA. Yet it is become increasingly rare to find and keep promising new players. It is my belief that this can be almost completely and directly linked to the economic module. Here gold buying is not only legal but highly encouraged to the point of it being near impossible to get max training without the almighty plastic. No level caps and no strength caps have made it impossible to catch older players unless they simply stop logging in. After two years of max strength training I have managed to take my profile from having two super soldier medals to possessing 251 of them at this moment. However no matter what I do I will never catch Molly Emma, Josh Frost, Wild Owl, Deepchill, Pfeiffer, Gnilraps,etc in the strength department.
I have tried to be smart about not leveling up too fast which can offset much of the disadvantage of not having 6 uninterrupted years of strength training to lean on. However for a new player not leveling as fast as you can seems backwards and counter intuitive. Which takes me to the economic module. It does not take much time in this game to realize the economic module is in shambles. The rate of return in spending gold to buy factories and raw material producing lands is measured now in years. Something that this game likely does not have. The Parties of the eUSA, Military Units, and the Executive have stepped in admirably to fill in that void.
There are numerous programs a new player can lean on to subsist and learn the ropes of this game. Bank Up to Strength Up, meals on wheels, Stack the Wall, Bewbs for Newbs, and many more all stand ready to shower new players in food, weapons, and gold to help them start strong. I wonder if that is maybe the problem. A promising player that is going to come in and get involved will usually want to stand on their own two feet. Realizing that without pouring a lot of real life money into this game they will be consigned to subsisting on handouts is likely a deal breaker for many people that would have made strong contributions to this our community.
The trouble with this concept is that it is not truly applicable in the current state of our economy. We can teach new players to spend their XP wisely, along with the ins and outs of running a Party/Department/MU, but ultimately they cannot be taught to run a successful commercial enterprise. Without the outside interference of 16 digits on plastic it just is not going to happen. My monthly subscription to World of Warcraft ranged from $15 a month to $12 depending on the length of time I renewed for. That money purchased me a great deal of freedom in my gameplay. While eRepublik is free to play (technically) taking advantage of each and every monthly pack Plato proffers would cost me upwards of $75 a month. I would have a lot of hit points, double energy bars, some assorted bombs and beefed up bazooka packs, faster energy renewal, but I would still be chained by Plato’s incompetence. We here as a community and a nation have done everything we can to bolster this flagging game, but all of the plastic in the eUSA cannot save the economy, and ultimately this game from Plato’s folly.
Your Inspirational American Gif of the Day
Sincerely, Your WHPR team,
Secretary of Media, Tom Cauchon
Deputy Secretary of Media, Tyler Bubblar
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Comments
every single time you hit a nail with article, great job Tom and Tyler 🙂
That Character is wearing the most penis compressing, sperm killingest shorts that the eWorld, has ever seen.
My friend, Rick. He wouldn't leave me alone, until I played WOW.
Wonderful article.
I started playing when Zul'Gurub got introduced, I quit somewhere long after that. I kinda regret the 1 year /played on my priest alone. As I regret all the hours spent on erep.
I can really find myself in this article.
This should be in the new citizen message 😃
Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll spend all day in a boat drinking beer.
I didn't play on WoW but on another MMO, but I can still relate to the WoW part. Still, I'm afraid the social programs are merely but a symptomatic response, since we cannot get to the root of the problem, only Plato can. And my guess is that he won't.
Sometimes, I feel like the only one that really likes the communing systems MU's have in place. I've really advanced because of them and I've never spent a cent in eRep. I'm slowly getting onto my own feet in eRep because of those social programs, and when I'm self-sufficient, I'll probably be HELPING those very same social programs and the new players more than not.
The root of the problem is partly the economic system, but our programs do fairly well, however they are slow. I guess only better funding can make those gold-funneling programs faster.
I personally have no objections to the commune system. My point was there's no financial or logistical reason to even try to build factories and add production to the economy. It's close to impossible to become self sufficient without investing hundreds of real dollars into this game.
Programs that help new players are designed to hook them in with the dictator and president. Soon we will be free from the hands of the powerful, and the weak will be strong. Until then, we must NOT be roped into debt and allegiance with those out for personal gain.
But impressive article, 8.5/10.
excellent Op-Ed Special Edition.
I can pay top dollar for that dog that can poop plastic
I was going to stop reading after the first paragraph, call you a dork, and move on, but....
This sums up eRep perfectly. Nice job.
Also... that Hulk Hogan .gif was my desktop wallpaper for years on my work computer.
http://www.erepublik.com/mk/article/-en-mk-srb-help-me-eworld-please-2525283/1/20
23more gold and we finish! TNX eWORLD! TNX eFRIENDS! o/ RESPECT