[#Erexit 2/2] A good day to get the hell out of here

Day 3,143, 01:42 • Published in Hungary North Macedonia • by Azure Falcon
MAGYAR VERZIOHOZ KATT IDE

Welcome, dear readers to my last article.

In the previous article I have summarized how far we have made it with the unprecedented level of unity that we demonstrated in standing up to admins' practices of shady manipulation. I have also overviewed the response we got, which is basically saying "if you are angry about it, then you are a fool". Now it's time for me to talk about the future.

I am leaving this game, permanently. I might decide to stay if Admins change their mind significantly in the next 2 days, but I am skeptical about that happening. They made a stance by attacking me instead of focusing on the problems.

Ragequit – at first you could think that, but in reality this is a very much consequential move. After all, ragequits hardly come bundled with 1800 words of reasoning. The point is, I don't see any reasons for me to stay in this game anymore and spend my money on it, and I am going to tell you why.

It is important to emphasize that I am NOT advocating for anyone else to leave the game, otherwise they would delete this article. (By the way, you should know that even if I said everyone should leave this game, it would not infringe on any of the eRepublik Laws.) Admins tend to denounce my articles as propaganda, but I am advocating that you listen to the arguments and decide for yourself.

Let's begin, shall we?

eRepublik's history over the last two years can be described by two things:
Syphoning money out of the game and eternal boredom. This is because eRepublik was treated as nothing but a cash cow. Alexis Bonte confirmed this in his blog post, but it was widely known beforehand.

With the same post came a glimmer of hope as the CEO of eRep Labs admitted their strategy was a failure, followed a few weeks later by meaningful posts in the Forum and in the Latest Updates sections. This went on with promises such as focusing on new players, which is a welcome change since the community have dwindled steadily in the past years.

However, despite all these efforts, we can now see that there cannot be prosperity in the future. Why? Because it seems eRepublik is corrupted at its core. No matter how many times you reshuffle the strategy as a CEO when you keep the practices that make players turn away from the game.

Here are three "features" that will remain in the new version:

1) Leaking information to insiders - Remember how moving tickets skyrocketed days before the first meaningful Latest Updates post came out this year? Or how a Romanian coup on Singapore was initiated 10 minutes before the cost was raised from 200k CC to 1 million CC? Or how there is a single country that benefits from the changed pollution rules? These all happened after Bonte's change of strategy and they will be here to stay.

2) Defensiveness about mistakes and downplaying them instead of admitting - This should be evident based on their latest post. I have discussed this response in detail in my previous article. In short: they basically denounced every supporter of the article as a fool.

3) Syphoning dat gold - This needs a bit of explanation. My problem is not that eRep Labs tries to make money, but that they make players spend their resources in unfair ways. I don’t mind spending on meaningful innovation, but I am inclined resist a ripoff. A very illustrative example of such a situation is where players were told in advance that they can place their existing companies wherever they want (they won't work unless you place them first) - however we know that in reality, you cannot even place your existing companies in different regions without paying extra for new holdings. And those do not come cheap. If you want to dedicate a holding for each industry, then you are already ripped off with 150 gold - and you just finished placing your own companies in the new system.
In addition, we already know that there will be paid productivity boosters (from the formula) and probably new training grounds for the airplane skill. You can rest assured that heavy costs will hit you in literally every segment of the game.


So this is where I ask myself:
Is this the game that I want to spend my money on?
Does this game belong to people who I consider worthy of receiving my payment?
Having advocated for fair treatment of players, did I get the reassurances that allow me to play this game without feeling like a second-class citizen and a cash cow?

The answer to all three of these questions is a big fat HELL NO. As a writer of the protest article representing the dissatisfaction of the community, I am not going to lose my credibility by keeping on playing this game as if everything was all right. No, everything is most definitely not all right.

So this is the reason that I quit for.

If you've read this article so far, you might agree that it is the only logical thing to do - anything else involves supporting this corrupt game, even as a 2-clicker. This is my train of thought. Whether you decide to follow my lead is entirely your decision.

Technicalities:
- The decision is final (and heavily based on consequence) so please do not try to convince me otherwise.
- Thanks to each and every one of you for everything. I won't even start listing names.
- Don't aspire to keep in touch. I don't like mixing eRep with RL so it won't happen.
- I still have 8000+ EBs thanks to TG/company downgrades that I want to tank away in one last exciting battle, so you might see me once more on the battlefield in the coming days. Once that is done, I will request deletion. Don't even try to think that I will sell it.
- Yes, I am still bound to distribute the tanks worth of 50g among the commenters of the first article. Will do it over the next few hours. Done!

Thank you for reading!
Azure