Act I: Do You Hear the People Sing?
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by Xander Wilson
Dear eUSA & eWorld Citizens,
I have elected to ignore Plato and his pleas for mission completion in hopes of sparking much needed debate and possible action. Prior to my arrival, the turmoil over this topic has surely been divisive and exhausting for those on either side of the issue; however, we cannot let weariness halt progress and consensus. Being still in my inaugural month, I have done my best to research this matter through past forums, articles, and announcements. Despite my greenness, I request that you please lend me your ear.
Now that I have sufficiently danced around a rather obvious and predictable subject, I may as well come out and say it:
Dictatorship
noun. absolute, imperious, or overbearing power or control.
Dictators have been granted unprecedented power to control laws, citizenship, national funds, and public organizations unopposed. Since the early real world empires of Greece, Rome, and Persia few have responsibly used this power to the benefit of their country; many choosing to perform grave acts of tyranny and hostility.
Currently, 46 of 74 eRepublik countries (62%) are under the rule of a dictatorship. Admittedly, many of these dictators are friendly, non-hostile, and act as a democratic president, such as our own eUSA's Trekker Tlumac. The puppet dictators are rationalized by those who argue that the new dictatorship module mechanics favor the possibility of a foreign political takeover.
Personally, I believe that puppet dictators are an act done purely out of fear than sound strategy. The puppet system alienates new players by bringing the game further into a meta state that can have a steep learning curve. Veterans worry about the steady decline of activity, but do not realize that increased off-site activity does not bode well for attracting new citizens. This “friendly” dictator system also opens the door to a host of new threats, such as: an all powerful dictator becoming inactive (due to RL circumstances, putting a freeze on country actions for days till liberated), a foreign sleeper politician gaining control, or even a once trusted member being consumed by greed leading to the embezzlement from national funds/organizations. The installation of such a system also portrays a distinct lack of confidence and trust in a nation’s loyal military and foreign allies.
By far the worst facet of this puppet dictatorship system is that it plays directly into Plato’s greedy hands. We all know Plato loves his gold; let’s take a look on how these actions affect our monetary market:
Calculations based on a momentary eUS valuation of 1 Gold = 244 CC
- (At least) 46 funded revolutions: 9,200,000 CC (equivalent to 37,704.92 Gold)
- (Current eUSA) 54 Medals (53 Congress/1 CP) w/o rewar
😛270 Gold per month
- The cost for an aggressive country to PTO: 400,000 CC (1,639.34 Gold)
Which will not stop them if that is their prerogative. What makes you think they will fail the revolution if they are able to liberate just a short week before.
- The cost to get rid of a friendly dictator turned hostile: 200,000 CC (819.67 Gold)
As opposed to impeachment, only available with an actual congress.
These all are costs that do not directly benefit any member of eRepublik, except an actual hostile dictator. All of this gold and CC is taken out of game circulation, only to be replaced slowly with medal accumulation (many of which losing value as 5 gold rewards turn to 1000 CC) and payment plans (Plato’s personal favorite). I doubt that this many revolutions/liberations would have taken place under the typical circumstances of a hostile takeover, few have the gall, resources, and following necessary to do so.
The threat of a foreign dictator can be mitigated without the use of a puppet system. The building up of a national military (TG upgrades and weapons/energy supplied by saved currency), continuous communication and relationship building between allies, and, of course, a monetary contingency plan in the wake of possible revolution. Democratic presidents have the added benefit of being able to divert national funds up to the conclusion of a revolution. Private organizations and/or trusted country members could be used as temporary recipients to limit the power a foreign dictator may gain, as well as be able to fund a liberation immediately when the option comes available, if organized and ready to do so.
In my opinion, returning the eUSA to a democracy will improve the community by stimulating host-site activity (attracting/retaining new members), military growth through TG upgrades/resources, and an increased need for planning/relations (More entertaining to play the game than not at all, stalemate).
Feel free to disagree and share your opinion, critical and/or otherwise! I am interested in all perspectives of this issue.
Thank you for reading!
O7X
Disclaimer: This opinion is not an attack on any friendly, non-hostile individual dictator, but more so a commentary on the system as a whole.
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Great read thanks!!!
Nice article
Great writing man. Love it
well done
They aren't afraid of a PTO. Democracy is their enemy.
They will employ the same tactics against anyone that runs; not just a PTO.
It simplifies things. Congress and political parties have been a worthless hindrance since BETA. Even now certain political parties make stances based on real world ideals rather than sound game mechanics. The only real issue I have with the government is the same one I had with our former Democratic government. There is little to no communication about what we are doing, who we are fighting and why we are fighting. Returning to democracy would only open us to the threat of losing the entire country with one battle rather than the 50 plus battles it used to take. The game is dying. These mysterious new players the democracy crowd speaks of just simply don't exist. We are populated by old players who are simply hanging on to the bitter end because, well we've been here a long time and humans are creatures of habit so we stay. If you look around the internet there are a lot more interesting and cheaper games to play. Those who come here on a whim leave because of the game itself not the dictatorship.
Boredom is the #1 cause of death.
The game could use some excitement, but the Leadership has sacrificed that for stability. Stability for a leadership that had a very low approval rating.
Hey Morningblur, thank you for your perspective!
You point to a lack of communication as a key issue, but insult the functionality of a Congress. The Congress is supposed to be a place of democratic communication. Just because it has been filled with people misusing it does not mean it can never meet its potential as an effective forum.
On the flip side, an entire country can be regained in a single battle, rather than a multitude of resistance wars. It's also easier to fund the defense of a single region as opposed to constant wars.
Finding a balance between the meta and host-site interactions on eRepublik is vital. Both aspects make this game unique and build community. However, the meta side has taken over creating a barrier for new players. It is hard for new citizens to get acclimated to registering and participating in multiple off-host websites, forums and chats. Puppet Dictatorship is just a single factor, but a large one, that pushes the entire Congress into the meta realm, further disrupting the much needed communication mentioned earlier.
This game has a lot of potential, Plato mishaps and all, because of its dedicated community and different modules (even if some have been stripped through time). The worst thing we can do is be stagnant and accept the decline. We need to keep progressing and communicating with each other and Plato. If he loves Gold as much as we know he does, Plato does not want this game declining either.
Also, we are not all extinct. 2 weeks and going strong!
O7X
From day one congress has always been dysfunctional and similar to herding cats. It consistently has been populated with people that try to play the game with real world ideals rather than game mechanics. Ideally it would be preferable to take meta congress out of the picture too. If you are a new player then welcome to the ashes of a once pretty good game. While you may believe the dictatorship has a detrimental effect on new players it is nothing compared to what having our country taken over by hostile forces would do. The eUSA is by no means the real life USA. In this game we are a fairly weak country. The simple fact is we are not strong enough to recover the country if we find ourselves taken over by a hostile dictator. It would cost a considerable amount of real life money to take the country back. Where would this money come from? The loudest voices who want to do away with our protective dictatorship and put us in danger by returning to democracy were also the loudest ones complaining about a few dollars of in game currency a day when we had higher work tax. These loud voices will definitely not be shelling out their real life money to retake the country. As long as dictatorship is part of the game we have to resign ourselves to having a protective dictatorship.
Truth be told, I was against the Dictatorship idea until I saw what happened to eSpain.
It is easy to see the sound game mechanics behind such a move. However, the discussions preceding the Congressional vote to make eUSA a democratic Dictatorship were fumbled and filled with political power plays and were downright a disaster. It was nasty and I still firmly believe that Congress should re-evaluate this screw-up and re-open discussions and hold another vote - without the Congressional Leadership mucking it up and changing the required vote while the vote is being held.
In the end, though... the game has changed, and unfortunately, we all have to change with it.
Hey Jude, Thank you for the feedback!
What was the situation with eSpain? Most historical pieces I can find regarding them only talks of their successful North American invasion in their prime. I have taken note of their fall from grace, but am not familiar with the contributing factors.
Also, what are the sound game mechanics that promote the move? Did I overlook any? Feel free to respond to this thread here or in a message. I just want to understand all the perspectives/facts!
O7X
I'm going to agree with you on that Jude. It was handled very badly. The lack of communication was and still is astounding. The government has been terrible with communication for at least a couple years now. Back in V1 there were always a ton of articles about every move the country made. Now we are lucky if we see a shout 2 days into a war. The governments of Scrabman and Emerick level communication are long gone.
Replying to both comments here for convenience:
How does a dictatorship protect us? A dictatorship does not prevent as enemy from invading the mainland and taking each territory as eSpain and others accomplished in the past. A dictator even lacks the ability to move funds during a revolution, unlike a President. In my opinion, a country takeover is easier fixed in one liberation than 50 resistance wars. Which is cheaper? Also, assuming you would like to return to a dictatorship after the takeover, you have to pay the 200,000 CC an additional time.
Congress is not a flat entity, it is as fluid and effective as those who make it up. Maybe we should better vet our congress members? You point to better days of open government and media, but act as if they are unattainable today. Although vital, recognizing a problem is not enough to fix it. The game mechanics have not taken away our ability to communicate to one another. We still have the tools (articles and the like) to turn it around, we just need the people willing to put in the work.
"In the end, though... the game has changed, and unfortunately, we all have to change with it. "
This is so important, and not enough people realize it. Quality comment Jude.
Interesting read
A nice analyse on the everyday wastes of eUS. Not to mention that I fully agree on your comments.
Good work buddy, keep it up, and let us rid eUS from what is not naturally hers.
o/
Nippon is FREE!
...singing the song of angry men...
Haha I almost made that the title.
Game mechanics are sound yes and losing that gold that went to many programs that helped people is now lost and also hurts. Do we let the gold be taken from us or do we capitalize on the fact that we can still earn gold to help our community.
Lovely read!
The term of "Dictatorship" is named after Rule "By" Law
it's somehow ruling cruelly "By" Law.
There is another term called "Despotism" which is named after Rule Of Man.
Just a person who have all power to do anything he wants without any limitation.
And term of "Democracy" named after Rule Of Law.
Also For Every Dictatorship, People support the dictator to reach to the power and all the damages is caused by everyone not just a single person.
Over 650 have voted & 85% believe that this dicktator update will destroy the game
http://tinyurl.com/pg9ovb2
SHOUT THIS TO KEEP THE VOTE GOING
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Interesting read, when i started we already had a dictatorship so i know nothing of this 'democracy' to compare it to. As far as in-game activity the in game fourms been dead since forever by the looks of it.
Really great read.
Commenting for the mission
o/
Nice work.
but: "The threat of a foreign dictator can be mitigated without the use of a puppet system..."
That is not an e-global perspective-- smaller and weaker countries pay up to self-dick, or face a stronger enemy and greater losses. Cash for Plato or lose our countries-- that is a ridiculously unfair choice.
I understand your focus here is eUSA. I'm just saying... 🙂
o/
Voted and subs
O7
o7