[DoFA} eIsrael: A Nation in Crisis!

Day 2,344, 10:32 Published in Australia Australia by Australian Foreign Affairs




I had the opportunity to chat with xMikiGOx; a prominent player from the eIsraeli community. He gave a captivating perspective on how things have changed since joining the new world. He discussed such things as the eIsraeli crisis; eIsrael's current and past political status; and the problems which are affecting both the eIsraeli community and many other smaller enations. He also shared his thoughts on the failure in the eRep game mechanics which are having detrimental effects especially on younger players.


Would you mind telling us a little about yourself? How long have you been playing? What roles have you played in the game?


My name, as you can infer from my nickname, is Miki, I am Israeli in real life. I have been playing eRepublik for a year and a half. To be honest I am pretty addicted to this game. I served as a county president in eIsrael four times, six times a congress member, seven times an education minister, two times a foreign affairs minister, and once as a governor. I was eAlbanian for two months as well. Besides of that, I am a game translator and the world's first freedom fighter 😛


How have circumstances in eIsrael changed since the time that you started playing until now?


When I started the game eIsrael was in a great position. eIsrael was controlling big parts of Saudi Arabia and UAE, it had great bonuses and many active players. Since the Serbian occupation, which lasted six months, the community started to leave the game and eIsrael became one of the weakest countries in the new world. One day after the collapse of EDEN, eIsrael, together with good friends, succeed to liberate all of its regions. A few months later eIsrael signed an agreement with Greece and expanded its territory a bit. Now, eIsrael is occupied by Cyprus and once again, and many people from eIsrael have quit the game or became inactive.

"When I started the game eIsrael was in a great position... Since the Serbian occupation, which lasted six months, the community started to leave the game and eIsrael became one of the weakest countries in the new world... Now, eIsrael is occupied by Cyprus and once again, and many people from eIsrael have quit the game or became inactive."


We eAustralians also know what that feeling is like. There seems to be very little sympathy in game mechanics for smaller nations, there seems to be a real lack of mechanisms within the game to give smaller nations a fighting chance. What would you suggest could help solve this issue?


First of all, I think that the fact that small nations are being occupied for long terms is wrong and damages the game. We do not stand a chance against the big ones, especially if the players decide to leave the game while we are under occupation. What can we do in order to liberate our regions? We can make a baby-boom but it is not helpful, new players can't catch up with the old ones, they feel that they don't have any influence on the game so they prefer to leave it. We can resist, but our chances are low... we can negotiate, but it doesn't work most of the time.

Our resources are limited as our incomes go to the occupying country, which is in my opinion a mistake. The fact that we do not earn money makes it even harder to liberate our nation. And we are all informed about the influence of money (combat orders) on battles ..

The military module is not based on strategy, the one who clicks the fight button more times wins. We can't plan a war strategy, and relying on our friends is not the right thing to do. In my opinion the whole military module should be changed. More strategy and less "push to win" games.

About the determination bonus and the freedom fighter medal. It takes time to gain determination bonus, and freedom fighters usually fight if the 1st round is successful. So it may help in the long term only, at least for the small nations.

Also I would like to add that in my opinion the "big" countries should let the small ones have congress. Maybe it doesn't sound right as you probably ask yourself: "Why would the enemy approve to give my country a region?" The answer is simple; we are all here to have fun and being under occupation for long time takes the fun out of the game. One region less won't hurt the enemy, but it will help the occupied country a lot.

"First of all, I think that the fact that small nations are being occupied for long terms is wrong and damages the game. We do not stand a chance against the big ones... The military module is not based on strategy, the one who clicks the fight button more times wins..."


It's like what I was telling you before about needing a freed region during three key points in the last 72 hours leading up to the congress elections on the 25th... No small country can hold off powerful enemies for 72 hours. 24 hours is possible, they can use diplomacy to get help etc., but to expect a weaker nation to hold off for 72 hours in order to get a congress, is not only unfair it is nearly impossible, especially at that time of the month.

I have noticed that since the recent division updates one needs to put out about double the damage in order to get a Battle Hero (BH) medal in divisions 1 and 2, and the small bombs do little damage. I think this hurts younger players too. What's your opinion about the recent division updates?


Indeed, it is not easy keeping a region free for 72 hours in order to elect congress. Once you liberate a region, the enemy proposes you as natural enemy and takes the region back. If you are lucky you can gain 24 more hours by being the first one to propose the NE law.

The new divisions system is a disaster to the small nations and for new players. As a small country we only have around 12 D4 players, which is the most important division. Meanwhile our 1st division is quite strong but it doesn't have much affect on the battlefield.

New players that join the game, as I have already said, feel that they can't catch up to the old players and they don't have any influence on the battlefield, thus some of them decide leave the game. Maybe this situation will be changed in the future, but I doubt it. We have to find an alternative solution to the divisions system that will suit to a new military module as well. Pushing the same button for months is not fun anymore.

"The new divisions system is a disaster to the small nations and for new players. New players that join the game, as I have already said, feel that they can't catch up to the old players and they don't have any influence on the battlefield..."


I have heard that the admins do not like to hear complaints and are not very interested on player's suggestions on improving the game mechanics. What has been your personal experience in relation to this issue?


I understand the admins. They have a lot of work to do and I guess that there are priorities as well. I haven't seen any real change in the game since the guerrilla fight feature was implemented, even though that in the last summit it was told that many changes are coming soon this year, like the new visual version, new economical module etc. I made many suggestions in the past but none of them were taken seriously. I hope that this year will be better because the community is dying and getting bored.


I think this game could be saved if they listened to experienced players, and trusted in their judgement. They are starting to make an effort, hopefully they will start to take feedback from players more seriously and build a better future for all. Anyway, let's more on to a different topic...

What were the sequence of events which lead eIsrael into the Leto alliance?


During the previous alliances round (TWO vs COT) eIsrael was neutral but had many MPPs with TWO countries. After these alliances fell, eIsrael maintained the same MPPs: Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Romania and Argentina in each month. As you can see, four of those countries have joined Asteria. Leto was founded as a sub alliance for Asteria, thus eIsrael joined it and kept its allies but also gained new friends.

"Leto was founded as a sub alliance for Asteria, thus eIsrael joined it and kept its allies but also gained new friends..."


How would you describe eIsrael's relationship with eAustralia in the past up until the present?


Well, I have been playing eRepublik for a year and a half and I don't have a lot of knowledge about eIsrael's relations in the past. I can't actually describe the relations between eIsrael and eAustralia because there aren't any "official" relations, but I think that some of our citizens find eAustralia's citizens as good friends. Both of our countries are in the same situation, we are small nations that are being under occupation of bigger countries. When eIsrael was asked about the entrance of eAustralia into Leto we didn't hesitate, we voted 'yes.' But it's never too late, we can always improve the relations between our countries
🙂

"Both of our countries are in the same situation, we are small nations that are being under occupation of bigger countries..."


eIsrael has a managed to develop quite a good friendship with eIran, this is surprising to a lot of people as there are a lot of RL tensions and hostilities between the two. Could you tell us more about that relationship?


Good question! I think that it all starts from the understanding that eRepublik has nothing to do with the real life. It doesn't matter who you are in the real life or who your enemies are, as long as you are willing to play with other people you can create a great friendship between two countries. If people understand that, they shouldn't be surprised.

If I remember well, it started when Iran & Romania had a conflict. I didn't have any friends from eIran before then by the way. What happened between Romania and Iran is fuzzy, but some of the citizens of eIsrael and I fought for Iran... but that's not the main reason in my opinion as we do not have any influence on the battlefield. I think that we just succeeded to earn their trust. We had good relations in the past as well and we should remember that.

After this whole conflict with Romania finished, I found myself with about 100 Persians on my friends list, and to be honest, today I see some of them as my best eFriends. When the conflict between eTurkey and eIran started, some Iranians even left eIran and became citizens of eIsrael, like their current country president for example. They helped us a lot against Cyprus as well; and this is the short story of how we became good eFriends. Maybe the other side can add more about the topic.

I would like to say that Persian Punisher for example, a great Persian player and a good friends is also my bitch! 😃 Finally we are here to have fun and making new friends and laugh with them, this is the best way to play the game. I play this game with a lot of humor and it seems that they like playing in the same way.

"After this whole conflict with Romania finished, I found myself with about 100 Persians on my friends list, and to be honest, today I see some of them as my best eFriends..."


Very intriguing and very well answered! I think it's great to be able to put aside real-life differences in this game, and I think that it's really nice that eIran and eIsrael have succeeded in accomplishing that, as many countries in this game have failed in that respect.

What are eIsrael's hopes and dreams for the future? Where do you see eIsrael in say 3 months from now?


To be honest I see eIsrael as a dead community already. Only 5-10 active players that actually care about politics, alliances and our allies... the others just fight a bit and complete the daily tasks. I don't know what will happen soon but I can't see eIsrael as a stronger country in the future unfortunately. I think that I am one of the only players that know exactly what's going on inside our community. That makes me sad because I always wanted eIsrael to have influence and an active community, to be a respected country that can help its allies when it's needed. My fear is that eIsrael will be under PTO in the future.

"To be honest I see eIsrael as a dead community already. Only 5-10 active players that actually care about politics, alliances and our allies... My fear is that eIsrael will be under PTO in the future..."


Unless they change the game mechanics some time soon right?


I am not sure in that either. The real life in Israel are not the same as other countries. We have to serve in the army and after 3 years there you understand that a browser game is something stupid and irrelevant. The financial situation is not in the best shape as well, people work a lot of hours... And of course, the military conflicts we have distract us from the web. Not many people in Israel play browser games.

"We have to serve in the army and after 3 years there you understand that a browser game is something stupid and irrelevant... And of course, the military conflicts we have distract us from the web..."


What about the possibility of attracting international players into eIsrael in order to stimulate growth?


Well, many people hate eIsrael because they don't know how to separate between a browser game and the RL. What can we offer? An active community? Bonuses? Supply? Not much as you can understand. We tried to do it in the past and we did have many foreigners here. Maybe on day someone will decide to start building this country up with his friends ..


I would like thank you once again for an insightful and intriguing interview, I really enjoyed it.

Are there any final thoughts which you would like to share?


I would like to thank you for this interview, for the opportunity you gave me to express myself.

To others I would like to say that always remember that it is just a game and we all play it for the same reason, so when you start taking RL matters into the game or insulting the enemy, just stop for a moment and remember that this is a game. And don't ever forget to laugh, that's healthy and turns the game into a better place to be in
😃