Your Game
•
by Ralph Kline
The real game.
How we fight, country against country or alliance against alliance, has become boring. Really, it is one of the greatest threats to the continuation of the game, besides the extraordinary management style of the admins group. When was the last time a victory seemed important?
Battle strategy games follow a course and lead to a end and a winner. Risk, a popular board game a a great example. I can remember many a night playing it. Mechanically, it was not much more than this, simple numbers, rolling dice and taking regions. The joy of the game was in the interaction, the deals struck and inevitable betrayals, all leading to a conclusion, an end, a winner.
Civilization is another great game, it combined the concept of expanding your nation with a linear time and cost based advantage known as technology. A fantastic step forward in gaming enjoyment and educational to some degree as well. I hope you are familiar with it, if you are not I recommend it highly. Again, this game follows a path to an conclusion, a winner.
I am sure there are those who will disagree, but all great strategy games step from these two great classics in one way or another, the all have similarities and they all follow through to a end, a conclusion, a winner.
Erepublik is , of course a creation on it's own. Billed as a social/strategy game, it has similar attributes to other strategy games, but of course, it has no end, no winner. We play in a endless loop, never able to aspire much beyond the simple confines realized within a few weeks, unless of course we spend money, and even then the gain is not fulfilling, there is no goal, no finish, no win. Just a race for the lead, of what I'm not even sure anymore. Medals are fun, but they sure lose their shine. your first BH seems or Congress medal seems like something, but after many have been earned they are pointless. We need finishing points in our eworld to make it work
I think this was the idea behind the battle of the alliances competition, to give us, the players, a game with a conclusion, a winner.
They just really failed at it.
I know there is a lot of fear on the admins part of losing more of their player base by making radical changes. The great V2 flop showed us that. Just making minor tweeks and following a line on a profit margin graph seems to be the course. This unfortunately has brought us nothing but a continuous stream of changes that only serve to increase the buying of gold and nothing to increase the fun or social level of the game.
Really, we are faced with our own future, we make it. Waiting for the admins to do it is asking for more of the same.
Push back, write tickets, make suggestions, this is your game.
We need real goals and real outcomes for it to be fun.
-Ralph Kline
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"We play in a endless loop, never able to aspire much beyond the simple confines realized within a few weeks, unless of course we spend money, and even then the gain is not fulfilling, there is no goal, no finish, no win."
We have been here, will be back again, and will do it a few times more...until people decide there is something else worth doing in some other place. For now, it's somehow heartening to see people sticking it out to see if something better comes our way.
Either that or we're...
http://www.thoughtsow.com/wp-content/uploads/albert-einstein-insanity-small.jpg
~hyuu~
Indeed.
I do my best to keep it interesting for you Ralph, I'll work on thinking outside the box some more if you like....
I agree with each word... and I am sad 🙁
Perhaps we need one thing that has helped all mortals.
Death.
actually, Jon Malcom was onto something there. Some other online games allow for your citizen-village-team-company-party of heroes to be destroyed. It really sucks to see months of work ruined but it offers great re-play fun. Maybe we should all go play Tr@vi@n.
~_^
Looking for some cash http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/erepublik-loaning-corp-grand-opening--2116766/1/20
As much as we love to hate Rolo, I think having a common purpose is the only thing this game has. The pursuit of medals, meaningless statistics, and arbitrarily defined and tenuous ranks - what do they offer us? Some take pride in their accomplishments but what are they really worth? "A play within a play," or rather, "a void within the void."
It's the meaning we create and roles we construct. The heroes. The villains. The jesters. That's what admin has failed to create or direct.
It is those who dare to lead a cause that unites or fragments that keep the people logging in. They are the true ones the admin has to thank for their revenue.
We can spend money to earn a BH, sure. But what keeps us doing it over and over again. It's the chance to really stick it to that jerk who's been a thorn in your side.
Bored? Come help Ireland kick out Poland!
o7
I could write a long and metaphorical comment but really, all that needs to be said is, Well Said!
aww man i was subscriber 666
Amen
needs pics to win
and good article!
The game was more exciting when a wipe had consequences, apart from no congress. Political parties dissolved, (would MU's be now too?). If I recall correctly, the inability to buy and sell in your own nation; not sure what else.
But that helped to make a wipe meaningful. Now, meh. Get wiped, be back in a few days.
Consequences need to be more real.
When wipes killed MPP stacks, it was a lot more fun.
I think the current version of the game, with the old MPP/war mechanics would be a lot more fun than what we have now.
Big Vote!
Game became big expensive slot machine.
Logging in just to troll and to see how the end will be...
We all pretend it matters. Some people even think the game reflects on real life and bring there rl prejudice into the game to settle the score. I bet the admins love that. Sometimes you just feel like shaking people to wake up.
yep
What we need is 1.21 gigawatts!
Good article.
The only reason I play at all now is habit. Ive played for so so long, I find it hard to just walk away, dunno why but thats really the only thing keeping me playing. Well, 2 clicking anyway.
Ralph Kline for President.
Ralph, agreed with everything you said.
I think the greater problem stems from the fact that no improvement on game play has been implemented recently if it didn't included a propect for more gold buying.