[State] Interviews with Adversaries, Part 1

Day 4,641, 19:13 Published in USA USA by Department of State





As promised in my last article, we will be featuring an interview with former eSerbian CP, Stefan Mauzer. Stefan was part of the Asterian delegation that this Executive conducted negotiations with to set up our NAP a while back. The interview was conducted a few weeks ago by Toto Schillaci, our intrepid ambassador to eSerbia, and on behalf of the State Department I would like to thank Toto for his hard work and service to the nation. The nations of eSerbia and eUSA have often been at odds with each other over the history of the game, but it's still good to sit down with the enemy and find out who they are behind all of the noise. We find that there is more that connects us than separates us after all.



I would also like to say that it's been a pleasure serving as MoFA for the past three months. My thanks to Tyler Bubblar for bringing me on board. I didn't write as many articles as I would have hoped, but I did my best. There were some interesting times for sure and I don't regret it. It’s been fun chatting with foreign officials about the deal made with Asteria, the road ahead and the general state of the game and the eWorld. The human touch makes the experience worthwhile.



As far as our agreement with Asteria and pals goes, things are going according to script (pun intended). Yes, there have been a few hiccups so far, but nothing catastrophic. We are just counting down the days at this point. I would also like to thank my corps of ambassadors (you can check out the full list of them on this thread on the national forums) for signing up and representing the country. I meant to do a bit more on that front, but sometimes life has a habit of getting in the way.



Anyhow, without further ado, below is the interview between Toto and Stefan for your reading pleasure. The responses have been edited for clarity only. Enjoy





Toto: Thank you for accepting this interview. For starters, can you tell us something about who Stefan Mauzer is in real life and how you found out about eRepublik?

Stefan: Just an ordinary man, I found about eRepublik in Lipec's famous speech.

My note: Lipec was the first eSerbian CP from Serbia, a RL actor who used his connections in RL to make a few propaganda YouTube videos and newspaper articles in order to make a huge baby-boom in Serbia in 2009 and he was very successful at that. He is considered to be the 'father of the eSerbian nation' in eSerbia.
erepublik.com/en/citizen/profile/1323958



Toto: How Hard is to be CP of an eRepublik force such as eSerbia? How much time do you spend for that job?

Stefan: Pretty much. It takes me about 4-6 hours daily on average.




Toto: Asteria is dominant in the world in the last few months, a difference from the end of last year. How did you get from subaltern to dominant position?

Stefan: After almost 10 years of eSerbian domination, many of our players got bored and left the game. Others went to 'sleep' mode mainly. Getting erased from the map last year woke us all up and we retaliated fiercely. The results of our awakening we can see today.




Toto: CODE and proCODE alliances reasons for defeat allege that admin gave advantages to players from Asteria, especially from eSerbia. That is the reason for the boycott as well. What is your opinion about the boycott and is there any truth that token selling mechanisms help your country and alliance?

Stefan: Complete nonsense. But I understand that you must justify defeats on all fields somehow.




Toto: What is your personal relation towards the eUSA and what is the relation of eSerbia and Asteria towards the eUSA? How many similarities and differences are there between those points of view?

Stefan: In the game I have a neutral stance. The eUSA was never on our side but it was never too much against us. They have never occupied us directly, at least not that I remember. A similar stance stands for eSerbia and Asteria.




Toto: Are you familiar with the eUSA PTO attempts by a group of eSerbian players several years ago and what is your stance about it?

Stefan: I remember the 'Shoe people' and their PTO attempt. It was mainly inspired by RL relations (we all remember the NATO aggression from 1999 on Serbia, led by the USA). I have never supported them directly but I have also tried not to trouble them. Serbian governments from that time also have never officially supported the 'Shoe people' or participated in a PTO in any way.




Toto: In the eUSA there is a belief that players from Serbia cultivate intolerance, even hatred towards the eUSA. How true is that, and do you think that relations have connections with real life or the game exclusively? Or is the truth somewhere in between?

Stefan: It is true that many people here cultivate intolerance towards the eUSA, because of mentioned reasons. If you ask me, it is exclusively because of RL. Po meni to je isključivo zbog RL. For 78 days, the USA threw bombs with nuclear waste on our country. It's very hard to forget.




Toto: What is your opinion about the Asteria-eUSA NAP? How do you think it is going to influence further relations between the sides, as well as relations inside of CODE?

Stefan: I am one of the players who accepted that NAP, as President of eSerbia. From my point of view, we gave more than favorable conditions to Americans because we didn't want to destroy their community. I consider that this NAP will alienate them from the opposing alliance.




Toto: Do you think that eSerbia and eUSA can become allies in the future and what does that depend on?

Stefan: I don't believe in that scenario. There are too many things that separate us.




Toto: What do you think about the future of the game in general because of the situation we are in? Is the end of eRepublik close?

Stefan: Many predicted the end of this game even in 2014, yet we are still here. I don't know how long it is going to last but I know that they will not shut us down while we continue logging in. I hope Plato will start paying more attention to the gaming society and it's wishes.




Toto: What do you think about forthcoming changes in the war module, for instance RW mechanisms more precisely? How are they going to influence world relations?

Stefan: Most of the CODE players started a boycott because of the token market and I have already told my opinion about that. Admins made these substantial changes to the war module instead of it. When last year the same situation with Bulgaria and North Macedonia occurred (they were under enemy trains for months), we wrote hundreds of tickets asking that starting a RW to be enabled. Plato told us to fix our diplomacy and to fight on our own. And so we did. Now is only the first month that the biggest enemy countries are under total occupation from our side and the war module is changed instantly to their advantage. So, we won in this module and we go to the next one. Without any doubt, less stronger countries of our alliance won't be able to defend RWs, but others will try, so we will see how successful we will be.






That's all for now folks,

signing off and enjoying my summer


Minister of Foreign Affairs, PimpDollaz