Finger Licking, With Ronald Gipper Reagan

Day 4,557, 20:03 • Published in USA USA • by VoxHumana



Editor's Note: The thought has occurred to me to remove this article. The information which it uncovers is not pleasant and has no place in a computer browser game. I don't like having it in my archive. However I am leaving it here so that we may all learn what I have learned. This may be one of the kinds of people you meet online that your parents tried to warn you about. I did not learn that firsthand as some of those who appear in my comments have. But I learned it through the process of speaking with him through messaging, comparing what he said with what the remainder of the community began saying about him, and evaluating what I discovered. If you read this article, please also read my follow-up article and the comments which appear in it.


It didn’t take me long to understand a few of the important things that make this game work.



1. Develop a social infrastructure.
2. Pick a side and ride it out
3. Develop expertise in at least one of the following: military, economy, politics, media
4. Get creative



I don’t want to construct a too-narrow box. I’ve been here all of two weeks, what do I know? But I will assume that on some level I am onto something. I also know there are important things to add to that list, like being personable and decent. But let's just start with that list for now, shall we?


Ronald Gipper Reagan has done all four of those things at least as well as anyone else I can see alive in this game.



He has developed multiple social infrastructures.
He has picked a side and remains firmly planted.
He has published, presided, legislated, and governed.
He has a podcast, YouTube channel, and a massive reputation.



If those were the only four measures of EREPUBLIK success, he could be considered a hero.

Which is exactly what he will tell you he is, if you ask.



I asked. Now I publish my findings.



There is one thing I ask of you, my reader.

If you wish to comment below, please refrain from ad hominem attacks as they are worthless for dialogue. Instead, fill my comments section with substantive arguments if you wish. I am certain he will be reading and responding.

I’ve also reserved the first four comments slots for your replies to my Your Turn questions.


But if you’re going to get into it with RGR, keep it above the belt. You too, RGR.

Thank you.


I now present Ronald Gipper Reagan.



I will print his answers as he sent them with no editing other than an occasional fixed typo.

I have organized the dialogue into Five categories:

Foreign Affairs
Real Life and eRep Life
Achievements
Future Game
and a fun feature called Three Words






RGR has always asserted that international friendship with Serbia is the best course of action for eUSA. RGR explained his thinking.

The eUS government has just always been antagonistic towards Serbia. People can't blame them for attacking us given the way they have been treated in the past. I think it is a shame. Serbs are overall some of the nicest, funniest, most loyal people on this game, and it's our loss as a country that we have never really wanted to be in the same corner as them.

Historically speaking I started to develop a friendship with Serbs starting in 2011. At that time basically all Serbs, Croatians, and Bosnians in the US were allied with my party. Then some crazy real life Ustase (editor’s note: google says this is a Croatian faction) types came and turned the Croatians against us, but the Serbs stayed in our corner, and I in theirs. For the next several years they were a really great partner in trying to stave off PTO attempts against our faction in the eUS by the government and the parties that supported it.

One of the main points I think is important to know is the US for years had this enormous group called the INCI, a primarily Turkish group that routinely extorted the government for money, congress seats, accepted bribes for Congress seats, and threatened to take over the eUS if their demands were ever not met. My political adversaries used them as a bulwark against my party, so while we had many other groups on our side, the Serbs were the most important by far. I always did what I could to help them, and we only survived as long as we did because they helped us. As for specifically what I have done to prevent it, I have been one of the most visible players in the media and on eRepublik for quite awhile, and I used that voice to try to make people aware of what I was seeing happening, and why I think these are people that would be the smart game move, and the right move to be friendly with. Unfortunately there was a lot of propaganda to counter that. There are even some of my old friends from that time who remained in the eUS all these years later. Sadly many are gone, but for those who remain, it's symbolic for sure.


Editors note: In researching further, I encountered numerous voices - some Serbian - who claim that due to real life politics and some historical animosity between the real life USA and the real life Serbia, the likelihood of a true eUSA/eSerbia union is very slim. This is complicated, has to do with NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and American support of Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2006.





Comment Below
Do you think RGR is correct in asserting the feasibility of eUSA - eSerbia relations?







I did not have to dive very deeply into RGR’s publishing history to discover that, for him, importing his real life views into his EREPUBLIK citizen’s persona is a major dynamic of his game. While this creates some problems of syncretism (real world economies work differently, for instance than EREPUBLIK economies, etc.), it is certainly an acceptable style of play. So I asked RGR about the comingling of RL and eRL.


I definitely have a blend of the two. I've done a podcast which incorporates both real life and eRepublik. It depends on the episode and all that. The most obvious “con” is the fact that people have targeted me because I'm so outspoken. Some like to forget that before all the business of both sides importing immigrants to support them, the parties I ran were taken over repeatedly because of a personal dislike of me. This is an obvious con because it led to everything else. On the plus side I don't really feel the need to hide who I am, and while the game and real life are different, I think basic principles of standing up for what you believe in should apply. I have always been a fighter for liberty, an underdog trying to stand up against what I see as an oppressive system. It's just who I am in both realms.



One of the pratfalls of combining RL with gaming life is the potential to put RL 'privacy' at risk. No game is ever worth that. In researching my interview subject, I was directed to an extensive history written by one of RGR’s avowed nemeses, a player named Cromstar. In that thread accusations were raised claiming RGR allowed too much of eRL to bleed into RL. I asked RGR directly about those accusations and he addressed them.

The biggest "threat" I ever made was calling up the eNPR(government podcast that is no longer active) and shouting out Pfeiffer's phone number as a joke. If you haven't heard of him, he is a notorious cheater who used bots and dirty tactics to accomplish his aims(often that meant trying to take me down). That's about as threatening as I get. The guy was a grade A you know what... so he deserved some trolling. Everything else is either made up, or just crazy exaggerations. People will often distort the facts to try to make something sound worse than it actually is, or just downright make things up.





Comment Below
How much RL do you permit to influence your eRL game?







It’s a game. So on some level there is a competitive goal. A game like this does not have an ending, so “winning” is difficult to define. But “achieving” is not. There are medals, titles, and accolades available for the chasing. RGR has most certainly achieved. I asked him which of his achievements makes him most proud as he looks back.

1. I gave the downtrodden and disenfranchised a banner to rally behind. Before I came on the scene there really wasn't this figurehead that people who felt like they had no voice to speak out against a corrupt system could align themselves along with and be heard.

2. I showed the hypocrisy of those who ran the eUS. They would speak about foreign PTO's, when really they just wanted to have foreigners that were loyal to them and could be used for their political purposes. It was a terrible double standard, made even worse by the fact that theirs came with an obvious price-tag, that the entire "rulebook" was thrown out on behalf of.

3. I've united more people across the world than I think any other person in the history of this game. I've had so many different ethnicities in my party in the past, and I think it shows that there are good people all over who can be brought together to fight the good fight.

4. I've tried to make people more interested in the US, sometimes that interest comes from good things, and sometimes it is from showcasing all the terrible wrong that has been perpetrated in this country.

5. Even though it wasn't ultimately successful, I engaged in a prolonged domestic civil war with the eUS government, which really culminated between 2012-2013, although there were various stages for three plus years before that. We made them turn even MORE despotic and desperate, and resort to even more cheating and dirty tactics to try to "win" that. I think it exposed these people for who they were to the larger eWorld.


Impressive to me personally is that RGR has accumulated almost 6,000 subscribers to his newspaper, making it the fourth-most-subscribed paper in eUSA! I asked him how he did it (and I took notes!). Here is his advice.

There used to be MANY more people on here. It made it a lot easier. I would sometimes hold giveaways, I added lots of friends, asked people to subscribe, and just consistent informative articles that people would want to read! I was just looking the other day that I've written over 250 articles on my paper, so it adds up! You can probably get one media mogul today, but it's just so much harder with so many fewer people.


I’ve found a long list of names of citizens you have played in this game. Are you proud of having played, and been banned from, so many different accounts?

Yes, I am. Luckily (EREPUBLIK Admin) are much fairer now, and a lot of the bias that existed back then doesn't anymore. It looks bad, but I was really only "guilty" of anything the first time, and the others were BS reasons to get rid of me. There is a guy named Pfeiffer on this game who has admitted to running bot-nets, and by-and-large got away with it.





Comment Below
What do you hope to achieve in EREPUBLIK that you have not yet achieved?







Whether you, my reader, like it or not, RGR is still here. He’s camped out in his own Political Party and his own Military Unit. In these days of Covid-19, we can all understand the value of isolation! I asked RGR what his future might hold in the New World. RGR replied.

I still need a CP medal. Haha. I am optimistic the eUS can still change for the better!


Why isolate yourself in your own party and MU?

Anything I am involved with will be PTO'd. When you do your other interviews with people who are against me, they will leave out the fact that no matter what, they always wanted to destroy anything I built up. They would go berserk if I tried to be politically active in this country. I just kind of babysit in this party as a lasting memorial to the AFA and what it represented. There are others in this country who carry on the fight in different ways. I ran a few CP campaigns last summer, and you can see whatever friends I had left in this country voted for me, but I just haven't been politically active here for years.


Why stay in eUSA where so many people despise you?

It's tough to say, because again, there's a lot of bots, and also keep in mind a large chunk of their support were foreigners who did their bidding, so in reality we don't know what percentage of "real" Americans supported me vs. them. I'm used to being an underdog and outnumbered though. Without getting too much into real life, look at how terrible politics are, and how people complain about it, yet the same people who complain are generally the ones who pick horrible politicians on both sides to begin with. There's no logic to it. I am a disruptor of what I see as a broken system. Sadly people often listen to propaganda and don't want to consider that everything they're being told is a lie.





Comment Below
What do you think the future holds for RGR?







I asked RGR to say something about the following using three words or fewer. RGR didn’t disappoint.


1. Eusaforums
Symbol of corruption

2. Plato
Our eGod

3. Covid-19
CHINESE GOVERNMENT

4. Strawberry Shortcake
Not bad

5. Krapis
Pulitzer prize winner








I am not interested in getting involved in the argument about which persons are right and which are wrong. I showed up in this game and became interested in one of the first citizens with whom I interacted.

From all of the friend requests I sent out as a brand new citizen, only RGR messaged me back and asked why I had befriended him. That is why I particularly noticed his comment in an article about eSerbia, and the next thing I knew I was interviewing him. From my perspective, this is what makes this game great. So do what you want in arguing among yourselves, but keep me out of the debate.


I have already conducted my next interview with another spectacularly interesting subject. If you subscribe to my newspaper, you will not miss the announcement when it appears in your subscriptions.



You should ALWAYS check your subscriptions!



Thank you to Ronald Gipper Reagan for responding to my continued requests for follow-up, detail, clarification, and opinion. I believe I met the real RGR, and I believe I have faithfully rendered the person I met in the article above.

He seems very filled with his own ideas, persistently focused on being persecuted, and steadfastly opposed to the accusations levied against him.

It was lots of fun doing this interview.



You should always enjoy being interviewed by Krapis



Thank you, my reader, for spending your time reading my Newspaper. I look forward to writing for you again.


Sincerely yours,
Kernal Krapis