Hey Plato, what's your price?
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by Muglack
There's a lot of talk about how the only thing Plato cares about is the money. They're a business, and so I accept that.
I also accept that in more ways than one this game is incredibly broken. The existence of superpowers for example is a game flaw that they see no reason to eliminate because it's results in profits for them. Since the very essence of this game's creation was based on capitalist ideals I'm good with that too.
You made a game that would make you money, so even if it's broken and may not be earning to potential you're more than happy to just let it run itself and collect your checks. Fair enough. I get you. We're on the same page.
What I don't understand is why you're letting money slip away when you could so easily capitalize on it.
Let me explain.
The whole thing starts with a concept called "Diminishing Returns". It's a long drawn out economic theory that essentially boils down to the fact that if you keep going back to the same well eventually it'll go dry.
In game terms it's fairly easy to explain. The people that spend money on this game is a finite resource. Specifically borderline gold buyers. That is to say the players that would spend money on this game under ideal circumstances, but under poor ones have no interest in doing so.
For the sake of argument let's look at the current Spanish occupation of eCanada. All things being equal the only way that we will ever push Spain out is by spending an ungodly amount of real life money buying gold and boosters and hoping that some small detail doesn't change or that the Spanish don't spend some incremental amount compared to ours and make all of our spending completely pointless.
In real terms the idea of spending hundreds of dollars to take back a region for 24 to 36 hours without any long term gains results in people who otherwise would be more than happy to spend money, spending absolutely nothing at all. The kind of player who would spend 700 dollars to win a war, or push out an invader will not spend 350 dollars to retake a region just to see it reconquered by invaders 2 days later. There are the dollars that are being left on the table by our benevolent game administrators.
Lucky for them I have a solution that helps everyone and which leads me to title of this article.
How much would you charge me to buy a region?
The idea is simple. If your country gets wiped you get the chance to build up resources in the form of gold donations or RL money donations (which could be given a nominal premium encouraging people to donate this way) and you would fill the meter the same way we do with an airstrike.
Once the meter is filled we get to buy a single territory for 30 days. It can't be attacked, it can't be conquered, and while we have the protection we can't be re-wiped. When 30 days is up, if we have made progress liberating more regions than our attackers can simply wipe us again, and if we're so inclined we can then buy ourselves another month.
Under this system everybody wins. Plato collects more cash from borderline players that are willing to spend money when they see tangible results from their expenditure, and players who normally would be willing to spend money to enhance their game get more involved and do just that. Communities that otherwise would slowly deteriorate and wash away are able to rebuild and the game experience as a whole is enhanced. This also helps player retention, which again is a huge plus for Plato.
So Plato, all I want to know is, if I wanted to buy a region, what's your price?
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Instead of paying rent to the assholes in Spain, your pay it the blood sucker Plato. I like it.
Now if it could be any original region of your choice it would be really great and would give the dominated nation a little clout in any negotiations
Theoretically it would make sense to be either the last default territory conquered, or your default capitol. Either one makes sense to me.
Poor Spanish! Always misrepresented by muppets in any game lol
~hyuu~
"Region Rental" is part of international roleplaying. Why not formalize it in the game mechanics and then monopolize/monetize the process? (just like everything else in this game)
Makes sense to me.
lol, I find it amusing you still seem to think Plato actually cares about an idea other than their own. I thought you were more experienced than this Mugs.
They only care about money, and they can earn more. I know it will probably never happen, but even a 1 in a million is better than our odds against Spain so what the hell?
What if a country always kept their capital, not matter what? You just fought over territories outside the capital. You would get a congress but a very small one. It would be way less devastating to a community for months and months.
"Under this system everybody wins." You know, everyone but the country who spent their money conquering you who end up losing a region and essentially wasting their money used to conquer it. But yeah, everyone wins.
P. Magee
A portion, or even all the gold, could be paid to the country that conquered the region.
Interesting thought. But I bet they would rather have the land since they attacked it. It would need to be a large amount of gold to cover expenses incurred for their border expansion.
Well, think of it this way. You would only be able to buy one region (Most likely your last Capital). Most countries don't need to hold every region of a country to get all their bonuses, so this might be incentive to not just attack a country until they're wiped. And, just as not being able to lose the region for a month was suggested, you wouldn't be able to attack from it during that time either. So it wouldn't provide any major loss for the occupying country.
It actually doesn't cost the invaders anything. You think Spain is bleeding resources trying to hold on to Nunavut or the Yukon?
Aside from the small amount of satisfaction they're getting by keeping us wiped, they would lose absolutely nothing if we regained a single region.
In fact forcing a nation to pay cash to get back on the map would be an even bigger medal of honor in troll circles, then just keeping a country wiped.
But really, isn't the point of world domination totally dominating?
Definitely an interesting proposal.
"How much would you charge me to buy a region?"
Bless you sir for cutting to the heart of it.
I, being a ridiculous fool, propose a one step further option. I'd like to create my own pretend country and as eRepublik has shown itself for the whore it is, I believe they would be likewise interested for the right price.
I'd call in Foxfireland.
I would either go with Hell or Rylde's Whorehouse on a grander scale.
Good games make Money. Back in the day about 15 years ago, any game with a decent concept behind it used to make money. But now since everyone is playing games only good games make money these days.
The idea of buying back regions is cute but that still wouldn't make this a good game. It would just complicate the whole metagame we have already. I've seen first hand what happens to a game dev team when they just keep shoving in features to their game - which is what this game constantly does.
A good metagame is created by a few very good mechanics, and balance between those functions. This game doesn't have that.
Actually, the easiest fix for the entire game would be to have a fixed number of countries that can be in an alliance. This is the only game breaking thing about eRepublick. Every other game in the world has a Group limit, or Guild limit, or alliance limit. There is no game out there where you can have half the entire server in one group.
This unlimited Alliance thing we have going on here will always be game breaking, and unless this changes it doesn't matter what the devs add or subtract from this game.
I think they simply don't have a clue and simply don't give a shit. Erep is like an ant farm that some rich guy got tired of playing with and decided to pay some managers to keep it going for unknown reasons, most likely financial. They will turn the lights off someday soon, unless somebody with a interest buys it.