The New World faces Global Economic Recession

Day 591, 09:58 • Published in Hungary Sweden • by Misho
...and we need the scientists help to recover from it.

(Since this article in 'only' published in Hungary, please consider vote for it and please feel free to link to it in other articles.)

Currently the worlds stocks of Food, Weapons, Moving Tickets and Gifts are increasing day after day. The prices are getting lower and lower and as a result the salaries are going down. The statistics is telling a message that can't be misread; eRepublik is once again facing a recession in the global economy.
I've been managing eCompanies in all various branches and Q-levels for well over a year so variations in production and demand is nothing unique, this time how ever its a bit different. And the New World will need help from the scientists to recover.

Normally when eRepublik reaches this point a great war breaks out and the demand for the goods produced in The New World takes off again. This time I'm not certain. Well of course new wars will break out and products will be consumed but not to such a point that nations really stretch themselves to the point where eRepublik will have lots of people buying Gold Packs and spend money on this game.

For those of you who want the short version of this article I'll give it here in one sentence:

Its crucial for the eRepublik Economy that the nations and the single players are given incentives to spend and buy resources, the current system where resource-cheap voting beats resource-heavy fighting does not give such incentives.

Or to make it an analyze of the future eRepublik Economy: Prepare for lower salaries and companies getting out of business.

If this isn't being solved the salaries will continue to drop, less players will find reasons to buy gold and invest in Wellness boxes or Companies. The normal 'economy recover medicine' with wars might no longer do the trick since waging wars for most countries are futile.


This time we will need help from the eRepublik scientists to get out the recession.


A basic foundation for ownership is that what you buy must be something that you can keep. In eRepublik that is impossible for 50 out of 53 countries. If a small, middle size or even quite large country manage to take a region the current system with how MPP's are activated and the possibility to swap regions leads to a situation where only Indonesia, Hungary and USA are able to take and hold a region over some time.
We have seen this region swapping several times where the final result every time is that a big country is giving a free route in order to fight down a smaller aggressor who has taken one or several regions. Poland and Sweden was given this medicine by Peace and Hungary to mention the most recent case.

For Sweden and Poland the signals are clear - any hostile attempt to take a region and gain the first High Raw material will fail. The final reward for spending thousands of gold, standing up and fight or staying in the couch and click twice will be the same. Well unless one of them managed to reach a top 3 position regarding numbers of citizens.

I think the eRepublik Scientists must think outside the current box. This situation is not solved with higher Wall points or Citizenship - that will not make people consider buying a Gold Pack who isn't doing it today.

Perhaps could a reformation of the Defense Systems be part of the solution?

One idea could be that a country who only focused on defending one region would be given an advantage compared with a country who is trying to defend several regions. Let me elaborate with an example.


What do defense systems even look like in a game where we don't know in what time or age we play..?

Let say we introduce a system where a Defense System provides points to the wall equal to the amount of citizens in the region where the Defense System is placed divided with the total amount of citizens in the eNation multiplied with one million, this sum is also added to the wall for each day of active fighting whereas:

Q1 20% of the sum is added
Q2 40% of the sum is added
Q3 60% of the sum is added
Q4 80% of the sum is added
Q5 100% of the sum is added

For example:

Country A has 10 000 Citizens and has conquered several regions and placed Defense Systems in many of them. In one region they have 1000 Citizens and a Q4 Defense System.
The Wall has 100 000 points as base sum - just as it would have in todays eRepublik. But since only 10% of the citizens in that country lives in this region the Q4 Defense system 'only' provides 40 000 extra points to the Wall and then 40 000 points for every new eRepublik day with active battles that begins. (Like most cases now also these fights will be over within 24 hours.)

If a country would have only one region and only 100 citizens and protected it with a Q5 Defense Systems they would have wall with a first base sum of 10 000 points + the Defense system which would add another quite astonishing 1 million points to a total of 1 010 000 points plus another extra million points for each day of active battle.

This would make it much more difficult both for large countries to add region after region to the empire without having to start making harsh priorities and it would make it extremely difficult to annihilate a country which makes effort to defend herself - even if the country is tiny in all aspects of the word.
This would give small countries a chance to exist and hold a high profile not only because others don't care enough to occupy it but because conquering could actually mean fighting quite hard to take it.

The idea is far from perfect but it gives an example of the kind of balance thinking I would like to see in eRepublik.

Citizens will still earn Hard Workers medals but the truth is they are getting fat and lazy since we as players aren't given any real incentive to put in extra time, work or money. The outcome - or if you prefer - lack of outcome remains the same.

Why so quiet regarding the Player vs Player war module?

Admin claim that the scientists are working on a Player vs Player military module, I've heard that since the launch of V1 but yet no details or Date of Launch have been revealed. Since citizenship and the Raw Material reformation - which both are much easier to introduce have taken several months I think its healthy to have low expectations of witnessing a Player vs Player module in eRepublik for quite some time to come.
I would be the first one to welcome some informations from Admin regarding this; in what lines are the scientists working? Is it a new form of Trivia, is it a similar concept as in Beta, is it a skill game or haven't you started to look at it yet..?

In the topic Plans for the first half of 2009 Admin states that:
- War improvements. Improving the current war module is one of our main challenges and with the feedback received from you, we shall make the proper changes regarding this module.
http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/topic/85002/plans-for-the-first-half-of-2009/1

We are now in early July and we are still fine tuning on the wall fighting system while the words Player vs Player becomes more rare from the Admin for every day that passes.

Power is spelled citizens, resistance is futile.

Even so a Player vs Player module will how ever not change the current fact that the countries with most citizens totally dominates the countries surrounding them, yes even their neighbors neighbors which basically means one "boss-country" per continent.

This will of course create a need for mass recruitment in those countries willing to participate in the game in such a way that they fight for a region with High raw material. Mass recruitment probably sounds great in the ears of the owners of eRepublik but the current situation kind of closes the door on all those other countries un-able to be top-3. Which for now is 50 countries and increasing.
They will struggle to grow when they are without chance to even dream of taking a decent region again. eNorway is a good example here, lots of former very dedicated Norwegian players are gone and very few ones have joined.
eRepublik wouldn't give eNorway a better position to reconquer, and more important keep, West Siberian Region even if 100 more Norwegians would start buying Gold Packs weekly. Indonesia, Romania, Hungary or some other country with five times much ePopulation could take it without spending a cent.

Either eRepublik develops other areas where citizens and nations can compete - such as Soccer, ice hockey, sailing - the eOlymic Games - or it aims to balance what 75% of todays eRepublik content circles aroun😛 Waging war.

I almost every other game the issue of balancing is crucial. Nice graphics and an interesting idea and game design is the trick to make the first attraction but from there on its all about contents and game balance. An unbalanced game is a boring game.
eRepublik has neglected the part of game balance. Personally I believe the reason for this is that the game developers are focusing on creating a Social Game and not a Competitive Game.

The achievements are mostly things you can get if you 'just sit there'. Walk a mile and you get a medal, walk two miles and you get two medal. There's no difference if you walk the mile in 10 minutes or if you run it in 3. You still get the same medal.

The idea of giving the advantage of Raw Materials to countries such as USA and Brazil with hundreds of millions RL citizens will not create a situation where they have incentives to do anything but staying in the couch while small countries without Raw Materials has equal non existing incentives to attack to gain something.

The only content left is to get that medal, by walking that mile. Which might get a bit boring.

Balancing a game is all about linking advantages in some areas to disadvantages in others. In eRepublik I can't see that at all. On the contrary I find that countries with the advantage of lots of Real life citizens (potential players) also have been given the advantage of important Raw Materials.

For exampel, to give eGermany three regions of High Grain while giving Poland and Denmark none is mysterious for me. It would be a much more Game Balanced if for example eGermany and eGreat Britain wasn't given any while small countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium where. Balancing Pros vs Cons.


Okay, I tried to publish a picture with two women here. A very tall one with high heels and a short one with flat shoes. If the short one was given the high heels instead of the tall one they could play on more equal terms, currently the short one can't get her nose over the tall ones butt. And even if the short one make efforts and jumps while the tall one are lazy and bend over, the 'nose in the butt' situation is doomed to be restored quite quickly again. The basket picture is not as good but it will do.

With the lack of Citizenship this haven't been much to do about since if the situation would have been Balanced game wise, - with important Raw Material regions in countries with quite low Real Life population, - they would just have been victims for repeated Political Take Overs. China and Russia have been examples for this - okay, they have big numbers of Real Life citizens but few of them have been expected to visit and play eRepublik for obvious reasons.


This is more fun right?

With an increasing population in the New World the game has changed for lots of players. A dedicated group of 30 soldiers was a fearsome force to be recognized with in the end of Beta, now such a group can't make much of difference.
Its crucial for the game to provide content for smaller groups. Around 30 players are the typical size of well organized guilds or groups where some socializations takes place that create the sense of belonging.
The 'eCountry' is currently the only group size that eRepublik provide and we have seen several attempts trying to create smaller ones, take the Theocrats as one example and the constant demand for introducing Malta as eCountry or Vatican state as others. Not to mentioning the constant attempts of creating Mercenary Groups with little to none real result in the end.

Plato says, I told you so!

I tried to communicate this in my article series 'Plato says' which where posted here in this paper several months ago - sorry, I'm to lazy to search and link to them now. My approach then was to suggest a system where it would cost more resources or take time to move armies and fight with them in regions far away. Thus making less soldiers participating in all wars around the the eGlobe but also making the ones participating in each specific war more important and create a sense of uniqueness that eRepublik is unable to provide today.
It would also grant success to those who put in some extra work in planning wars and operations compared to what we see today. It would also add some RL aspect to the eRepublik warfare compared with today when you can move your army back and forth to the other side of the world just as easy as to your closest border.

To sum it up..

In the nearest future:
- Citizens, should prepare to work for lower salaries and pay less for the products on the market.
Suggestions of adjustments:
- More communication from the Scientists regarding future modules, especially the War Module.
- Make small countries with fewer players able to compete better with bigger countries by adding in-game balance and thus make the game competitive for more than a handful nations.
- Consider adding content in other areas than War fare such as sports where countries and clubs can challenge and compete in eRepublik.
- Create content which works in favor for smaller well organized groups rather than continuing to walk down the current path of huge masses eating everything in its way.

Additional Reading:
Erwin Schaumans add new great ideas to War Module Improvements - especially giving incentives to new players who would be able to compete with old 1,5 year old players.
http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/topic/104068/expanding-the-war-module---naval-and-air-warfare/1

And of course the old Platon Says article series.
Platon says we are back wards people, part 1:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/plato-says-we-are-backwards-people-part-1--732841/1/20

Platon says we are back wards people, part 2: Education system
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/plato-says-we-are-backwards-people-part-2-education-system--733564/1/20

Plato says we are backwards people, part 3. Airports, Hotels and Railroads!
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/plato-says-we-are-backwards-people-part-3-airports-hotels-and-railroads--739321/1/20

Regards and thank you for your support.
Misho