Join the new world

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Today we have one special guest. It's avec. I guess all of you know him. He is Finish country president and Supreme Comander(SC) of EDEN.
Well, enough talking. Enjoy!





First of all, tell me something about your elife. How did you start, what did you first do, who did you met first.
I joined eRepublik during the Great Wave of Finns on September 2008 alongside with about 2,000 other Finns. Instead of moving to Norway like most other Finns, I decided to make my living in the Great Britain. The country was renowned for its rich political landscape and vivid community. The Finnish recruiting campaign was too nationalistic to my taste, which also contributed to me not wanting to move to Norway and try liberate eFinland from Norwegian rule.
For the first two months I mostly just two-clicked and read news. Articles were filled with political debate and party politics, so it was rather interesting to just follow the ongoing dialogue between various factions. But, eventually I wanted to join the community, and when a recruiting article for military appeared, I joined and met people from the eUK army. That's how my life here started. The rest reads fairly accurately on my wiki page HERE.



I know you were SC before. Tell me how did it lool like?
Being SC back then and now has little difference in my opinion. The main difference is that people now are somehow more tired, no matter if they're new or old players. Curiously the landscape in the world was almost identical a year ago (when I started as SC) as it was a month ago when I became SC again. Internal disbutes were the main issue in EDEN back then, and the same applies now. Back then I waited nearly every day for EDEN to collapse - now I don't expect the same, I know EDEN survives but I know it'll be drastically different to what it was during its days of glory.



What's the difference between being SC before and now?
The difference is hard to tell. Being SC has always been mostly about diplomacy, coordinating the alliance and maintaining the organizational structure in EDEN - all that is almost fully independent of game mechanics. As the main difference though, now the job doesn't feel fresh anymore. I have more people helping me this time, and the first time I had to do most things alone, but this time I've emphasised in delegating tasks as much as I can.



When you were SC before, we returned HK home . I guess that was greatest action ever in EDEN. Was it tough job? How proud are you?
Actually, I don't consider winning Heilongjiang much of a success compared to other campaigns. It was just one battle for one region, albeit an important one. I consider starting the next World War my greatest achievement - the Operation World in Flames. EDEN was on the verge of collapse, but starting the attacks on Phoenix core countries around the world bipolarised the world again and made EDEN stable. I planned it for weeks, I'm proud it worked exactly as I hoped for. It eventually lead to EDEN uniting and fighting for a common cause, and that I think is my greatest achievement, not the corollary effect of Heilongjiang battle that lead to its liberation.



What is your opinion about Hungary signing MPP with Spain and Poland? How will that affect on eFinland and your work as CP?
Well played, Hungary. Nominally resigning from Phoenix and claiming "neutrality" was all that it took to convince Poles and Spaniards to sign MPP with their oldest enemy. I guess if Brazil signed peace with Spain now and then published an article saying they're neutral now, Spain would immediately sign MPP with them too. Or maybe not? Brazil is close so it's easy to see they're an enemy country to Spain, but Hungary is farther away so it's harder for beginners to realise it. With people inside the country machinating congress with biased facts, half-truths and direct lies, both countries were gradually converted to start hating their old allies. These cases luckily have little effect on my work as CP of Finland as their actions and consequences for them are for now only regional, but eventually I guess the imbalance in numbers alliance-wise might come back to haunt even this little country up north.



How does your day as EDEN SC look like?
Different to old times, I nowadays concentrate solely in working behind the scenes giving EDEN a direction and overseeing the rest of the HQ, and not put much effort in the daily routines of coordinating military action. I talk with a lot of people every day about various matters (which I won't disclose yet), get operations started, stuff that doesn't show outside until it's apparent. For example, I might spend a day overseeing the work of the HQ, thinking what our priorities in current wars are, talking with country representatives of what their worries are, coordinating ISD work, maybe setting up summits with different people (e.g. with EDEN Presidents) to get issues discussed. I'd like to be more elaborate, but I can't tell anything specific yet about what I've had to cope with. In short: I talk with people. Every hour of every day.



What do you think about NWO? Before furious enemy now fighting together?
NWO for now is only an illusion in minds of those who want "something new". Mystically, if you lump in together a random set of countries and push for an alliance between those countries, the game changes totally and everything is new for them. What they keep forgetting is that borders that countries have stay the same, and old alliances are based on loyalty, respect and mutual interests. Countries in EDEN aren't allies by accident - they share common history, they've fought for each other, they defend each other and in a word, they share bonds. That's what an alliance means - countries being friends with each other. That is why most people are disgusted with Poland leaving EDEN and Spain verging on Poland, because they're betraying their old allies that fought for them. Saying that old events don't matter sets a very bad precedent - then no country should fight for another one, because it doesn't matter for the other in the future. Don't mind about loyalty, because you can switch sides whenever it benefits you the most. It's against the core of EDEN, and any country thinking like that should be out in my opinion. If they keep at that, then any alliance formed of countries thinking like that is bound to collapse to its own impossibility as soon as they lose mutual interests. We'll see though if anything new even sets off, and judge it after that. Useless to speculate about imaginary alliances that are only a wet dream in the minds of people like smrtan.



I heard that once upon a time someone accuse you as British secret agent. Is that true? What happen?
You mean this: LINK 🙂 The article was deleted in summer, but I uploaded it to googledocs to preserve it. The story is about me being from the eUK, and I moved to eFinland just before eUK switched sides and joined PEACE. There was the never-ending joke about me being a spy from there, and me rapidly rising through ranks in the Finnish community made it a funny one. When I was eventually elected as the Supreme Commander of EDEN and EDEN launched attacks against several Phoenix countries, I published that article and seemed like half the people in the world took it for real. Shitstorms ensued in several countries and a few people in HQ and near me were somewhat frustrated at me as they had to calm down people and try convince them it was just a joke. But, at least I got a good laugh out of the reaction.



What is difference in game comparing now and day when you started? ERepublik become better game or worse?
The main difference is that everything is old now. eRepublik is defined by its player base, and those remain where they are with their own connections no matter how you change game mechanics. Countries are the same as they were back then, every military campaign that could have been conceived have been tried in one form or another. As a game though, I think things have gone worse. When I started, gold wasn't that essential for the game - there were no boosters, no every day need to spend gold in order to fare, and the game at least somewhat tried to be a simulation of politics, economy, media and warfare combined. Now it's just pure warfare, with strategy removed from it. The game had bugs a lot back then too, just that it wasn't being deliberately taken for the direction it's going for now. As someone said, eRepublik is a not a game designed to be something grand, it's a cheap-production hoax created for the purpose of generating money for its makers, but it failed in that.



How hard is to become EDEN SC? What is primary for that position?
The ideal picture is that Supreme Commander is the uomo universale of eRepublik - competent in every branch of eRepublik, has worked in every level of the game from congress to ministries and presidency. But, the main criterion for becoming SC is that you can set aside your personal goals, your own country's interests and you can look at the big picture of prioritizing the objectives that benefit the alliance as a whole. Reading it like this is easy and you might think it's easy, but in effect very few people can do that. It takes time to assimilate what is involved in leading an alliance, and I think a month is a very short time to get to know what your task is. At first you think that you have several countries lumped together, but as a goal you should think only about the whole of all countries together - there is no Finland, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Croatia, ... but rather there's EDEN, a community that consists of all those countries, all working as one. That's the ideal picture for an alliance, and as an SC it's your task to make it that way. If you can fathom that, you're qualified for being SC.



How is relationship between eFinland and eCroatia? What would you like to make better between these two countries?
I have a notion that relations between Finland and Croatia are good. Neither of us are into overextended drama, we just want to stick together and be friends. I know Finns appreciate Croatians, and I believe the Croatians share the same feeling of Finns. Maybe we should work on renewing the bond between our two countries.



Where do you see eFinland in 6 months?
In the same place it is now. It might be conquered in that time, or not. Hard to tell, 6 months is too long time in eRepublik to predict anything accurate.



Everyone have personal goal. Do you have your personal goal? What is it?
I do have a personal goal, though it's different to what most people have. I've achieved every position this game has to offer, so rather I take intermediate objectives as my goals. Currently my goal is to ensure the correct bloc stays in power in EDEN and in the world - interpret that as you wish.



What would you like to say to people in eFinland?
Finns need a direction in this game. A direction that gives meaning to people from two-clickers to congressmen and ministers - something that touches everyone. We aren't a nationalistic country that can get inspiration from real life conflicts unlike some other countries in this game, so our passion has to be found from elsewhere. Our nation is small, so we can't contest with the superpowers of the world by being an economic or military power to be reckoned with, but we can shine in diplomacy, efficiency and internal affairs. Our army can be top notch of eRepublik with it's accuracy and cost-efficiency, even deal good amount of damage. Finland has the highest proportion of people in top levels of international politics compared to our population, and it reflects back to our country reputation - we can keep that up. Our country can be well run and well organised internally so even if we don't have much to command, at least the little we have is all put in good use, hence giving our small country the much needed direction and efficiency. With more population we could be the biggest regional power in Scandinavia and Baltia, which is something we could aspire to become if the recruitment drive took off again.




I wish to thank avec for spending his spare time on me and my questions. I'm glad he did that. Thanks to you all for reading this article. Subscribe if you want to read more interviews. Until next article, good luck and enjoy in the game.



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Interview with Avec
http://tinyurl.com/001avec



Yours journalist,
Plese Tomislav