[Abrivianius] On The Subject Of Ideology And Orientation

Day 1,010, 14:04 • Published in Belgium Pakistan • by Habraka Abrivianius

Fellow Belgians,

Today I would like to talk to you about political ideologies and economic orientation, or lack thereof, in eRepublik.

A lot players, myself including, have a idealistic and real life sentimental approach to politics when they first start playing this game actively. People usually model their in game political and economic ideology to closely resemble their real life beliefs, while a few choose to be the exact opposite. Players pretending to be communists or capitalists, progressive or conservative, libertarian or authoritarian, all are pretending their character to be something they enjoy playing. In the gaming world, this is called roleplay.

Now, usually roleplay is a good thing, a device to enjoy the game even more by immersing yourself into the game world, familiarize yourself with the background and setting, and a way to socialize with the other players who equally immerse themselves in the game. In eRepublik however, roleplay can be as destructive to the governing of a country as a hailstorm to a field of crops. In eRepublik, there is no such thing as Left or Right wing politics, there is no eternal struggle of communism against capitalism, there is no war between the classes of players, nor is there a progressive or conservative side to politics. There are only policies that are either beneficial or harmful to the state.

This is a game people, not real life. Let us not forget that simple fact.

"But but but, I want to pretend I'm a peace loving, equality protecting, people's first communist!"
While in real life, things like peace, equality and transparency are all desirable things, they do not apply to the game of eRepublik. This game centers on warfare. Our economies depend on it. A country without war will never advance, will never grow strong and rich, will never be able to provide it's players with the richest game experience. A country needs war to survive, thrive and prosper. Neutrality = stagnation = death.

I ask of players involved in Belgium politics to step away from the harmful practice of mixing real life beliefs into policy making in this game. Start governing this country for the benefit of it's citizens instead of trying to satisfy your personal roleplaying desires. Countries who have achieved this, are the ones ruling the world. Look at Poland, Indonesia, the USA, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, etc... Do you think the people running the shots there care about real life beliefs and petty party politics? No, they do not, they are to busy trying to get their country ahead in this game.

A lot of people complain about low activity and player retention levels in Belgium, about our low domestic income, high food prices and general boredom. Have you ever considered the fact that this has more to do with how the country is being governed by it's politicians than with anything else?

Let's take a look at our tax levels for example. One of the complaints I often hear is that food prices are to high in Belgium. Now, our Food import tax is set at 35%. At this point it doesn't matter if the taxes were at 35% or at 99%, no company will import food here when they could import to another country with much lower import taxes. This leaves less competition on the market, ergo higher prices. I say lower the food import taxes to around 5%, and you will be able to see food prices drop significantly.

"But what about our Belgian food companies then? They will lose income."
Look at it this way, with high food prices, people just go buy their food in other countries where it is cheaper, or they simply buy less food. Not many food companies in Belgium are profitable, but then again that has a lot to do with the fact that we have no wars to fight in. More wars = more food consumption = more profits for company owners = higher wages for workers. Therefore, a tax reduction in food import taxes should be coupled with active wars to really affect the economy in a positive way.

New players go inactive or quit simply because there is nothing to do in Belgium. Sure, they can work/train/study and talk on our IRC channel where everyone is always asleep, but that's about it. They cannot vote until they are of a certain level, they need to spend a lot of time before they can actually try and run for a position themselves, and by the time they get elected to Congress, they realize all they can do is talk endlessly about raising the minimum wage with 0.01 BEF or make lulz proposals to get the extra XP. Oh, they get a medal too, isn't that wonderful...?

Take a look at the big countries (big in terms of population), and try to find out how they got so big in the first place. Countries like Hungary and Sweden have around the same population as Belgium in real life, however Hungary and Sweden are known to have been the biggest countries in terms of population down the road, each with thousands or even tens of thousands of players, controlling dozens of regions. Belgium, well, we have what, 600 players, of which, perhaps a dozen or two are actually active and contributing? The reason for this is mainly that Belgium needs to be governed more professionally and have a more game mechanics focused political class instead of a bunch of kids pretending to be Lenin or Thatcher. There is no reason why we cannot have 10.000 citizens of our own, no reason why we should keep on continuing being tossed around by our bigger neighbors just because it has always been so.

All the tools to make this country better, stronger and richer are already available to us. It is how we use those tools that makes all the difference. Will you keep on crawling in this cesspool of inactivity and mediocrity, or will you actually do something about it, do something which is beneficial to this country in terms of game mechanics, or will you keep pushing this country down into the abyss by confusing real life ideologies with advancing your character in a game? It's up to you, citizens and politicians of Belgium, you have the power to make this country great. Do it.