[eRep] Down, Down, Down

Day 3,307, 10:50 • Published in USA USA • by Gnilraps
Day 3307 of the New World
December 9, 2016








I am concerned about the future of eRepublik.


Obviously the servers are still up and running. You reading this article is evidence of that.


And it would seem that someone checks in on us once in a while. The 9th Anniversary thingy, though underwhelming after all, at least shows that eRepublik still shows up on a to-do list at eRepublik Labs. There’s also the Developer Log which shows that someone on Admin is doing something one out of every three days. So we’re not dead just yet.


But do a little snooping around.













Start with the eRepublik Labs Web site. Here’s what I foun😛


1: VERY OLD Images





This is the home page of eRepublik Labs, and their eRep-related image is OVER THREE YEARS OLD!





Notice the links to “Tactical Heroes”? Yeah, they shuttered that game 10 months ago.





I’m not sure what qualifies as “NEWS” these days, but I guess “old” news is still “news”. I guess.




2: Games that show a clear bias towards mobile apps


Check out the “Games” page.


It’s kinda nice that eRepublik gets 3rd highest billing on that page, but it is clearly the “sore thumb” on the page. Every other game (including the aforementioned and defunct “Tactical Heroes” which is perplexingly still linked) is a mobile app.


Do you wonder if eRepublik Labs is still committed to eRepublik the browser game? You aren’t alone. So let’s click the “blog” and see what we can know.


OH! It certainly does appear that they’ve visited their own website in the past year. Well, exactly one year ago actually. The last blog update is the year 2015 in review. Sadly, no mention was made of eRepublik. I guess 2015 wasn’t a year that eRepublik Labs did anything noteworthy in eRepublik. Now that I think about it, I guess they’re right.


3: What have they done lately?


Should it worry us that the last meaningful award they are bragging about came to them in 2011 (scroll down)?


Maybe. Maybe not.













OK, maybe they just don’t pay that much attention to their web site. Surely they must be paying attention to the eRepublik game itself, right?


4: Nope.


Guess how many days it has been since they released Q5 houses? 784 Days. And during those 784 days we have been staring at the slightly faded images of the Q6 and Q7 houses that they’ve obviously made some type of plan to release. Do you actually believe that their plan was so far reaching that they thought, “let’s wait 785 days, THEN release the higher Q houses!”? I don’t. I’m more inclined to think that they’ve got so many “back burners” at eRepublik Labs that they sort of lose track of how many unfinished projects they’ve actually got. And let’s not even start talking about Perception Training and higher Q Air weapons.


How about the persistent problems with the battle clock? I don’t know about you, but I frequently wait for a new round to begin with the battle page open and the little countdown timer ticking down until the big button turns bright yellow and says, “Next Round”. Then I quickly click that button in hopes to be the first person to start fighting in the round, thus establishing my place for the Sky Hero (or Battle Hero) medal. BUT WAIT!!! Someone else has already done 8K damage with their Aircraft? How did they get 8K damage in when my battle screen clearly shows that the clock has only JUST started ticking? Easy answer, they battle timer has been screwed up for as long as I can remember.















And how about the mobile version of the site? Surely a company which is putting SO MUCH ENERGY into the mobile platform would have deep insights and frequent updates to make our beloved game more mobile-friendly. Right?


Wrong.


Very little has changed on the mobile version since it was introduced, at least from the perspective of this user. I still cannot access any newspaper, a player profile, any country data, any party data, any MU data, any storage data, or any employee data. I can’t vote, buy a company, access a map, or convert my CC into Gold on the mobile version. I suppose it is worth noting that I can buy gold there though. Hey Admin, please tell us how many people are accessing eRepublik via the mobile version. I’d like to know.


And the global population continues to decline. This is the most difficult pill to swallow, because a declining player base creates an unsustainable environment. Already the worker pool is struggling to produce enough work tickets to support existing industries and prices have been in constant inflation for almost 200 days (since the introduction of Aircraft). But we have seen fewer and fewer player-driven activities in social circles. We have seen IRC become a graveyard for activity. We have seen user-scripts turn players into robots who don’t interact socially and are therefore of little true use to building a community. And we have seen Admin make decision after decision which has harmed the social aspect of the game, turning it more and more into a brainless clickfest.











For these and actually several other reasons, I am fearful that eRepublik may not be worth playing at its 10th anniversary.













So let me offer a few rays of hope.


1: I have seen a few old faces emerge from eRep’s email blitz over their 9th Anniversary. Kudos to Admin for trying to resurrect the dead (would have made a better Easter promotion maybe?) It remains to be seen if any of these resurrected citizens will be inclined to spend money, we can hope they will.


2: There are some things they could do to stimulate growth.

They have not gotten serious about offering existing players meaningful rewards for accumulating referrals in a long time. The 5 Gold prize for the Society Builder medal might have been a lot of Gold 8 years ago, but it is the equivalent of peanuts now. Admin could get VERY serious about engaging us for referrals by offering MEANINGFUL awards like packs or big piles of gold. It’s up to them, of course, to police multis and I hope they do that. But you CAN motivate people to promote your game if you reward them handsomely enough. And if they would get creative with this it would help.


They could introduce the Q6 and Q7 house in such a way that would actually stimulate the economy. We don’t have enough Work Tickets right now. Make the Q6 and Q7 houses produce so many overtime hours that they become “affordable” the same way the Q1 house is. That combined with the added energy pool that a Q6 + Q7 could offer would stimulate both production AND consumption. But they’ve GOT TO ADD THOSE HOUSES.


They could make Perception Training a thing SOON. They just spent some effort resurrecting old players with their 9th Anniversary emails. Why not take this timing advantage and introduce Perception? The only meaningful thing for a resurrected player to do at this point is ATA combat. They will be so far behind in strength training that all the ghost boosters in the world won’t really help. But they can start ranking up in Air while there’s still time, and if Perception Training were to begin happening, who knows maybe some of these returned players might just buy in. Hey Plato, strike while the iron is warm!


They could fix the damned rankings so that Air Combat Kills and Damage showed up. I mean, this is a SOCIAL browser game, but if I do 30,000 Air combat kills in a week nobody will even know because I won’t even show up on the leaderboard. Come on, throw us a bone here. And realize that by fixing these little things it makes the game better for us to play! Do It!!!


They could kill off the Maverick Pack. I think I understand why it came, they wanted a new revenue stream. But time has now proven that the Maverick Pack has killed off the spirit of the lower Division players. People who had spent months and years hoping to “specialize” in lower division warfare were slapped in the face by Admin selling off access to lower divisions for 15 euro/month. Kill it off, Plato, and find a different revenue stream. I’ve got some ideas if you want them.


They could start playing their own game again. It used to do a lot for the community when “Plato” and “Alexis Bonte” and other bigwigs would show up in the Media with articles and stuff. That gave the impression that Admin was noticing us and was interested in their game. Go ahead and make all the mobile apps you want, but if you’re not going to pull the plug on eRepublik, then at least play it with us. We’re a fun bunch!


They could create an entire new set of awards and medals. Lots of people play for medals. Have more media medals than the single lame Media Mogul award. They KNOW that media is an important facet of the game. Why the heck not create some new medals for it??? And how about some more politics medals? Make some medals for completing other ingame activites that require more than simple clicks… Seriously Admin, if you want to generate sudden activity, reward activity with medals. We like shiny things.


They could award Military units with more than JUST shiny things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of all the hardware EZC has won. But if each of those medals came with an injection of CC into our MU account? You’d better bet we’d use it to generate activity. Yep, we would. Because WE LIKE TO PLAY THIS GAME.


Do you hate us, Admin? Please don’t. We like your game and want to play. But we feel remarkably abandoned by you these past couple of years, and we’re starting to get restless.


3: I will say this. If Admin can make some exciting improvements to this game, restoring some of its sociability and user experience, I will start spending money on it again.


Did you hear me say that Alexis?


You may now return to your regularly scheduled clicking