[GT]Don't live up to your stereotypes

Day 1,826, 22:17 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Ayame Crocodile


I was going to write about the personalities and motivations behind why individuals play erepublik. To examine, dissect and eventually categorize or define them into groups based on their ingame roles.

Yet that would be a huge folly, To stereotype real people as merely functions within a larger system and a controlled world would be demeaning and degrading of the worth of not just others but myself as well.

The driving forces of citizens are so varied and ever changing that it’s impossible to define any one person in any one set definition. It pushes people into boxes that are ill fitting and presumptuous if not wholly false. Not long ago I believe it was Elle Roslin who made a comment that I found profoundly true.

"It is important to avoid becoming a stereotype here - people have a tendency to 'become' a role and remain in it throughout their e-existence".


Even with the unbounding freedom of anonymity we are drawn to hiding behind a facade

Never accept or be contented with becoming forever just one of several choices. Neither a rabble rouser, fighter, economist, policy maker, game changer, enforcer, unifier, party member or plotter exclusively.

Because we are all these things if we choose to be and so much more, We all have our own dispositions to ‘roles’ but far more importantly than that we have the amazing ability as human beings to surpass any boundaries of definition.

In coming to erepublik often we find ourselves taking on an identity. Some use it as a shield or a mask others as a projection of their ego, but early on in a players time on erepublik they will find themselves unknowingly sliding into a caricature. A two dimensional being in a two dimensional world. Where each decision is viewed through the prism of roleplaying their ‘character’.

From this we find ourselves butting against each others definitions. As a member of this party I must believe /our/ idea X to be superior to /your/ Y proposal. We can barely hear each others self expression and reasoning for all the ideology and empty rhetoric clashing.


Decide now! You must define yourself through generic meaningless terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’!

Instead of being a social experience we have turned a brilliant opportunity into just another team competition. This narrow view of eExistance has given rise to exclusive friendship groups and camaraderie within this battle of supremacy defined purely through opposition to other groups.

It’s not that we forget that this is a team game in a national sense, but that we have lost sight of the beautiful reality we now inhabit, both ingame and within our own lives. A reality where we have a vast array of tools to understand each other, to connect and to form sisterly bonds across all borders, whether they be national, ideological, religious or sexual.

Never before has a generation been so interconnected, with an ability for direct contact and discussion so readily at their disposal.

It’s through communication that a society can be born. Not just a collection of opposing sides or of two dimensional caricaturisations but a colourful world of unfettered variety and personalities.

The greatest moments in my erepublik experience have been more akin to a jovial chat in a pub than to any shouting match across a playing field, From every upset and turbulent moment of dismay at the actions of others has come a true reward of communication and an insight into another person. Just a slight crack in the mask yet still wide enough to see the true depth of humanity beneath.

To be quite honest I have no idea what it is that has lit up within my own mind, Why it is that such a small realisation feels so pronounced and vital but nonetheless it does.


Beyond this world lies yourself

Don’t let your real self become a slave to the front you put forward. Hide behind no illusions and allow this great opportunity to become about being who you truly are rather than what your ego believes yourself to be. And let others define themselves freely without interference, Hold judgement as today’s frustrated caricature will soon be tomorrow's new friend.

So today introduce yourself to someone you have yet to meet, That person who keeps vocalising an idea that troubles or intrigues, Someone you've always seen as just a joker or trouble maker, the person who seems too important or cliquey to talk to you. Climb over that border fence. Because everyone has a longing to connect whether they admit it or not and everyone has a story to tell.