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Q1: What is your greatest achievement in your eRepublik life and what your biggest setback?

A1: Allow me to clarify my viewpoint here a bit for starters: I don't count military victories or achievements in political career as meaningful achievements that are distinct for my eLife. Military triumphs come and go, and politically everybody in eRepublik achieves the same positions in governments at one point or another. What are achievements in my opinion are events that are unique to your own life, and that would have not necessarily happened the way they happened if you were not there to influence them. From this point of view, I believe my greatest achievement during my life in eRepublik was keeping EDEN together. During February-March 2010 EDEN was internally very unstable and it took a lot of work to just maintain it in status quo, let alone try to improve it. During that time it felt like there were not enough hours in day to try fix the issues at hand, but later on I somehow managed, and EDEN survived the turmoil of that time. That I feel proud of. As for the biggest setback, well, that I feel is that we did not manage to conquer Liaoning during V1 despite several attempts. The attempts themselves were flawed in many ways of course, but they could have been successful with little changes. As such the region itself I don't consider in this context about "biggest setback of my eRepublik life" anyhow meaningful - but the meaning behind conquering the region, what it would have implied back then and how it was tied to the ongoing campaign back in the day - that it failed, that I see as the setback of my eLife. That's all.

Q2: How were you selected as the Supreme Commander of EDEN?

A2: During December 2009 and January 2010 the old HQ that had steered EDEN through WW3 was slowly turning inactive; they had been around for over 6 months, I don't blame them, no one can stay active in that position for that long. I won't go further into details here, but in HQ elections in February, Gabriel Lavanche (A-SC back then) asked me if I was willing for a position in HQ. I replied that I was interested as that was the only thing left in my eRepublikan political career, being in EDEN HQ that is. The next day in EDEN summit I was then elected as the Supreme Commander by majority vote, and I guess that is when all the fun started.

Q3: As SC, what was the hardest thing to do?

A3: As the Supreme Commander, I think the hardest thing was to make every country work together for the common goals. It required trying to figure out military campaigns that were meaningful for the alliance that touched individual countries' interests in national level and provided citizens with activity enough to keep them satisfied. It took a lot of effort and thought work, and every HQ has to wrestle with this exact same issue every month, while trying to maintain the ordinary alliance functions.

Q4: Describe a normal day as SC of EDEN

A4: Usually, I would wake up at about 23 eRepublik time - an hour before DC and update the daily orders for civilians and armies. If battles were to be started near DC, I'd be there to coordinate the effort to fight in those battles and guide everyone. Then, throughout the day I would discuss with CPs, MoDs and various country representatives about daily goals, EDEN priorities, long-term goals, strategies and political alignments, depending on the person. Some days were more hectic than others - at some days, I'd have new queries in IRC opened up every 5 minutes from morning till night, while sometimes hours passed with little activity. Usually though, every day followed the same formula that I oversaw the daily battles, watched that armies fought where they were supposed to, and at the same time planned the overall strategy for the alliance with other people. Some days there were also summits in which we discussed about various issues that rose up, for example the function of EMC, commonly agreed military campaigns or membership applications. I'd usually get to sleep after European prime time had passed and everyone else had gone to sleep, which was at 14-16 eRepublik time.

Q5: Were you ever unsure if the countries liked you as SC?

A5: Of course I was. You can't be SC without making decisions that are unfavorable to some people. Being SC means you have the Damocles' sword hanging over your head constantly. However, as I was re-elected as SC every time there were elections held, and no country ever called upon a meeting to replace me even though they could have done that, well, I guess that means nobody was pissed at me and approved of my position as SC.

Q6: What do you think separates EDEN from Phoenix?

A6: Different countries, different history behind them, different mindsets. Hard to answer that, really. Well, EDEN has since the beginning been clear about that every country in EDEN is equal, that we are an alliance for all members, not like Phoenix that was clearly a puppet for the few key countries. I might also add that we don't have eUK on our side.

Q7: What is the most important part of EDEN?

A7: The people behind it who continue to work for the common good of the alliance. The people who keep the alliance together, people who get little reward for what they do but who are essential for the alliance to exist. If it wasn't for them, EDEN would have collapsed months ago. An alliance needs people who stay there despite governments and Presidents change, people who set the path for the alliance from month till another, people who see the big picture and not argue about petty issues about which country is more important than the other.

Q8: How would you like to be remembered if you ever stop playing?

A8: I've never cared what people think of me, so that's fairly unessential. If I have to answer though, maybe I'd like to be remembered through the achievements I've had in the game, even though they're temporary and fast to fade away. But then, that's how life is - in real life and eRepublik.

Q9: What is your favorite word and why?

A9: Love. I don't know at all how to rate single words as my favorites or most hated ones, so I thought of Chinese symbols for words and that one popped up.

Q10: What day was the hardest in your eRepublik life?

A10: The day when we lost Rhone Alps and Aquitaine in May 2010. I've been told of the difference living in a small eRepublik country and in large one, how the difference in community size affects you in that larger amount of people either cheer or criticize you. Well, as you can imagine it's quite an experience to sense the collective cheering of an alliance and all its active citizens, but few people have an idea how it feels to feel the collective anger and criticism of 12 countries. It wasn't an easy day I can tell.

Q11: What's the strangest rumor you've heard about yourself?

A11: I was told in IRC once that I keep a midget sex slave who wears a pink tutu and has a pacifier in his mouth. No idea where that comes from (well, I know who said it and it explains it).

Q12: Why did you choose the nickname Avec for your citizen?

A12: Nick Avec comes from my real name, actually. Avec comes from my initials A.V.E., and the 'c' at the end comes from 'casual'. In Finnish Avec also means a 'companion' or 'date', and I liked the double meaning of the nick.

Q13: What is your rl job?

A13: In real life I study physics and mathematics in university. I should graduate in two years, looking forward to that.

EDEN media team,
Minotorious (Journalist)

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