A new rebellion? - Interview with depici

Day 1,280, 03:16 • Published in Germany Germany • by Iseutz

A new rebellion?

Hi everybody,

first of all - I'm rl german. Therefore my English may cause eye cancer, heart attacks or restless face-palm syndrome. Just stay cool and take note of the content. Nothing else matters.



*wall of text warning* Now forward to the actual article:

Hi depici. Some readers already know you, because you are an iNCi leader, busy tank and active US politician. Others might have seen the name above your recent article for the first time, where you call for international cooperation ‘to unite and brainstorm, to solve the problems of the game’.
What was the triggering event that drove you into this new approach?

Hi there, English is not also my mother tongue, sorry for the mistakes in advance. First i can tell you i was not active in US politics. My presidency in INCI was the most neutral time, rather making politics we focused on creating an army and economical foundation. I also tried hard to keep the group together. I spent lots of money on this game, and i always waited them to fix it somehow. I was never satisfied but i gave them credit and kept buying gold.

After the recent developments, when i compare it with the old times, only think i see is unsatisfied citizens. There are around 30-40 tanks playing the game and the rest are like useless puppets. There is no meaning to make baby booms. One one can make more damage then one army. This is not an eRepublik we would like.

The first ‘rebellion’ was a huge fail at the end. Some guys tried to create a multi-national movement of players to accumulate enough ‘power’ to confront the administrations and compel them to change the game to be more ‘fair and balanced’. Later, when the project died relatively quickly and silently, many people said, the leaders were only a bunch of clueless morons on an ego-trip (or worse).
Is there a difference between them and you? And to be even more blunt - do you only try to manipulate the always easily excitable crowd to support a personal crusade?

What a question. You are a true journalist 😃

First of all i need to tell you that i was planning to quit the game but then my friends worldwide told me not to leave. I decided to hang around a bit more as an neutral citizen, and look around what i can do for the people. I can just tell you that i did not organize anything for this rebellion. I wrote an article, it got 5500 votes in 20 hours. Admin deleted it and gave me a forfeit point. When i see that so many people are supporting me and declaring that they are not satisfied during admin is trying to censor me. I understand that i need to raise my voice.

I am going to be offline very soon if i don’t get banned. If people unite and raise their voice all together, they must unite and fight for their wishes.

Whenever users tried to establish some sort of organized resistance against changes or new features, we could observe how the admins used their abilities to distract, divide and discourage. In combination with the generally small attention span of the common player as well as the lack of endurance of the stronger addicted, it seems impossible to influence the administration by the force of mass movements. For example: When there was a worldwide ceasefire, they implemented the natural enemy rule and soon we saw the world back on track, because ‘the citizens demanded it’ (as the CPs hastily claimed).
Do you think, this time something will be different? Aren’t there other options to influence the admins?

I really don't know, it all depends on how people gonna act. I am not aiming to be a worldwide hero and fight myself. I made an invitation, people who are dissatisfied can stick with us and we can try it for the good of the citizens.

We need to be smart and should not fooled by candy bars 😃

I guess it would be nice, if we create something like ''council of citizens'' and every country president send a citizen there that they trust to take care of the benefits of the e-world, not only their country. If we go smart and keep in mind that it is just a game, we can change lots of things. Maybe these are dreams, but its my thoughts.

Let me put me my devils advocate role one gear up. We all have deliberately decided to play the game, despite the obvious flaws and the odd administration. During all the changes in the last 12 months, the role of non-paying players has been changed from ‘being active part of a mutual entertainment’ to ‘being semi-autonomous accessories’ (to give the paying players reasons to spend their money). And still we keep on playing.
Why do you think it makes any sense to fight against the business-driven administration instead of simply leaving the game?

Yes it is. Especially for the ones who never paid. I paid a lot for this game. I am planning to quit it at least for a while, i just wanted to make something good for the community. I would like to write more things here but i do not want this article also be deleted 😃

4 or 5 articles about this topic is deleted up to now :/

In your interesting open letter, you list many issues, which are bothering you and even made you stop buying gold. Most of the bullet points are about some sort of money problems.
Now, with all my sincere respect - how can you, as someone who has spent much (?) rl money, speak for a vast majority of players who has never spent a single buck? Why should a poor devil like me even care for some rich man’s problems? Problems, which development you supported yourself in the first place, by spending much money...

This is something private but i will answer it. I am coming from a wealthy family that's why i can buy gold as much as i like. I was never satisfied but i gave them credit and kept buying gold. As i said before i spent lots of money on this game, and i always waited them to fix it somehow. Also I am a political scientist 😁. That's why this game attracted my attention. I have made a lot of experiences here. And I am a rl libertarian socialist and i hate myself a bit, because of investing so much here, but this game is my topic so i still don’t see as a waste of money.

Despite these facts, i never wanted to be a speaker or a leader of a rebellion. And i didn’t persuaded the other players to follow me - their anger and frustration were already there. I just tried to honestly articulate my opinion and once again it is obvious, that many players have similar thoughts.

And i am aware, that every paying customer is a part of the problem. So was i. That's why i have decided not to spend more money. But of course everyone has to decide for himself.

In the end of the open letter, you refer to the freedom of speech. I think we all have witnessed, how the drastically the communication aspect in the game was destroyed. Theoretically a mass multi player game like eRepublik should do anything possible to support the communication between players and their nations. The newspapers were some sort of a secondary battlefield, were funny articles, serious information and propaganda added entertainment to the daily click-routine. But also it was used to express criticism about the game with a literally global audience, what might have been the reason for the now fragmented media module.
Isn’t it a blatant disservice to demonstrate to the administration by another uprising AGAIN, why they should stick to their oppressive methods?

They don't want us to raise our voice. That is it! ‘Keep the society quiet with censorship and just look for the money’ looks like the main objective of the administration. To be silent is not an option, when you are confronted with censorship.

Depici, I thank you for the patience and the strength to answer my (maybe challenging) questions.
Thank you very much for your time and questions.
Last thing i like to add,
cCc in ci we trust cCc



Although i have an nuanced opinion about all the issues i will keep it to myself, because I'm not here to lecture anyone. But i hope, we could support every one's thought process.
Best regards,
Iseutz