An Interview with CybeRNerO

Day 830, 05:54 • Published in Greece Canada • by Buck Roger
http://static.erepublik.com/uploads/avatars/Citizens/2009/03/18/307dc514d80aea3be283e023164d36cb.jpg" width="150" height="150">

The art of the interview must never be lost, in eRepublik and in eGreece, as it is one of the more genuine forms of presentation and dialogue available to a newspaper, where otherwise the author has complete control over the presentation. One of my favorite articles... a real blast from the past... was when I was interviewed months and months ago.

I became interested in interviewing CybeRNerO when I learned that the EDA have been considering placing him as a candidate for President, as I have been considering and discussing within our own party what we will do for elections. I have known CybeRNerO for a while but have never sat down with him to get to know him better and help the public do the same. So with a glass of Frappe in hand, CybeRNerO agreed to answer some of my questions.

Buck Roger: Where should I begin? Tell me about yourself.

CybeRNerO: First of all, I am a Greek in RL. I was born on eRepublik day 484. My birthplace was Attica, which was under Turkish occupation. I contacted Efthimios Pappas, the president of eGreece at that time, and got in Thrace to help the newly formed Greek community. After a couple of days, i started getting to know the rest of the Greek citizens, who by that time, there were no more than 60-70 active. I was very frustrated by the fact that eGreece was occupied, and that made me stick to the game. After a couple of weeks i was officially an addict, a genuine erep-holic.

Buck Roger: Greece is no longer fighting for its liberation and restoration of its original 10 regions, as it achieved that in 2009, and it was indeed something that kept people interested in staying in Greece and fighting for it. How do you suggest we keep Greeks interested in staying in the game today?

CybeRNerO: eRepublik is not just a game of war. It is a game of politics, economy, AND war. You can use any of these aspects in any combination, to make your country stronger. No nation has made it to the top ratings using only one of these aspects. A good combination of them is the key to success! Erepublik is also a social game. You make friends, you take part in debates, you can join army units, and anything you do is based on interaction between citizens. The eGreece community has so far made a fatal mistake of assuming eRepublik as a war game only, and that way we miss the best part of it... socializing.

Buck Roger: And how do we increase the quality of the socializing aspect of eRepublik in Greece?

CybeRNerO: As as I said above, eRepublik is politics, economy/trade and war. People are joining army units to be able to socialize through battles. Team up and achieve a bigger overall damage. People are teaming up in parties to also achieve better results in elections. So far I haven't seen any serious attempt to form an economical and trade team (although there is an initiative from eGreek citizens in an IRC channel). There are endless ways to increase socializing. We just have to focus on finding new ways. We could expand the community with events outside erepublik or maybe use the national forums like the eUK and the eUS do.

Buck Roger: Our national forum is unused by most Greeks and promoted as a necessity for congress but not for citizens. Meanwhile, the site erepubilk.gr is trying to pick up steam. We have a national chat in eRepublik, mostly unused, and an IRC channel also. Despite all this, it seems everything gets done only in the press!

CybeRNerO: Exactly. During my term in the Ministry of Finance, we decided to use a chatroom under the Ministry of New Players, to help new citizens (since when a new citizen comes to erepublik he is encouraged to join the National Forum). I don't think that the chat system is convenient enough for socializing but the IRC chatrooms are keeping us connected pretty well, and I encourage any eGreek citizen to join our national IRC chatroom in his spare time.
As for the forums, I believe we must make it a place where every citizen will tend to receive information.
And lastly www.erepublik.gr is in the beginning, and I believe we can expect more things to come from it (at this point we should all acknowledge the voluntary work of Andreas Bo and all the people that have contributed with their articles).

Buck Roger: Tell me more about your work in the Ministry of Finance.

CybeRNerO: During my term as a Minister of Finance, I tried to reserve as many gold as I could, so the eGreece government could have a deposit that would ensure we could provide sufficient financial support to the army if we were being invaded.
Also, during my term, we tried to find a formula, to support private armies, without the treasury being charged heavily.
But to be honest, I didn't see a warm reception of the program, from all Greek private armies.
In any case I couldn't have done anything without the valuable support of Moican, who has done remarkable work during his terms! He was there to help me in any inquiry I had, and I have to thank him for being so helpful.

Buck Roger: How did you first get involved with Greek government?

CybeRNerO: My first involvement with politics, officially was when I elected a congressman in July 2009. Since then I have been elected a congressman four more times. My first involvement with government was in Myrfalas' government cabinet where I undertook the Ministry of Finance. I thought that I was ready to have a responsibility from a government position, although I didn't expect to be asked to man the government. The reason that I accepted was that Myrfalas was -from my perception- falsely accused of state capital theft as a Minister of Defense during Salonikiosss' government. I considered that I was obliged to support him, because I could see the difficulties he would encounter during his term, being simultaneously unfairly charged.

Buck Roger: Tell me more about these accusations. I saw them in the press a bit but never fully understood what happened. Did it ever get resolved?

CybeRNerO: There were two articles showing some monetary offers from Myrfalas that were a bit weird. If you were suspicious enough you could say that there were there for moving money without trace. But those offers could not compose theft by themselves. In addition, the time given to Myrfalas to answer to those accusations was very short, and it was politically incorrect.
You can't just accuse someone running for president the day of elections, while you haven't give him time to answer to those accusations. From my point of view, this was a political frame up.

Buck Roger: Those offers were on Myrfalas' citizen account?

CybeRNerO: They were made by Myrfalas' account, but the truth is that this is way most General Managers do to transfer money from companies without paying taxes. It's a common practice I would say, although I never used it for my companies.
Being a President doesn't mean you should stop working your companies, right?

Buck Roger: Just one more about this, not to belabor the point... but who were the accusers, and what effect did this have on our political scene?

CybeRNerO: I wouldn't like to name the people involved to this, but it is a fact that one of them was member of the current president's cabinet. The effect in our political scene is that the trust to the following governments from citizens, would not be granted easily. I think we all play this game for fun. We are not politicians; we just play the role of politicians. It is just a game, and I don't think we should bring all the problems and perceptions of real life into it.

Hot girl interlude...


Buck Roger: Obviously you are in a party that describes itself as Center-left. How does this affect the way you approach eRepublik's politics? The avoidance of real-life political concerns is of course a cornerstone of GIP, which maintains "Center" as a sort of "decline to state."

CybeRNerO: I am a member of EDA since the creation of it. I have been its president, during which I tried to abolish any RL connection from eRepublik politics. As I already mentioned, bringing RL issues on our politics makes this game a poor copy of our routine life. eRepublik should be a way to escape routine. It should be a way to have fun in an alternative virtual reality. I know people that would never vote a far-right or far-left party in RL but they are members of one of these on eRepublik (not in eGreece though). But I am sure most people are affected by RL political beliefs, and try to apply it to the game mechanics.
This is not neccesarily a bad thing, but we should never forget we are bound by the game mechanics, we are bound to the "alternative reality". Any effort to bring an exact copy of real life political ideologies to the game is doomed.

Buck Roger: Yes, and the opposite can happen too. People who think a more socialized system is best for protecting people in real life can realize that everyone's basic needs are met already when they come to play a game or that the market's extreme commoditization precludes a mirror of the real economy and, thus, that the same ideas don't translate. On the other hand, a person who values liberty and small government in real life highly can see the value of higher taxes and economic constraints in what is essentially a game of competition on the country level more than the individual level, in which it becomes more of a game of cooperation.

Buck Roger: And what do you see as the way for the Greek government to navigate this alternative reality?

CybeRNerO: First of all, try to persuade citizens, to act like eRepublik citizens and not like RL citizens. You cannot oblige anyone to comply with the government's directives.. But we could prepare a declaration of common accepted principles, like a code of ethics, or even a National Constitution. This way the community can condemn the "infringers", and everyone who would thinκ on overlooking these "non-binding" rules, could face the depreciation of the community.

Buck Roger: What would this code achieve?

CybeRNerO: It could achieve what eGreece has lost the last months... Political stability, decent dialogue and most of all, unity!

Buck Roger: What matters of concern would it address?

CybeRNerO: The lack of quality content in newspapers, the avoidance of political misguidance and malicious propaganda, and most of all the undignified debates.

Buck Roger: So it would be intended for all Greeks and not just government?

CybeRNerO: All eGreeks, yes, but the government members should have more strict rules since they should give the example to the citizens.

Buck Roger: What kind of rules?

CybeRNerO: The rules should be put in a public debate, because there are a lot of matters that we must attend to solve, which can't be mentioned in an interview.

Buck Roger: Obviously something in which many would be interested, if it came to pass. Moving on... you told me at one point that you were involved in drafting the ceasefire when most of Turey was IP blocked?

CybeRNerO: Yes, I believe this was a major victory of Greek diplomacy during the government of Myrfalas.
When I heard about the IP block on the major Turkish ISP, I contacted Burakkocamis, eTurkey's MoFA, who I had been known for a while, and asked him to tell me their situation. I do believe in fair play, since we don't have anything to lose or gain, except our honor. Then I talked with the President and the rest of the Cabinet, about declaring a cease fire agreement with Turkish Government. Greeks are known for honorable acts on the battlefield. This is only option if we want to show the world that we do like fair play.
This action received positive criticism from most nations and especially our enemies, and no doubt this means a lot.
I believe it has reinitiated diplomatic talks between the two governments, which were discontinued long ago!

Buck Roger: Is there anything else you'd like to add to this interview?

CybeRNerO: No, I want to leave some space for the comments. 😛