Coming Up, Looking Down

Day 2,254, 10:11 • Published in Canada Canada • by Alias Vision

Apologies in advance... this is a bit rambling, a bit scattered. It doesn't really fit in one category as it partially social interaction and fun, partial war, partial politics... all mixed up.

When you accept to play a game (emphasis on play), you accept to use certain mechanics and obey certain rules.

If you circumvent the mechanics or break rules then you are no longer playing and in fact may be cheating.

The whole point of games is to win within certain parameters. Don't care for those parameters? What is the point? Why put in the effort and work at cross-purposes with those that choose to operate within the given environment?



Some games have very rigid mechanics and rules. Others provide only frameworks in which players are invited to contribute their own. Not so much mechanics but rules.

Now looking at eRepublik, we are dealing with (in this evolved version) a sandbox type game where the mechanics are streamlined and made as simple as possible to support one overarching module. The war module.

The raison d'être of this game pretty much starts and ends with war. Motivation comes solely from the availability of wars and the potential to wage them.

What do we do in between wars to stay interested in this sandbox environment? We create rules and structures outside of the framework provided by the mechanics. What is generally labelled as role play.

I do have a point with all this and the point is the following... the game does not offer enough richness of experience where mechanics alone or role play alone can sustain play and fun. One needs the other, especially in smaller communities. Now admittedly mechanics can trump role play and stand on its own, it is the nature of having something hard coded vs. governed by ethics and shared experiences.

It is ok for mechanics to trump everything else.

It is ok for role play to stand on its own.

It is not ok when one is made to confront the other.

There is a little object lesson for Canada in all this. The war with the UK is ultimately the result of an unnecessary and destructive escalation between players that think only mechanics govern this game and those that believe role play has an impact. Not because mechanics were made to rule the day but because decisions were made solely on the basis of opposing certain rules, conventions and frameworks that operate outside the game proper. It wasn't necessary. Both sides can co-exist, in fact need each other.

The nice things about player added content is that you can ignore the parts you don't like without altering you ability to play.

With one exception... diplomacy.



Diplomacy has a component present in the mechanics but it is all role play.

"Diplomacy has always involved dinners with ruling elites, backroom deals and clandestine meetings."

What Canada needs right now is for its mechanic faction to keep pressing those buttons while the other side lights the candles on those dinners. This needs to be done in a coordinated fashion to pull us out of this mess of our own making.

Canada has had victories on the battlefield but on that other stage, the international diplomatic stage, not so much.

Look at the UK and the influence bloc they have built and keep adding to. That is a triumph of diplomatic minds over mechanic wealth. It puts them in a position of power and influence.

What we see now is not the final version of what their alliance structure will look like but it is an awfully good start.

Glance over at Canada and you don't see as much flexibility and potential. What is there is excellent but will not compete with our neighbours.

The single greatest cause of attrition is when things feel pointless. Unless Canada gives itself a few more cards in the deck, it will start feeling pointless awfully fast and that is a spiral that is brutally hard to exit from.

Every player should spend some time in their country of choice, in a superpower and a permanently or semi-permanent occupied country. It would give you some good insight and drive home the need to work as a team and use all the tools at your disposal to be successful and have worthwhile experiences.

I don't mind if we lose to Poland, Spain and the UK, by attacking we had it coming. I'm ready to deal with that.

I do mind us not doing anything about it. I mind sitting on our hands and wait for this to come to pass. I don't like passive gamesmanship, we need to start making things happen.