eRepublik and the Search for Meaning

Day 919, 08:02 • Published in Greece Canada • by Buck Roger

(Looks a lot more fun than a fight button... whatever it is...)

Twenty days ago, I was asking to die, to leave eRepublik behind... at least for more than twenty days. I failed. Now I am sitting here typing, trying to make sense of my existence, much in the same way as a confused suicidal who has already been placed in an ambulance. What am I doing here?

The quick answer is that I made the decision that the party that I worked hard to build up, the Greek Independence Party, most likely needed some help to prevent pto candidates from taking spots on the congress candidate roster. But that crisis has passed, and the general question remains. Why do I play eRepublik? Why does anyone?

I am reminded of an influential article by PigInZen, The Game is Eternal ... who himself references another article by another eUSA president of times gone by role play vs. game play by scrabman.

Basically, scrabman defined the old school game mechanics view, by which we exist in order to min-max our economic and military advantages, both as individuals and as nations, whereas PigInZen wanted to temper this with a return to some of the silliness that actually keeps people engaged in the game. Where do I stand?

The Options for Button Pushing are Limited

Plato will tell you to work and train everyday. The news media will exhort you to fight in certain battles and to follow prescribed advice for maintaining high wellness. For 95% of the players within eRepublik, these are their buttons. For the remaining 5%, they have consigned themselves to organizing politics, the military, or citizen outreach... poor sods.

If someone told you that there was a cool game out that allowed you to press two buttons every day and to press one button five times a day, and the side who pressed that one button harder won... would you play it? Sounds like a terrible game to me.

The Options for Pushing Pencils are Endless

There has only ever been one route for me, within eRepublik, for true enjoyment and meaningful interaction, and that has been through the articles of my newspaper. Everything else has been a chore (or worse).

However, not everyone is going to write the same types of articles that I write. Not everyone is even going to use their newspaper as the primary means of creative outlet.

But everyone who is not already in love with the min-max-ing, multi-making (have to say it), resource-mongering aspect of the game... should consider playing it another way.

Roleplay is What You Do When Your Toys are Taken Away

No game is more universal or in less need of equipment than roleplay... from cops and robbers, to playing house, to dramatic silliness, everyone has participated on some level and found it fun.

No environment is better for roleplay than the one in which as many buttons and doodads are taken away as possible, indeed! The more of these there are, the more distraction is created, until the conversation is dominated entirely by 'which button do I press now?'

The buttons in eRepublik can be learned entirely in a half hour, leaving the rest of your eLife looking for something else to stimulate your brain. Is developing your character (more than just talking to Lana) something that can keep things worthwhile?



'We Stay Because of the Community!'TM

I have heard this so many times, and have felt it so many times, that it must be true. The reason most of us are tethered to the game is the presence of certain other people who are also here.

This suggests, then, that we should spend most of our time here in interaction with the community, or at least those parts of it with whom we have fun interacting... assuming we want to have fun.

If It's Not Fun, You'll Stop Doing It

I have always known this to be true, and it is both the reason why I initially left Greece and then left the game for a while. The way I was playing the game was not very fun. (In the second case, the way I was playing the game was also hazardous to my good standing with the powers that be...)

The only conclusion is that the way to save the game, if you are not having fun just pressing two buttons every day and one button five times to fight... is to make fun in collaboration with your community, by interacting in fun ways.

The word 'roleplay' should not scare us off. It means only that we are not attempting to be carbon copies of our real-life selves. This article Roleplay versus... Roleplay calls such 'characters' Mary Sues, as they attempt to become paragons of their ideals and virtues and, by extension, to impose them on everyone else.

This is a virtual environment. Nobody is actually hurting at low wellness. Nothing of value is lost if GOLD evaporates into nothing. The only history we are making is the history of our virtual world.

Let us wish we live in interesting times.