Goodbye, I Don't Know What Else To Call This

Day 979, 12:15 • Published in USA USA • by NeilP99

I first started playing eRepublik on September 19th, 2008. It was day 304 of the New World, it was Beta, and it was boring. I clicked a few things, worked, trained, and logged out. To be honest, I don’t remember if I logged in the next day. I remember writing a newspaper article at some point saying that I was going to try to get the story behind the story of politics in Springfield (For those of you who never saw Beta, we had cities then, the capital of each region, and they had mayors who acted more like the American concept of a Governor). It was a typical noob article, and I doubt it got more than 5 votes, and I remember most of the comments being negative. Over the almost 2 years that have passed since then I’ve done many things in this game, and I’ve enjoyed playing it a great deal. I’ve been involved in the government, the military, and the media. I’ve traveled to countries that are friendly, neutral, and enemy toward the eUS. I’ve made a great deal of friends. That last one is the one that kept me playing for this long. At some point we all know that we’re going to quit this game. To some extent this may be that for me.

Since the change over the V2, and to some extent before it, I’ve lost interest in eRepublik. The politics of the eUS bore me, and I’m not really willing to start over somewhere new. I’ve taken myself out of the game largely. I used to be able to tell you who the President was, who most of Congress was, who was in charge of the branches of the military, who some of the up and coming writers were, and what battles would probably be opening soon. Now I can’t do any of that. It’s because I just don’t care like I used to. NeilP99 has reached a dead end, and the character has become useless to me. He has become especially useless since V2 started, because bugs now prevent me from working, training, fighting, and from doing much of anything else. I think this is the straw that broke the camel’s back. The game was getting old for me as it was, and if it’s not even going to work for me now, there’s no reason to keep playing. Therefore, I’m leaving. NeilP99 is going to eDie.

Before I do I would like to thank some people. I have no doubt that I’m forgetting many, many others, but I’m going to do my best to mention those who made the biggest difference on me. First and foremost I want to thank the active members of the UIP, every one of them who has been in the party since I joined. It may sound like political recruiting, but the honest truth is that they are some of the best people I’ve run into in this game. They’ve made it endlessly more fun for me, and without a doubt they’ve supported me in ways I never could have dreamed of. I would especially like to thank Kazeal. You’ve been one of my best friends in this game, and I don’t think you get nearly enough credit for everything you do for the eUS. I would like to thank Oceanus. Despite the fact that we’ve spent very little time in the same country you’ve always tried to help me out, and support me in my efforts. I’d like to thank Kyle321n. You’re more of a national star than I could ever have hoped to be, but you always stood by me. You also gave me chances that people will probably never know about, but meant a great deal to me. Lastly, and probably most importantly, I’d like to thank Tiacha. That sexy librarian took me under her wing when I was a complete nobody and encouraged me to accomplish a great deal. I have no doubt that without her friendly comments on some of my earliest articles I would have quit this game long ago. As I said, I know there are many others that I’m not mentioning. It’s at least a little bit because if I mentioned everyone this article would be way too long for people to read. But the honest truth is that I do remember the vast majority of people who helped me, and I appreciate each and every one of them. I'd also like to thank all of my eFriends who eDied before this article. Watching the people you're friends with quit the game is one of the harder things to do in eRepublik, and there are more than a few people I wish were still playing.

eRepublik is an amazing game, not because of any of the mechanical elements of the game, but because it gives us a chance to meet so many people what we otherwise never would have. People from countries that most of us will never visit and people from just across town who we never would have seen. This personal interaction is what makes this game great, and we should never forget that or what that says about real life. NeilP99 will be no more before long, but the person behind the character may never forget what happened in this game. Which is a lot to say about a game. Truth be told, I’ll probably be back, though not in this form. I suspect that when some time has passed and the bugs of V2 have been worked out I’ll start all over again, as a new citizen, perhaps in a new country, and with a new story to write. If that time comes don’t be surprised if many of you get friend requests and PMs from a new name and avatar, but the same NeilP99 behind the mask. So goodbye, for now at least, and maybe I’ll see you all in time. Either way, I wish you all the best of luck in real life.