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Hello there readers of the eUK and of the world!
In continuing with theme of articles, I have done an interview with GregoryG (also previously known as Gregory Gallangher and Kulgar) who is a former country president of Hungary and one of the main people in ONE.


Hungary is a landlocked nation in central Europe, bordered by many nations, which has given the country a unique position in the world where they can help their allies quite easily and grab a few resources while they're at it. Hungary hasn't always been in Central Europe though. Back in the good old V1 days, Hungary had possessions in the British Isles (as a result of a training war) and in Far East Asia, where several famous battles to liberate China occurred over the course of the game's history - heilongjiang, commonly named Hellokitty.

Hungary frequently feuds with Romania, although that has since subsided. They currently hold possessions in Ukraine, who is a member of EDEN.

We have been allied with Hungary since just before joining PEACE GC, where we granted them access to the USA and ultimately nearly caused America's first wipe. We have remained allied to them ever since, with both of us facing equally sufferable times, alongside moments of glory.

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Time for le interview with GG!

How are you and how is Hungary?
Well, at the moment I feel pretty comfortable with my position in Hungary and internationally. I had a half year when I was only doing work&train back in 2011 from the beginning of summer and my influence and reputation suffered a serious setback. It has be though back to normal in the last 4-5 months, and now I even have some plans for further advancement. But that’s someting I don’t reveal yet.

As for Hungary herself, we had a few really great presidents the last half year and now we have a stable 8/10 and a pretty strong international position diplomatically. Of course some people want more, they want oil to have 9/10, but they want some serious exciting war at the same time, but being discontent is something a society always has, they’ll find a reason no matter what. But it’s all right I think because it really helps us who presume to rule a country to decide in which direction we should lead - if it is possible.

Give us a brief paragraph about your achievements and experience on this game.
No big surprise here. Naturally I’ll have to say ONE was far the greatest achievement I have. Not the alliance itself, the structure, the new mpp sets, or not even the military successes, but the diplomacy we put behind it. It was a pretty intensive work which lasted for like 4-5 months before we officially founded the alliance in late March 2011. Also being the first and last SG, exspecially that this two term sum up to like 20 weeks probably.

I am pretty proud of a few other things too of course. Including my presidency during February 2011. PTOs I led in the Czech Rep. and Malaysia. The fact the I’ve been in the Hungarian gov for 2 years straight now. Oh and I nearly forgot one of the most important thing, in 2011 march after being banned (http://www.erepublik.com/en/citizen/profile/2498335) during the rebellion I got invited to the secret room of the Hungarian elite, the #bunker.

Having done these things I think I have experience in most fields of the game. But I still learn and I’ll continue to do so until I play eRep.

What is yours and perhaps your nation's view on CTRL?

CTRL is “interesting”. The main reason to found it and the main rhetoric as well was “endless balkan wars”. Oddly enough there was relative peace in Europe the last few months with swaps and a few easy wars going on. The USA insisting that Poland drop her MPPs with SerHun is not only interesting but hilarious, they clearly don’t know either Poland or SerHun.

I personally would have been okey with being pro CTRL but seeing how utterly the USA and Brazil hate Hungary and Serbia made me totally change my mind. Not to mention that they proved that they totally lack any diplomatic skills. I mean: Ultimatums? Seriously? I instantly remembered Emerick’s infamous comment:
“Hail Panam indeed. Today, Brozil beat every country in NWO via Peru. Not long afterward, so did Argentina. And there will be many, many more victories. You know why? Superior foreign policy. Good luck with that small power block.”

Superior foreign policy, a thing they lack now and lacked then apparently.

The Hungarian society doesn’t care for CTRL too much. They are a little paranoid about Poland but our beloved polish continuously prove that they stand on our side.

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Could you ever see yourselves allied with the USA after being on opposite sides for four years?
I could accept them, sure, but only if 1) Serbia is with us and accepts it too 2) They develop an actual skill to diplomacy. I don’t want to be allied with someone with people on the level of kindergarden kids.

Poland used to be a great enemy of Hungary, what do you think made this change possible in 2010 and last year?
It was solely possible because of the real life friendship and bond we have. Exactly because of that the polish govs and leaders were always were open to talk, and were always reasonable and rational. But of course we all had this RL emotional thing to fuel the progress. There was really love in the air back then.

What do you think of the situation between Macedonia and a couple of other ex-ONE allies, such as Poland and Slovenia?
It is horrible. But however sad it is to say they brought this on entirely themselves. They are utterly stubborn, hot-headed, overly emotional. They do have lovely people of course, but it’s really hard to work with them. They bring like 23 people to meetings and talks and spam the channel with 3 different opinions. The saddest thing about Macedonia is that they could have become a country like Serbia instead of becoming one like Bulgaria. They were after all - as we usually say it - raised by Serbia, and Serbia was raised by Hungary, thank God they are - as I see it - very much like Hungary. I don’t want macedonians to mistake me, I like them really much and appreciate their work and help. Also I have met some really great people from there like Drashhh III Makedonski and Andrej M.

Do you think the world could ever achieve the possibility of having three fully functional alliances that oppose each other, such as what CTRL was supposedly founded upon?
No, not really. For short term it might work, for a few months but it the concept has some major flaws. A truly tripolar world would need to have alliance which are all enemy to each other and not even having temporary alliances. It is so because I belive no alliance can be stable or work if they are overwhelmingly stronger (countries will start to fight over bonus regions, and internal problems will surface in the alliance) or much weaker (the govs will look for something new to help them in their struggle) than the opposing side. And obviously if Alliance number 1 and number 2 ally againts alliance number 3 these scenarios I described above will be sure to play out.

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What is your most favourite memory from ONE and ONE HQ?
Hard to say one specific moment. 2011 February was real fun. Kistru, Cerber and me as CPs and having people like StrozeR, vin, Baltazar, Clueless, Durru, AThompson et cetera around was really fun. We talked a lot about RL things as well as erepublik philosophy - alliances, society, power. But on the other hand I really liked ‘12 May and early summer as well and met some great people including you. Now that I think about it, the greatest single moment was probably the siege of Central Hungary ‘11 Feburary 4th. It was the first real test of the NWO idea. Romania was tanking like crazy there. It was still the battle system where only the end of the 2 hour round mattered so it looked kinda hopeless at the 0-4 lead of Romania to push the wall to 50% from 39%. I told the others that we will try anyway. 10 mins before the end of the round Kistru invited me to a room and 500 Serbians were their wearing their military units tag. I thought we’ll see only Serbian avatars at the end of the round but no. I saw mainly Polish avatars and a lot of Spanish as well. And guess what? We won the round and every round after that. I just thought “Yes, this alliance will work”.

What do you think of the United Kingdom?
The UK is a unique country both RL and ingame. Honestly I am pretty anglomaniac in real life, so I have real admiration for both ingame and RL UK. As for the eUK I noticed something early on. You have a lot of great experts and intellectuals for your population. It’s something that puts you far above countries your size. Honorable, Patient, Rational would be the next three things that come up in my mind. I always thought that small countries are the bane of alliances, but this is certainly not true about the United Kingdom. Man, now that I think about it I realized I love the UK so much it’s hard to put it into words.

Are there any people on eRepublik that you admire and respect who are not necessarly on our side (EDEN)?
Well alpho certainly. I met him RL once when he came to an Hungarian RL gathering in the city where I study. He is a really cool guy, we talked a lot about eRep as well as real life and also got fairly drunk. I see him as a really open minded and helpful person

Any favourite people on eRepublik?
A lot. For sure I’ll forget somebody so it’s hard to even start. As for Hungarians for sure I love my friends from the #bunker (the room of Hungarian elite I mentioned before). As for non-Huns I highlight Kistru and StrozeR. I skyped with Kistru a few times and StrozeR ( and vin ) in fact were furious and shocked that I was not at the International meeting in Budapest. I still speak with both of the on facebook time to time even so that Kistru completely stoped playing and StrozeR isn’t really active either.

Aside from Hungary, do you have a favourite eRepublik nation?
Poland, Serbia and the UK. I can’t imagine not being allies with these three.

=== INTERMISSION #3 ===

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What has been your favourite moment on eRepublik ever?
The siege of Liaoning when the battle lasted for like 25 hours, two daychange. Eden was tanking like crazy and Serbia ( and Hungary as well ) was kinda running out of gold and money, when we realized we will not be able to secure the region before daychange we though we will surely lose because Eden will be able to resupply their tanks and they can do another full-tank. In the end it turned out that the Eden HQ was shocked that they could not win and there was total chaos and they couldn’t decide whether to tank more after daychange or not. It was a huge victory for us.

Favourite place in the UK in real life?
I’ve only been in London, there by far my favourite was the Millennium bridge. The view from it’s southern end with the St. Pauls dome in the background is magnificent.

As for places I would love to visit, the isles to the west-southwest of Land’s End - Isles of Scilly they are called I believe - seem to be a great place.

Favourite colour?
Green I think. The colour of the nature.

Best flavour of cheesecake?
I’ve never eaten cheesecake. I probably should try though.

(Editor's note: Someone buy this lad a cheesecake, please)

Tea or Coffee?
Coffee. Strong coffee, with lots of caffeine. But an English friend of mine made black tea with milk for me and it was great.

Any final comments?
CoT is PEACE GC come again.

Also thanks for having me.

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If you wish to have a tl;dr version then read this:

tl;dr: GregoryG does not do "short".

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Thank you for reading!
Thomas765
- Someone who loves cheesecake... lots

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Recommended reads in the UK media
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[Tup family] Free weapons to our soldiers! by Sigfred Zachariasen
How to get along by Lord Lewis Cromwell

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