Interview with George Lemnaru CoFounder of eRepublik

Day 1,228, 10:41 • Published in Greece United Kingdom • by moomoohead


I recently had the pleasure of askng George Lemnaru some questions on the bussines of eRepublik, his playing experience, and what is new. George is the CoFounder of eRepublik and the chief operating officier, in addition to being a citizen of the game.

Business
In your eyes, what is the main problem with eRepublik at the moment, what is right with eRepublik?
I think there are many advantages that eRepublik has: an original and interesting concept, a very determined and hard-working team and, most of all, a community that loves the concept.
As disadvantages we can talk first of all about a too big product that causes difficulties in administrating and improving it. Good news is that in the past months we started to overcome this.


All business have key performance indicators (KPI) that management use to measure how they are doing against there goals. What is the number one KPI you look at as COO to tell if eRepublik had a good week/month, total citizens, page views, gold bought, citizen retention, customer service feedback or another?
We are following all those values on a weekly basis. Still, the acquisition and virality is something that we haven’t focused too much in the previous months. And that’s because we felt that there is more to improve at the product. Still, even if we haven’t focused on that, the number of Daily Active Users doubled since 6 months ago.


How has player activity changed in the last year?
Like a roller coaster. Rising launch affected player’s activity but we managed to fully get back in the previous months as we adopted a completely different mindset in product administration.


The one thing that keeps me coming back is the social aspect of the game, watching people forget it is a game and take it too seriously can be entertaining. What is the funniest message you ever got about the game a long these lines?
Marriage proposals from other guys.


Your playing experience
Taking your Co founder hat off and answering the question as someone who enjoys playing the game. What is your favourite aspect of the game and least favourite?
I love the new shouts system, it keeps me close to my friends. I hate Battle Hero Medal but this only because I’m frustrating for not managing to get it.


You have a newspaper and no articles, if you were going to write an article what would it be about?
It would be about country strategic decisions (military, economy, politics,...) but for that I will have to be involved in politics. And at the moment I am focusing only on Military and Economy.

Do you ever go on the IRC?
No.


Now if I was the COO of eRepublik I know I would be tempted to hit the magic button and suddly donate a million gold to myself and have a bit of fun. Have you ever been tempted?
The moment when you can cheat in a game is the moment when you kill all the fun of that game for you.
Lately I am playing as a regular user and in the past months I even used my RL savings to get more gold… damn you Battle Hero Medal!


I noticed in game you are a part of Plato’s small militia, How is Plato as a military commander, does he boss you around much, is he pretty quick with the orders and supplies?
He is frustrated for lack of options in the Military Units feature.




Being the eRepublik COO makes you sort of an eGod, have you ever been tempted to just make a citizen vanish before (I got a few names if you want them)?
Personally, I’am not a fan of religion so calling myself an eGod is not something that I do. Also, I don’t ban people.



What is new?
Where do you see eRepublik in 1 year?
I don’t want to think so far away. Our goal is to make eRepublik better next week, and the following week, and so on.


As a silver member of your new loyalty program I noticed that I will be able to purchase unique gifts with LP. How about a quick sneak peak, what will we be able to get with them?
When you’re making a present to your girlfriend the best way to do it is to act like you forgot about her birthday and then surprise her with a really nice thing. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. 🙂


What happened to in game adverts, will they come back?
We will not get them back. Still, we will find a solution for the Parties to use the gold in their accounts.


Talk to any experienced player in the game and the one thing that is hated most is cheaters. Z.Bot, what are you doing to stop this?
Our legal department is working at the Z-Bot case.


Thank you george for anwsering the questions, I look forward to reading the comments. Please Vote, shout this article, and subscribe.