It's Closing Time

Day 1,313, 16:22 • Published in USA USA • by Blank Keating
I'm not quitting by any means - I'm indicating issues with a "new generation" of domestic and recruitment issues. Sorry for the confusion 😛

There's been a lot of talk lately about the game dying. Some people disagree (mainly ONE and newer players), but it's true. For those of you saying "no shit", you can probably skip this article. For you newbies - those of you that exist out there - and naysayers, I'll explain why I say this.

The war module has at long last been broken.


Oh shit.

Everything else has been broken over time - strategy, media, ads, parties, and so forth. The admin broke these to focus more on the war module, which makes most - if not all - of it's money. Annoying but understandable, the war module has always had a way to "right" itself. As in, when it leaned one way, it would naturally balance itself out in the end. Anyone who's familiar with history before the last six months knows this.

A country gets invaded by a stronger force, that country recruits harder, gets newbies, and eventually fights back. They go back and forth until, once a year, alliances split and reform. Then we do it all over again.



Somewhere down the line over the last couple months, that changed. Recruitment is dead. Newbies don't play anymore, and the few that do leave early thanks to admin interventionism and player negativity. Can you blame them? There's way more exciting things to do than try to crowbar your way into our society here while you're in a media-dominant country like the U.S., Japan, or France. The few that do stick around aren't loud or strong enough to make a difference anyway.


In all of these entertainment possibilities, eRepublik is the equivalent of debating philosophy with a hobo in one of these many fine alleys. And then cold selling magazine subscriptions for him.

Even ONE isn't growing, it's shrinking. They're just shrinking slower than the other side. Player counts dropped under 200,000 this month, less than 40% of what it was in V1. The admins even created a new home screen to hide this fact. TERRA will eventually break apart or be completely overrun, losing most of their players. Then ONE will probably turn on it's vassal states, then on each other, and continue to divide until there's nothing but the remnants of one country in a sea of cartridge casings and empty gold boxes, weeping at their lack of worlds to conquer.

There are things that can mitigate the game dying, like if a big ONE country decides to switch sides, or TERRA and EDEN decide to merge. But really, as long as new blood isn't pumping into the game, it's only a matter of time before the game dies completely.

The only one that can stop it is the admins, and it's probably not going to happen. eRepublik Labs is working on a Facebook app, presumably in the style of this game, which will probably bring in more money and less bandwidth troubles than anything here.

Now that that's been said...



I never like to write an article that's 100% negative, and this one has been incredibly bleak. So here's your happy times:

Dear Admins,

Thanks for all the cool people and insufferable assholes you've allowed us to meet.

Thanks for all the fun battles that were hosted here before you ruined them.

Thanks for distracting Pizza the Hut from pushing his agenda in real life for three years.

Thanks for all the alliances, breakups, useless drama, and nationalist fantasies you've allowed us to play out.

Thanks for making a game that was truly first in class...or at least a game that you could let us make first in class for a while.

And lastly, thanks for the forfeit point you'll inevitably be giving me for this article.

Thanks for the memories, eRepublik. This one's for you: