Results of survey about "Women view on eRepublik"

Day 1,302, 14:08 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by Sotar Glas


tl; dr version:

Don't read. It is boring. 🙂

Hello there o/ (A quite original begin :/)

Following the recent changes in economy module, I doubt if this game is still a strategy game and it worths playing. In addition to these changes, forum is also closed. At first it was understandable due to increased request in resources but now it only seems to be for censorship purposes.

Due to this and some personal reasons, I already decided to lay low for a long while (more like keeping a prying eye on eRep) and wouldn't publish this article but I have to do as I promised to several participants.

Although I was intending to ask female friends I know and maybe few other well known ones, I admit that it is gotten out of hand. 🙂 But the problem is I had created a Google Docs form which is not really friendly for collecting survey data and can't say this survey is a super professional one.

In order to ensure validity of data as much as possible, I only reached women named (referred) by another woman in survey. I PMed over 300 citizens and got 162 response in return. (Good news is PM module of game works 🙂 for now :/)

Some of people I PMed kindly stated that they are not female, though still there may be some filling survey I expect female presence over 95%.

162 out of over 300 (approx 50😵 may seem a good ratio but later discovered that some women thought it was a joke (or a phishing attempt) and not replied. There are also some having privacy concerns which I respected. And some people reacting not-so-nice 🙂 thinking that I have affiliation with eRep which led me to add a notice to state that I am definitely not.

Although I did my best to balance participants especially in country terms, unfortunately there are lack of 'samples' in some countries like Croatia and Hungary having only one participant each. This is mostly due to preference to find new women (ie asking in survey) which led people to refer other people from same demographics.

I will first state demographics data below for your review.

Playing time



Playing time of participants are as
4 for 1-3 months, 15 for 3-6 months, 31 for Less than a year, 72 for Less than 2 years and 40 for Over 2 years

Demographics seems to conform to and reflect of the main problem of eRep which is lack of newcomers. Please also keep in mind that Macedonia (FYROM) is a fairly new country and had a babyboom, otherwise it could be even worse.

Age



Ages of participants are as
13 for 15-17, 23 for 18-20, 47 for 20-25, 38 for 25-30 and 41 for Over 30.

Roughly half of participants are over 25 and it is 29% for 20-25. I think it wouldn't be wrong to say that eRep is not a popular choice among teenage girls unlike teenage boys.

RL Country


Graphic showing top 15 countries

RL Countries of participants are as

USA - 21, Macedonia (FYROM) - 18, Serbia - 14, Romania - 11, France - 11, Argentina - 11, Poland - 8, Greece - 8, Indonesia - 7, Brazil - 7, Turkey - 6, South Africa - 4, Germany - 4, Canada - 4, Portugal - 3, Italy - 3, Belgium - 3, Australia - 3, UK - 2, Paraguay - 2, Ireland - 2, India - 2, Bosnia and Herzegovina - 2, Uruguay - 1, Montenegro - 1, Jordan - 1, Bahrain - 1, Croatia - 1 :/ and Hungary - 1 :/

Ok, after demographics question here we start. Please note that questions below were not having options to choose among so they processed one-by-one. Instead of giving percentages, I will try to address most popular answers.

Q1 : How did you find out eRepublik?

Majority answers this question as "from a RL friend". This is quite expectable, eRep is a game relying on word-of-mouth advertisement. This is why it is not a good idea to upset citizens.

Next popular answer is "boyfriend / husband" followed by "brother / father / son" ie 'relatives'. This is also expectable as some of participants were honest enough 🙂 to admit that "he/she forced me to play for 5g / social builder medal".

Beside these ; notable answers were "friends from another game" , "from a forum" and "RL advertisement". Very few mentions "Facebook".

So, I think it would not be wrong to say that women are usually not finding this game but got introduced instead. Only one participant mentioned that she was eagerly looking for a 'political game' (not war) and found eRep.

Q2 : What do you like most at eRepublik?

Although there is a notable portion of "wars" (around 20😵, overwhelming answer is 'social interaction'. Commonly used words for it are "community", "meeting new friends", "socializing (in MU)", "chat" and "newspapers".
Also women mention "strategy" (when it was around) and "politics".

Community and social groups are one of the most important aspects of eRep if not the most. But it is obvious that women are even more interested in social aspect rather than even war itself (which game is solely relying on)

Q3 : What do you dislike/hate most at eRepublik?

🙂 Most popular choices are gender-free. "Admins", "constant changes", "Gold price", "favouritism of Admins".

If we take a look at gender-specific ones, we begin getting real complaints 🙂

Some mentions behaviour of men towards them like in this quotation

"Teenage and other boys who lack values, courtesy and the good sense of a common mule."

But it seems that women hate Admin more than men 🙂 (for now)

Q4 : What are the reasons for women/girls are not playing eRep as expected, in your opinion? (I mean as I expected)

Well 🙂

eRepublik is commonly considered by women as a 'boy game'. Primary reason for this is relying solely on war (especially after recent changes)

"This game is in so many ways glorifies and rewards the very things that culturally define men; war, capitalism, hand to hand combat style capitalism and with the changes, less and less is cooperative play even permitted."

Women are more interested in social aspect and cooperative playing.

"... I think that women more often give up the game, because the communication aspect can be achieved a lot easier e.g. in social networks, without playing a 'stupid game' ..."


One other common thing is attitude and behaviours of men. It is quite obvious that women are annoyed. Also articles having "eyecandies" are opposed.

"There is so much testosterone here, and so many bad language, harsh ppl, annoying guys who insult on sight!"

"The sexual vulgarity of the male players in the game. We're treated like objects and harassed by the popular players who seem to think they can get away with whatever they want because they're famous."

"When women get in a place full of men they are usually stalked or mistreated."

"Usually, they are teenagers and are a bit heavy. I try not to mention that I am woman."

and goes on ...

One other thing women finding annoying is sexist approach of game especially at V2 times. It is several times stated that women are not happy with presence of Lana and Carla empowering the image of eRepublik being a male game.

"It was so funny in v2 with so many girls inviting me to study with them , train , and than to go to sleep..."

Q5 : Did you try inviting other women to game? If yes could you please brief reactions?

Common answer for first question is "yes", it is hard to resist 5g. 🙂 But their statements about invited women's experiences are usually "bored", "didn't like" or such.

Some answers even goes further enough to say

"I have asked female friends before, but they laugh"

" I wouldn't wish the harassment and conversations on any of my personal friends."

"... I tried to explain them about the game and they saw me as a weird girl lol ..."

Q6 : What would you do / change / add / remove in order to get more women to eRep?

Answers to this question also reflects what they hate most.

"This 'funny' approach of guys to women. Stop being a moron, sorry"

"if we did not have the majority of female starved thirsty boys/men who act like they've never encountered the opposite sex and tone down on their sometimes derogatory comments"

"Maybe some men in the pictures, like the training ground. Give us the ability to show we are women."

"It would be nice if things were not always oriented to the point of view of young males, i.e., assuming everyone wants to look at curvaceous females such as Lana."

"It's annoying how admins focus in men, I mean, all that stuff of Lana, and the other girls saying 'UH HONEY, PLEASE BUY GOLD 'COZ UR HEALTH IS GOING DOWN'"

"The harassment on IRC and the overuse of attractive women in every article ever published needs to stop, it's demeaning and rude and could very well drive women away from the game."

Beside men, there are some notable answers like 'having customizable avatar', 'e-marriage / e-family' and 'fashion' , features I doubt if can be implemented.

If you read article until here (I seriously doubt, tbh I wouldn't 🙂 ) , also had a chance to have a mini interview with George Lemnaru (cofounder of eRepublik) about women of eRepublik.

Although I am not really sure he replied my questions seriously and doubted to put in article, here they are. (As is as usual)

Q1 - Do you have any estimation about percentage of women in eRep?
A valid estimation would be a less than 10% percentage. 🙁

Q2 - What is the reason for removing genders following with V2?
What’s the reason of keeping it as long as you can never be sure of the correctness of the answer. 🙂

Q3 - Size-able portion of women complains about offensive and immature response of guys in game. Do you have any data supporting this (by article or PM reports) claim?
Do you need data? 🙂 There is great content created by very intelligent people, but besides that there are also some less mature reactions, indeed.

Q4 - What is the view of eRep about women?
The unofficial view is too romantic for me to say it, while the official one is too boring. Let’s say that we would be happy to have more women in the New World and we miss the “best female avatar contests”.

Q5 - Is increasing number of women a goal for eRepublik? If so, what do you consider to do this?
Right now the main goal that we have is to improve the experience of our citizens. I consider that the newborn experience is not very pleasant.

Q6 - There are some complaints about Lana and Carla, they are found sexist. What do you think about this?
Really? Is it because they look good? That’s because they do a lot of sports and doing sport make people look good. “Mens sana in corpore sano”

I will not comment on answers Lemnaru or write a conclusion. I will try to make article more readable later by adding pics.

Although mostly stating obvious, I hope this survey and article shed some light on this. Although it is a fact that Admin will not care gender of payer as long as cash flows, it may still be useful to know women point of view.

Best regards,



PS : Your vote is appreciated as well as shouting article, you may sub if you wish.