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VAZNO : Srpska i Engleska verzija.
IMPORTANT 😒erbian & English includeed.





Pozdrav George,
Drago mi je sto intervjuisem jednog od dva osnivaca eRepublike.
Prvo bi zeleo da ti se zahvalim sto si prihvatio da odgovoris na moja pitanja za srpsku zajednicu. Pitanja ce biti mozda nesto drugacija od onih na koje si navikao.
Da li si spreman?

Bice mi zadovoljstvo da odgovorim na tvoja pitanja.

Mozes li nam nesto reci o svojoj ulozi u eRepubliku? Kako je bilo pre 4 godine a kako je danas?

Ja sam preduzetnik.Moja uloga je da se izgradi velika ekipa koja pravi odlicne proizvode. Mogu vam reci da postoji velika razlika sto se tice rezultata mog rada ako se uporede zadnji meseci sa bilo kojim drugim vremenskim periodom. Zadnjih meseci je doslo do velikih promena u aktivnosti tima i mislim da je vec pocelo da daje rezultate.

Ako su moje informacije korektne, imali ste oko 10 radnika 2008, najmanje 33 radnika 2009. Imate kancelarije u Bukurestu, Dublinu i Madridu. Mozes li nam reci nesto vise o vasoj kompaniji ?

2010 smo se prosirili jos vise, ali od zadnjeg septembra je taj broj smanjen na manje od 30 ljudi. Ljudi koji su sada u nasem timu rade mnogo vise i mnogo bolje nego ranije. Sto se tice lokacije, 90% ljudi je zaposleno u Rumuniji.

Mogli smo da procitamo u clancima medija od pre 2 godine da je AGF grupa investirala oko 2,75 miliona evra. Takodje smo mogli da citamo u jednom clanku objavljenom u Rumunskim medijima gde ste objavili kako ocekeujete da dostignete brojku od milion aktivnih igraca pre 2011. Nakon tih investicija zaposlili ste veliki broj radnika u vasoj kompaniji. Mnogo promena je uvedeno u igru, ali te promene nisu bile uspesne jer je izgubljeno puno igraca. Mnogo ste riskirali. Da li mozemo zakljuciti da ste imali los period i da ne hodate jos uvek po zlatnim plocicama od prihoda eRepublike kao sto mnogi ljudi misle?

Da, mozemo to zakljuciti. 🙂

Da li sam u pravu ako kazem da ste bili veoma hrabri i samopouzdani kada ste zaposlili sve te ljude iako niste bili u stanju da isplatite sve od prihoda prodajom golda? To je veliki rizik zar ne ?

Da, u pravu si.

Zaposliti toliko radnika kosta mnogo novca. Da li danas mozete da otplatite svoje radnike samo od prodaje golda?


Da, danas mozemo otplatiti sve radnike ali samo zato sto imamo manje ljudi koji svoj posao rade mnogo bolje nego ranije.

Da li ste pod pritiskom akcionara da stvarate dobit?

Mi smo pod pritiskom akcionara da napravimo odlican proizvod. Ali, kao tim, pravi pritisak koji osecamo je od samih igraca da stvorimo bolje iskustvo u igri. Ako stvorimo igracu bolje iskustvo, znaci da imamo odlican proizvod i na kraju profitabilan rastuci posao.

Da li je bilo moguce razviti projekat kakav je eRepublik bez svih tih investicija i resursa?

Jeste da smo imali pozadinu igre i iskustvo. Nismo imali to.

Erepublik zaradjuje novac prodajom golda. Zasto ne koristite reklame na sajtu kako bi uvecali prihod?

Zato sto nam to ne bi pokrilo ni troskove servera. Vec smo probali.

V1 je bio veoma popularan. V2 nije bio los ali je bio mozda za neki drugi profil igraca. Da li je bilo tesko uzeti odluku da se napravi par koraka nazad ?

Da, bilo je jako tesko ali je bilo ocigledno da 'eRepublik Rising' nije bilo dobro resenje.

Da li je moguce da obican igrac ulozi novac u razvoj eRepublike? Kako pristupiti tome i koji je minimalni iznos kao i vrednost akcija?

Nemam pojma. Trebao bi da pitas Alexisa ako te to interesuje.

Kao jedan od administratora, nisi mnogo popularan u Srbiji koja je jedna od najvecih zajednica eRepublike. Da li si to znao i kako se osecas zbog toga?

Da, ja to znam i mislim da je normalno jer postoji puno razloga za to. Mi smo direktno krivi za neke od tih razloga (bugovi, tesko igracko iskustvo, problemi sa serverom, itd), drugi razlozi su malo manje spojeni sa onim sto radimo iz dana u dan (vrlo konkurentan koncept, lideri koji pokusavaju da nadju drugog krivca kada je bitka izgubljena, trolovi, itd). Napravili smo neka poboljsanja u prvoj kategoriji, a trudicemo se da tako bude i u drugoj. Povrh toga, mi pricamo o Srbima, koji obicno ulazu puno strasti u onome sto rade.🙂

Srbi vas kritikuju jer niste ukljucili Kosovo na mapi Srbije. Svet je podeljen oko tog pitanja. Zasto ste se vi opredelili za takvo resenje?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo
Kada pravi ljudi budu presudili, presudicemo i mi. Ups, zameni 'pravi ljudi' sa 'mocnim ljudima'. Ja se licno divim Srpskom i Poljskom narodu zbog njihove istorije. Nikada niste odustajali od borbe ma koliko je tesko bilo. Medjutim, moja uloga u eRepublici nije da izrazujem licna uverenja o istoriji.

Vremenom, nove drzave i novi regioni ce biti dodati u igru. Imate li neko resenje za Kosovo ? Da li ce to biti nezavisna drzava, srpski region, ili ce Kosovo zauvek ostati samo siva zona ?

Nemamo apsolutno nikakvu ideju. .

Kad bi mogao da se vratis kroz vreme sta bi promenio oko razvoja eRepublike ?

Drzao bi ga jednostavnijeg, bar na pocetku.

Ko daje zadnju rec kad se radi o bitnim promenama ti, Alexis Bonte ili neko drugi ?

To je zaista pametno pitanje. Tendacija zadnjih 5-6 meseci je ta da poslednju rec donosi osoba koja radi na datoj promeni. I to je glavni razlog sto se tih 5-6 meseci krecemo ka pravom putu.

Procitao sam u medijima da se Toby Rowland prikljucio vasoj ekipi direktora. On ce biti odgovoran za neke druge igre? Da li mozes da nam kazes nesto o tim igrama ?

Toby se prikljucio kao savetnik odbora. U sustini, on je ukljucen kao strateski savetnik odbora. Njegov dolazak je jedan od najpametnijih odluka koje smo doneli.

Da li ces ti raditi na tim novim projektima?

Necu, ali planiramo da odvojimo drugi tim u Madridu koji ce biti fokusiran na te nove igre. To nece uticati na eRepublik.com

Imas li sta da dodas za srpsku zajednicu?

Izvinjavam se za sve lose stvari na koje ste naisli u vasoj eRepublik proslosti, cenim cinjenicu sto ste jos uvek sa nama i sto pruzate toliko strasti u eRepublici, ne mogu vam obecati da necemo opet sjebati nesto (u stvari mogu vas uveriti da ce sigurno biti jos gresaka) ali mogu vam obecati sledece : Mi cemo stalno raditi na tome da ovaj projekat bude sve bolji ibolji za vase iskustvo.
Molim te, nemoj me prijaviti za rec 'sjebati', ovi admini su ludi, vec su banovali jednog investitora zbog koriscenja multija pre nekog vremena. (stvarno je imao multije i ostao je banovan)🙂


Da li bi mogao za kraj da mi das neki scoop, neku eksplozivnu informaciju sto se tice narednih promena?

- Popravicemo vojni modul kako bi izbegli borbe u zadnjoj minuti.
- Poboljsacemo iskustvo novorodjenih igraca
- Vojne jedinice … One moraju biti korisne
- Ubacivanje novih sirovina
- Nove zgrade
- Jednostavnije korisnicko radno iskustvo
- I za kraj, fokusiracemo se na nabavku i dobijanje natrag mrtvih naloga (ovo zvuci cudno)

Hvala za tvoje vreme i iskrenost...
Bilo mi je zadovoljstvo odgovariti na tvoja pitanja.






Hello George,
It is a pleasure to interview one of the two founders of eRepublik.
Thank you for agreeing to answer my questions for the Serbian community. The questions will be somewhat different from those you usually meet. Are you ready?

It will be a pleasure to respond to your questions.

Can you tell us something about your role in eRepublik? How it was 4 years ago and how is it today?

I am an entrepreneur, my role is to build great teams that build great products. I can tell you that there is a huge difference in my work results if we compare the last few months with any other period of time. In the past months a big change in the team’s activity happened and I think it already started to show it’s results.

If my informations are correct, you had about 10 workers in 2008, about 33 or more in 2009. You have offices in Dublin, Bucarest and Madrid. Can you tell us more about your company today?

In 2010 the company increased in size even more but starting last September we are under 30 people. And those people that are now in the team are delivering much more and much better than what was happening before.
Concerning the location, about 90% of the team is in Romania.

We were able to read in media 2 years ago, Erepublik got big investment (2,75millions) from AGF group. I have find an article (romanian newspaper) where you were saying you are expecting to reach 1,000,000 active users before 2011. As a result of it you have increased number of your workers in company. Many changes were made, but it was not very successful, because you lose a lot of players. You took big risks. Can we conclude, you guys had a bad period and are not walking on the golden plates as many people think?

Yes, we can conclude that. 🙂

Am I right if I say you were very courageous and confident to employ so many employers before you were able to pay them with game income? You took big risks, no?

Yes, you are right.

Having so many employers cost a lot of money. Can you pay all your employers today with sold gold?

Yes, we can pay, but that’s because we have less people that are doing their job much better than before.

Are you under pressure from shareholders to make profit?

We are under pressure from shareholders to create a great product. But as a team, the real pressure that we feel, is from the players to provide a better experience. And providing a better experience means a great product and in the end a profitable and growing business.

Was it possible to develop a project like eRepublik without those investment and ressources?

Yes, if we would have a gaming background and experience. We didn’t have that.

Erepublik get money from gold buyers. Why don't you use advertisement to earn more money?

Because that wouldn’t cover even the server costs. We tried it.

V1 was very popular. V2 was not so bad at all, but it was maybe for different profile of players. Was it difficult to take the decision to make a step back?

Yes, very difficult but it was quite clear that Rising wasn’t at all a good solution.

Is it possible for us, ordinary players, to invest in eRepublik project? What is the approach to do it and minimum ammount of money? Cost of share?

I have no idea. You should ask Alexis if you’re interested. 🙂

As one of administrator, you are not very popular in Serbia, one of the largest community in eRepublik. Did you know that and how do you feel about it?

Yes, I know and is quite normal because there were many reasons for this. Some of them are directly because of us (bugs, a difficult experience, server issues, etc), others are a little less connected to what we do day by day (a very competitive concept, leaders that try to find someone else guilty when a battle is lost, trolls, etc.). We made some improvements in the first category and we will start looking also in the second one.
On top of this we are also talking about Serbians, who usually put a lot of passion in what they do. 🙂

All Serbian criticize you for not having included the territory of Kosovo in the map of Serbia. The world is divided about the Kosovo issue. Why did you make this choice?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo
When the right people will take a decision about it we will take a decision too. Oh, and replace “the right people” with “more powerful people”. 🙂
I personally admire a lot the Serbians and the Polish people for their history. You never stopped fighting no matter how hard it was. But my role in eRepublik is not to express my personal beliefs about history.

With time, new countries and regions will be created. What solution do you have for Kosovo? Will you add it as a new idenpendent country, serbian region, or will Kosovo stay the gray zone forever?

We have absolutely no idea.

If you can travel in time what will you do differently in eRep development?

Keep it more simple at least at the beginning.

Who has the last word about eRepublik ingame changes you, Alexis Bonte or someone else?

That’s a really smart question. In the past 5-6 months the tendency is that the last word belongs to the person that works on that change. And this is the main reason why in the past 5-6 months we’ve been moving on the right way constantly.

I have find in newspaper Toby Rowland joined eRepublik Labs as one of director. He will be responsable for developing some other social games. Can you tell us more about those games ?

Toby joined as a Board Adviser. Basically he is involved in strategical decisions taken by the board. Imo involving him in eRepublik is one of the smartest decisions we ever took.

Are you working on those new projects too?

No, but we’re planning on building a separate team in Madrid that should be focused on new games. eRepublik.com should not be affected by this.

Do you have something to add for eSerbian community?

I apologize for all the bad things you encountered in eRepublik in the past, I appreciate the fact that you are still with us and put so much passion in eRepublik, I can’t assure you that we won’t do more fuck-ups (in fact I can assure you that there will be many mistakes too) but I can promise you this: we will constantly work on making this project better and better for your experience.
Btw: please don’t report me for saying “fuck-ups”, those admins are crazy, they banned an investor for multies some time ago (he really had multies and banned he stayed). 🙂

Can you give me a scoop about comming changes for the end of interview?

- military module fix to avoid last minute fighting strategy
- newborns experience improvements
- military units - like... they should be useful
- new raw materials industries
- new buildings
- easier work user experience
- and, after that, focus also on acquisition and getting back the dead people (this sounded strange)

Thanks you for your time and sincerity...

It was a pleasure to respond to your questions. Please give me the link to the article so that I can shout it.