What's the Point of eRepublik?
Day 2,862, 15:34
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Published in Canada 
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by
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by Aries Prime
For a long time now I have been trying to figure out the ultimate goal of playing eRepublik. Every day we log in and squabble about politics and who is in control, but never do we ask what’s actually the point of it. Some people play for the business side, others for war, and others for politics, but where do any of these three things actually lead us?
Why I’ve Never Run For CP in Canada
I’ve never ran for CP in Canada because by the time I got to Canada I was plagued by answering this question. I also had a general lack of time to dedicate as a CP, but I could have found a way if I only had a desire to become CP and lead the country. The question always was: What would I actually do as CP?
Most of our CPs in Canada seem to be fueled by the goal of war. War is the one thing everyone likes to do in Canada. We like to war our enemies, our allies, really anyone we can war against. But do any of you sit down and actually ask why we are at war? What is the point of these constant wars? We never seem to hold down any colonies or extra regions. We aren’t gaining anything out of the war except for some TP gold and minor bonuses when we do hold a resource region. But other than that, nothing is achieved. We aren’t actually working towards any greater goal.
I never saw the point of running for CP and leading Canada into a series of wars because I saw no point in going to war. I always thought, maybe some new CP will come about and give me something to actually want to play the game for, but that never happened. All this recent dictatorship business did was further ingrain my belief that there is hardly anything left for me to play for.
What About The Money?
So what about all the money gained from war? Isn’t that worthwhile? It would be if we actually had something to spend our money on. Every resource and item you can buy or build with your money is dedicated to war, but all you can gain from war is money. It’s a cycle that has no real meaning behind it. What is the point of fighting in a war when there is nothing to gain from that war?
There is nothing worthwhile to spend our money on. There is no goal to achieve with our money. It isn’t as if eRepublik has an amazing economic module, or some kind of alternative scheme for people to funnel money into. Instead, everything we can do with our money is dedicated to furthering the war machine.
Why Do You Play eRepublik?
I’m left with this quandary that I can’t seem to solve. I realize a lot of people simply think it is fun to conquer another country, or make other players cry when you beat them, but when you really think about it, there is no endgame to war. There is no content in this game that you can achieve by going to war.
Without a goal for myself, for Canada, I feel lost. I’m slipping away from having any reason to play. This is why I’m asking you. Why do you play eRepublik? What enjoyment do you get out of the game? What goals do you have when playing this game?
Some years ago the alliance TWO conquered the eWorld. They successfully defeated the alliances of EDEN and CoT, their two competitors. Afterward they realized there was nothing left to do, so they disbanded the alliance.
Is that really all there is in eRepublik?
Aries Prime
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Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.
It's a game. Why do you play any game? Have fun, meet new people, make friends, and hang out with those friends. Come up with a game/battle plan, execute the plan, laugh about all the funny stuff that happened or at the people who got all butthurt about it. I think I will go with entertainment as my reason.
Well, one game I play is WoW. I enjoy killing bosses, pvp, exploring the world, etc. I feel like the dimensions of that game far outweigh what we have here. Yes I realize that is a more indepth pay to play game, but we just don't have enough of an incentive in this game to keep on going. At least that's how I've felt lately.
I am with you and everything you posted. At the end of the day it is a huge waste of time to play erep. It won't be the first game I eventually quit playing nor will it be the last, but as long as I find things fun and entertaining, I will keep playing. There isn't a long term goal for me other than win some medals, gain strength, defend Canada from foreign aggression, and post funny stories to my mates about the things I do to BH snipers.
Most CPs never get to pursue the vision they had for getting elected, you just get stuck dealing with whatever plague that term inherits.
a-fucken-men
I play in the hopes that it will get better, and if it does get better then I want to be here and ready to be the best I can be in that new eRepublik. For now it's mostly entertainment until I find more meaning in the game. I also see it as a personal goal to find my meaning and purpose in the game and if I can't find one then I strive to make one. It's not the admins who make a game great, it's the players.
Because
You do realise that 85% of the time you come across as a robot programmed to solely agree with ED right?
And he still makes more sense then most people around here.
I've made tons of money. I've fought in many great wars. I've been a part of both wondrous and nefarious political endeavors. I've met so many characters I couldn't name them all in one night. By every right I could claim I've "won" the game. Though through it all I've learned that the win is the every day events, not the trophies of success. eRepublik is a story that I will continue to enjoy until it eventually one day does ends.
I play it because of the friendships you make across countries. One of the highlights of my eRep career was driving an airstrike into Netherlands and ousting Italy to free the Dutch. I worked closely with the Dutch government and they still show up and tank for us today. Alliances can be extremely fun too when they are active 🙂
But yes, this game needs a serious overhaul.
Wonderful article, this isn't just about one ecountry; this is about the entire game. War is the center of almost everything here, like economics, politics and diplomacy. Maybe this is just because conflict and war are more "fun" to most people than a game about business and elections...
(my reason: addiction and boredom, and of course the community, but I like to play casual games with a slow and pointless growth of my character account)
After a year of playing I decided I would leave once I became a God, then the highest level. A month before I became a God the bastards added Titan. Now I have to wait until I become a Titan before leaving.
Personally I can't wait. Any real fun has been sucked out of the game along ago. It seems to consist of nothing more than a small number of people desperately trying to compensate for any real success in their real life by becoming a dictator.
i said the same thing. I got titan a few weeks ago and i am still here. *sigh*
I said I would quit when at level 100. (Please realize that a long time ago people who were level 40-50 were considered senior and level 100 was ancient.) Then when XP came easy I decided to up it to level 200. I found out that at level 201 you don't pay for training so gold is free after that.
.
.
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FREE GOLD! *insert Daffy Duck doing "I'm rich! I'm rich!"*
Meh, I still got e-friends I like to talk too. Plus the opportunity to start shit in eRep abounds.
cough cough - highest title is now Legends lol guess you have still a few levels to go. in 1 year deltapig will be on the verge of reaching legends when they make the next level mega awesome player or map's then Gigantotorum then Uber Deltapig then ...... Plato's golden cash cow perhaps when Plato awards a new title he thinks to himself ahh new villa in Tuscany player or lifetime supply of Grolsch player i would certainly if I where in his pantoffels.
Because if I stop playing, you hippies win.
Spite is pretty much the only motivation most of us have at this point I think for anything we do.
The hippies won.
I'm playing for the community 🙂
v
It's like reading a book that had a great premise and a good few opening chapters, but started to get pointless in the middle, and now I just want to know the ending.
Magical V.
This is a sad TRUTH!
this game is electronic cocaine. Most freemium or pay to win games are. They are specifically designed to activate your pleasure centers as you get your little shiny medals and fight in your battles and when you need more of that feeling you buy it...
some people are functioning addicts, they just have a taste here and there but can walk away any time maybe they buy a gold pack once a year as a treat and tell everybody they never pay for the game. But for the others they spend piles of money on the game, likely hide it from family and friends, they are always online its all they do and all they think about.
Its addictive... That is what there is here. addiction. Lots of people will deny it, but that's because addicts are in denial! 😛
oh yeah, once upon a time the game had an economic module and i really enjoyed that aspect. I quit once because the battles got waaaaaay to slow and drawn out for a quick time waster game like this. When temujinBC tricked me into coming back a year later i had fallen way behind in strength and companies etc the game had changed, you could work as manager and be self sufficient.
I like logging in and reading the articles. Watching the troll battles. Seeing the two sides in ecan that eternally fight each other.
I like watching the how the composition of the two sides is always shifting. Former friends become enemies. Former enemies become friends. Different things trend in this game, like the 6 months where it seemed like everybody was threatening the guy in power with RL trouble, people were threatening to quit to get attention etc.
I come back with popcorn to watch the world burn, but also like one of the other guys said, i wanted to get to titan. Now i am a titan and i have no goal at all. Its a weird feeling. So i just do another erail.
i seriously think i dont quit because i dont want to get a message from tembutt one day convincing me to come back and finding I've fallen way behind again.
Isn't that sad.
"once upon a time the game had an economic module"
Yeah, I miss yelling a dumbasses that would fight all the way down and then expect to work the next day at 20%. I usually felt sorry for noobs, if they apologized and said they didn't know I'd send 'em gifts and explain how Health worked.
Then Plato pooped in the punch bowl, no more econ.
your message brought back some great memories, both of my first few weeks, and my first few weeks of owning my first company! 😃
The game was crack back when the economy module worked. I was in spreadsheet heaven.
Medals are cool I suppose, it shows you did stuff. The achievement awards do the same thing. If someone wants to have fun in this game, AND can control their spending, I recommend buying packs and stashes. Usually have fun little goodies and some all important gold. Investing that gold into building your infrastructure will really make a difference.
As far as going to the extreme, I've been there and done that. Spending hundreds of RL dollars to help my country win. You get the initial appreciation of people but they soon turn on you and complain you're not doing enough. If you slow down or stop paying to win their battles you are branded arrogant or stuck up.
Still there is something compelling to wading into a battle that some consider lost, doing 1 billion damage and winning. Especially when your opponent PMs to congratulate you. 😃
i will never ever understand that feeling. the good part or the bad part.
I came close to falling into that hole, but when i realized i was buying a stash every week for a month strait and it was not as spread out as i thought, i stopped buying for over a year and a half. It was crazy how it snuck up on me. I only noticed when i looked at my bank statement. It reminded me of my former neighbor who had bankrupted his entire company, maxed out the line of credit, sold everything he owned, and put it all up his nose.
Yeah, addictive personalities shouldn't even be playing the game. Even the fake trophies and such can get them all wrapped up, wasting all their time. Personally I consider this entertainment and as I don't really spend much elsewhere for entertainment it's not a big deal. However if you have a $200/month cable bill, pay $100 to get data for your phone, pay for things like fitness club, dinners out, (something I just found out about) fantasy sports or casinos (on-line or real), you should be sufficiently entertained.
However, if you have $100/month entertainment budget and you spend $10-20 on this game (or another), without panicking when there's a special offer or something happens (like war breaks out), then I don't see where there is a problem. It's like double fudge frosted red velvet cake. You have a slice occasionally and no problems. You eat the entire cake everyday and there's a problem.
20,000 euros.
About 26,000 canadian dollars.
I could have taken a plane and met *all* the prominent eCanadians in their own home towns over the past six years for that. And bought the dinner and drinks!
#Yeesh
tp gold? tp's no longer reward gold they reward cash. so perhaps correct that.
CP was OK but a little time consuming. I would say that being CP you meet a lot of people that you normally would not. Depending on your actions and the way you speak to people the experience will either boost you 1000% in FA or dash you on the rocks. Then there are those that get elected and don't show up, they fade into oblivion.
My two rules (if you are not familiar):
1. RL>eRep
2. If you find something fun go do that.
I have other guidelines I play by but those 2 are set in stone. I've never really taken the time to explain what they mean so I'll give a brief overview. #1 means that your real world is what allows you to play this game. Don't ignore your RL or there will be problems. Also if eRep is something you "have to" do then it will soon become a chore and you'll learn to hate it. #2 is pretty straightforward but requires effort. If you never look for something fun to do you probably won't find it. The you need to be flexible enough to change what you're doing to accommodate the "fun" thing. Might have to change the way you play completely. You'll be happier in the long run.
No point!
Just do the things that amuse you. Do as little or as much as you feel like. Never let the game become work. I have no idea why anyone would want to be CP considering all the expectations people heap on the CP and their cabinet.
I used to spend a bit of money on the game back in the heyday of the business module. I'd never spend more than a couple of buck on it now very occasionally. I'm amazed it's still around and fully expect it to get shut down any day - although I'm thinking it might be around a little longer than after all since I saw what a few people admitted to spending on it a few weeks ago. Apparently some people still do get a little caught up in all this virtual meaninglessness.
I use to think there must be some sort of war strategy to this game at the highest levels. Once I got their I realized the only strategy in this game involves who spends the most money to win and rarely does tactics matter for any thing.
War is good. Wipes suck. The key is to have one without the other.
I play because about 5 yrs ago i put a couple hundred $'s into this game thinking I was supporting a game that could be great but it went tits up and now I'm just 2-clicking to it's demise.
Yeah, you pretty much nailed it, Aries.