The true war

Day 1,209, 13:10 • Published in Romania Romania • by Alex Craciun


Motto: No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time. Henry A. Kissinger



Intro

This game lives out of the Hungarian-Romanian conflict. Both communities are mainly based on real people, people that buy gold and keeps the game afloat, people that write in the media creating controversies and keeping the game interesting.
Almost three years ago, the Romanian president (namely me) followed a “suggestion” and opened the HU-RO war to make the game more interesting. We all know what followed. Hungary got beaten, Hungary got a baby boom, Hungary defeated Romania, Romania cried, Hungary became the major military force of the game and visited US. Romania fought back and erased Hungary. Hungary made a superb Trojan horse move and pushed back Romania in its original borders.
All the “epicness” of this game has something to do with the Hungarian or the Romanian community. Usually both.


Virtual versus Real Life expectations

There is only one reason why Romania and Hungary were so succesfull over the time. The RL rivalry between the 2 countries , with all the unwanted nationalists outbreaks, attracted over the year lots of players into the game. Even if currently part of the community from both camps is kind of fed up with the current statusquo (mainly the old players that have seen it all) the HU-RO conflict remains the main attraction for new players from both sides to join and play the game.


Resources vs Rewards

Back in the V1 days there was little incentive from the game point of view to conquer a region in the HU-RO war. The most disputed battles were mostly for the ego boost (Transilvania) or to sabotage the opponent (HK/WSR). The only material reward was a percentage of the money in the country account, and both countries made sure to have as little as possible to lose.
Nowadays even that little incentive disappeared and the current region bonuses seem to have less impact than before. So we usually end up burning huge amounts of resources for a non existent material gain.


Game Play

Erepublik was never a game developed toward players expectations. But players invented workarounds for their needs. IRC chats, military units, national banks and so on are cornerstones of the current gameplay, and all of those were implemented by players not by the erep staff.
The players always found solutions to day to day gaming. Even if it meant going against the current


Summary of current issues

1. Part of the community wants something new. and the other part wants to taste for their own the hu-ro conflict. Old players are bored by the current situation but new players are attracted to the game by the same situation.
2. The game gives little reward for winners and the costs for the beligerants are huge.
3. The current gameplay implemented by admins is driven by profit and not by fun.


The Solution: A true war!

We need to address all the issues if we still want to have fun with real people in this game. We need a war that will make both old players and new players have fun. We need a consistent reward for the winner to make the war interesting. And we need to do that somehow against the path that the admin has drawn for the game.
So how do we do that? The major part of both communities firmly believe that without the traditional enemy at their doorstep they would have won the game. By winning all the game i mean conquering all the world and call “game over”. So what about proving what we both are capable of? And just to make it interesting, lets throw some cash in it.


Draft specifications of “The true War”

The “true war” will take place over a selected period of time: 2 or 3 weeks.
A simple set of rule will be drafted and agreed upon by the presidents and congresses of both countries.
The start of the true war will be the moment the peace is signed between hun and ro.
The countries will appoint a independent referee. The referee will receive the “amount” from Hungary and Romania. This will be the cash prize
At the end of the period the referee will declare one side the winner based on the criteria decided by the competitors

Terms:
Hungary and Romania will sign peace
- there will be a race for regions with a point system
- the prize will be an amount of currency (in discussion)
- the prize will be at a trustable under the period

Other rules:
All is fair in love and war, so there are no restrictions. Everything is allowed, diplomacy, rw’s, trolling... everything.


p.s. vine si traducerea in romana, in aproximativ o ora.