Spending RL Money and eRepublik – a perspective
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by asecondchance
Lately I have been thinking about real life money being spent in this game for Gold. I know there are many people against it and many who don’t see any reason not to. Here is my point of view…
Pro:
eRepublik is a game. These days video games cost $50.00, Iphone Apps cost $0.99 – $9.99 and even board games cost $10 – $15.00. People create games to make money; no one gets a free lunch. Most video games or Apps have an active life of only a few months at most and after interest is lost or a new game is out to move on to. Unlike those games, people stay on eRepublik for years to continue to playing the game. So I don’t really understand the negative view of those who spend money while playing the game. This is played for enjoyment and if buying some gold to make your citizen better in some way increases your enjoyment, then go for it. Again it is a game and people pay way more on video games every 3 months than playing this game for the occasional gold purchase.
Con:
Let’s face it – this is a game. We are talking about spending Real World Money so let’s look at what in the real world we could spend that money on instead of this game…
Red Cross donation: http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations
Shriners Children Hospital: https://secure2.convio.net/shfc/site/Donation2?idb=0&df_id=3381&3381.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr004=9mobknbtg3.app201a
St. Jude Children Hospital: https://shop.stjude.org/GiftCatalog/donation.do?cID=13805&pID=23530
Save the rain forest: https://support.worldlandtrust.org/form.asp?id=761
To sponsor a child who is in poverty in Africa costs 35$ a month for those that buy a lot of Gold in this game: http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2DoChildSearch_B.jsp?xxwvLocation=0000&xxwvSearchType=ALL
Conclusion
It is all perspective. We all need a break and a chance to have entertainment and fun. If playing eRepublik is your chance to unwind then I see nothing wrong with spending money to better enjoy the game. With that said, in the bigger scheme of things real money might be better spent in the real world on real things that could make a real difference.
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Comments
nice, i don't recall seeing an article on this before. Good one.
voted.
I play several online games and they all have the option of paying to support the game, but that membership doesn't give you any real advantage over those who don't. The difference here is that RL money does give you an advantage. Saying that I don't have a real issue with paying a few pounds every few months.
I agree! However this game is fun because of the number of players who participate in it. Were this game to drop to certain low number of players it wouldn't be fun anymore.
It is for that reason that I think investment is needed in the free to play module - Politics.
v+s
first= tank please : (
I joined at a time when they were working on it and that was a reason to buy gold, atm I do say im not buying any but there is always reason.
Dont lik reading articles showing pictures like that one of the starving kids, we know about charities...I donate €15 a month to threshold which is one for homeless people. We as individuals cant end world hunger, its governments and the highly rich you can truly end it.
There's 2 avenues to dispose ingame wealth: Upgrades/Maintenance or Tanking.
Upgrade/Maintenance has a threshold which can be attained through strategic playing of the game.
However Tanking is a bottomless pit. There is no limit to how much you could spend this way.
I've never bought gold because I've no trouble managing maintenance/upgrades. And if I started gold Tanking, I wouldn't know where to stop
"And if I started gold Tanking, I wouldn't know where to stop"
😁 its a disease man, don't start. Trust me
I'm too shrewd to throw away money on this game,LOL.
Those poor kids.I was thinking about donating $35 dollars.Think I'll donate $50.
Gold tanking is a bottomless pit. DO NOT get yourself hooked on gold tanking. I spend gold on everything BUT tanking. I have max quality weapon companies, and training. I occasionally buy currency to help pay wages, since all weapons sell at a loss. But I do not burn gold on energy bars for uber tanking.
That self-imposed limitation has kept me from going too far down the rabbit hole, and I have tangible assets to show for my gold. Not just a few victories from the past that have little bearing on the current state of the game.
I have not bought nearly as much gold as I have been accused of... but I have bought gold. I just spend sparingly.
On a side note, I have given a fair portion of RL money to a group of charities that help developmentally disabled children. That is my charity of choice because of the brother of a childhood friend of mine.
Good article.
Getting involved in not-profits is great of course - there's nothing more privately fulfilling than doing your part to make the world a better place.
I don't think it's good to chalk the opportunity cost, that we could give that money to charity, as a con though. The pet industry is worth ~$50 billion - think about how that could be better spent on international aid. I'm often sickened by commercials for pet foods or veterinary service when I think of how much more concern we show for house animals, than we show for our fellow man.
Of course most of see an affection for animals as a positive character trait - but if you think about it, its a bit psychopathic to prioritize purely recreational animals over actual human beings.
It's a slippery slope when you start thinking about things that way.