[CP]Full Response to CODE

Day 4,691, 10:58 • Published in USA USA • by VoxHumana


Citizens of eUSA,

Greetings to you, and salutations from the Office of the President.

Yesterday, CODE published a formal missive in the USA media entitled Why we attacked USA and how it will end. If you have not read that article, please do so. It is very informative on several counts and it is also a fine example of what this game can be when it is being played by those who care.

After having read that article, and having noticed three distinct allegations in it pertaining to perceived wrongdoings on the part of USA officials, I responded with a PM which I then copy/pasted into an article. I invite you to read that as well. With all of the battles raging, I did not have time for a longer response. Today I will remedy that.

CODE gave an answer to my inquiry. I will share CODE’s answer, add my response, and then highlight a few other things from their article that caught my eye.



CODE made three accusations in that article.

1) “Brazilians reported they were mocked and laughed at by US officials when they got attacked on their RL independence day.”

I responded : “I do not condone any trolling of Brazil on their Independence Day.”

2) “You cannot treat yesterday's allies like this. You cannot blackmail countries and all players along with it.” (Emphasis in the original).

I responded : “I also do not condone any blackmailing of CODE, or of anyone for that matter.”

3) “Yes, we let (Ireland and South Korea) go in peace. But there is (a) big difference. They weren't secretly plotting against us.” (Emphasis in the original).

I responded : ”I also am not aware of any secret plots against CODE by eUSA.”

Finally, I asked for evidence which would back up the allegations of trolling, blackmail, and secret plotting.

The first of these three is obviously the least egregious. However as someone who does not believe real life circumstances ought to be used as leverage points in a browser game, I still treated it seriously. We recently had a mixup in eUSA where some real life biases spilled into our community and it caused several beloved characters to quit. I do not want that to happen to any community in this game.

Nevertheless, the allegations of blackmail and secret plots against the very alliance to which USA belonged are far more serious. And as I said I requested whatever evidence could be provided.

nexus2012 answered :

I'll briefly answer to your 3 points:

1) quote from highly ranked Brazilian official: "They opened RW on the day of our independence and came to laugh at me on the telegram"

2) Brazil is blackmailed to leave Andes on the contrary of their will:
🇧🇷 Brazil: A law to leave Andes alliance has been proposed.
🔗 www.erepublik.com/en/main/law/Brazil/238418

3) What we were told among other similar stances, by US administration at that time, only several months ago. At the same time while on the internal side it turned out from various sources (forums, logs, articles) you were already achieving your goal of coming closer to Asteria. This is only a small part of info and intel in our possession.

"The temporary neutrality keeps us solvent during the boycott and in a firm position if you decide to end it, ready to roll with a reserve and stronger fighters."

"It [NAP] doesn't require us to fight against you, it doesn't prevent us from fighting for you in other battles, etc."

"We're not looking to bail on CODE by any stretch of the imagination. We're just trying to ride the wave of the boycott and not drown in it in the meantime."

So far no other information has been received pertaining to these three subjects.



1) Pertaining to the trolling that allegedly took place on Telegram.

As I have not been given any information as to who the trolls were, what they said, nor to who they were speaking, I will simply offer the following to Brazil:

I, the President of eUSA, apologize to Brazil on behalf of our people for trolling you on your Dia da Independência. I do not condone the practice of injecting real life spite into a browser game wherein players ought to enjoy fighting against one another and ought to respect their enemies as fellow participants in eRepublik. We as a nation engaged in our recent warfare together all due respect, and I hope that we can continue in respect, either as enemies or as allies. Again, for the trolling, eUSA sends its apology.



2) Pertaining to the accusation of blackmail.

As I understand it, “blackmail” is the criminal practice of threatening to publicize private incriminating information unless some significant form of remuneration is given. The dictionary definition literally states, “the action, treated as a criminal offense, of demanding payment or another benefit from someone in return for not revealing compromising or damaging information about them.” So whatever else has happened, it isn’t blackmail.

However, I understand that what upset you was that Brazil was being leveraged out of ANDES because they had lost a war against Asteria and those (including USA) who supported that war. In other words, you were upset about the terms of peace offered to Brazil by Asteria.

Terms of peace are negotiated, and if they are found so unfavorable that they cannot be abided, then the fight goes on. And I think that is exactly what just happened.

Therefore you have justified your attack on the USA as a protest against the terms of peace offered to Brazil by Asteria. For that, you have my respect.

But nobody is guilty of blackmail here. Asteria and friends defeated Brazil and friends. Brazil agreed to peace, her friends fought on. I can live with that.



3) Pertaining to the allegation about secret plots against CODE by the USA during the time when we were still a member of that Alliance.

This is the point on which I am least qualified to answer, as my terms of office began after we had already left.

But you have provided three quotes. Each of those quotes clearly indicates that there was a period of time during which our officials were expressing their intentions to endure with CODE as allies. Clearly times have changed.

What you have not provided would be documentation showing that our officials made those statements as lies. You have not shown us where our officials participated in espionage. You have not shown us where our officials planned aggression against its own alliance. You have not shown me anything that even vaguely lines up with the accusation that the USA officials were “secretly plotting against” CODE.

What I am sure of is this.

A decision was made to leave CODE at some point prior to our leaving. That is how things work. Once that decision became clear in the minds of USA officials, plans must have been put into place to leave. Additional plans would must have been formulated which would help USA conceive of her next steps. I am sure that some of the planning during the point in time between which the decision to leave was made and the time when USA did leave... I am sure that during that time plans were being made by USA independent of CODE. In that sense alone, they could have been considered "secret plots" by someone inclined to use dramatic language. But I do not think that any apology is necessary for a nation who begins making plans once a course has been decided, and that those plans are classified.



Finally, I want to offer my comments on the remainder of the CODE article by summarizing what I believe are its key points.

1) CODE is endeavoring to engage this current conflict with respect.

I agree. And it has been fun. I hope you have received our respect in return.

2) CODE continues to try to operate with a set of standards about which they are proud.

Again, I agree.

I also believe that if those standards had been practiced during the later period of USA’s membership, USA may not have left.

But USA was hurt by the actions of CODE members when, after permitting CODE members occupational benefits in our core regions, some of those same members sat out when it came time to defending those same core regions. I do not believe those actions reflect the stated standards of excellence that CODE claims. However, I also encourage CODE to continue to recall its members to those standards, because as they are stated, they are good.

3) This is not an invasion about wiping the USA.

That clearly is the case.

Your airstrikes provided the most exhilarating day of my entire eRep life. I woke up in the middle of my night so that I could be there right from the beginning, and for the next 11 hours, except for an hour-long break for personal business, I clicked and clicked between battles, watching your fighters and ours dropping megatons of damage. The Thailand battle was the most thrilling one of all. I’m sorry we could not have provided more thrill to the Croatian and Cypriot airstrikes. We simply did not have enough coordinated damage available to engage all five fronts at once.

So as you said in your closing point, you did this for fun and fair play.

I agree. Thank you for the fun. Thank you for the fair play.

And I hope I am still here whenever we decide to dance again.