[NL] Spring is Far Away

Day 4,848, 07:14 • Published in Netherlands Netherlands • by NoTie112
Dear citizens of the eNetherlands; readers,

As you may, or may not have noticed some peculiar events happened in the last weeks. In an unprecedented manner, close to 200 players/accounts have been banned over the past weeks and days, all of them part of Asteria or related alliances such as Hydra. During the latter months of 2019 these players supposedly exploited a hilariously broken game mechanic that has skewed the balance in the game ever since.

It wouldn't be the first time that exploits, cheats and bots have been used to gain an unequal advantage against the enemy. The developers of eRepublik have simply incentivized such behaviour that all big players make use of without second thought. Hence the rules surprisingly being maintained for once on one side has led to a sense of defeatism and (baseless or not) accusations regarding the state of the game.

As player in the eNetherlands and part of the HQ of our alliance Hydra for some time, this has certainly led to a massive change in balance. The ones that remain in allied countries such as Serbia, Italy, United Arab Emirates or Macedonia are understandably dismayed and lack any further motivation to drag on. This has essentially killed the backbone of fighting our enemies of the alliance CODE.

A surprisingly select amount of countries, such as the Netherlands or Spain, have been relatively unaffected themselves but will be in a dark time. CODE countries such as Croatia have already shown much commitment to seek their long-desired revenge amidst a beheaded enemy.

The Path Forward for The Netherlands
These developments are especially bleak for a country like ours. As a small community-minded country, we have been unaffected and most of us unaware of the snake-pit that leads to such scandals. On the other hand, we have also excelled as part of the Asteria-Hydra family with ever-growing ranks and of course, our well-deserved success during the last Resource Wars. Unlike many of the affected countries, it wouldn't make much sense for us to leave just yet.

While we've always had an extensive diplomatic network that far exceeds just Hydra and Asteria, there is no denial that we'd be easy pickings for some enemy countries that eye ever more so towards us. Nor can we stay obvious to the fact that we are likely to lose a bunch of our Training Wars and perhaps even luxuries such as the Neodymium concession.

It remains to be seen what happens in the coming weeks. Perhaps a scramble of forces and a change of elites remaining in the Asteria-Hydra will occur, once the dust has settled. Perhaps an overall change of balance will occur in the world, revolving away from just a Code-Asteria conflict. According to rumours, some frictions within Code and versus some Pacifica countries have already happened.

In the meantime, it can only be hoped the Netherlands continues with fervour in maintaining its community and its long-term goals of empowering itself together with her allies. Stay alert!