Allow Me to Interject
OogieBoogie3
Before you TL/DR, keep on open mind. Have a drink perhaps. Take a deep breath, and get ready.
Last night I released a very baity (but also somewhat genuine) endorsement of Terry Benedictt for President. In that intentionally on-the-nose endorsement I poked fun at the sitting President for having virtually no public image to speak of - which is odd for a career politician, and especially a sitting President. This endorsement was of course mostly bait - I was fishing for outrage to be met with some level of criticism. This criticism was met with hostility and something along the lines of "That's just the way we do things" - as if running a government behind closed doors as a sort of exclusive private boys club, with no real public image or voice to the commoners, is somehow normal and a status quo worth defending. It's a pretty weak status quo. Politics should be both open and competitive to a point. The President should be public and outspoken, and the common citizens, even those not loyal to your camp, should at least know who you are and what you're all about.
Now let me go on to say that Terry asked me to apologize to President pep_369. I'm not going to do that because I owe him no such apology. I never slandered him in any kind of way or said anything that isn't objectively true. He's not a public figure - his own press doesn't even reflect his administration - he's just another candidate running the ongoing status quo, amongst a long list of candidates to come. There's an election in a couple of days, but you wouldn't know it, because nobody has really made any announcements or laid out any political platforms. That's not how a democracy functions - that's an autocracy. There's a ruling party that stays to themselves, and they make big boy decisions amongst themselves, quietly winning elections, and silently running the government away from the public eye. That's an autocracy - the illusion of a democracy and the façade of a government for the people.
Now before you all tremor into madness over a dissenting opinion, which seems to be something you like to do when your status quo is challenged - I'll go on to say this. I spoke the President privately off the record. He's a good person who loves his country, and he runs his government in good faith. His most vocal critics ramble on about needing to overthrow the "failed establishment". This is of course pretty sensationalized, but in their defense I do understand where they're coming from. Objectively speaking, by most metrics Switzerland is a pretty good place to live. The economy is good, and everyone is mostly pretty happy and there's unity - all of the things that go against the idea of a failed establishment. Way back when, we had people like Blackbeard - that was a corrupt government that didn't function at any real level, and set Switzerland up for failure. But on the other side of this argument against the establishment lies a very real and very valid criticism - that there is a status quo that when questioned, is met with hostility. And to be frank, it's all so boring to carry on this way.
Allow me to break the 4th wall for a moment and come out of character. What makes Erepublik compelling is the Socio-Political aspect of the game. The running of elections, candidates, parties, and platforms against one another, and thus participating in interesting and compelling elections that are both fun and competitive. Switzerland was one such place where the flow of elections was always a sight to behold. Hiding behind some veil and running what are essentially rigged elections - what's the fun in that? Where do you get this idea that dissent from your "status-quo" and vocal opposition is somehow dysfunctional and toxic? Perhaps you just don't understand politics, or Democracy in general, because typically that is how it works, and that is in fact what the biggest draw of Erepublik has always been. Participation in politics and at least the facade of a fair and competitive election keeps the community actively engaged. You guys are running elections like an assembly line behind closed doors - it's not engaging - and it's certainly not competitive. It's basically the WWE - the results are rigged, and it's all just a big show, but without the show, just the result.
Everyone here are good people, but many of the great mind from Switzerland are unfortunately gone, whether gone from the game outright, or just gone from the retirement home like community that Switzerland is now. But I do believe we can be better - more open - more visible - more out and about for the commoner to see and understand. If anything I'd like to challenge Switzerland to try to love each other a little bit less - to disagree with each other a little bit more - and challenge each other in the open forums, the public, and of course on the ballots. Because this fellas, this ain't it.
To wrap this rant up, I spoke to SendoM, who's ironically the party president of my old SDP (which I ran for many years), but whom was also the sitting president at the time in which I had went inactive. He basically said that the lack of controversy, gossip, or any real dissent has made the game more or less not worth playing anymore, and that he like many others, just carries on because he's worked hard to get to where he is now, and doesn't want to just throw it away. When I left the game, there were give-or-take 800K citizens - we can debate on what percentage of those were bots, but that's a huge number, and the game was very active and eclectic. Today there's about 30K, and it truly feels like it's running on empty, a "slowly sinking ship" as USA President, and former eSwiss elite Paul Proteus had proclaimed when I announced that I was back. It certainly feels that way right now. The people that are here in eSwiss are all smart and genuine people, but instead of having a vibrant community that functions more-or-less like a real world small scale parody of itself, it's more akin to looking like a peaceful utopia where everyone wants to hold hands and sing Kumbaya as they watch the clouds shapeshift and drift across the sky.
Take this as you will. It's a criticism, a rant, and also a challenge to everyone to make this community interesting and vibrant again.
Also, I still endorse Terry for President because he's a great public figure, and the quality of his content is top notch - the right man to be the public face of Switzerland. Thank you all, good night.
Comments
Activity is good for everyone, and it's definitely harder to maintain vibrant communities than it used to be. The tendency toward a few people doing more and more has happened across the board and in part is understandable from a mechanics perspective, but definitely has a chilling effect on the political roleplay part of this game which was a lot of the attraction to me. Good luck in finding something interesting left in this game
Other than bots literally rigging elections, the blatant pay-to-win functionality is what was the real dagger for this game. You have people who joined in 2016 who are level 1200 acting like they've earned their status. Yeah, okay buddy. Touch some grass and get some vitamin D from the sun.
https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/unity-vs-complacency--2757868
PS:
IRL I actually got sued by a local politician for "slandering" her. She lost of course, because elected and appointed officials are not protected under slander laws - there's this thing called free speech here in America. Anyway, the local news media took a quote from me after asking whether I was willing to apologize for the mean things I had said to her. I essentially doubled down and told her to get f@%ked - and this actually made it to the news throughout the whole greater Philadelphia region - which is hilarious. Needless to say, I'm pretty outspoken and unapologetic - I mean what I say.
There's a bit of contrast to draw there.
Welcome to the current erepublik! good luck in your challenge to find "vibration" nowadays here. maybe when you left the game it was because of that emptiness? I don't think much has changed...
I think there are more developed military and economic aspects, although they can also be a little "vibrant" maybe this aspects are not so developed in your profile (battles, military ranks, medals, factories, experience, etc) and you can find some vibration there!
It is a pity that you have eliminated the previous article, you could have included a link to that article in this one to make it even more extensive to understand your concept and idea. Luckily I have some screenshots: https://i.ibb.co/c3S43mx/1.png https://i.ibb.co/86X2Bm9/2.png
maybe messing with people and creating "spoof" items is not my usual thing so i am surprised by your naive actions where you try to manipulate and create those issues...but it is a different way of proceeding.
I haven't seen hostility in Switzerland for a long time and everyone thinks what they want we have seen many dissenting articles generally from 1 or 2 people and they don't prosper at all, that means that the Swiss community is fine anyway. Dissidence is always well received and perhaps if a new idea is created, a party and people are found who want something different from what is current, it is a possibility but I do not see that movement at the moment.
the parties in switzerland are very united and in joint work, therefore the election and direction of the country is on the right track and the official elections, as you say, do not make much sense because there are no disagreements and the main parties give opportunity to people who want the position and the people vary according to availability.
In any case, it would be very easy to present several candidates and know which one would win xD, but what would be the point? when that happened a while ago, they criticized that one or two games would always have the winner. currently all the parties have interference in the election in a planned way, which I see well.
I think that all the opinions and articles that express thoughts and ideas in an environment of respect seem very good to me, if I asked you to apologize to pep it was because you used metaphors towards a president elected by the Swiss people in an unhappy way. As you also only have a few days back in Switzerland, it seems to me surprising and not very objective that you launch some comments of this type without knowing some aspects and details during your absence in Switzerland, as well as the possibility of getting to know them before giving a public opinion.
but you are right maybe there is no "vibe" in that way, but in switzerland there is a growing and stable community trying to get new people involved and maybe some "vibrant" comments don't create an environment where people want to get involved.
Your proposal not to love each other, to challenge each other, to confront each other, etc. is interesting, but in an environment where unity and teamwork is prosperous, I don't see any point in it.
I don't understand your idea of turning the game into a "vibrant" community like real life that we could add confrontational, hostile, etc.
many people want to escape from real life in the game and not create more of the same in a fictitious way in the game ... it seems boring or unpleasant and more so in a small community like Switzerland.
i prefer the "peaceful utopia" you mention where switzerland has grown enormously in many aspects and has given growth possibilities to its citizens like never before. there are many old players who say they only dedicate themselves to the social or political module with small accounts and without real power... and unfortunately they have no idea of other aspects for development such as the military and economic aspects of the game that are so important and maybe if they put something of effort in those modules they would find more "vibration".
and since you want vibration, you can vibrate attacking me, it doesn't bother me but I ask you to consider your comments with people who are new to politics and are trying to learn with a willingness to collaborate. it's just a suggestion, I hope you don't take it "hostile".
and it would be good if your constructive criticism is backed up with evidence or examples to better understand and demonstrate it.
I'm sorry for the extension of the message but unfortunately your article was too, anyway with this message I end the exhibition so as not to bore our community.
By the way, your approach is interesting, although I don't share some concepts and I think it differs from a new reality established in the game, anyway good job! and welcome to switzerland, I hope your contributions are "vibrant" for the good of the community!
and you have achieved it switzerland began to vibrate for you!? Congratulations
o7
Wait, are you confusing vibrant with vibrate? There might be a typo in there somewhere perhaps. I mean vibrant as in colorful, eclectic, eye catching, and interesting. The opposite of dull.
Though haptic feedback would surely be an interesting addition.
lmao, someone (politely) criticized the stagnant status quo of a forced autocracy for a minute and terry almost had a stroke in there, hahaha!
perfect.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Uff 👀👍
Stirring the pot a little bit.