Join the new world

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Q1. Why do you play eRepublik?

I was never a good speaker. I especially battled to get my message across when writing. I started playing eRepublik to improve my writing skills and was thrilled with the media module in the game. My writing improved greatly. I kept playing because you become so invested in the country that you choose. The game is addictive, but on the other hand, it is frustrating and heartbreaking.

Q2: What is your opinion on eReps Pay to Play system and it's effects on genuinely new players?

I am proud to say that I have never paid a cent to this game. Being powerful in the Military or in Economics has never been a priority. The aspect of the game that appeals to me most is the Political, Social and Nation Building. The military never had an effect on this aspect of the game. It does now, however. No matter how much you have earned the respect of your eCommunity, no matter how trusted you are, a bunch of weeds with a Master Card can coup, and take over, and as long as they have the credit, they can hold onto a nation indefinitely. This happened in eBelgium and you see that there is now no support for new players. There is no system of mentorship, only limited housing support. This is a shame, and yes, I blame the Pay to Play aspect of the game.

Q3: If people were allowed multi's (multiple accounts) would that not just create more revenue for eReps bottom line?

I do not believe it does, you still have 1 player with multiple accounts but that player only has 1 MasterCard. Economically, a player does not become richer in Real Life.

Q4: As an 09'er, what has changed the most from 2009 and 2021?

A lot and much of the changes happened when I was eDead. I remember the old battle wall, we used to wear out our F5 key constantly refreshing the page to get an accurate standing of a battle. I am not overly concerned with Game mechanics. At the beginning of my eLife, I was very involved in the South African Government. I was thrilled with the introduction of Citizenship, as this defended us against PTO, but in the end, South Africa still fell. Besides the introduction of Dictators, which affects the political aspect of the game, the game is the sum of all players input, be that ingame through articles and the shout feed, or on forums, Discord etc… I do miss the days when there was a very strong Role-playing vibe going on. This seems to have mostly died. Other things that have changed is meeting up in Real Life. We used to have South African meet-ups in Johannesburg, and once, our Minister of Finance Enoch Root, who was a Real-Life American, actually flew to South Africa for the meet-up (although I think he was more interested in our female president)

Q5: Why should people, new and old, join the eBelgian cause?

eBelgium is a great country insofar that it is English Speaking. It was a country on the up-and-up, a great fertile country to grow as a new player and to get opportunities. These opportunities were wasted by the party that has ruled there for 4 years or something. The leadership of Belgium was content with using cash to focus on military strength rather than giving any attention to the social aspect of the game. The people of Belgium became content living under these conditions and were happy just to get their weekly handout from the government, but there was no spirit of growth. My party decided to tackle the growth issue head-on by starting to promote Belgium. This resulted in a massive influx of new immigrants. None of these immigrants was told to or required to join my party, and many joined the ruling party. The activity was up, social interaction was up, then the ruling party started eating itself from the inside. They impeached their long-standing president and handed us the keys to the Kingdom. The following election we won fairly by 1 vote, however, we were then victims of a coup, and they took back power. We did not have a new article in the country for almost 2 months, as all the work we did was lost as people who are interested in the political and social side of the game left for greener pastures.
If people believe in freedom and excelling, they should join the cause of freeing Belgium from Tyranny. It was awesome and it can be again!

Q6: What's your favourite colour?

Vermilion (you might need to Google that)

Q7: Of your three Presidencies, which was the most difficult?

~ My first in South Africa was hard as we were TO’ed by 888Chan
~ My second in South Africa was hard as we were TO’ed by Lazocrats
~ The hardest, however, without a question was Belgium. Dealing with the opposition at the time who are extremely toxic. I was trying to build national unity to counter the polarization caused by a regime change, but the toxicity made all good gestures and offered a weapon for them to use against me. I simply cannot explain the stress of this type of situation, especially considering it ended with a coup!

Q8: Tell the Skald readers why the Red Squadron is the M.U for them.

Red Squadron is the official opposition MU in Belgium. This means that it is there to fight against selfish tyranny from the Dictators. It is a vehicle for change and we need every player we can get, be them week, be them, strong because one day we will liberate Belgium from the tyrants.

Q9: What's yer fav song?

TOOL - Forty Six & 2

Q10: Curlybear seems to be running the show in eBelgium. What's up w/ that?

Curlybear is an exceptionally competent administrator. You need the finances to balance, he is your guy, you need a concession deal wrapped up, he is your guy. He, however, is not a politician, and the only way he seems to be able to counter political opposition is to silence them with the military. It is hard to respect someone who has so much potential but deals with force, purges and suppression. It is actually a crying shame.

Q11: If you had an hour to run as Plato, what would you do?

Get rid of the dictatorship function so both paying and non-paying players can have a role in this game.

Q12: The Skald really wants to know, why OKayOk as your nomenclature?

I used to go by Mark Morcom, which is very similar to my RL name. I needed to change this as potential employees IRL were asking me why the internet says I was President of South Africa and initiated and fought a bitter war against Brazil and Indonesia. My steam account at the time was Kayok (not sure where that came from) but this name was not available in-game, so I added am O and messed with uppercase to get this name. I like to think it makes me more agreeable.

Q13: Who do you think is the most interesting player and the reverse, who's the biggest bore?

The most interesting (but hated) player I have had the misfortune of crossing paths within this game must be Ajay Bruno. He used to run a vlog on eRepublik and was a masterful PTO’er who utilised misinformation to smoke his PTO attempts.
The biggest bore has to be McKitkat, from Belgium. He is a toxic, vile little troll. Also, it really used to get to me that when we were having a political debate, he started making real-life accusations that I was a racist or a fascist. These remarks do not belong in the game, as there is no race in-game. His characterisations of me could not have been further from the truth. If you are liberal or conservative in Real Life does not mean that a particular governing system will work in your favour in your game country. Belgium for instance relied on a quasi-socialist system, but this created an unhealthy reliance on the status quo. Such a system needed to be abolished to allow the players to grow.

Q14: What would you like at the bar?

A large pitcher of Freedom and a shot of Liberty!

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