[V2]The Change in Gold Standard

Day 814, 07:51 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Dishmcds
Over the last two days, we've seen well over 20,000 Gold spent by all parties. EDEN, Phoenix, ALA, Sol, it doesn't matter. It's balls out. North of Brazil, Liaoning, Xinjiang, and we haven't even gotten to London yet.

The Change in Gold Standard

For almost two years, Gold has been easily marketed, and openly by Erepublik. Most large countries make their money off of prints and exchange, while regulating their own currency markets. Tax settings, along with other various details help each nation to incur the expense of waging war around the Globe. With the change of administrations each month, some countries change more often than others, but the basic standard of Gold trading remains.

Over the past six months, and continued on to V2 (as it seems, with the introduction of the new military, economic, and Entertainment modules), we'll see a drastic change in this. Gold will be harder to come by. Essentially, most businessmen (and women) have sat on their Gold for the last few months awaiting the arrival of new industries, most military personnel have either been tanking, donating it, or saving it for the new changes, and most countries have been stockpiling it trying to be as frugal as possible.

Until the recent battles, of course, but that's been par for the course. Countries using the Income tax system are largely gaining money even with their expenses, while countries which rely largely on VAT have been bleeding it. Even the EI stated that VAT was largely counterproductive, however, sometimes it takes changes in National Governments to see that.

Erepublik - A Free game for the Future?

However, as it seems, Erepublik will be introducing more than just a more complex military module. The introduction of true tanks, helos, infantry, and artillery won't be the only expenditure.

Let me explain further.

Many countries that are successful in tanking operations rely on the good will of citizens that donate their spare change, Gold, or labor to their Country. Just about every Ministry of Defence worldwide uses a donation plug in their articles, so they can more effectively use their tanking services on the highest strength and ranked players in the World. This might seem a bit caste to most, however, it's efficient. It's not efficient to tank a player with 10 strength, especially with high Quality weapons because of the loss of damage. Having someone 30+ do it allows for more capabilities and you can spread your damage.

This is not secret.

However, now that we're looking at the new Entertainment module, countries will now have to be very creative in how they approach their spending. Citizens will have less Gold to donate, or they won't donate at all. Instead, they'll use the Cinema, Library, or whatever "cool changes" that come with V2.

This creates a hole in the cycle, as much like when Lana was introduced it will create a suction that will remove Gold from our Economic cycle at an alarming rate. Erepublik advertises itself as a free game. Many of the citizens of Erepublik are either in college or younger, and do not have incomes that allow for thousands of dollars to be spent on unlocking features or paying for extras.

Is this the most absolutely horrible thing on the planet?

No. While I do think it will create an imbalance, I believe we need to wait and see how they actually function. The new industries will create new taxes and new income. How much is still to be seen, and how that translates into the new Gold Standard comes later. I think Erepublik will be more complex and perhaps interesting, and I feel like we'll see another power shift similar to the Hun/Romanian shift that occured just after Beta, but it needs to be carefully managed. Creating too large of a suction in our economy will drive most of the current population away, as it will mean their successes will be very very hard, few, and far in between.

Sincerely,
Dishmcds
Prime Minister