Disko Partisani

Day 3,896, 05:25 Published in Greece Greece by Asterios C

I believe I’m one of the few players in the New World who is adamant we are playing a politics-first game. It’s called eRepublik and its basic character unit a ‘citizen’. That’s what sets it apart from other games. Charisma can be proven superior to might. Knowing people is the best asset one can acquire. One ostensibly key aspect of that is partisan politics. Enter: Parties. They were here from the very beginning. Except for Countries, they were the only grouping that could be materialized via game mechanics. Most people, including me, seized the opportunity to orchestrate gameplay at this micro level.

But my profile now writes “No political activity”. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, I’m not currently a member in any Party yet I feel I’m more meaningfully politically active now than I have ever been, while a member. And I was not one of those followers in the crowd mind you. I was spokesperson and party president in two parties (GIP, Isopoliteia), I run member retention projects (GIP Housing, GIP Co-op Fund), got involved in organizing and overseeing both national (APRIL) and international (LEON) party collaborative networks, contributed in the coordination of party-organized militias (G-Force, GIP Armed Forces) as well as managed congress (with blockers, Anti-PTOs, T5s and all) and presidential campaigns (Makedonissa, Thanasis Shoinas, ypourgos among others).

That was back when. But then Parties grew more and more irrelevant as attention and elementary community-building gradually shifted towards Military Units. Under this kind of pressure Parties essentially imploded. Either overrun by bitter power-struggles between belligerent cliques that slowly but painfully suffocated anyone who was not willing to unequivocally take sides (see GIP); or pushing RL ideology-inspired agendas, which struggled to cohere in-game, employing overly charged rhetoric that fostered isolationism and ultimately downsizing into obscurity (see Isopoliteia).

With no Party to dictate a modus operandi I should conform to, I found myself rejuvenated in pursuing politics in its purest form: getting out and supporting people in any way possible. I re-discovered the exhilaration of practicing politics in its literal sense by mastering the art of being a ‘politis’ (citizen) to help your ‘polis’ (city/community) thrive. That includes setting goals and getting people on board to achieve them, writing and communicating to keep a community interconnected and alive, giving a hand in the logistics of community-building programs. I currently QM for The Icarus Project. And that’s the community I care and cater for the most. It’s not a Party; it’s not a Military Unit either. It’s the sweet spot in-between. Yeah, “No political activity” doesn’t do it justice.

"Come on baby this is what you need"


This article was written as an entry to Sisk’s contest “Describe your Party”.