Join the new world

Hi people! How you been? Hope you had a nice break since my last series of interviews regarding the big world war that happened onto Romania, because I know I did. I also used that break as a build up for my next “mission”, which is today's interview-like discussion with my φιλο N4zGuL.

Without further ado, behold the first ever interview with N4zGuL!



Severrus Q1: First of all, tell us more about Nazgul, who is he, what does he do, how did he start playing this game and why is he still on??

Nazgul A1: My name is Alex i am 38 years old now and i am an expat Greek. I saw an advert with one of the Greek papers i was reading while still in Athens and joined out of... curiosity without having tried any such game in the past. GR was a very strong country when i started with prominent players that now are not active anymore heavily tanking when needed (Geokos , Jaguaros etc). In my beginnings i was really more into politics . The election system was different back then with each region having its own candidates and so on. Plus the internal divisions where more fun 🙂. I started tanking during the Turkish Greek war when apart from me a new generation of tanks arose (F@nis , Exohoritis , Vasspana and several others most of us tanking ever since)

Why am i still here?
Why is everyone still playing this very bad game?
People you know and addiction (which is fading for all) . A fundamental reason for me was when me F@nis , Vasspana , Asxetoumpas , mr Kouva, V4lerion and Myth0s founded GaMa during a fully loaded tsipouro gathering. I guess you know what followed that 😃. Today the same people with the addition of some amazing younger players (Aragorn who used to ad still is a virgin , Vaggelisker - who used to be a junior GaMa earlier as well , Loukatsos - who used to be a man before his surgery , Sp0ke - who used to more active before starting to hang out with air hostesses and Xionis who used to be a lady when Loukatsos used to be a man and now the opposite , to name but a few , are daily keeping me entertained and engaged with this failed platform of a game.
Felt great love from all the great friends we hosted and still host from almost all parts of the e World (including your community)? Once a GaMa always a GaMa 😛


Severrus Q2: Lets start from the beginning. Obviously, when our country was added to this game it was only a matter of time when a war would erupt. You attacked us first, then you ended up wiped for a few months. Do you recall this period? What went wrong?

Nazgul A2: When your country was added several Greeks boycotted and even left the Game and for a good reason if you ask my opinion (the name of your community back then was not in line with what was agreed in international bodies). This game administration was always trying to make money on RL issues between countries - such is their complete lack of strategy and war features for this game with which they should be normally trying to stipulate battles instead. We lost a great amount of firepower with some of the biggest tanks leaving and actual people to organize ourselves. It was also a major mistake from our side to play admins game who of course were really happy to see spending by both sides.
The opposite thing happened with your community which was heavily supported by RL media - exactly because of the name issue _ with the obvious result of gaining not only the momentum but new clientele for eLabs.
All the above of course do not mean that we also did not make mistakes tand/or underestimated your firepower and will to show up in the servers.

If you ask me if it was a mistake of the then GR administration i would say not really.
You win some you lose some and i am 100% sure if we were not the ones to attack you would have instead. Furthermore and although i fundamentally disagree with RL based politics in game we needed this spark to keep us alive after the departure and embargo.


Severrus Q3: In the alliance shift, for the first time we saw a greater change. After the fall of EDEN, Romania and Greece abandoned their EDEN comrades in order to join Serbia; which brought Macedonia and Bulgaria in a weird situation, basically in the middle between two worlds. Other key factor for this was the Terorists movement in Greece which I like to think you as the leader of. Tell us more about this period.

Nazgul A3: This is somewhat inaccurate.
EDEN was disbanded due to the withdrawal of BG and the situations that followed.
I was one of the main people working to bridge the RL gap with TR and build a strong alliance which would not be based on RL stupidity. It was and it is still my opinion that this is the only way to force the administration to be more creative if they want to keep the game alive. I actually feel insulted when a very poor skilled developer thinks that he will make money because my forefathers fought against a Turk or a Bulgarian and so on. I feel double the amount of stupid when i realize he actually is!
Unfortunately BG did not follow which was indeed really disappointing since we had forged such a strong friendship. If you want my suspicious conspiracy take on this i always thought that the administration retains close relationships with key figures in communities (including GR) or at least they did when they actually existed (as a game adminstration) back in the days. I am persuaded that some people lead by Stoich who was backchanneling to Serbia (for a fact) tried and succeeded to build on the AntiTurkish sentiment of their community and pave an easier way for their decisions.
Do not forget the following 3 facts
- BG was an enemy to your community and attacked you when needed but the fact you share so many things in common played a big role in moving back towards the Serbian influence and a partnership with your country (since this is more than an alliance)
- We never planned or wanted to replace BG with TR we wanted both together but of course this was severely twisted in BG media - with the support of Serbia and their proxies/trolls.
- Our mistake as EDEN was that we forced BG out after their veto instead of building common grounds in a healthy sustainable alliance. Although i was not in the HQ i share equal responsibility of a soldier.
*This for EDEN

*Now for working with Serbia.

It is true this happened and it is also true that after EDEN disbanded me and the rest of Tanks (GaMa and Myrmidons) tried to initiate discussions with Serbia and see where the whole alliance topic will head to. These conversations did not include Romania and at that period GR was without an alliance.
As you understand till this point all other countries would always triple check what the GR tanks want/think before they move for any official action.

At that point there was a leadership gap in GR.
A lot of us were not really active and we supported some new people that came to power alongside Ektonosiakos . This proved to be a huge mistake. This group of players was so thirsty to control GR that they knew they had to undermine the GR tanks if they are to show off and survive in any alliance HQ. So they chose to enter (co found they say) Asteria without having the green light from the Tanks (and we all know the damage output of GR tanks) . As if this was not enough their leaders decided to join the alliance via ticket and not following the mechanics of the game with a congressional vote.

They elected CP against Mithrantir and their claim was that since they did so they had the majority needed to take decisions as this. I believe you will agree that entering with a ticket without at least a strong majority consensus (similar to the then congressional margin needed) and without respecting your firepower was a move to make GR diplomacy from a 1st tier to puppet puppy or anything else you can imagine.
In brief YES we (GR tanks) had initiated talks with our Serbian counterparts to discuss the future NO we did not concede on abandoning our allies and join.

BG and your government was indeed in a rough spot in the beginning because they relied heavily on Serbia at least being neutral to them if they wanted to survive. Seeing Serbia ditching them or possibly going against them was leaving them almost isolated.

*Now for the Teroristas
To set the record straight Romanians and Argentinians did not try to interfere with the GR issue. On the contrary some people from Serbia did. I am assuming those people were working closely with the then GR government so media propaganda writing articles flaming in comments the tanks and so on was a thing they felt they needed to do to convince more people to join them - i,e Hristodoulos.

We formed the Terrorists after an article of Ektonosiakos (if i remember correctly) or some Serbians calling us such. - they are terrorists bla bla bla because they dont follow orders bla bla bla.
But in fact we succeeded 2 things

1. We proved that the damage in GR was 95% us and some politicians getting elected with multies will not shift our foreign policies like this nor they will make us anyone's proxy. GR was always an alliance leader spreading damage for its allies not a beggar politician.

2. Although we proved to everyone including our friends (Argies) we will not comply and we are dead serious we are upset with what was imposed to us. Although we made very clear the government had 0 legitimacy to act like that. At the same time we gave so much fun to so many people not just GR everywhere. If you remember the avatars the articles and so on. This is what this game is about not pointless RL based wars. - Maybe and why not the game would be much more fun if it spiraled around MUs or groups instead of nation centric tactics and game play.

Then the dictatorship module came and the multies and politicians party was over (epic in 5 minutes 🙂 )

The then Pro asteria gov of course tried to combine all the anti tank elements into one. So they followed the example of BG politicians spreading anti turkish propaganda calling us traitors and the usual trash talking of neo populists .

I am proud of the Terrorists movement.
It was actually a glimpse of hope on how we can all play the game with Military units instead of zombie political parties outside of the nationalistic comfort zone of the administration
If it was not for the terroristas a lot more of the Tank players would have left the game disappointed as the huge rift within GR was getting more toxic every day. We could not keep them all sadly.



Severrus Q4: Indeed, our first attack ever I think was on Bulgaria, and Sofia our first conquered region. But things change.. and eventually it seems things always go back to how they initially were, us being with Serbia, you being with Croatia, except a major change is made in Hungary/Romania. Considering that, today it is extremely hard, borderline impossible to make new alliances with a fresh start, because of huge history and some bad blood between countries.. Nonetheless, I am saying this statement for the first time officially, in my years of active politician I have had the opportunity to at least discuss an alliance between both our countries, as unbelievable it may sound. What's your thought on that?

Nazgul A4: Hmmm...Not an easy one to answer but the reasons are not the ones you would expect.
You overestimate the RL negativity of GR towards your country. I understand you as a country have been exposed to extreme domestic populist/nationalistic propaganda.
Before you get me wrong i am not blaming one side -i just now how populism works -especially the one that fountains to the right far right , we see that in GR the past 10 years as a clear result of peoples financial and personal dead ends. Lets say (even if we disagree slightly) GR for your people has been the convenient RL enemy to unite you under a banner. This does not necessarily apply for us. Our main RL totem of hatred is TR and we had had wars and bloodshed that made this even deeper of a scar. So to sum up GR could potentially work with you on setting up a basis of understanding. But i am sure you agree this game is played by people. I am sure you also agree your side is definitely outclassed in terms of visa players. I am also certain you remember and you know that there was and still is account and CC trading in several social media.
Coincidentally some of your people (i include your compatriots that leave in other places Africa not excluded wink wink) alongside some "Romanian Visas" (ROFL)and some Serbs have been making money out of farmed CC or selling accounts they developed.
When these people work together in such harmony for some years now with the tolerance of the administration - since every account they breed our idiots (me included) spend RL money against what makes you think they will allow their business to shut down?
And before i get misunderstood a lot of them forged a mighty farm empire to trade CC and accounts that generate money and then buy packs and compete with the visas. Maybe some few made some money on the side but the amounts would be so low i already feel sorry for them 🙂

To conclude i believe my community is both mature and has a proven record of sidestepping RL crap to play the game (GR-TR is now beyond an alliance , GR-CRO is a brotherhood completely different of what one would expect when Serbia and Greece are in the same room 😛)
Although i am not an expert on your community i can detect that it is predominantly radical anti GR for several reasons that i think i dont need to roll out.
In addition to this your side (Asteria) is not fighting just a war to maintain their farm empire. They fight a war for their existence. Even a small breach of the closed group around Asteria (lets say i,e you and BG went really neutral not the BS neutrality you had had all these years) and ignored us , Asteria would collapse in a matter of days.

It is no coincidence Romanian players were always trying to exterminate even the slightest sign of resistance need that be players , communities , articles a single battle lost. Anything

So its hard for me to see those people in your community and Asteria to let you go or choose an independent way. In my opinion you never did and your Foreign Policies were dictated always by what GR does.
As i said earlier for those who pursuit a better game this is stupid and unhealthy.



Severrus Q5: Considering some elements from the previous question, do you have some thought of an ideal alliance nowadays, or something you have always wanted to see happen? I for one would have wanted to have the chance to see how we would work with Croatia for example, as they are one of the rare countries we had no collaboration with.

Nazgul A5: I believe more or less i touched the topic already. It is silly to discuss alliances when the game itself does not offer any strategic element to change things or set up a proper war/tactical/policy ecosystem that will actually deliver organically new alliances. The admins have been making some but very limited and extremely slow changes lately that i think are positive (increase of deterioration to kill overpowered empires , withdrawal of the CO system to kill the RL value of CC and the impact of farms) BUT they have not done that in the scale required at least yet.
We still need a better monitoring system for multi accounts - i.e mobile number link .
We still require a more interesting political system that will stimulate people's interaction with the game in a different manner.
We still play with the same bonuses allocation (that was totally run and gun set if you remember) for how many years now?
We still play a game in an incomplete world with vast grey areas in the world map.
And even if countries are added only that makes no difference since none of the above has been changed.

The app is a good step to speed up the game and kill user scripts that we all know who developed and who benefits mainly from them (it is actually comedic if you step back and see what the admins have allowed for all this time to exploit their product - due to them thinking they will increase profits). But again if the app is launched without any of the aforementioned improvements it will be an utter stupidity (one more actually)
The only thing that really started moving is the economy and for this you need to thank the Croats that lead the way.

Yet for how long do you think this will keep going if proper changes are not made?

So new alliances require an infrastructure and an environment the developers are simply not providing as long as they keep thinking money and not game. This mistake is something that not even the best gaming products just never do and if they do they go down. Its entertainment business 101.
As long as this exists it only depends on people and that as i explained already is pretty tough to change in Asteria.


Severrus prologue: Much like every country in the Balkans, its almost unnatural to have on enemy. Like I said in our beginnings, Bulgarians tried to PTO our country , underestimating our BabyBoom. Serbia was the one that took us with them and probably saw the potential, and thats how our addition to the game spiced things up and drew Bulgaria to your arms. As far as Asteria goes, I dont think there will be major changes there. Why fix something that aint broken, am I right?
As for our place in the eWorld, well, I can personally claim that your side had the chance and let it slip away, so there's really no point in flaming now on how someone is someone's puppet or stuff like that.. I believe our absence out of Asteria alliance (unlike Bulgaria) speaks for itself.


N4zGuL prologue: Asteria was setup on the basis of a specific game style that abused value of CC , bots (China) and Overpower. Things will change in game or else the f2p crusaders will find themselves without a game to farm at. So nothing is forever and nothing untouchable in my opinion.

Flaming and all what i mentioned took place the time of us about to or just entering Asteria not after.
Yes there has been administrations in my country that still thought we should return but they are naive and foolish since they do not understand 1 main strategy of Asteria.
Asteria needs to invent enemies and danger if it is to be kept together . How else would all of you kiss the feet of the farm empire?

The same tactic was followed by some Pacifica members - POLAND i.e.



Severrus Q6: Nonetheless, this other thing that is intriguing to me is your relation with eUSA. eUSA alone has very interesting e-history in this game, which basically was biased, double-faced foreign politics, sitting on 2 chairs all the time. They went so far to attacking eCroatia, which eventually showed them that whole eWorld basically despises them. Nowadays we can see them seeking refugee in your original regions. How did this truce with eUSA happen, also with eCroatia and eUSA?

Nazgul A6: about USA. I personally was always a close friend of USA. They offered Gama a refuge when we decided to leave GR some years back. They allowed us to elect people in their congress . Even a year ago when WO (with whom i was always close) was still in power they offered shelter to GR companies . For me USA did 2 mistakes and i spoke to WO about that several times.

1. USA is a community with several expats . They used to fear the HUNS and after that the CROATS but it is true this witch hunt was always a power game within their communities. The elite that used to run USA grew weaker with some of their players leaving. That made things really difficult in a bipolar world for any administration. Being part of Pacifica did not help them at all since the illusion of being a 3rd pole and independent alliance when you have Poland with Prophet and Khere in your group is the least a joke. That became very clear when we negotiated to enter Pacifica ourselves as a group of 4 countries GR-TR-ARG-BR alligned with Adriatica. Although we had an agreement Prophet and his partners broke it AFTER the vote had started .I guess mother alliance Asteria pulled their ear or something. Nonetheless this illusion of an independent alliance and Poland shielded Pacifica from their real enemy Asteria. There is a lot of Romanians in USA even today that was also a means to protect them (companies) With all that what you expect them to follow as a policy ha?
Finally it is also true USA was in constant battle with BG and your country. For me the reasons are clear and it is beyond the empathy among people. You both wanted to become an alternative pole while you both were attached to Asteria directly or indirectly. The rest is all crap if you ask me 🙂
While i was still involved with politics and alliances we tried (and we was somewhat successful) to build at least an understanding with the members of PACIFICA that were not or seemed not totally bowing to Poland and Asteria. MAM and Colin worked really hard with WO to build trust. It all went to ruins when Asteria launched their massive attack taking advantage of us not being ready back in 2017 and our collapse. USA -i feel- panicked and to prove their position swayed on an attack to the Croats - i guess to earn the favour of Asteria again. That was a big mistake.

The attack on Cro did not just wake up their community but completely cut off the help from anyone in our group towards USA. It was a matter of time fro CRO to collapse on USA which as you saw was relatively easy. USA thought they will either beat Cro (nope) or that Romania will protect them (hell no)
In fact especially Romania was super happy to be part of this land grab with no real fight (as usual).
Despite the utter collapse of USA our people kept talking with whomever stayed active within their community and started building a relationship again. As you can see today we try with whatever power we have to help them rebuild and reorganize. You see we are not like Romanian farmers. We dont wanna kill communities we want them alive and kicking even when they are against us , so we can have more wars and a healthier game.

2. Although i mentioned it above more or less a major tactical mistake from USA and Pacifica was when they were lead by Julius Khere and Yui. Their attack then to TR was a complete stupidity. In fact they were attacking a very weak group thinking they promote it as a military campaign. Even the last pixel of Erepublik still laughs at the articles of Julius trying to find an enemy to fight and be a good Asterian servant or explain the unexplained to his people.The big mistake USA did back then was they let Poland and Finland dictate their policies and stepped into a battle as a mere follower.I mean letting Poland take decisions on your behalf? Who does that! Although i put it a s number 2 perhaps that was number 1 mistake from USA. Up until that point USA indeed had managed to have a neutral strategy. Mainly fighting countries that were not under anyone's direct interest UK , Indonesia even you and BG. But the problem is when you make this decisions under the pretext you are a 3rd pole what happens when 1 of the 2 original poles does not exist anymore? You just stand naked in the middle of the street trying to prove you are covered like Julius and his Cervantes like articles when they attacked TR.



Severrus Q7: Since we are already talking about relations, what exactly is the relation between both our countries? According to me, a basically 2-clicking guy, it feels as if we were in some sort of a cold war, where nobody wanted to attack each other because it would mean getting dragged into an endless abyss of constant war, so instead both countries literally attacked every other enemy possible but each other. Periodically Hungary and Turkey acted as a buffer zone between the countries, just in case, I suppose. As long as I was active, this was a result of unofficial mutual understanding and logic, I think it remained as such; we havent signed a NAP in a very long time. Do you think this is a good tactic, do you want war with us, and in such who do you think would win? In our last clash, in what was until then the hardest battle I think, Greece took a loss.

Nazgul A7: The increase in the deterioration when occupying a country makes any war against border countries either a TW or stupid. I understand how proud you feel about your country but in my opinion you and especially BG are always dragged into this conflict to drain us and protect Romania . Even Serbia was not a key target to us until they stepped in recently to protect Romania. In an 1 on 1 battle you dont stand a chance against GR because we now have continuous damage output plus we are better organized and with more tanks with visas. I would even bet my money GR could hold both you and BG combined for a prolonged period even if we eventually lost . But for us this wars are simple bait and totally stupid. Our main enemy is Romania . Not even the Romanian community but the elite that ran things and tried to exterminate our communities.

As you said it should be a mutual understanding decision not to attack one another but your country's and BG administrations have been radical pro Asteria.
It is true this is not how previous administrations in your community or even BG thought but i guess Romania was really cornered this time and they put a lot of pressure to your people.I mean accepting BG membership in Asteria after so many rejections and despite all the support BG was offering is just hilarious and dramatic at the same time. By the way as i said previously we know some of your people are very very close with some elite Romanians and perhaps involved in CC and account trading. That makes things even more clear on what level of independence your countries decisions will have 🙂
Every time our group or Turkey becomes a danger for Romania BG wakes up with nationalistic sentiments. I mean come on it is obvious and really low level manipulation just connect the dots.


Severrus prologue: I think you are either underestimating us, or overestimating yourselves... Either way, I've made the same mistakes, and I can tell you this, never, never underestimate your opponent.


N4zGuL prologue: No not at all.
We consider you one of the top tier forces in game. And BG is maybe even number 1 at the moment.
When you ask my opinion i try to be as objective as possible and definitely never to underestimate my e-opponents. But i take into consideration several factors one of which is continuous damage output in damage number of real visa players , number of legends and so on.
I may be wrong but this is a game after all and i wouldn't mind at all even to lose 🙂



Severrus Q8: Speaking of which, interesting things are happening lately in Iran. The focus has been shifted away from eUSA, I guess you succeeded in that; but that again brings us to our war, you are losing and not fighting actually. Why? Whats the plan here? I was on vacation thus not really following, but as I could see, we kept NEing everyone (Croatia, Argentina, Turkey) but they all cut borders somehow I guess. In the end it was you 😂
To sum up, my question is, how did this assault on Iran begin, was it something you had always planned, do you plan to stay there as long as you are not removed? Tell me everything there is to know.

Nazgul A8: I answered that already. Romanian and Serbian (so the defacto rulers of Asteria)tactic was always to dictate our damage output throwing you or BG or any other willing satellite country to do their dirty job.

Well our game style has changed since the first Croatian campaigns.
We ignore or block the battles that try to distract our focus.

For the last part of your question i am not in liberty to say at the moment but Iran was one more willing satellite state that Asteria threw in to do the same. It is the constant syndromes of the Asterina leadership (Romania) that they need to keep their neighbors (friend or ofe) at bay or weak . I repeat - friend or foe. We answered accordingly 🙂



Severrus Q9: One last thing though, cant go without mentioning it. Its real life relations of course. In this game you are perceived as ultra nationalist Greek, even I myself thought that indeed. You are one of the strongest figures there, so I suppose that is normal.
But our countries' Governments seem to have finally reached an agreement. What are your thoughts about this? How is it accepted in Greece, do you think it has a future of mutual cooperation, partnership and friendship between our countries? And do you adress our country by the new name?

Nazgul A9: Well the perception of my political beliefs is entirely inaccurate to say the least 🙂
One of the first things i did in this game was to TO a far right party change their name and troll them.
In RL i used to be center to center left but i am not voting for any Greek Party for the last 10 years. People that know me nowadays describe me as liberal left.

I am not surprised with the agreement. In fact i believe event the parties that oppose it right now in GR are relieved this nows seems to be taking a road for a resolution. There is no doubt that if your country did not elect a new government recently this would have never happened. On the contrary if you had continued with the far right populists of VMRO i am almost certain your country would have been torn into 2 or 3 pieces.
Greece has no real claim in your lands and for me the whole fairy tale was developed to ensure your country breaks part from Yugoslavia with some kind of ethnic identity no matter what that is. Yes there was few people with slavic origins and culture in the area we now call Greek Macedonia . But these people where 1. Feeling Greek mostly and 2. Leftovers of the Bulgarian effort to absorb the peninsula with the collapse of the Ottoman empire. I am not expecting you to agree with me now but i am certain when the situation matures and we all step away from the era of yelling at one another to the level of barking you will realize that claims on the Ancient Macedonian heritage are not just a completely unsubstantiated political maneuver they were infarct hilarious to the level of being comedic. Of course i am not expecting the people of your country to perceive it as such when all you have been hearing for the past almost 30 years is this crap. Perhaps in time.

No i am not calling you North Macedonia yet but not because i reject the agreement. Like you i will need some time to adjust my feelings.

Overall this agreement is very good news for both our countries especially since now there is no territorial claim from your side or land dispute or even cultural question marks through your legislation any more.
The agreement paves the way for you to enter EU and for both countries to start working together with an utter goal of substantial development.
I am happy to see you guys operate in the same environments and ecosystems like we do in terms of human rights , economy , rule of law , foreign affairs.
I will be very happy to see Albania and Serbia joining as well.

Just to clarify that the Greek administration even if they are taking ownership of the Prespa agreement (domestically) they are a total joke.
This agreement as i said required a more realistic government in your country and of course the blessing of the West.
I apologize if you find my views offensive this is not my intention and perhaps if we repeat this conversation in not even a year from now we will both feel way more relaxed about it.

For me the future is always bright when you let the positive people choose the narrative instead of the fanatics.


Big thanks to the author making me give my very first in game interview 😃

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Whew! What a long ride, eh? If you made it to here, congratulations, you just read some quality stuff! I wish to express my gratitude to N4zGuL for taking his time to chat with me, this conversation among others was quite interesting. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Until next time, cheers!
o7