Against the stream: I support the new version

Day 961, 04:19 • Published in Romania Romania • by MoonlightShadow

I see so many comments like “admin, we don't like V2, don't you read us?”. I see so many comments "I`m leaving eRepublik", posted day after day, by the same people which don't seem to actually leave. There is a riot going on out there and I have a strong deja-vu feeling. And I will be against the stream because I'll actually support the new version.

Let's start with the beginning, shall we? Well, in the beginning there was beta. Not the current beta, a far more mythological and almost religious one. The beta that gave birth to the New World, almost three years ago. So many things happened meanwhile, so many friendships filled this virtual world and, above all, so many real-life friendships were born while having a drink in a bar together with other players, sometimes even from other countries! If there is one thing that really makes eRepublik special, then it's the fact that many citizens have come to know each others in real life, because of this game. The first beta was kinda different and I remember that we were talking about a couple of thousands of players in total. Of course it is much easier to make happy 5000 or 10k people compared to 300,000. The larger a group is the bigger the differences in their opinions and the harder to make everybody “accept” or "enjoy" something.

But beta was far from being loved. The downtimes used to occur very frequent and sometimes would have taken several days before eRepublik would have returned back on-line. There were so many problems and the site was moving so slow almost all the time, that having today eRepublik the way it is, with 20 times more population able to surf the New World in pretty good conditions (ok, 99 % of the time, as much as it would hurt the other 1 %, especially in the big battles final hour) seems almost a miracle. Remember SGP, when just 250 online citizens brough the servers down 🙂 But you know what? The beginnings are always the sweetest part, aren't them? A romantic feeling developed inside the hearts of the first beta population, today's “dinosaurs” as we call them. As broken as it was, beta was their little virtual world, their small family. And when V1 arrived the beta population started immediately to scream “we don't like V1, give us our beta back”. They were hating the new layout (I was one of them), they were hating the trivia system (God, I was hating trivia so much) they were hating everything about V1. And they were missing person vs person fights which were replaced with the wall, they were missing company tools which were completely removed, they were missing "friends updates"...actually it was not about “missing” as it was about resistance to change. People tend to don't like changes. It's far more easier to live in a town you know, even if you don't like it, than moving in a new town and start all over again. Yes, of course you may do it in the end, but now without an internal fight between the familiar and the unknown which lies ahead.

Everybody was hating V1 and for a while they did not even say why. After the shock wave passed, finally some constructive feedback started to pop-up : “actually, V1 indeed brings several improvements, but we would like..”. And there it was, the magical words, what we, the citizens would like. Had they keep posting just “v1 sucks” maybe eRepublik would have been today the way it was back then. But slowly, eRepublik team started to gather the feedback and a series of improvements were added according to citizen's requests. A dynamical world map. Implemented the citizenship, which was a major request. Brought back company's tools. Modified the war module several times; for example, they changed the retreat rule. And of course, they have done many other things, starting with graphical improvements and ending with a new forum platform, facebook connect and anti-cheating project. Yes, each of these were "small" things, but add them together and you obtain the V1 which some are regretting now. But last autumn it was clear that no matter how much the V1 would be "patched", it won't be enough. The majority of players wanted something new, a completely different experience. They wanted a more complicated and realistic economic module and they wanted back the mythological person vs person war module. This is what you could read everywhere: “economy is crumbling, we face overproduction, do something” and “wall-system sucks, bring back PvP”. What have the team started to do? It started to work for new economic and military modules.

And back in the present day, we have live the new modules. Modules which bring economic diversity and complexity as well as visual battlefields where citizens will fight one versus one. So, our wishes came true, they did what we asked them to do. I for sure like at least the economic module, a lot, because it is far more complex. As for the military, it has a lot of potential, but also requires more "adjustments" compared to economic module, adjustments which I`m confident will be done. I like the new professions, the new products with their components and even the fact that different "qualities" of the same product has different images. This proves attention to details, something which eRepublik used to lack completely. Put it simple, I was bored to death by the "simple" eRepublik.

But once again the history repeats itself and there is a riot just as it was when V1 was launched. The ones who hated V1 ask today to keep it, because it is “wonderful”. Now, that's wonderful, isn't it? 🙂 The ones who used to say that V1 turned into being incredibly boring because “you have nothing to do, just 2 clicks and you are done” are scared about having more things to do, a more opened New World. And what is history teaching us? Is teaching us that sooner or later everybody will love the new version of eRepublik, regardless if that moment will arrive just days before the launch of a new version 🙂 And most likely, when a new version will knock at the doors, call it V3, many will scream "no, no, don't do it, please, leave us V2 on a separate server, we love it". Yes, the current version is far from being perfect, or rather "good enough". So it was the first beta. So it was V1. Balancing the formulas, modifying some things which are now completely "wrong", these are just so easy to do. I really wouldn't be worried about that. It's just that you should start expressing your feedback and tell what you like and what you don't like sooner. And move away from the crowd which "hate" but don't even know exactly what they hate and it's impossible to be fixed. Thanks for reading.