Invading eRep HQ: Interview with Co-Founder Alexis Bonte

Day 1,108, 14:21 • Published in USA United Kingdom • by HobbitTon


Would you like to hear some office muzak?
~I know many of you have been curious with what has been going on behind the scenes. Being the hobbit I am, very recently I had the once in an eLifetime opportunity to interview Alexis Bonte, co-founder of eRepublik. For some odd reason, I feel this interview to be kind of rusty, so try to prove me wrong. I put a lot of work into this, so hopefully it paid off! Happy reading.~

"Interview with George the Admin"
~Unfortunately, we were both under a specific time frame, so I might have missed a question or two. Because of this, the article about by WahooBob is a great complementary interview with this one as it interviewed the other co-founder of eRepublik, George Lemnary. Check it out~

By the way, Alexis Bonte answer some user submitted questions at the bottom! Thank you Xtasia for acting as a messenger between Alexis Bonte and me!





Being the co-founder of eRepublik is not a simple task by any standards. Furthermore, taking time out of your hectic schedule to proceed with an interview with this hairy hobbit is quite flabbergasting. Again, I sincerely thank you for accepting my humble invitation. Shall we commence with this shindig?

Sure thing and answering interviews like yours is actually one of the better parts of being an eRepublik co-founder. I´m doing this in part to relax 🙂 .

Starting a serious online strategy game as a dedicated business is quite the undertaking and aspiration itself. Where did the idea of creating such a revolutionary game with your respectable co-founder, George Lemnary, come from? What is your position now in the eRepublik Team, and how does it incorporate into the company?

Well I´ve always loved strategy games, the Civ series in particular. I have spent nights on games like railroad tycoon, patrician ports of call (old one), defender of the crown (even older), the total war series etc.. But I never got caught in an online game and the idea really came form my first ever meeting with George. He wanted to create an economical simulation online and I wanted to play a game kind of like civilization but that leveraged the potential of the net and that would be a daily expereince of 15 to 30 minutes in a persistent world so I could play it to. We talked and talked and decided on that first meeting to give it a try.

Congratulations for the substantial accomplishment of crossing the three year milestone! What direction did the eRepublik Team want to take this game during the "V1" period?

Well we mistakenly tried to make it more deep and (we believed mass market) with what on paper looked like a much better military module (Rising) and loads of good looking ladies that helped the two clickers. I think we all know what happened with that! I think now we have learned our lesson and are much closer to what was the original appeal of eRepublik. A social strategy game with a strong patriotic and social component that can be as deep as you want it to be and that you can play for as long as you like.



The game was doing so well. What made the Team decide to transition towards the much hyped eRepublik Rising? How did your staff prepare for such a drastic shift in gameplay mechanics as well as community support?

See my answer above, the game was doing well we tried to make it go even better, with the wrong solutions with Rising. Now we are actually back to similar levels to before Rising (in term of daily active users not total citizens) so it has taken us a bit of time to recover from Rising but we are back on track and we have learned our lesson. The lat changes to the game have been much smaller and quicker and errors corrected much faster. I think that is the key, we can´t stand still and we must continue to constantly try to improve the game, that means we will get it wrong a few times still so important is to correct mistakes very fast.

While many citizens appreciated the user-sensitive schedule as it created depth in the gameplay, most were not satisfied with the results of eRepublik Rising. The migrations directly caused much turmoil within the New World economically and militarily. Furthermore, the increase in "gold-sinks" meant less gold coming back into country economies. Did the eRepublik Team honestly do as much testing as they would have liked to?

You never test enough but then all the tests you may make never give you the same results and feedback as having the changes on a live environment. In insight we probably should not have launched the Rising changes but the test Results for Rising believe it or not where actually much better than for V1! And V1 was a major step up from beta (although some still recall beta as the best thing ever, and I admit some parts of it we no longer have I loved). So tests can give you the wrong info.

Due to the eRepublik Rising transitional phase, there was a clear drop in player retention as many seasoned veterans just left. This could be expected since many people do not like seeing change in the first place, But change can be positive or negative. With that being said, do you believe that the modifications in the gameplay brought by the eRepublik Team during that time had too much effect on the New World?

If you don´t evolve, you lose players and if you make changes that are to drastic and to often you also loose players. We need to find the middle and remember that its impossible to please everybody all the time.



Through its short lived triumphs and failures, eRepublik Rising abruptly came to an end. What did the eRepublik Team do well during that time period, and what did they learn and do differently if time were to repeat itself?

No more 6 to 9 months projects, baby steps with quick results that can be corrected, fine tuned or removed quickly.

What is the most difficult aspect of maintaining and further enhancing this game?

Its complexity, very few people realize just how big and complex eRepublik is, its actually one of the most complex games in the world right now. If you think about it, it really is a World with several games that interconnect. This means that each time you change something or introduce something new, you risk breaking something or upsetting the balance of something else that in appearance has nothing to do with what you are changing.

Transparency is quite a large factor in the success of such a project with this magnitude. I, for one, was always a fan of the time where the eRepublik Team published their updates on the front page, so everyone could be able to see them and vote them up. It was a way for everyone to come together. Since then, they have been sending us periodical updates, but instead they have been sent in our personal messages. Is there a reason why they are not visible for all to see anymore?

Yes and you are going to be surprised, we did for more transparency... Only about 25% of daily active users read the insider but close to 80% now read it. Sending them to the message box simply tripled its impact and reach.



Just by seeing how this game has evolved through the ages, citizens can see the entire eRepublik Team and you have a burning passion for this project. What do you like best about working for eRepublik?

The fact that its not work, its a dream that we are making real and that provides fun to hundreds of thousands of people from all parts of the world. 1 positive feedback from 1 player saying that he or she is having a good time with eRepublik just makes my day.

Numerous weeks ago, the eRepublik Team released a series of surveys that they said would help coax the way eRepublik would venture from then on? Will there be a way for citizens to have a greater voice of what goes on in your underground cave? I only ask that because the official eRepublik Forums have become quite limited. Any changes on the forum's status for the future as well?

Actually 90% of what we do is based on player feedback or what we think the majority players want or will want as long as it is sustainable. Of course we can´t talk with everybody all the time and take every suggestion.

Just recently, the eRepublik Team decided to make the change and make it so no Congressmen could get experience points from proposals in game. Many were satisfied with this as it meant the death of lulz proposals. While I will miss the experience points from this, I understand why this was done and accept it. Does this signal a sign for an update to the political module? What can we see on this front?

We are doing some high end updates on the political front (mostly at the president level) but right now most of the upcoming changes are concentrated on the economy and military fronts. But we haven´t forgotten the rest in particular the media (I want that preview feature too).



This hobbit will try not to give a devious smirk, but no guarantees. We hobbits like to call it Big Toe Syndrome, and it is where we trip and fall like Oprah does on weekends. Has there ever been a moment where the eRepublik Team has screwed up, and it ended up giving a laugh to everyone? For example, just last week I contracted BTS and tripped on my Alexis Bonte lamp.

I've got to long a list for this article 🙂

For the last couple days, many eRepublik citizens have seen this Black Friday deal. While this is a great marketing mood to rake in the cash, how will this money be used to help further the game and benefit us, the players? What future updates can we see?

Well what I can tell you is that 100% of all the game revenues and investments we have received go into the game´s maintenance and development and 0% to profits or to any of the founders or investors pockets. So everything we do is only to give you guys a better experience.

And yes we do hope that some day in the future we will be able to get some profits from eRepublik, buy fast cars and party, but right now, and until we get this to its full potential (and we are far far from there), its more of a Red Bull and pizza phase (ok there is some partying to 😁.

Success cannot be measured by one, but by how it affects others. There is no doubt that this entire project has been successful just by looking at its growing longevity. Because of this, many other games are out and about mimicking eRepublik. How do you feel about this?

Copy is the best form of flattery. So good luck to them but I don´t think they realize just how hard this is.





"Many tools rely on the API, and it is having some major issues right now. Why is it not maintained properly? Is eRepublik planning to drop it?" ~ Blazix

API is back on live and working, we have struggled with development resources on it, but no we won´t drop it.

"New citizen retention is of utmost importance not just for individual countries, but the game itself. With such updates such as 'missions' and the 'Daily Tasks' buttons, the eRepublik Teams seems to be working towards providing easy-to-use resources for newer players to learn how to play. Are other updates to help newer players, such as a new video tutorial or guide, planned for the future?" ~ Kronos Q

No video tutorial planned because we would have to update it each time we make a change to the game. But expect more and better missions to come soon and an improved experience for new players.

"Why won't the eRepublik team publish the production formulas?" ~ Leroy Combs

Because this is not a math competition 🙂. Seriously there are more downsides than upsides to publishing these.



"My main concern is the publishing restrictions. I'm a little biased in this, but I feel like at the very least CPs should be able to publish anywhere. Ideally, I would like the whole thing removed. My question is: Can a proper middle ground be found? Because so many people miss this aspect of the game." ~ CRoy

The main problem with this was the abuse and the manpower it takes to moderate that abuse. Look around and you will see that eRepublik is actually one of the most permissive game out there on this front.

"What are you going to do about the 'obvious multies' people tend to complain about in game? ~ Geno Garon

Permanently ban them and remove their illegal gains. Apart from a specific issue last week end, cheating and multis are actually way way down compared to V1 days.



And if you liked what you read, please vote, subscribe, comment, and shout! Thank you!

Best Regards,

HobbitTon
Congressman, Arkansas
~Your neighborhood friendly hobbit.~