The Erepublik Hierarchy - An Online Gaming Experience

Day 647, 15:09 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Dishmcds
A friend of mine asked me the other day what "Erepublik" was. She had seen an ad somewhere, which we talked a little about. Overall, Erepublik is a very difficult process to describe, especially to someone brand new. One of the Major challenges we experience is keeping new citizens, due to minor complications in understanding. Hopefully, I've learned enough about it to make it simple stupid.

Erepublik - A Concept of Teamwork for the Future

Erepublik is a game based on Teamwork. Regardless of your knowledge of Economics, any capacity you have or had in the past in Military experiences, or Government/Administration experience, basically we're one big team. We use Nationality to determine starting point, but you can start anywhere in the World. Unlike your Real Life, your eLife experience can be chosen, rather than given.



In Erepublik, a Country or Group is only as strong as it's weakest link. This is one of the morals of the game, that together we can accomplish anything, separately we are weak and vulnerable. The economy as one can be highly functional if not easy to manage, the military can be powerful and smooth, and the political sphere can be entertaining tossing around ideals within the Game's mechanics to see how to better apply your own idealistic goals. Communists in Real Life can be capitalists here, and vice versa, entertaining thoughts of proving how various -isms work or do not work.

tl;dr: If you can't shut up long enough to listen to everyone around you, you're going to fail miserably.

How does Erepublik apply overall to my life, and what goals can it possibly help me attain?

Let's face it. Many of the people I talk to regularly are ashamed to talk about Erepublik in their daily lives to their friends. The conversation would go something like this:

Erepublikan: Dude/Man/Honey/Baby/Child, I play this awesome new online game. I just won Congressional Elections!
Non-Erepublikan: Um, Nerd.



In essence, I've found that if the concept of online gaming doesn't suit you, you're more than likely to consider this a nerd's paradise, full of those kids from school who usually get copied off of for tests, but rarely go on dates. The crowd tends to swing towards the young end of the spectrum, ranging anywhere between 14 and 19 from what we see the most. Early twenties is probably the next most popular group, but the group who ends up being late twenties (all the way through fifties) is usually pretty selective. Most of us in the older crowd wouldn't have many friends that would have the time to dedicate to Erepublik, which is the obstacle we must overcome.

The thing about Erepublik is that you can actually apply real life principles such as skills you learn at your job, the way you choose your friends, and how you play the game. It's just as much a part of you as your character's statistics. What you're good at in Real Life translates into Erepublik, as does what you need to improve. People who organise well are usually great in Military Command, however, they usually lack something of the Political bite to achieve Presidency. People who have the required "attitude" to debate Politically usually lack the organisational skill to run large groups of Military (and they tend to be spacey at the same time). Idealists, Realists, Pragmatists, etc tend to be good at certain things, but suck at others (to be blunt). In this realm, rather than looking at it as a "nerd's game", apply things you actually know to Erepublik, and you'll end up being rather well liked.

It's not always about "Sugar-Coating"

There are things which cannot be sugar coated. Erepublik is an online game. It is not perfect, and has various glitches, bugs, and lag. Sometimes, it's just plain screwy. If you're an internet veteran, this is not new to you. Just about every single game in the entire Interwebz World has these, and just about all of them are complained about the same way:

The Admin Hates Me!

Well, the simple answer is no. You're not going to listen to it. You're not going to care. You just want it fixed the way you want it fixed. This is pretty simple as well.

Now, before you go all emo on me, remember something: The Admin team is human. They eat, sleep, breathe, and react in the same time span that it takes you to do the same thing. For example, if you report a bug at 6 PM in the United States (East Coast), it's 1 AM in Romania. The Admin's technical team is based in Bucharest. This is not a secret, nor is it amazingly complicated. They might not be awake. Give them time to fix it, your World is not going to crash around you in the next 30 minutes.

The Admin Team, from my experience with them have always been open and fair. They've been more than willing to talk with anyone who asks questions, and while it may take a little time to reply to everyone in the Community (considering there are 200K+ now, according to the latest Census), you will eventually get an answer.



1. Do not accuse anyone in public. Since the beginning, this has been a big no no. Do not throw a public temper tantrum (a lesson I also learned the hard way). You will receive the same punishment as the next person regardless of status. If you feel something is weird, use the contact button at the bottom of the page.

2. If you have a request, use the Open Letter forum. That's what it's for. Articles rarely work, and that's not what they're for. Also, Big Brother's Suggest system is a good way to make your voice heard, which is at this address.

3. If you write a letter saying you're going to "quit" because of "X" reason, you're not going to get a very well reasoned response. That's the equivalent of a 6 year old telling his mother he isn't eating unless he gets Prime Rib. Once again, if you have an issue, present it, and wait for your response. If you really want to quit, then do so, but no one is going to bend over backwards for you (another thing I learned the hard way, long ago).

Getting Involved in Your Country of Choice

Just because you're from a certain country in Real Life, you can be anywhere you want in Erepublik. This is one of the greatest features in the game, as it allows you to make friends all over the World.



When you do this, however, learn that Erepublik in itself is not the best communicator. Each country has it's own separate external communication methods, such as Forums, IRC's, Grease-Monkey Scripts, websites, etc that they base their own communications. Most do this for a more focused community feel and tighter security around their information. Each Political Party is more or less the same way. You will never truly experience the addiction of Erepublik unless you get involved in all of them. The Erepublik Site itself is nice, but it's not the end all. Learning your way around can be tough, but PM's to top ranked players can teach you a lot about the communication methods of a country.

And if you're top ranked players won't tell you, you're always able to ask me. I'll be more than willing to give you any information you're looking for, if it means you having as much fun on Erepublik as I have.

So get involved, quit overthinking Erepublik, and make some friends!

Dish