Join the new world

Mae govannen, eKiwis!

Tomorrow will be a good day to leave the game ...



No, it has nothing to do with yesterday's congress elections. Au contraire, I had made this decision after the October congress elections. For those of you who are interested, I want to give a summary of my erepublik life, up to the decision to quit it. This is me, as of today:



Erepublik is not my first browser game. I came from playing economy simulations, which typically let the players compete on the market, but have other parts of the economy being simulated by the computer.
Erepublik was different, and I got addicted to it because every role was played by real people: Every new employee, every customer who clicks the "buy" button on one of your products, all these individual decisions are made by real people.
This creates a complexity beyond simulations, and it makes managing a company more similar to RL management. In economy simulations, a basic understanding of economics and a mathematical talent are sufficient to have success. Erepublik is different. Here you need to understand people, too, to have success.
I am not talking about the current situation in NZ. In a new country with a growing population it is quite easy to make money, even more for an experienced player. I came here when NZ was created, I poured a ton of concrete on the green grass and built myself a Q4 food company, and I did not have to spend much effort to keep it running at a nice profit.
Of course I kept a few habits that I regard as erepublik managers' best practice, like avoiding company income tax via the monetary market, and purchasing grain from the cheapest places in the world, using orgs and auto-donate scripts - but that has nothing to do with human interaction.
The erepublik type of economy is difficult when the markets are saturated and when there are more companies in a country than the country's workforce can operate. This I had not known when I started managing my first company. Like many others, I did not want to wait until I had saved 100 gold or the like. I wanted to start as early as possible, and with a loan.
My business angel was Credit Suisse who created the org Credit Suisse Holdings which I am still using today. He gave me a loan and the hint that I could purchase a cheap tickets company in Thailand, which I accepted without researching the country's macroeconomical figures. And after a few days I realised that the situation was deep shit. Wages were high, employees were rare, and sales prices were low. In such a situation, a number of companies needs to go bankrupt so that a healthy equilibrium can be reached. Naturally, a company with an inexperienced and heavily indebted manager who did not have the capital to upgrade or buy additional export licenses would not survive such a market phase. I am convinced that over 90% of the erepublik players would not have turned this company into the profit zone.
For me it was a great challenge. What do you do if market prices are lower than your production cost? You do what managers IRL do: you talk to people.
1. Reduce purchase cost: In this phase I did not have the gold to create a number of orgs. I messaged potential suppliers and made delivery contracts with reliable (and very successful!) players such as Habraka Abrivianius and Antonio Moutinho. Thank you, guys!
2. Reduce labour cost: As workforce was rare, I took care of attracting people from other countries to Thailand's beaches. I gave them a moving ticket (and a job, haha).
3. Sell at higher prices: As I could not afford an export license, I did a lot of direct sales to countries with prohibitive import taxes. Some call it black market business, which I don't mind. In most cases the market is right, and the politicians are wrong.
For example, one president of Thailand thought it a good idea to raise the gold exchange rate of the currency, and he did so without proper information to the public. If wages are already high, and the currency rises, the managers should on the same day cut the wages - which is quite risky if there is not enough workforce available.
This event brought me to start with politics. I knew that I could offer at least my economic mind and my reliability.



Politics were not easy at first. My first law proposal was accepted, and then I got beaten because I had not provided 24 hours prior notice. Actually I had, but I could not afford an own newspaper and thus had added the prior notice as a comment to a different article. 🙂
After some time, my business and my political skills improved. When everything was on the right way, I had the first clash with a PTO. I hated it, we beat it, but others came. At one point in time our president Albert Neurath decided that it would be better to merge the country with Malaysia, creating the FRoSEA. This gave me another boost.
While I had still been a sort of newbie congressman in Thailand, people in Malaysia accepted me as an experienced politician right from the start. I had still to learn, particularly about erepublik macroeconomics from Nagyzee and later some military strategies from Fragreg. However, I was already a more experienced player by then, and I enjoyed on the other side working together with younger players. I recognised the political talents of Carr de Vaux and Derek Harland, and both became later presidents of their countries, respectively.
When Vincent Garibaldi, the second great president of Thailand in my time, led us to bring Thailand back on the map, I was a successful businessman and politician. At some time I owned 5 companies and managed 2 more, all of them profitable. When houses were difficult to sell, I did not sell them but invented a lease model. Older players will remember that the erepublik forum had a large section for admin-enforced private contracts. I used these contracts to give young players a house that they would not have been able to afford, and in return they had to work in one of my companies until they could pay off the house. The contract clauses ensured that I would get back the house if the citizen died.
Later I sold the companies and invested the greater part of the gold in a Q5 joint venture with Jimmy Miller. We had the same spirit but different experience, mine related to manufacturing and his to the monetary market. Together we were unbeatable - in business. Thailand was always vulnerable to PTOs. Indonesians used the country as their private medal acre. The same happened when I was chosen to be the next president. I had the major part of the work, and an Indonesian had the medal. Well, I did not achieve great things in this period. I am happy that Jeff Hamilton managed to win the medal afterwards. I was tired of the many PTOs and was already on the edge of quitting the game.

Then I learned about NZ and that some of my friends from Thailand and Malaysia had already decided to move there. I took a quick decision to give this game a last chance. It worked out well. I really enjoyed these 7 weeks. There is a sufficient number of reasonable people in this country - maybe even more as in the FRoSEA in its best time. If I am saying this, you can accept it as a high compliment. I liked the spirit, and I had a few personal goals like establishing the PnPP as one of the big parties and getting into congress myself.
And then came the 25th of October. Congress elections. Multis. A preliminary result that showed a successful PTO. In this very moment I decided to quit the game, and when I had made the decision, I felt incredibly relieved. I felt deep joy, more as playing the game ever gave me. Try it: Make the decision and feel it!
Well, the preliminary results were corrected, and I ended up in congress, which made me postpone my departure because the country needed every vote in congress. I gave my best in this month. I served in congress, and even though I gave country issues a higher priority than party issues, the PnPP is successful, too. Now I can go in peace. In many discussions, when I complained about PTOs or wastefulness, I got the answer that "it is just a game". Yes, it is just a game, and as such I can quit it.

This was the philosophical part of my legacy ... and here is the material part. The major part of my assets is not liquid, and I don't want to sell the companies and shares. Sorry, people, but it is my right to take them into the grave with me.
However, there are some liquid assets, too:
100 gold have gone to the PnPP.
100 gold are still designated to go to the Reserve Bank after a suitable constitition has been accepted by the people through a forum voting. Albert Neurath agreed to take care of this.
The rest will be distributed to the first 11 people who reply to the thread "Thingol's Legacy" in the official forum:
5 * 5 gold
1 * used Q5 house
5 * Q4 food

I will depart from the Grey Havens tomorrow.



Sílo Anor bo men lín!*
Thingol

* Sindarin for "May the sun shine on your road!"