Long and Longer

Day 1,755, 09:20 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by Sweet Drinker

My name is Sw33tDrinker, creator of things:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

From nothing I've built systems other nations regard jealously.

Created differentials so Irish producers could earn more for their weapons
than the Irish consumer actually paid for them.
And earned the State a profit while doing so.

Gave our citizens a million in cash in a single day...
Then gave them a million more.

Made myself a millionaire before I'd ever built a company.

Rewrote the commune model for Irish MU's to adapt their supply performance to the game's changing economic environment.
On one slow night..

I've fought silent wars against nameless enemies on Ireland's behalf.
Raided nations' economies, and defended others.
Most of my victories will never be known to the people I fought for,
few of my opponents know it was me they were fighting.

Blocked multipronged invasions of us and our allies.

Seen our great enemy try to remove Ireland from the map forever
and brought them to mutually beneficial agreement and respect

*Did the UK tire of fighting 200 disorganized Irish soldiers?

*Or tire of fighting perpetual top Q weapons in our/allied/mercenary hands?

*Who do you think Britain really wanted to fight no more?


I've been a driving force in Ireland's rise in strength, population, and influence.
I've sadly watched this go into decline.
My own career has been a strange reflection of this.


If you haven't noticed; this article is about me!

Anyone interested in a game career involved in government would be served well by following mine:
In the 26 terms I've been playing erep, I've been a member of government 25 of them.
For the past 18 of those I've been working directly in the Finance Ministry
(I also spent 4mnths in an off-shoot Ministry of finance: the long retired Industry Ministry)

During that time I've also been president once, and a Congressman nearly 1/3rd of the time
(those who know me well know I don't really consider the latter to necessarily be an 'active' government role)

Maybe not the longest government careers in our history, but top 10 atleast!

For the first half of my career I played erep much as everyone else does:
*Chat about ideals in the Dail
*Work/train
*Save up gold to build companies

I've the once ubiquitous 'Digits' to thank for being thrust into active government at an early stage.
He's probably the player I turned out to be most like.


However I owe my Real career in Ireland, oddly enough, to a Maddog; a member of the British PTO group BCH.
A flippant 2 line comment of his about our finances in an article made me angry.
It changed the way I looked at the game
that's when I began to play the MetaGame
("Epi"-game would be more accurate, but it just doesn't sound right!)

The MetaGame is where my accomplishments really come from.
It's about breaking complex problems down into individual issues. Then examining how these issues actually interact.

When an MU sets-up in Ireland to fight for us, but moves it's commune to a country with full resources so they can maximise their supply system, that's MetaGame thinking: solving the problem by recognizing it's 2 issues aren't necessarily associated and can be solved individually.

It's how I've come to view everything in erep:

Normal Thinking- Dublin is our nation's natural capital and therefore has inflated value.
MetaGame- Dublin is a redundant resource region whose position bordering a rival makes it's stature as the natural capital a liability to the nation.

Normal Thinking- Ireland's low resource bonuses is a major problem and therefore a high priority issue.
MetaGame- The impact of resources is proportionate to the population level. Our population is low therefore unless we can attain enough resource regions to effect our active population, resource bonus impact pretty low.

Normal Thinking- Increasing our revenue is dependent on the laws of Supply-Demand.
MetaGame- Evidence is overwhelmingly conclusive that Supply-Demand are not bonded principles.
(The transformation of Ireland's destitution to world-class financeer illustrates the effectiveness of this mentality)

Normal Thinking- Our national revenue is dependent on our regions
MetaGame- Very little national revenue has ever come from domestic production

Normal Thinking- The democratic election of Congress is a sacred part of our society.
MetaGame- The election system is so fundamentally flawed and open to manipulation that Congress itself is at best a necessary evil.

Normal Thinking- A nationalist player like me views Libertad as traitors to our nation for fighting against our allies.
MetaGame- A nationalist like me views the actions of Libertad promotional efforts to nations our official actions could not reach.

A simple thought excercise:
What good comes from having Libertad in Ireland?
If a rival alliance sets Ireland as a priority target, how hard is a nation who Libertad-IRE has helped to liberate, really going to fight against Ireland... if at all?
Also, in a world of shifting alliances it pays to have some PR in currently rival countries.
In a world of alliance dependency, it pays to be able to say that PR activity is outside government's influence. 😉

What would happen if every Irish citizen joined Libertad?
Ireland could not commit to any alliance and would become extremely vulnerable due to our small size and independent status.
It's not coincidence that Libertad-IRE has shrunk from a worryingly high proportion of our total national influence to a percentage
to an acceptable advertizing budget of a mid-sized corporation.
This is why the projects I've released never bar Lib members, but by nature encourage membership/influence toward acceptable ratios
for the nation.

Liberta😛 Working.As.Intended. (not necessarily how they intended)

Anyone who has lead a nation host to a Libertad branch knows how obstinate Lib can be. I'm sure they'll appreciate this approach to the complex problem Libertad can represent. That's playing the MetaGame!

Normal Thing- The Finance Minister is a glorified secretary/accountant that doesn't effect the nation's situation much.
MetaGame- The Finance Ministry is a philanthropic hyper-capitalistic organization central to the nation's ambitions.

Normal Thinking- Your game is defined by who your in-game enemies are and what they are currently doing.
MetaGame- The admins themselves are the opponent your really fighting.



The deeper I got into MetaGame play the greater my ambitions and dreams for eIreland became.

It was once my goal simply to prevent Britain from 'currency-wiping' us from the game.
(At the time of UK invasion of Ireland it was believed a recent change in game mechanics allowed the possibility of wiping
out a nation both geographically and financially, making it impossible for the nation to ever attempt to reclaim their regions.
The UK wasn't just trying to 'beat us up' when that war began. It was an attempted 'game-genecide'.)

When I went Meta it was my goal to make them suffer for trying. To see the UK under longterm Irish occupation and make invading Ireland
an unpalateable endeavour.
I wouldn't exactly call the events of the last year 'longterm Irish occupation'. But in a way the goal was accomplished.
The invasion of Britain was funded primarily off the back of Meta-Profits I created for Ireland.
Britain was buried under Irish weapons, if not always the tri-colour itself.

I created systems for launching financial attacks on rivals, and they were successful until admins changed the economic rules to prevent this.
Designed a way to gain control over currency trade rates and reverse IEP devaluation inspite of heavy inflation, only to have admins block that days after it launched.
Made the large scale IRC Irish-supply system possible, and kept it so despite the effects of all the econ changes I've had to adapt to.

I've project creations have been so successful that for a long time a single word from me was would cast the vote of our government.

Through all of this I've being chasing my Unicorn.
The most ambitious of all my goals: to make wealth virtually irrelevent in eIreland.

The supply system was one side of this project. It made access to top quality weapons available to everyone without the burden of their cost.
That was the easy part (in comparison to the 2nd part anyway).

The other half of the goal was to get every stable Irish citizen on full upgraded daily training.
A project that would cost 10's of thousands of gold just to launch, and a daunting weekly bill to maintain.

My vision being that everybody could hit as much as they wanted everyday and Ireland's proportionate strength expansion become the greatest
in the world. A country anyone would want to join. Citizens could enjoy all the benefits of super-wealth regardless of their game age. Company ownership would be irrelevant. Money would be of
no concern.

Basically, I've been trying to make all of you... into me.

And that's my big mistake.
I've been liberatingly rich, and been playing a different game of erep from most people, for so long.
I'm completely out of touch with the people I've been working for.

In MetaGame terms the NE of Poland was inconceivably stupid.
Yet publicly the response to it has been quite favourable.
That's beyond me.

Many people are more enertained by short-term activities than long-term goals.
Some people would rather have the chance to actually play the financial part of the game instead of a government 'corporation' doing it for them.
Alot of people don't want to be like me.
Some people don't even like me.

I don't want to play my MetaGame in opposition of the majority's game.
I'm stepping down from the Ministry of Finance, and Irish politics in general.

DreadedEstate will be taking my place. I've alot of faith in this relative newcomer, and hope you'll show him the same patience you've shown me.

It's been my great pleasure to be your Minister of Finance all these months,
Sweet Drinker

What a ride it's been!