Join the new world

Oh no, this again? Yes! After a "short" break of 247 days, I've decided to do another interview (for those who don't know, at one time I was doing a weekly edition of interviews with UK citizens). The next one will be whenever, but for now, my victim is Mr Knee. Let's see what he has to say...


1. Tell us about your real life self.

- Male, ticks the 35-39 age box on forms and Reading is probably the closest "big" town that most people have heard of - although I live a decent distance away from there. Close enough. Season ticket holder at Gillingham FC, regularly go into London for rock concerts - usually bands like Stream of Passion, Xandria, Delain, Nightwish, Sabaton etc... And the greatest rocker of them all Tori Amos 😃 😃 Tend to do running from 10km to the occassional marathon. Not quick but I finish.

2. About eRepublik Mr Knee. The story behind your name and avatar.

- Started playing July 2009 (geez almost 7 years) after someone in another game I play (since 2005) posted the game up in the radio chat channel and since I was bored and looking for another game to waste some time I signed up. Johnny was a school nickname that started when I was 11 for reasons I'm not really sure I remember. People started just started calling me it and it stuck. I still have friends who knew me from the age of 12 who think my name really is John. 😃 Using Mr "John" Knee is just my usual internet name.

Avatar is obviously a nod to my unit the Dental Corps - I just found the main image to be amusing.


3. How do you see your future in eRepublik? What keeps you in the game and what are your ambitions?

- In all honesty, I am generally 2-clicking nowadays through force of habit as I have done for maybe 6 months or so. I think I have had spells like that over the last 7 years... Not sure I have any great ambitions anymore. I have achieved pretty much everything except be country president. Maybe in the past when CP had some sort of importance, but now it is a largely pointless thing except for an achievement and I assume some gold.

4. eUK's future. How do you rate the work of the previous government? (It is too early to rate the current one.)

- To be honest, who was the last government? I recall some people complaining AMD was absent so I assume he was CP. Couldn't say who was the cabinet either. I assume Huey was the MoF bod (isn't he the permanent MoF because someone superglued his backside to the chair)? Couldn't say who was the CP before then - was AMD the previous month as well? Hmmm... I recall people moaning about some woman from TUP doing nothing for several months?

Even before the dictator module came in, I found parliament stagnating and the months I was elected each month nothing was being done with the usual first week moaning about who to elect as speaker or keep the person who acted like the speaker but wasn't... And then there was always one person arguing that tax rates should be changed to 3% because of reasons.... Sadly the only times in the past few years that being in a congress rather than a mongress coincided with Plato rule chances (as as the dictator plan), resource wars (and how to maximise benefits) and intervention against foreign PTOs. Sadly game changes makes congress less relevant than the good old days (now git off me lawn).


5. eRepublik's future? Is there a future? What would you change?

- Not sure where eRepublik goes from here... It peaked many years ago but a number of successive bad design decisions killed the game. Many years ago game mechanics forced you to either be a worker / congressman or a soldier. In order to fight then you had to move to the region you were fighting in, but you couldn't move / exit the country if you had a job. Hence half the country worked and the taxation was used to buy weapons and pay the soldiers who moved around fighting and invading. The advantage was that a country half the size of their neighbour could defend itself as 100% of your citizens could fight the invaders equally sized army as only half the enemy's population would be soldiers.

Second mistake Plato made (and in an ideal world could have been reversed) is the scraping of national currencies. Big countries like Poland would have a really strong currency and the result is that items would be expensive to import so it helped defend the local economy. Things like import taxation made a huge difference and was a major discussion point by the politicians. There was also a great game for the traders as money could be made trading currencies. The problem is that those good at it could upgrade their factories without needing to donate to Plato so Plato scrapped that idea...

There was also a time when you could specialise what industry you became skilled in as a worker. So you could build up your farming skills by working on farms - the more you worked, the more skilled you'd be and the more money would be employers would pay you (if they can only hire 3 people then hiring 3 Q5 people would get you more resources than hiring 3 Q1 workers). Farmers would generate wheat that food factories would turn into food. Steel workers would create steel that armory factories turned into weapons. Quarry workers created stone that was turned into houses etc.... (not sure the specific job titles are correct for all). A new player could make a load by specialising in a rarer skill.

Long story short, I'd reroll the game back about 5-6 years but it would clearly not happen. Plato screwed up - he would have made more if 100k people donated £1 per week on average than 1000 players donating £10 per week on average. He got greedy in making changes that forced to a large extent for people to donate in order to be able to catch up.

6. Who is your favourite person in eRepublik and why?

- Not sure I have a favourite person :/ I think I have respected various people down the years. If I have to name someone who I probably most respect over the sub-7 years would be King Woldy who has always been a player's player who was newbie friendly. No surprise he was the obvious choice as trusted dictator.

7. Any person you dislike and why?

- Can't say I particularly dislike anyone - at best I can say I disapprove of some people's actions. Won't name names, but I am thinking about people who were heavily involved in PTOs, stealing from the treasury etc.

8. A few words about your military history.

First unit was the 7th Armoured aka the Desert Rats which I joined as Alfagrem was chucking a load of resources into arming people and it was there I joined the UKWP (the UK Workers Party I think it was - my mind is hazy in my old age. Not sure there are many around who could correct any error). I thought I still had the old avatar but I might have lost when my motherboard went wonky a few years ago and needed a reinstall (don't ask but a software reinstall fixed the hardware). As part of the rebranding and relaunch of the party into the UKPP, the 7th Armoured became the Royal Navy so after a year of having the "wrong" avatar, I finally updated. Unfortunately I seemed to have lost that image too 🙁

What can I say about the Dental Corp unit? Originally a break away unit from the Royal Navy after politics between Firefox30 and mick cain if I recall correctly. Firefox was leader of the unit at the time having taken over from Alfagrem and for some reason Mick thought Firefox could have done better or something. I don't recall and since Mick still plays he might read this and say "well actually........." I think it was Mick anyhow.

So Firefox left, set up the new unit, a few others like myself Mr W Kerr jumped over to join. I think I was the forth to join. The unit was about having fun and not taking things quite so seriously. The unit became the unit of oldfag heavy hitters and despite only having up to 20 members, we used to regularly finish top of the daily total damage done and generally urinate over units 10 times as big (should be noted that all but a handful were high division 3 or division 4 players).

The Royal Army Dental Corps is maybe more infamous for being blamed for pretty much everything at one point, although this was largely down to Mr Kerr doing a lot of stirring. Not to say the unit didn't do some things for the lols but..... Lets say we weren't guilty for everything we were accused of. And we were probably (partly) responsible for a few things that happened that people didn't realise wasn't purely coincidental.


9. A few words about your political history.

- Been a representative for the UKPP on 11 occasions apparently in two spells. First time around I was the MP for Wales - this was a time when you voted for someone in your region rather than the vote for the party and who you get depends on who the PP put high on the list. I think I have always been seen by those in congress at the times as a solid, but unspectactular congressman who votes sensibly and would pose a few questions for clarity before the vote.

The UKPP has always been the party to give new people a chance. I know every party used to claim that but it was something the UKPP was reallt good at - to the point that other parties used to complain about the UKPP giving chances to people who had only started playing the game and was too keen and proposing stupid things etc 😃 Genrally with the party, if you want to do something then be active and you will achieve. The party was always a party of individuals who took responsibility for their own actions and was backed up by the rest (compared with other parties who were accused at time of being lead by 2-3 leaders who dictated what everyone else did). I think historically the UKPP was like a teenager - capable of moments of acting really mature and grown up, but capable of the "I hate you, I hate you" Kevin the Teenager moments if it felt the other parties where like parents telling us off 😃 All in all, there was the constant disapproval from other parties when the UKPP turned around and said "Nah.... don't wanna..." The other thing that UKPP was often guilty of was the breeding grounds for wrong 'uns. Wayne, Bit Ant and all the others branded traitors due to treasury stealing and PTOs all passed through the party at one stage (with an exception of one guy prior to the UKPP existing). Sir Nick Griffin ruffled more than a few feathers too 😃

There is maybe a less of that attitude nowadays coinciding with the general decline of players. However, if you are active, you want to stand for congress etc, the party is still a good place to start.


10. Do you lift?

- Do I lift? What an elevating question and one I must escalate up the list of important questions I will answer another day....


11. Should we AS eSingapore?

- Definitely yes!*

12. Your message to the community.

- Wear sunscreem....

Thank you Mr Knee for your answers o7


*OK, his actual answer here was: "We should get control of our native land back from France etc first before AS anyone is considered." But I'm also the "minister" for PUT ASS, so again, don't judge me.