“Things Fall Apart” ~ Farewell to a Piece of eCan History

Day 1,358, 15:13 • Published in Canada Canada • by Plugson

“In these bare paths, these melancholy lands,
What dream, or flesh, could ever have been young?
Life, hopes, and human things seem wrapped away,
With shrouds and spectres, in one long decay.”
~~ “The Autumn Waste” from Alcyone, A. Lampman



When I began this game well over two years ago, there was an institution in eCanada that inspired me with its grand aims, making me realize that eRepublik was more than a game that involved mindless clicking and stat counting. It was a gem in the eCanadian forum community, one of the centre-pieces of a centralized government that demonstrated how this virtual society was reaching beyond the game mechanics to involve players in the game in ways perhaps eRep Labs never fully imagined.

eCanada reached a degree of complexity about a year ago that may never be matched again, or at least not in the same way. Certainly, the inclusion of MUs does add another angle to the game and I suppose the same could be said of the individual missions (and why not a country mission?). But is this an evolution of eRepublik or a de-evolution towards the separation of State from citizen? A compartmentalization of the complexity that created vast networks of community Orgs and forum memberships that brought the hundreds of thousands of eRep players into competition and cooperation with each other that at times defied full comprehension, now boiled down to an increasing simplification of mechanics over role-play.

The game is becoming more understandable, more bite-sized, more like a one-person platform that happens to bump up against the activities of other players. It is becoming much less the fabric that actually required citizens to depend on each other for food and guns, for employment and profit, for checks and balances, and for cooperative war and strategy. But that’s not the purpose of this article; this evolution is only what has inspired the decentralization and simplification of eCanada.



This institution I spoke of ~ perhaps it was a conceit of a naïve group of gamers but I think it more a noble yet Quixote-like casualty of shifting game mechanics and player base/interest. Its condition on departing the New World is a shadow its former self, directing important matters of security and safety of this country, upholding the laws of the land with strict demands of conduct from its members, an oath to duty that all eCanadians could admire for its intention to do good for us all.

Still, it had its detractors, often many at a time who would collectively point out its failures, wondering why such an institution should be allowed to persist. Nevertheless, it weathered those sh*tstorms, tried its best to adapt to the evolving New World. The activity of its members remained a persistent issue, while it had a set of duties that perhaps went beyond what it could reasonably reach. There were times when it shined but these were bright flashes during drawn out periods of cloudy dullness when it searched to better define its purpose.

So as things fall apart, the center cannot hold. So this decaying central state leads to balkanized clanship. So the best intentions of a Constitution and most well laid plans of Legislative Acts shed its flesh to the bare bones of a forum. So in the turning, turning of the widening gyre, more depart from the maddening spin.
So the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

So this is where we bid adieu to this eCan creation that lasted these three years of eCanada, from its early conception. In an age of Mercenary Medals and self-made militias and disappearing profile features, where goes the need for a defender of virtues&values, of security&safety, of honour&duty. When war and economy runs at its own mechanical automation, what happens to the protocols that once bounded its control? Its resting place will be an unvisited archive or a memory of that lofty thing we tried.

So this is where we bid adieu ~ say farewell to a Beta darling
A ) The Supreme Court?
B ) CSIS?
C ) The CAF?
D ) All of the above?

Be proud we tried hard and proud we tried it all together.

farewell



“A proud heart can survive general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone."
~~Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe