Join the new world

(English version is bellow)

Dame i gospodo,

Ladies and gentleman,

Igram ovu igru vise od 3 godine. Kad sam dosao, nekako mi je bila “glupa”. Udjes na sajt, kliknes 2 – 3 puta, malo nesto kupis, nesto prodas, mozda nadjes neki interesantan clanak pa ga procitas, eventualno ga prokomentarises, odes na bitke, sacekas i udaris tih 5 puta… I tako do sledece promene dana. Nekako, igra me nije drzala, sve odradis za par minuta i onda zaboravis do sutra.



Posle par nedelja, otkrio sam chat. Prvo onaj koji je bio ugradjen u samu igru. Posle toga, mibbit. Pa sam usao u Nebeske ratnike, moju prvu jedinicu.

Koja drasticna promena. Cak i kad nemas sta da radis u samoj igri (tada nije bilo ovih famoznih spamerskih shoutova), odes na chat, uvek nekog ima, ispricas se, idlujes, smejes se budalama. Samo igra je pala u drugi plan.
I novinarski modul je bio drugaciji. Mogli smo da pisemo u bilo kojoj zemlji bilo sta, sto je donosilo lepu zanimaciju, posebno trolovanje neprijatelja. Nije bitno o cemu se pise, da li je to nesto vezano za igru ili nesto vezano za zivot. Tako smo se upoznavali polako, svadjali, ali i smejali. Bilo je i provokacija, ali i kazni.

Posle nekoliko meseci, izasao sam iz Nebeskih ratnika i posle malo lutanja, dosao sam do famoznih “Curki”. White Eagles. U tom trenutku, jedna od najjacih jedinica u igri, jedna od najstarijih jedinica eRepublika i najstarija u eSrbiji. Drustvo mi se svidelo. Vecinom “stariji” ljudi, pravila su mi se svidela, povuklo me je. Malo kasnije sam se i eozenio (srecno, hvala adminu!), cak smo imali i pevaljku na svadbi (hvala ti Boolee! Imas zlatni glas!), ozenili ecerku, budili se zajedno i ostajali do kasno u noc na kanalima. Namerno nisam rekao da smo bili ozbiljni. Daleko od toga.



Bilo kada da dodjes na chat, bilo je nekoga sa kim mozes da popricas. Patak (Kvakva), Bolja, Sky Captain, Dimi, Sweet, Chuma, Vasojevic, Olivera, Muks, Nidza, Major, Leki, Krivi, Srbzila, Magarence, Brit, Loodak, Duka i jos mnogo drugih. Standardna jutarnja ekipa za prvu jutarnju kafu ili za vecernje zezanje. Nije bitno kada dodjes, uvek ces se nasmejati i ako zatreba, ozbiljno popricati. Prvo su bile price o samoj igri. A onda, vremenom, doslo se i do rl prica.

Sledeci korak je bio skup. Iz svojih razloga, nisam mogao da dolazim na skupove redovno. Ali prva prilika, i organizovali smo se. Ostali smo tada na Adi 12 sati! Opijanili se, ispricali, imao sam onaj osecaj da te ljude znam celog zivota.

Pa sledeci skup, jos vise ljudi… Pa onda jos malo chata. Pa jos malo clanaka… Pa jos malo komentarisanja. Pa uvodjenje shoutova.



I to je to. Kad se sve to uklopi, vise niko nije mario za samu igru. Ona je prerasla u nesto drugo, ona vise nije igra nego neka vrsta socijalne mreze. Ljudi ne koriste mogucnosti erepublika samo za komunikaciju vezanu za igru. Ljudi (jer to za mene vise nisu igraci) slave rodjendane, proslavljaju slave, praznike, cestitaju medjusobno, pomazu se medjusobno, organizuju se dobrotvorne akcije ili se samo zezamo. Nevezano za igru. Ljudi se druze, zabavljaju, iz zabavljanja su cak proizasle i neke ljubavne veze… I u svakoj ezemlji erepublika je manje - vise ista situacija.



Shvatam da je vlasnicima igre stalo do zarade. Daleko su oni od altruista, sto je ok za mene. Ovo je njihova igra, oni odredjuju pravila i oni gledaju da zarade od igre. Medjutim, tu dolazimo do problema da ovo za mnoge od nas vise nije igra. Ovo je preraslo u nesto drugo.

Malo ko od “starih” igraca kupuje golde kao sto se to radilo ranije. I kad kupuje, to nije u onim kolicinama kao ranije. Mnogo ljudi je otislo zbog promena, mnogo ljudi nas je napustilo zbog rl-a, mnogi su razocarani.
Vlasnici igre treba da shvati da je izgubila igru, ali je dobila nesto drugo. Dobila je dobru bazu za buducnost samog servera, samo je pitanje sta ce da uradi.



Prvo, trebala bi da poslusa korisnike sta zele. Ne mislim na besplatne golde, nego da poslusa ljude i uradi nesto sa problemom multija.

Drugo, trebala bi da se prilagodi situaciji i realnosti. Da shvati da ovo vise nije igra kao igra, nego mesto gde se ljudi nalaze i druze. Igramo se mi, medjutim, vise komuniciramo medjusobno nego sto se “stvarno igramo”. Vise spamujemo po shoutovima, visimo na kanalima, svadjamo se po komentarima, nego sto potrosimo vreme za borbu sa svojim virtualnim protivnicima/prijateljima. Ta borba je postala besmislena iz nekoliko razloga (najkrace - nije ovo vise “ona” strategija).

Trece, trebala bi da promeni novinarski modul. Nikada mi nece biti jasna odluka sto su ga promenili… Taj modul je bio mnogo zanimljiviji nama, koji smo se igrali, salili, trolovali, slavili ili tugovali zajedno.
Trebalo bi dodatno “vezati” ljude koji su ostali ovde (a nazalost, mnogi su nas napustili) i tek kad korisnici vide da se administracija slusa njihove zelje i shvati da vise nema igru nego drustvenu mrezu u posedu, onda ce se mozda desiti jos neki “baby boom” kao ranije.

I mozda najvaznije, trebali bi da porade na marketingu u skladu sa novom namenom servera. Na primer, da u svakom gradu gde imaju dosta korisnika organizuju skupove.

Dugorocno, to znaci za administraciju nove korisnike, nove igrace, nove ljude koji ce da kupe golde, a samim tim, to je njihova zarada…

Potez je (vec odavno) na administraciji.

Vas,

Yours,

Kowalski_afc
 
(English version)

Ladies and gentleman,

I’m playing this game more than 3 years. When I register, the game was somehow “stupid”. Log in, few clicks, you buy something, sell something, maybe even you can find some interesting one article and then read it, even leave your comment, then you go to battles and fight those famous 5 times… And that’s it until next DC. Somehow, the game didn’t hold me, you can log in and do everything in few minutes and after that, you can forget about it until tomorrow.



Few weeks after, I found out the chat. First, the one which was in the game. After that – mibbit. Then, I get to my first military unit – Nebeski ratnici.

What the change was that! Even when you don’t have to do at the game (then, there wasn’t any of those famous shouts), you go to the chat, there is always someone to talk with, to idle, to lough. The game fall down to the second place by importance.

Newspapers were different then. You could publish article in any ecountry, anything, what was really funny and interesting, especially trolling of “enemies”. Doesn’t matter about what was the article, was it connected to this game or to rl. Like that, we get used to know each other, arguing and lauging. There was provocations, but there was punnisment also.

After some time, I get out from Nebeski Ratnici and after some freelancing, I get to the famous “Turkeys”. White Eagles. In that moment, one of the strongest military units in the game, one of the oldest unit at the eRepublik and the oldest in eSrbija. I like the company there. Mostly “older” people, I liked the rules and I get addicted. After a while I get emarried (happily, thanks to Admin!), we had good singer on the ewedding (thanks Boolee! You have the beautiful voice!), married our edaughter, wake up together and stay until late in the night at chat channels. I never said that we were serious. Even, we were completely crazy.



Whenever you enter the chat, there was someone to talk with. Patak (Kvakva), Bolja, Sky Captain, Dimi, Sweet, Chuma, Vasojevic, Olivera, Muks, Nidza, Major, Leki, Krivi, Srbzila, Magarence, Brit, Loodak, Duka and many others. This was usual company for the first morning coffee or for evening chatting. No matter when, there was always someone with who you can laugh or even, if you need, to talk serious. First, there were the talks about the game. After a while, we started to talk about rl.

Next step, it was RL meetings. Because of my rl reasons, I couldn’t visit reunitons regulary. But the first opportunity and we organize the meeting. We stay around 12 hours at the beach, get drunk, talk, I had the feeling that I use to know those people whole my life.

Then, the next meeting, even more people. Chatting. Articles. Comments. And in bottom line, shouts.



That’s it. When you combine all this, no one cares about the game. The game become something else, it’s not a game anymore, it’s social network. People don’t use the channels of erepublik only for the communication connected to the game. People (for me they are not only players) are celebrating birthdays, holidays, congratulating to each other, helping each other, making rl actions or just having fun. But, not connected to the game. People are connecting, having fun, what leads even to some “love stories”. And the situation is almost the same in every ecountry of eRepublik.



I understand that the owners are interesting in money. They are not altruists, what is ok for me. This is their game, their rules and they are searching the way to get the profit. And we came to the problem for them, this is not a game anymore for many of us. This is something else.

Not so many of “older” players are buying golds like earlier. Even when they are buying, it’s not like earlier. Many people leave the game because of changes, many people leave because of RL, many of us are disappointed.
Owners of the game should understand that they lost the game, but they get something else. They get the basis for the future of this server, the question is what they will do.



First of all, they should listen to the clients. I’m not thinking to give to us free golds, but to listen to us and do something serious about the multi accounts.

Second, they should get used to the situation and reality. They must to understand that this is not the game like a game, it’s the place for making friendships. We are still players, but, we are more communicating between us and less “really playing”. We are more spamming, chatting, arguing etc then we are using the time for the battle against our virtual enemies/friends. That “fighting” became meaningless because of few reasons (the shortest explanation is that this in not anymore “that strategy” game)

Third, the newspapers modul should be changed. I will never understand the decision of admins to change it initially… The old way was much more interesting to us, people which are playing, joking, trolling, celebrating etc.

And maybe the most important, administration should make some marketing actions according to the new purpose of the server. For example, they should organize the meetings to every single city where they have many users.

The administration needs something to “tie up” the people which stayed (and many of us already leave this place) and just when we see and feel that the administration is listening to us and our wishes, and only when the administration understand that they don’t have the game anymore, but they have the social network, then maybe there will be some “baby boom”, like it happened earlier.

In long terms, that means new users for the owners, new players, new people which will buy the gold, and with that, their profit will grow up.

We are waiting (long time already) for the move of administration.

Yours,

Kowalski_afc