Solve Unamusement: eRepublic (Honorable Mention)

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The Dudel Journal

eRepublic (Honorable Mention)


Not a lot of games tell you up front what you are actually getting into but eRepublic is one of them. Its a nice, simple game, that replicates the world we live in. Each nation, town, city, state, province... it is all there.

Upon signing up for the game you are greeted by Plato and he will be your Microsoft Helper Paper Clip through the entire time you play the game. Each time something new is opened up to you he decides to chime in and tell you what it is and how it works. This is great if you are lost or confused but if you intentionally choose not to follow his instructions for your characters first two weeks of life, he'll not stop annoying you.

Plato, while playing the game, has very basic but good ideas. He wants you to remember to keep your character fed while having them train and work each day, then he reminds you to check the in game forums for updates on events and other goings on. The latter is slightly the problem I had with the game. The game, in itself, was not gripping enough to fully take me into it. It rests on you becoming an eCitizen of the eUSA or one of the other countries. I, however, could not "get into" that thought.

The newspaper idea sounded to be something I would have enjoyed fully with the game but with a blog, a few active PBP games going and FTO with Cantr, my writing is "tapped out". I saw no need to run a virtual newspaper through a game when I had my own blog. There is also the fact that the game is in constant war. Each country is always striving to take each others land, while at the same time their terms of "peace" seem to be the looser paying the winner to still stay in their country and control all the business etc.

While the game did not fully take me, I do see what is there for the rest. It has a nice feel and movement to the game while not over powering you with "do it this way" as there are several ways to accomplish "success" in their eWorld Remaster. There is the typical "combat" line of thought, being the best commander or simply the strongest soldier, are very good ways to play eRepublic. There is the "politician" which is the same in both eUSA as it is in the real world, a horrible popularity contest with vague, if any, points for election/re-election. Like I said though, the fact that one could own their own newsstand which many others would read and form opinions on is a great add-on to the typical nation type of PBBG.

Personally, I am letting my character starve due to having so many other things I am involved in. I did not see a true point to investing so much time in early character development to almost utterly abandon it just to randomly write in game articles. However that would require being up to date, constantly, on in game current events if you were not doing anything "silly". Thoughts of creating an eOnoin Newsletter popped into my head a few times but such effort was minimal with no reward.

eRepublic is a good solid game with a great idea behind it. If you are willing to invest a moderate amount of time to become "one" with your other eCitizens then you will enjoy the game. If you are like me and did not want to or could not be bothered to, then eRepublic will be lost on you.

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