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| File:Erepscreen.png | |
Type of site | Website, Massively multiplayer online game, Strategy Game, Social Networking, Simulation |
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| Available in | English Spanish French German Russian Portuguese Swedish Hungarian Romanian Polish |
| Owner | Copyright © 2007-2010 eRepublik |
| Created by | CEO Alexis Bonte CTO George Lemnaru |
| Revenue | Sale of virtual properties |
| URL | www.erepublik.com |
| Commercial | yes |
| Registration | Required |
eRepublik is a massively multiplayer online game, social networking and strategy web browser game developed by eRepublik Labs which launched on October 21, 2008 and is accessible via the Internet. The game is set in a mirror world (called the New World) where players, referred to as citizens, join in local and national politics, set economic policy, start businesses and wage wars with other countries.[1] It was developed by Alexis Bonte and George Lemnaru. eRepublik is programmed in PHP using Symfony framework,[2] and runs in most modern browsers. There are currently 30 members of staff for the website besides the founders.
eRepublik has raised a total of 2.75 millions euros[3] in three rounds:
eRepublik combines both social networking and strategy into a single massively multiplayer online game where players can participate in a variety of activities. Citizensofthe New World can be employees, own businesses, form political parties, vote in elections, become party presidents, members of Congress or country presidents, write newspaper articles and even go to war as citizens of virtual versions of real life countries. The game has very few visual elements and is primarily text-based in nature.
Upon joining, a citizen picks which virtual country he wishes to join. Each of these countries is named after an actual country in the real world, and is located similarly. The citizen then seeks employment at a company within that country, and is allowed the opportunity to train as a soldier for that country. Training, and working at a company is done on a daily basis by a simple click of two buttons. One of the main drawing points of the website is that it takes a mere "14 minutes a day" to participate.[5]
eRepublik Gold is a fictional currency used in the eRepublik World. It is the main reference point for all the local virtual currencies (examples: USD, GBP) and it is used to buy additional features (such as companies) within the New World. It can be obtained freely by reaching certain levels or achievements.
The economy is based on 12 branches: 5 "raw materials" (grain, diamonds, iron, oil, wood), 4 "manufacturing" (food, gifts, weapons, moving tickets) and 3 "constructions" (houses, hospitals, defense systems). Upon reaching a certain amount of Gold, citizens can purchase or create a company, thus enabling "general manager features": hire other citizens, set their wages, buy raw materials (in case of finished goods companies), set products for sale and buy export licenses (thus being able to sell products in multiple countries).
As simple citizens, players can join a party by reaching a certain level. Once they have joined a party, they can run for party presidency. If they convince their party colleagues to vote for them and they become the leaders, they can choose their party candidates for congress or presidency.
On the fifth of every month eRepublik holds the presidential vote, on the fifteenth the party president and on the twenty-fifth the congress elections. Days before the presidential vote the top five parties will select a person to run for president, and then it is decided by a majority vote by the populace. When running for party president it will cost citizens 2 gold to run; anybody can run, provided they have the level requirements. The congress elections are a bit more complicated than the rest.[6]
The party president selects a person from their party to run in each region against other parties' representatives, after which people living in that region vote. The percentage of people voting for a party determines the number of congressional seats the party gets, a total of 40 for a country if it has at least four regions. Larger countries like USA have more seats because each state will receive at least one congress member no matter how small it's population. If someone ties a vote for the last seat eRepublik automatically chooses by referring to experience points.
To declare war on other countries, the president of the country proposes to the congress the declaration. If the vote passes, the two countries are at war and each region is attacked at the order of the president. In wars, the citizens of the respective countries fight independently, doing damage in order to tear down a 'wall' or build it up, depending if you are fighting or defending. If a certain amount of damage is done to a region within 24 hours, it is occupied by the attacker, though if the attacker fails to do enough damage in 24 hours, the region is secured by the defender who is then allowed to go on the offensive.
Wars are essential to the power of a country in eRepublik because they make citizens of the countries that are apart of them stronger, thus enabling them to do more damage in fights. A nation that has experienced and battle hardened citizens can become a global power.
Nations may spend gold on mutual protection pacts with other nations, and from the beginning of eRepublik this has resulted in the growth of alliances: groups of nations that, through similar geographic positioning or ideology, come together and fight common enemies. In eRepublik's beta period, these alliances were mostly regional; the Northern Alliance consisted of northern and eastern Europe including Norweigian-subjugated Russia, the Mediterranean Alliance was an alliance of nations bordering its namesake sea, the Pan American Alliance (called PANAM) featured nations of the Americas, and the Formidable International Security Treaty (FIST) comprised Asia, including 4chan's /v/ board-controlled Pakistan.
As the beta came to a close, these regional alliances coalesced into two superalliances. ATLANTIS rose from the ashes of PANAM and the Northern Alliance, and the PEACE Global Community[note 1] combined the Mediterranean Alliance and FIST. These two alliances clashed in what became the first World War of eRepublik.[7] PEACE ultimately defeated ATLANTIS, which dissolved in May 2009; following its end an alliance named EDEN was quickly formed including all of the former ATLANTIS members and some previously neutral nations. In August 2009, PEACE became the first alliance in the game's history to last an entire year. That December, PEACE ended and two new alliances sprouted, Phoenix and the Entente.
Any citizen can create a newspaper in which he can publish articles. Other citizens can read these articles, vote on them, comment on them or even subscribe to the newspapers of other citizens.
The role play of the New World consist of combining the capabilities of the above modules to reach goals and become leader in one or more domains. Citizens must use newspapers to promote themselves, their companies, parties, or even countries. The congress of a country sets taxes to enforce economic policies. To wage successful wars, the economy of a country has to sustain it and citizens have to be motivated.
One controversial game play experience is the usage of political takeovers (called PTOs in-game). A political takeover occurs when a large number of citizens of a powerful country or alliance move temporarily to a smaller nation before the election, they then form a party and attempt to gain majority of the congress to impeach the president, or simply try to win the presidential election. If a foreign president is successfully put in place, the country then only has to declare war on the smaller nation, and the president will then surrender every region in the country to the attacker, or they can simply ruin that nations economy. Due to the unpopularity of this tactic, the administrators implemented a 'virtual citizenship', which limited citizens to participating only in their own countries politics, though under certain circumstances PTO's can still be performed.
Functionalities include a Twitter-like shoutbox system. By default citizens have a quota of 3 shouts per day. By paying for additional features, citizens can have up to 10 shouts per day, unlimited inbox space, and 50 inventory slots. Gold can also be purchased in limited amounts per week. Game developers, noting the use of IRC channels outside of the main eRepublik site, and the importance of social interaction in the game, released a new module, the Chat Module[8], allowing users to create their own chat rooms, and interact with other citizens while remaining on the main site.
Out of the game, members have set up external forums which are used mainly for discussions concerning the decisions of the in-game Congress and where Ministries, Departments, and citizens are able to debate about current events. One example is the United Kingdom forums or the Canadian forums. The external forums play a major part in the running of countries and the game would be considerably more difficult without them.
Very active citizens have set up IRC channels for their countries as a way to communicate in real time decisions during wars, and know each other better. Also, the recent release of the eRepublik API has sprung up sites with tools, statistics and useful information for the core players.
