Erepublik woes
There's a game online by the name of Erepublik. Its one of those browser-based games. You know, the games in which you're some kind of warmonger building up an army and trying to "be the best". You build buildings and produce troops and eventually declare war to conquer other "nubs" from across the world. They're a bit fun, I have to admit, but most of them are either (A) lacking in gameplay, (B) lacking in community, or (C) seem like work after a bit of play. Seriously, if you're going to declare war on "ChuckGG908" wouldn't you like to know who the hell he is? Actually, now that I think about it, I couldn't care less about him. But, I'm digressing here.
A couple days ago, I found a game called Erepublik. It pretty much fits the above criteria. The basic difference between this game and the multitude of other browser-based games is that everyone in this game is an actual person. So, instead of having a couple thousand npc soldiers who pretty much act like a commodity, you can head a bunch of real people. People can be employed in user-controlled businesses, create their own businesses, fight on behalf of their country, vote, and conversely become politicians. Everyone belongs to a specific region of a specific real-world country, each with their elected leaders. Anyone can join a political party and run for mayoral positions in the cities or even for national positions. For example, you could run to be the president of the US or the mayor of San Francisco.
While the premise looks interesting, the actual implementation is lacking. The game is overly simplistic. There are few commodities to buy and few things a user can do. The political system are very hard to get into. How do you convince a bunch of total strangers to vote for you? Anyone can promise exactly what they want. How do you tell who has the minute amount of leadership skills that are required for the position. The business system is similar. You have to start out a lowly peon (employee under an overlord(business)) and save up your money for a long long time to do anything non-menial. War is almost silly. People can choose to be soldiers and try to defend the cities of the country. It just seems so low scale. Just imagine 300 or 400 people storming a country, taking down cities along the way. Since players can buy currency from the website, it just seems like a ploy to take your money. Over all, its a pathetic attempt at making a fun, deep browser-based game.
But don't take my word for it-try it for yourself:
www.erepublik.com
