The process of translating eRepublik into Spanish is nearly complete. The release of the Spanish version will take place on June 3rd, and it will only be the first step in providing eRepublik in multiple languages.
As any first step, this was the hardest one to make. Lots of technical modifications were done in order to create a “backbone” that will support all the future translations of eRepublik. We are very enthusiastic about reaching the end of this process.
Our translation team was helped by several Spanish citizens, so we would like to send special thanks to Allyena, Zhuge Liang, and Sabi2 for their support in translating eRepublik. This was no easy task, as there are thousands of unique text lines in eRepublik. Only reading them could take hours!
The next set of languages that will become available in eRepublik has not yet been established, but could contain French, Portuguese, German, and Russian. What is certain is that the Spanish version will bring more of the 330 million people who are native Spanish speakers into the New World. This will especially aid in boosting the population of South America, as on June 10th, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay will join eRepublik.
Just like in the real world, being a citizen in a country is a crucial rite of passage in eRepublik. But what currently differs in the New World, is that you don’t necessarily take your citizenship with you – you can move freely from country to country with little effect on your ability to settle in as a native. Now as much as I wouldn’t mind having this privilege in the real world (being a US citizen residing in Spain), I must admit I would miss my sense of privilege and patriotism. Plus, citizenship is something you earn, not something that is handed out like candy.
I recently moved to Italy in eRepublik and am enjoying my new life there, but should there be other implications to my big move? Perhaps I should have to wait a certain amount of time before I am able to vote as a citizen, or maybe I should be able to take my nationality with me. We have put these questions out to the community in the latest Insider article in hopes of coming to some conclusions on what citizenship should really look like, as it is far more complicated than meets the eye. To read the latest Insider and/or provide your own ideas, please click here.
We did a little survey of the eRepublik community recently collecting information from over 15,000 citizens. We found out some good little nuggets of information which really helped us to understand what people are loving about the game and what we need to work on. We thought we would share with you some of the interesting stats.
eRepublik is unique in that it provides players with a tremendously rich experience in a very short period of time. This fact was confirmed, as indeed the majority of users spend roughly 15 minutes a day navigating the New World. So much fun, without being a time suck – always a plus!
While the majority of citizens are male, women have frequently played very high ranking roles in the New World from president, to avid newspaper publishers. We definitely believe that the future of eRepublik is being written by both the ladies and the gents alike.
Have you ever wondered at what point in time eRepublik is taking place? In a futuristic universe far, far away? Or maybe ancient times, with ruins of villages full of barbaric battles? Actually, no, from the perspective of our citizens, the majority see it as taking place in the present – literally rewriting history as we go.
When it comes to game-play, citizens hold a great deal of value in their ability to own and manage a company, but yearn to have more diverse forms of government. Democracy’s great, but what about a monarchy, or maybe even a communist state?
And what’s most important to our players above anything else? The social interaction - which is obvious given the rich social experience that is eRepublik. User interaction and content is what makes the eRepublik world go round, literally. Players like it that way– over 90% would recommend it to a friend ;).
A little over 200 years ago (201, in fact) an uprising took place in Spain against the French army, marking the start of what is known to the Spanish as the War of Independence. This unique date in real world history was marked this past Saturday, May 2nd.
But, as you know, history is being re-written in eRepublik.
Not too long ago, in the New World of eRepublik, Spain and Italy tried to take over France. While they weren’t completely successful, they did take some regions. After France managed to successfully gain back those regions, they faced the threat of another attack from Canada, which resulted in a huge French baby boom in an effort to defend their territory.
In the midst of what could be considered a rather peaceful period in the New World, there still exists the possibility of battle between the two real world and New World foes of Spain and France, as their eRepublik war remains active. With the declaration of either president, battle could ensue.
Reflecting on such an ongoing rivalry in both worlds, we discovered this funny little parody, made by an eRepublik citizen, of Spain taking over France. While this is not the case in either the real world, or the New World, it is a rather humorous slant on the ongoing politics and future of two very powerful countries.
The eRepublik community has always been an active one, there’s no doubt about that. What amazes us is how the community’s efforts and creativity continue to go beyond our wildest imagination.
One of the most recent trends in the community is the development of regular podcasts highlighting the latest news and hot topics in the New World. From the eUK, to the eUS and eBrazil, the podcasts are providing another dimension to the eRepublik that is not only entertaining and informative, but that brings citizens together in a unique way.
Another very cool addition to the world of news reporting is the eRepublik News, being uploaded to YouTube by the citizen John C. Bringing the news to life, it is nothing short of entertaining!
Creativity definitely isn’t lacking in a new feature created by Gobba - the daily wellness gain calculator. It provides advice on the best ways to increase your wellness – what food to buy, how many gifts you need, etc.
A new eGovernment page has also been created by aVie, which is chalked full of information from the GDP of Bulgaria to the number of tanks in Singapore. For those of you political folks, you’ll find that there is no shortage of information.
This is what we love about the New World of eRepublik – it’s not defined or limited by the game, but by the citizens. We are eager to see, and be surprised by, what the citizens come up with next!
It stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Social Strategy Game. Searching the Internet and with a little bit of luck one might find a definition that looks like this: “Massively multiplayer online social strategy games focus on socialization instead of objective-based gameplay, emphasizing interaction, world-building and an in-world virtual economy that depends on the sale and purchase of user-created goods. There is a great deal of overlap in terminology with “online communities” and “virtual worlds.”
But what kind of inert, short and un-personal definition is this? eRepublik is becoming the benchmark of Social Strategy Games. All interactions between players are made through hundreds of affiliated sites, chat rooms, forums, podcasts, and this interaction is starting to breach the virtual environment. Strong relationships are created or broken like the switch of a light. New friends are made and new perspectives pop each day because people want more!
Friends lose their jobs (…it happens…) and we need to be there for them, helping them as much as we can; others just got their first job and we are here to share their excitement. Others will soon have babies so of course we all wait to at least see some pictures or videos! People get sad and then happy again, they want more knowledge, new experiences, recognition, feedback and everything that comes along with this game.
The community meetings provide an opportunity to do all of this. Seeing your e-country president or employer face to face allows you to better understand the game, and meeting your army comrades in an environment other than virtual gives you the opportunity to debate and finalize strategies. The economic issues are very important in this virtual world (we all buy, sell or donate items, make economic or financial speculation), so anyone who participates might have something to say about this. The community is growing day by day, so the meetings should also be held more often, allover the world. While these meetings may have originally started in Bucharest, Romania, we are all eager to see pictures taken at meetings in Brazil, the USA, Indonesia, China, Australia, and anywhere else they may be held.
eRepublik, as the first MMOSSG, has become a hobby for many of the players, so its virtual and real-life interaction is what allows its players to present their objectives, their accomplishments or strategies. This hobby is the battleground, competition amphitheater, chat room or any other kind of environment the players want it to be.
This post describes an unofficial eRepublik meeting (described by one of the participants) that took place on March 7, 2009 in Szeged, Hungary. At the time of the meeting, Romania had conquered an important part of Hungary in the New World (including the capital, Budapest) and there were no signs of peace between the two countries. The purpose of the meeting was for the players to get to know each other in real life and to discuss their passion – the New World.
Motto: “We play the same game. Against each other. But together. This is important.” (Quicksilver, former President of eHungary)
At one of the eRepublik gatherings in Banat, I had a discussion with a citizen about meeting the next weekend with Hungarian leaders in their country. For one week, I thought that there was little chance of the meeting taking place, but I was so wrong.
On March 6, I canceled a barbecue, a birthday celebration for a friend and a romantic meeting with a girl, and in three hours I was on a Q4 Romanian train to Banat. The second day, on my way to the beautiful land of Hungary, I was all eyes on everything: interesting people, foreign language, great architecture and, above all a nice mansion/restaurant. Needless to say that we (the Romanians attendees at the meeting) were all eager to meet our “enemies” from the eRepublik battlefields, and to talk about all sorts of things.
And they came, shy, with open minds and open hearts, and we started ordering Q5 coffees and traditional Hungarian food (or beers). It did not take long for us to get to know each other and start making ironic remarks about how wonderful it would be if Hungary got back all the regions conquered by Romania (officially, there were no negotiations about the mentioned regions - one of them being Southern Great Plain - but have you noticed that Hungary re-conquered all of them very quickly? :D).
We talked about Romania being like a dragon and Hungary’s great challenge with the new citizens. Hungary’s great achievement of attracting 4000 new citizens in two weeks was praised. At some point, it was proposed that Romania conquer all Asia, and that Hungary extend her realm over Europe, but the details were merely friendly jokes.
The final purpose: “To drink (coffee, of course), to eat, to get to know each other, to have a great time and to realize that your biggest adversaries from the New World can be your future friends in real life.” (dsalageanu, President of eRomania)
It was no secret meeting, but I found out that only a handful of citizens were aware that the leaders of Romania and Hungary had a friendly meeting in Szeged. The president of Romania made a public announcement after the meeting was over, and the ex-president of Hungary published impressions the second day.
The first questions that pop in one’s mind are: “What are these meetings all about?”, “What do you do at such meetings besides drinking, eating and laughing?”, “Can any user come?” and so on. Unfortunately, there is no straight answer to such questions; if you ask five participants this, you might receive five different types of answers.
The meetings should be treated always like first dates - every time one should be careful about what he/she says, every time the atmosphere is different, and most of the time there are new people with new habits, new jokes, willing or unwilling to try something new.
Maybe the most awaited moments are those when all the players give the admins a hard time – that is, when most of the players have something to complain to them about or want to find out if and when their ideas will be implemented. Other people can’t wait to see good friends again that they first met a long time ago at such events. A steady and dedicated community is starting to form and grow, not because of the game itself, but because all participants have something they like and something that they can always relate to. Some might want to quit the game, but cannot do it because they will certainly miss the meetings and the interaction they provide. Read more…
This eRepublik citizen is training really hard every single day. He is not going to the gym on a daily basis, he is training to get one of those shiny, eye catching super soldier medals. He already has a couple of them on his trophy wall, but he could never get enough of those (did I mentioned already?) shiny, eye catching super soldier medals. And they are also quite popular with the ladies!
A battle for the top six countries in terms of citizens is going on right now between Hungary and Canada. It all started in the last 24 hours, when a large number of settlers have requested Hungarian citizenship in the New World. The current statistics based on population number show that Canada still occupies the 6th position in the top countries of the New World, having 20 citizens more than Hungary.
Entering top six would represent a good sign that could predict a victory in the upcoming battle of Southern Great Plain. Plato once said : “We are twice armed if we fight with faith.” And they’ll need to be well armed tomorrow, on the battlefield.
A coverage of the war with Romania has been published on an important Hungarian portal site, and it seems that this has inspired many Hungarians to request citizenship.
The war between Romania and Hungary is considered to be the core of World War I that enveloped 23 of 29 world nations and quickly became the New World’s bloodiest war.
http://wiki.erepublik.com/index.php/World_War_I
Since then, eRepublik has seen many fights and there has been even a Second World War that greatly affected the countries involved. But the conflict of Hungary versus Romania has not come to an end.
http://wiki.erepublik.com/index.php/World_War_II
The ones that came in the last 24 hours are not yet experienced enough to fight tomorrow. But, in the future, they will certainly be of great importance in all aspects of life in Hungary – economic, politic, media and warfare. And together, they could shape the map of the New World and write history.
Just like in the real world, being a citizen in a country is a crucial rite of passage in eRepublik. But what currently differs in the New World, is that you don’t necessarily take your citizenship with you – you can move freely from country to country with little effect on your ability to settle in as a native. Now as much as I wouldn’t mind having this privilege in the real world (being a US citizen residing in Spain), I must admit I would miss my sense of privilege and patriotism. Plus, citizenship is something you earn, not something that is handed out like candy.
We did a little survey of the eRepublik community recently collecting information from over 15,000 citizens. We found out some good little nuggets of information which really helped us to understand what people are loving about the game and what we need to work on. We thought we would share with you some of the interesting stats.
