eRepublik.ws http://erepublik.ws en Giving developers a chance http://erepublik.ws/news/Giving-developers-a-chance-5 http://erepublik.ws/news/Giving-developers-a-chance-5 Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:24:01 -0800
In a nutshell, it allows anyone with basic PHP programming skills to do almost anything that a normal eRepublik account can do. This includes grabbing information from any page (newspaper, company, party, forums etc) and submitting forms (gold donations, shouts, messages etc). Of course it isn't as powerful as the official API will be (coming Q1 2009), but it works well and will allow you to get a head start on creating your own apps.

If you're interested, it'll cost you 10 gold and an email to bb[@]erepublik.ws ;)]]> New site, lottery launched http://erepublik.ws/news/New-site-lottery-launched-3 http://erepublik.ws/news/New-site-lottery-launched-3 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:37:40 -0800
I've got two major announcement to share today:

1) As you're probably already aware we've got a new real site, somewhat worthy of its name. eRepublik.ws will be the launchbase & blog for all the projects and updates to come, and now you can stay up-to-date with RSS feeds (still a bit experimental I'm afraid).

2) After some extensive work on my makeshift eRepublik API, I decided to put it to use and make eHistory, and so without further ado, I give you the first third party eRepublik Module: the International Lottery! Its everything you ever wanted, and then some...it could make you rich beyond your wildest imaginations. Check it out at erepublik.ws/lottery.

The lottery is fully automated, there is no involvement on my side of things, no bias, no shenanigans. Right now there isn't much you can do except for buying tickets and winning craploads of gold, but be assured that there are new features planned to make it more exciting!]]> ERX News, eRepublik Tools launched http://erepublik.ws/news/ERX-News-eRepublik-Tools-launched-6 http://erepublik.ws/news/ERX-News-eRepublik-Tools-launched-6 Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:09:57 -0800 once more.

It has been many months since the idea of an eRepublik stock market was born and work was started. The project is roughly 85% completed, which means that it functions but still needs polish and is missing a few features and possibly some eRepublik-side enforcements. Technically I could use my selfmade API script to make it all work, which would mean not having to wait until early January until the official API is released, but the main issue I am facing is lack of publicity. A stock exchange is meaningless without a large userbase to support it. From my experience with the lottery, it is really hard to get the word out on anything if the game developers aren't 100% behind you and don't support (read: promote) your work. The eRepublik forums aren't used very much and I do not know many newspaper tycoons; instead I rely on citizens like you to spread the word.

I have been in contact with the eRepublik team and they told that they will only start promoting 3rd party applications once their official API is completed. Due to the reasons stated earlier, this unfortuantely means that ERX will have to wait until around early-mid January 2009 for release, but the good news is that this will give me more time to polish and test it, resulting in a better overall user experience. I want to thank everyone for their support thus far -especially Forconin- and I apologize for not posting an update about this earlier on.

In other news, I am proud to present the eRepublik Tools (erepublik.ws/tools) - a growing collection of useful little *erm*...tools! As of right now, it features a Country Currencies List that can help you to compare and rank global currencies and an International Salaries List so you can easily see where the best paying jobs are! Both of these are automatically updated 4 times a day, enjoy!

Lastly, our RSS feed has now been fixed and works as intended ;)]]> eRepublik Tools upgraded http://erepublik.ws/news/eRepublik-Tools-upgraded-7 http://erepublik.ws/news/eRepublik-Tools-upgraded-7 Sun, 7 Dec 2008 21:32:32 -0800 erepublik.ws/tools) have just been given an upgrade with these new features being added:
  • now shows change of curreny value ("inflation") for the last 7 days. Note: it will take a few days for this to start taking effect.
  • absurd offers (30% higher than previous offer) are now ignored resulting in MUCH more accurate currency values.
  • you can now view both currency markets (local and international).
  • can now click country flag to view country's page.
In the next few days the salaries tool will receive a much requested upgrade as well, and a new tool of interest to many people will be introduced, after that all the focus will be on ERX.]]> A round of updates http://erepublik.ws/news/A-round-of-updates-8 http://erepublik.ws/news/A-round-of-updates-8 Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:49:40 -0800
As promised, the salaries tool has been given a complete overhaul. A few minor bugs fixed and a skill filter added, as well the list is now automatically sorted by highest salary. More importantly the tool now retrieves the best salaries from across the e-world as opposed to just the highest one in each country; this should make it much more useful!

To top it all off, a brand new and much anticipated tool has just been released. Creatively dubbed the "Products Tool" it can be used to find the cheapest products from across the e-world, for any product of any quality! It utilizes current gold/curreny exchange rates and can therefore display the actual cost in Gold of each product. Because it took a while to develop and can be used to rack up major savings, it costs 5 Gold to use (one-time fee). Registration couldn't be simpler, so what're you waiting for?

As for ERX, I had decided to halt development on it until the official eRepublik API was released, however thanks to recent announcements it seems that time is now almost upon us. This means that I'll resume work on it very soon and you can expect a release by early February.

Update: erepublik.com seems was down sporadically a few days ago. All of the tools here, especially the Products Tool, will obviously only function if the game is online. Payments for the Products Tool will still be counted (as soon as erepublik.com is back online)!

Update 2: after a few days of service outage due to the donation (payment) checking script going loopy and lagging the server, everything is now back up and running. However, payments are now processed manually (for the time being).]]> Tools optimized, Official API now available http://erepublik.ws/news/Tools-optimized-Official-API-now-available-9 http://erepublik.ws/news/Tools-optimized-Official-API-now-available-9 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:37:07 -0800
The products tool now works MUCH faster, with data being retrieved in ~5 seconds (before it took 30-60) and item prices should also be more accurate. Also both the products and currencies tools now work even when the main eRepublik site is down by taking advantage of the new, official eAPI. If you're a programmer interested in creating your own eRepublik apps, check out api.erepublik.com. Lucian and his team have been working on the official eAPI since late 2008 and have done an amazing job in getting this up and running. While its still in private beta, everything already functions smoothly - well done guys!

To celebrate this amazing performance increase the one-time fee to use the products tool has been dropped to only 3 GOLD!

In the near future the salaries tool will be optimized, eLottery will likely be restarted, and work on ERX will begin again (currently in talks with the rest of the eRepublik staff as some in-game features might need to be implemented first).

Update: a bug affecting the salaries tool has just been fixed, the shown wages (in gold) should now be accurate again ;)]]> A stock exchange revisited http://erepublik.ws/news/A-stock-exchange-revisited-10 http://erepublik.ws/news/A-stock-exchange-revisited-10 Fri, 6 Feb 2009 20:38:41 -0800 Edit: please vote up the article on eRepublik - the more citizens can read this the better ERX will be in the end :)

The idea of a stock exchange for eRepublik came to me many months ago, quite naturally. We've got a monetary market and a semi-realistic economy, so why not also a way to trade shares and invest into companies?

The first steps:
A few ideas were thrown around, a small amount of community feedback gathered and development on the basics started. Much later however, it dawned on me that such a project could not be successful without two key ingredients:

1) some thorough planning: which features to include and skip over, how to implement them best and how to protect investors while still ensuring some level of share ownership.

2) a way to interact with eRepublik accounts; an Application Programming Interface (API) that would be used mainly to transfer gold between investors and general managers.

At the time both of these were missing, and so the project went into a standstill and not much was heard for several months. Recently however, a private beta of the eRepublik API was released, and so my interest was sparked once again. Although it works really well and some of my tools already utilize some of its features, the gold transfer option is not yet activated and therefore cannot be used in apps yet.

Unfortunately the release date of the eAPI has just been pushed back another 3-8 weeks due to team restructuring. The eRepublik devs want to focus on fixing the core game first before opening it up to the outside world. This of course means that ERX won't be able to go live for the duration of this time.

State of the Project:
All the basic functions of the stock exchange are already finished and working as intended. Upon logging in users can buy/sell shares, monitor companies & investments in real time, view stock performance graphs and many other minor things. Here are a few screenshots from the current alpha build:








Nonetheless, some essential features remain to be coded, but before moving on I wanted to ask the community for feedback/suggestions on some rather complicated issues:

1) How can we insure that investors are protected, i.e. that GMs won't run off with shareholder invested gold?

2) Share ownership - if an investors comes to own 51% of the shares, should the current GM of the organization be forced to give up his entire org to the investor?

3) How will dividends function? Should the GM be forced by investors to pay out unused gold in the org account to shareholders via a voting system? Or should dividends be left up to the GM to make his stock look attractive?

What do YOU think?
Some of the aforementioned issues may at first glance seem like they have obvious solutions, but the truth is that the eWorld != the real world, and for the sake of simplicity or due to lack of game-side enforcement many aspect of the stock exchange will have to be ignored or simplified to make all of this viable and attractive to citizens.

I have come up with a few potential solutions to these challenges, but before I go any further I would like to hear what the community thinks. What is your take on these issues, what are your ideas? What are the features you want/don't want to see?

You will notice that a comment system has now been implemented on erepublik.ws, so go ahead and post your ideas, suggestions or concerns. Alternatively you can also reach me directly by emailing me.]]> Companies Tool released, eLottery returning http://erepublik.ws/news/Companies-Tool-released-eLottery-returning-11 http://erepublik.ws/news/Companies-Tool-released-eLottery-returning-11 Sun, 15 Feb 2009 21:05:03 -0800 Products Tool, I have today created & released a new tool that lists all companies currently for sale across eRepublik. It includes a handy option to filter through or sort the list and is free of charge :)

Check it out: erepublik.ws/tools/companies.

In other news, I have recently teamed up with renowned media mogul Benn Dover to bring back the eRepublik International Lottery (eLottery)! We'll be promoting it across the game and restarting it around February 22nd, so save your gold and with a little luck you'll become super rich - previous jackpots topped 600 GOLD with several people winning as much as 117 GOLD each.]]> eLottery Returns! http://erepublik.ws/news/eLottery-Returns-12 http://erepublik.ws/news/eLottery-Returns-12 Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:45:38 -0800 erepublik.ws/lottery) is open again after roughly 3 months of downtime.

Apart from small bugfixes and rule tweaking, it is now a two man operation run by Big Brother and renowned media mogul & previous eLottery winner Benn Dover. Well be promoting it across the game in the next few days and making sure that as many people as possible get a chance to try their luck in this weekly event.

Previous jackpots topped 600 GOLD with several people winning as much as 117 GOLD each.

Good luck to everyone, and remember - the bigger the jackpot becomes, the more winners there will be, so help spread the word: use your shouts, post on the forums, tell your friends...and become super rich!]]> Some tools now offline http://erepublik.ws/news/Some-tools-now-offline-13 http://erepublik.ws/news/Some-tools-now-offline-13 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:21:28 -0700
While an understandable move, this is very unfortunate for the community because it means that most Tools and Apps like eLottery that rely on such scripts will have to be closed until further notice.

On the bright side, the Team promised to work on new official data feeds (via api.erepublik.com) which will be made available soon and will offer the same data, without stressing the main erepublik site. As soon as these go online, our tools here will be updated and will function once again!]]> New site launched, many new features http://erepublik.ws/news/New-site-launched-many-new-features-14 http://erepublik.ws/news/New-site-launched-many-new-features-14 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:01:19 -0700
In a nutshell, the site's been given a complete redesign, focusing on ease-of-use and much better navigation as well as much improved tools and many new features.

For those who don't know, eRepublik.ws was one of the first eRepublik fansites offering useful tools and milestone apps like eLottery, which has seen over 500 different citizens buy tickets and paid out almost 2,000 GOLD over the course of 9 Rounds.

Yet the real intent of the site has now changed from being somewhat of a novelty to a central place for all your eRepublik needs. We may not have achieved that just yet, but we're certainly going to strive for it as time goes on. In the near future expect new Tools, new Calculators (and improvements on existing ones), new Apps unveiled, a return of the biggest lottery in eRepublik (eLottery) and maybe even an Editorial section.

Among the many features of the new site are:
  • Monetary Market Tool - redesigned to be easier to use with both local and int. markets on one page, can now sort all columns instantly. All new currencies added.

  • Products Tool - completely reworked and now free to use. You can now search all products and get instant results. Better interface, clean URLs and the option to filter by country and sort by Price-per-Q1 for raw materials and gifts!

  • Calculators - easy to use, instant result calculators have been added to let you find out your maximum hit in battle, wellness gain per day and worker productivity. Nice!

  • Community section - includes a growing list of all external eRepublik forums, podasts & active contests.

For those of you wondering why some tools are still offline, please read the previous article entitled "Some tools now offline".]]> Automatic Calculators http://erepublik.ws/news/Automatic-Calculators-15 http://erepublik.ws/news/Automatic-Calculators-15 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:30:17 -0700
In addition, the Product Prices tool now displays up to 4 decimal places, offering much more accurate results.
]]> Currency Graphs up, Black Market out! http://erepublik.ws/news/Currency-Graphs-up-Black-Market-out-16 http://erepublik.ws/news/Currency-Graphs-up-Black-Market-out-16 Fri, 1 May 2009 22:52:18 -0700 Currency Graphs:

Today the monetary market tool has received a substantial update with the introduction of currency graphs.

You can now view detailed graphs of each currency's performance in both the Local and International markets. Since the tracking only began ~2 days ago, there isn't much data available yet, however once there is the graphs should become quite useful.

Options to view weekly/monthly/all intervals and all time highest/lowest values as well as an "Arbitrage Gap Graph" will also be added when more data is present. If you have any additional requests or suggestions, feel free to let us know.

Example: erepublik.ws/tools/currencies/RON


The Black Market (TBM)

Buy for less, sell for more! TBM is a marketplace that allows citizens to buy finished goods at lower prices than any in-game market! Whether you're looking to get your hands on Weapons, Houses, Moving-Tickets, Gifts or Food, TBM can link you with a seller or direct customers to you!

All you have to do it place a Buy or Sell offer for a product of a certain quantity & quality, and when we've found a buyer or seller who matches your price, The Black Market will contact you to arrange for the exchange.

To start using TBM you'll have to pay a one-time fee of just 1 GOLD . This helps to ensure that buyers and sellers are serious about their offers.

Although this little app isn't for everyone, it could prove extremely useful if you find yourself regularly buying or selling items, hunting for bargains or are just on the lookout for cheaper wares.

Note: this project was sponsored by Equality 7-2521, he processes all matched offers. If you have any questions, please contact him directly.]]> What's next? http://erepublik.ws/news/Whats-next-17 http://erepublik.ws/news/Whats-next-17 Wed, 6 May 2009 21:34:34 -0700
In the coming days a new (and sufficiently complex to create) calculator with particular use to General Managers will be revealed, stay tuned!

Also, currency graph intervals will be added, and possible an "arbitrage gap" graph, however this depends on how well it'll actually fit on the graphs so I can't offer any guarantees here.

As a reminder, the "companies for sale" and "best salaries" tools are coming back as soon as the eRepublik Team makes new data feeds available. This should be within the next 1-2 weeks.

If you have any suggestions for new tools/calculators/features, please let us know by using the contact form found here.

Further down the road a new application is in the works, and while its too early to reveal any details just yet, I can say with confidence that it'll be great fun for everyone (as opposed to a stock exchange, which has somewhat limited appeal). If you care to be among the first to find out more, or even be selected as a beta tester then please subscribe to our official in-game newspaper found at: http://erepublik.com/en/newspaper/erepublik-ws-140951.
]]> Company Profits Calculator http://erepublik.ws/news/Company-Profits-Calculator-19 http://erepublik.ws/news/Company-Profits-Calculator-19 Sun, 17 May 2009 16:26:28 -0700
Link: erepublik.ws/calculators/company

The Ultimate Company CalculatorWether you already have a company or just want to plan your next venture, this calculator has all you'll ever need to get the most out of your companies, in foreign markets or at home. At last: the edge you need to vanquish the competition...and then some!

  • Instant ResultsChange any setting (i.e. an employee's salary) and watch the rest of the calculator change with it instantly. Find out in seconds how a small change in market price, quality or anything else will affect your bottom line.

  • Amazing FlexibilityAdjust nearly anything: the number of employees and their wages, wellness, skills, or product type, quality, country, VAT and see your profit grow or shrink with it - in real time; no clicking, button mashing or refreshing needed.

  • Real Time AccuracyThe company calculator utilizes real product prices, real currency values, offering you real results that will help you make the best decisions and operate a cut above the competition. For raw materials, the calculator automatically determines the cheapest quality to use (best PPQ1).

  • Auto-Fill in & Wage SavingIf you're already running a company, the calculator can automatically fill in all settings except wages for you. Once you've entered wages for your current employees, you can save them instantly and the next time you use the auto-fill in feature the calculator will utilize the saved wages. The data is stored on our servers, so it works from anywhere, anytime.

Due to the enormous complexity of this project and the basically guaranteed savings & increase in profit that accompanies the use of the calculator, the access cost is a one-time fee of 3 GOLD. Donate this fee to the in-game account "Big Brother" and you'll get access within 24 hours (You DO NOT need to send a message!).

Other updates: several days ago the currency info pages were given an "all time average" option as well as the much requested "arbitrage gap" graphs that allow you to see how much money can be made from buying & selling a currency in the two markets (local & international).

Coming tomorrow are time intervals (week/month/all). ]]> Please Vote http://erepublik.ws/news/Please-Vote-20 http://erepublik.ws/news/Please-Vote-20 Tue, 19 May 2009 13:23:10 -0700
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/erepublik-ws-updates-company-calculator-804930/1

Remember, if you have ideas for a new tool/calculator/improvements, feel free to contact me at any time.

Company Calculator Demo:
You can now try out our newest calculator - Click here to view the Live Demo.]]> A few small fixes http://erepublik.ws/news/A-few-small-fixes-21 http://erepublik.ws/news/A-few-small-fixes-21 Wed, 20 May 2009 1:17:05 -0700
2) By popular request, the Company calculator now has the option to adjust the raw materials price. Also a small bug with auto-fill in was fixed.

3) Time intervals were finally added to the Currency graphs.]]> Site fixes http://erepublik.ws/news/Site-fixes-23 http://erepublik.ws/news/Site-fixes-23 Thu, 4 Jun 2009 22:57:11 -0700
2) The company calculator demo link has been fixed. If you didn't get a chance to try it out yet, I strongly recommend you give it a go - over 120 satisfied users so far.

3) Another small change to the company calculator: now only you can view the saved salaries of your own companies. Before it was possible to view the salaries of other company workers. Unfortunately the introduction of this feature meant that all existing saved salaries had to be wiped. I apologize for the inconvenience.

4) The TBM tool has been shut down due to the sudden disapperance of its owner. If you'll remember, the tool was owned & run-by Equality 7-2521, who has not been around as of late. Until he returns (if), it will have to remain closed.

There hasn't been much happening lately, but until the official eRepublik API is fully released that is not likely to change. If there is hope, it lies with eRepublik co-founder George Lemnaru.

]]> Company Calculator updates http://erepublik.ws/news/Company-Calculator-updates-24 http://erepublik.ws/news/Company-Calculator-updates-24 Sun, 7 Jun 2009 14:52:08 -0700
-added: ability to save your company IDs, with company names
-company name now shown at the top of the page after lookup
-fixed: raw material companies' profit-per-employee is now shown correctly
-anyone can now save salaries for any company, but will only get to see his own saved salaries
-can now use enter key for lookup
-more decimal places for profit-per-employee
-minor fixes

In the future an option for exporting products to other countries may be added. ]]> Stay Tuned... http://erepublik.ws/news/Stay-Tuned-25 http://erepublik.ws/news/Stay-Tuned-25 Mon, 6 Jul 2009 21:11:55 -0700
I don't want to spoil anything yet, but among other things you can look forward to an interview with eRepublik's Co-Founder. You wanted answers to the tough questions, so we went out and got them.

Stay tuned!]]> Interview with eRepublik Co-Founder http://erepublik.ws/news/Interview-with-eRepublik-Co-Founder-26 http://erepublik.ws/news/Interview-with-eRepublik-Co-Founder-26 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:33:37 -0700 Back in mid-June, we sat down with George Lemnaru, co-founder and CTO of eRepublik.com, a massive multiplayer online social networking and strategy game with over 150,000 players. Over a 3 hour period we asked him questions that hundreds of community members had been itching to have answered. We'd like to thank him for taking the time out of his busy schedule to do this and hope our readers enjoy the interview as much as we did! Vote: in-game article

Q: To start off, what does a typical day at the office look like for you?
First of all, one thing that I love about what I do, is that typical days are hard to find, but if there would be a day without a deadline, or without a major event going on the eRepublik world, it would look something like this:
  • Wake up at 8:30, eat my cereals and go to the office.
  • check my emails, a big part of my work is to respond to/send emails.
  • check the weekly plan and make sure that people are on track with it, analyze their problems and find solutions.
  • meanwhile I ask the community officers and the testers about new stuff.
  • check my shouts, private messages, working (in game).
  • if I don't leave the office later than 8pm I go to the gym.

Q: As a company with the aim to make profit, what is your current financial position? On a monthly basis are you still running at a loss or breaking even? Are there plans to attract more investors to the project?
I can say that on a monthly basis we are not profitable; we are running at a loss. And yes, more investors are always welcomed in the project! Are you interested? :)


Q: If you could go back and change one thing about the way you developed eRepublik, what would it be, and why?
As a business, knowing that this "crazy idea" would be as successful as eRepublik is now, I would have tried to recruit a bigger team from the start.


Q: Because inactive accounts take up to two months to die, some people estimate the real number of active users at only around 40,000-50000. Do you agree with this estimate, and if so, why is nothing being done to show a much more realistic number of total players?
Our definition of an active citizen is a living citizen who is not dead, nor banned. Regarding the estimation, I can tell you that in the last 3 days 50% of the number of active citizens logged in to eRepublik.com, and that's a constant value that has varied between 49% to 54% in the last months. However, this leaves out the citizens that don't log in so regularly or that are active only during elections or during wars.


Q: What is your most memorable in-game experience/event and why?
I want to take advantage of this opportunity in order to express my frustration created by the fact that I can't play eRepublik. I can only work and vote. I can't express by beliefs concerning different political leaders, I can't fight, I can't have a company and I can't be a politician. So unfortunately my in-game experience is quite limited.


Q: What is the most memorable behind-the-scenes event/experience?
There are plenty, but I don't know if I should make them public...but what the hell. One interesting case was when somebody bought a domain-name with my name in it and created a g*y p*rn website just for me as revenge for an in-game action that we did. So I found the guy's name and phone number, and called him to thank him for the effort. It was quite nice because I contacted him asking stuff about his professional experience and talking about this cool start up that I have and I would like to collaborate with him because the guy was very good in his professional life. Then I told him that I'm George from eRepublik. He put down the website and we are now friends (in a normal kind of way).

Something else that meant a lot to me: I believe you know about the tension between Romanians and Hungarians. This is something that some people experience in real life, too. And in the middle of the RO vs. HU war, the real life president of Hungary met with the real life president of Romania. This being something that had no connection with the team, I was really happy to see that people do consider eRepublik -and especially the war module- as just a game and that in real life we are friends.


Q: eRepublik has more than 20 staff members and had obtained more than $1,000,000 (US) in funding. You have the money and the talent, yet you have not added any significant features to the game since the launch of V1. You mentioned before that the team has focused mainly on optimization and bug-fixing, but it has now been almost 8 months and many people feel that this excuse is no longer acceptable. For the average user, nothing has improve the game in a very, very long time. Why is this, and will we ever see regular features additions?
I consider this a really valid issue and any point that I'll further make does not mean that we couldn't have done better. The first issue, and the most important one, is that we launched V1 faster than a normal product should be launched. It was a decision taken by the team and it had to be that way because Beta became impossible to keep online. So our goal was to put V1 online as fast as possible...that was done with a team of 3 developers. 3 developers that needed to build an economical simulator, a political simulator, a war module, a social network, a twitter-like solution, a forum, a flash app, a blog-like system and make them all work together - make sure that they are scalable and avoid exploits. All this in 4 months. The reason we only put 3 devs on the project was mainly because last year we were still a small team, and although we could have allocated more devs, the risk of running into financial issues would have increased too much.

So to summarize, we had a small team with a small amount of time. This meant that after the launch we had to fix and add a lot of stuff, which we did. Our goal after the V1 launch was mainly to make sure that the code was scalable and that we fixed medium and major bugs as fast as possible. I do believe that the code optimization showed good results in the last few months. I am happy with the way most major bugs were solved.

So these last 8 months we mainly concentrated on bug fixing and optimization, but besides that we also implemented the advisor system (that helps a lot new citizens), latest events, ticketing system, moderator tools, new countries, reporting and administration tools and tons of small stuff. The idea is that in the end the most important modules in eRepublik will be very much improved and we will work on them one by one. We want to avoid a situation where we will have to publish modules before they are properly tested, just because the old modules can't run anymore (as in Beta). Lastly, we've already started to work on the new modules (concept + design) but they will not be live before we have Citizen ads and a Citizenship module ready.


Q: Back in the earlier days of the Beta, some people suggested the idea of selling eRepublik Gold for real money. Several online games like Second Life have embraced this openly, and had amazing success with it. What is your stance on this?
Currently we do not allow this. In the future we may change our stance on this, but only after a really thorough analysis. This involves serious legal problems among other things...and I'm thinking that in some countries this is actually flat out illegal. But we will definitely look into it - some companies do this so it might be a good idea for the future.


Q: Roughly speaking, what percentage of new signups per day come from non-avertisement sources, i.e. natural growth?
The vast majority of new sign-ups come from "word of mouth" and invitations. Currently we are not focusing so much on payed advertising, but as soon as we see eRepublik approaching it's maturity as a game, we will invest more in PR and payed advertising.


Q: eRepublik's stated goal was to become "the #1 online strategy game". Looking back at the last 2 years and a statistical game population of over 100,000 players, how far along are you, and what must you do to ultimately reach that goal?
The most important thing that we lack right now are improvements in the military, politics and economic modules. Making the product better is our number one priority. If you could just see the descriptions of the improvements you would agree that this goal is quite reachable.

The war module in particular will be our main focus. There we want to add more tactics and more ways to communicate with your comrades, because the communication will be crucial.


Q: Why in god's name does the company employees list still not show the wellness of each employee, forcing GMs to make 10-20 extra clicks to receive vital information?
This improvement, among with others, is part of the Company tools improvements that is planned to be done.

It sounds trivial, but things are not simple when you have 1.800 people online. Every small improvement must be analyzed beforehand, making sure that it doesn't break the site's scalability and then tested to check if everything is ok. That's the process that we usually go through. At this level of complexity, a software application is like an eco-system: adding one new life-form to it might affect the equilibrium of the whole.

These improvements are coming for sure after citizen ads, citizenship, newsletter and world map. They may be included in a bigger re-release of the economy module. I also want to point out that small stuff like this, if requested by the community and we realize it's importance, can be moved faster.


Q: The eRepublik API has been more or less ignored since its enthusiast Beta launch in February of this year. Many developers with high aspirations and great project ideas have lost hope and withered away. What do you think about this?
You have valid reasons to feel frustrated about the fact that the API development didn't advanced as we all expected. But I believe you, too, would prefer a later launch of the API rather than a premature launch on a broken website. Again, we do add feeds (maybe at a lower rate than expected) and new apps still appear and will continue to appear. In the close future we want to start focusing on the strategy to promote it and improve it.


Q: Player customization is arguably one of the most overlooked features in many browser-games and was part of your to-do list for the first half of 2009. We've seen nothing so far...can we expect anything in the near future?
About 2 months ago we conducted the Citizen's survey where one of the questions was what customization was considered the most important (party, company, country, citizen). The least requested was the citizen customization, but still, some improvements are planned for this.


Q: Where do you see eRepublik in 12 months? Will there be a V2, or will the current version just start to receive new features?
In 12 months we will rebuild at least 2 of the 4 big modules that eRepublik has. The site will offer much improved gameplay and modules will be added or improved one by one. But don't expect huge changes like V1 was, as they have proven to be very painful for many of the existing citizens.

Interview conducted on June 12, 2009.]]> eRepublik Suggest launches! http://erepublik.ws/news/eRepublik-Suggest-launches-27 http://erepublik.ws/news/eRepublik-Suggest-launches-27 Sat, 8 Aug 2009 13:55:57 -0700 A new Direction
Back in June when we interviewed eRepublik's best man George Lemnaru, one thing that struck us as particularly interesting was his reply to one of our questions regarding some minor site improvements:

George: "...I also want to point out that small stuff like this, if requested by the community and we realize it's importance, can be moved faster."

To rephrase that: what the players want matters. eRepublik is at its core a community driven game, a sandbox shaped and re-shaped by thousands of citizens - daily. Everyone has their own opinions on what things to improve, what features to add next, what new countries they want to see. The biggest problem that the community faces is connecting the players with the game developers and making sure that their efforts are co-ordinated. Great suggestions have gone largely unnoticed because they became lost under nearly 4000 others on the official forums.

eRepublik Suggest is here to change all that and put the power in the hands of the players. Any citizen can now submit their favorite suggestions for major features, small changes/addition, new countries and even bug reports. This means that the community can now vote for the direction that the game should take. Submit an idea, spread the link and let people vote for it. Additionally, each suggestion can be discussed in detail in the comments section.

To do any of this, there is no registration needed, instead your citizen identity is verified securely through the official eRepublik API that is hosted on the eRepublik.com servers.

Note: eRepublik Suggest is currently in beta, this means that we're open to any feedback for improvements or problems with the site. Things like "search", "duplicate detection" and more will be added in due time.

Now on Twitter
We're pleased to announce that you can now follow eRepublik.ws on Twitter! We'll be using it as a micro-blog of sorts to let people know what we're working on, what we've got planned & to gather feedback.]]> API troubles & what the future holds http://erepublik.ws/news/API-troubles--what-the-future-holds-28 http://erepublik.ws/news/API-troubles--what-the-future-holds-28 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:49:30 -0700 API issues
As you might have noticed, the eRepublik.com API has been having issues ever since the entire eRepublik structure moved to new servers in early October.

These issues seem to boil down to requests-per-second limiting, which prevents tools like the Company Calculator and the scripts that gather currency & product information from properly retrieving their needed data feeds. Due to these ongoing issues, several features of the aforementioned tools have had to be temporarily disabled. We apologize for the inconvenience but it is out of our control.

As if that weren't bad enough, the part of the API that manages citizen authentication is also offline/lagging a lot, preventing many people from verifying their erepublik.ws accounts or submitting/voting on eRepublik Suggest.

These issues have been reported, explained and detailed to several eRepublik Team members. Now its up to them to find out what's wrong on their end and provide a fix - hopefully sooner rather than later.


eRepublik on the go
Browsing eRepublik.com on a mobile phone has never been a very satisfying experience due to rendering lag and a layout that just isn't meant to be used on a 3" screen. Therefore I am pleased to announce that work on a mobile application for eRepublik has begun. Features will include viewing and writing shouts, player profiles, newspaper articles, events, private messages and much more - essentially making using eRepublik on the go quick and fun. This is an ambitious project, and as such there is no estimated release date yet, but expect more news and perhaps a screenshot or two in the next few weeks! Initially eRepublik Mobile will be released for the iPhone/iPod platform only, but will later be expanded to function on Android based devices.

]]> Site back up http://erepublik.ws/news/Site-back-up-67 http://erepublik.ws/news/Site-back-up-67 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:52:20 -0800
Hopefully the fixes that were made to the backend will play nicely with the eRepublik.com API. We'll be monitoring the situation over the next few days to resolve any problems that may arise.

Although no new features are visible, the backend has been improved and now also tracks product prices. Over the next few weeks, as we collect more data, we'll introduce a page that shows graphs of these prices.

eRepublik for the iPhone
We're not releasing any new details about eRepublik Mobile just yet, but we expect the app to be launched sometime in January 2010.]]> Looking Back, Looking Ahead http://erepublik.ws/news/Looking-Back-Looking-Ahead-68 http://erepublik.ws/news/Looking-Back-Looking-Ahead-68 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:33:24 -0700 42,000 votes, 600 suggestions and almost 6000 comments from registered eRepublik players and over 1600 people have purchased access to the company calculator. With eRepublik V2 approaching fast, its time to roll out our plan for the near future:

ERX - First up, the future of the eRepublik Stock Exchange is now decided. Led by AidenAstrup, chairman of eRepublik's largest Bank, and supported by countless other industrialists, this project has been revived and is once again in active development. In early April, be ready for some serious investment action unmatched in depth by anything you've seen or heard before.

eLottery - The biggest in-game lottery, with weekly jackpots at one point totalling over 700 Gold, is making a comeback. Led by the famous Max McFarland 2 this project will once again make some citizens super rich. Look for this to be available within a month at the latest.

iPhone App - After speaking with eRepublik's George Lemnaru, we have decided to wait with launching the app until the new modules are ready and can be integrated into the app. This of course makes for a further delay, but will result in a quality product being released only when its ready.

Company Calc - Many people have asked if the calculator will be updated when the new economic module comes out. The answer is most likely yes, but depends on the specifics of the new additions and how apropriate/feasable a calculator would be.

Lastly, we would like to express our gratitude to the community for their support thus far! Here's to the future, and to St. Patrick's day!]]> ERX Launched! http://erepublik.ws/news/ERX-Launched-69 http://erepublik.ws/news/ERX-Launched-69 Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:01:32 -0700

Please vote the in-game article: click here.

The eRepublik Stock eXchange (ERX)
Back in the Beta days, without an API and seemingly without much financial backing from anyone, a stock exchange was but a pipe dream. Today, on March 24, 2010 I am here to tell you it is that no more. Thanks to AidenAstrup, Max McFarland 2 and the US Government, ERX has been reborn and is available starting today.

ERX allows any citizen to trade shares 24/7 and take their company public by listing their Org - no matter how large or small. Listed companies can be certified ("audited"), for free, by the SEC to ensure the legitimacy of their stated asset values. Backed by the largest bank in eRepublik (t'jelle bank with 11,000+ Gold in assets) and the US Federal Reserve, this project will lay the groundwork for an improved, more complex & rewarding financial system in eRepublik:

Benefits to Organizations
  • raise immediate capital to expand or upgrade by selling shares.
  • transfer shares to existing shareholders.
  • dramatically increase the networth of your company.
  • free to use/register.

Benefits to Citizens
  • invest into companies, and watch your money grow.
  • receive dividends paid out in gold.
  • speculate right, and become super rich.
  • free to use/register (only a 1% per-trade fee).
To get started, register on erx.erepublik.ws and deposit gold into your ERX account -or- list your Org, issue shares and start selling them!]]> Thank You http://erepublik.ws/news/Thank-You-70 http://erepublik.ws/news/Thank-You-70 Thu, 27 May 2010 15:56:48 -0700 Please vote the in-game article: click here.

More than 2 months ago, we launched the eRepublik stock exchange. The response has been phenomenal. We would like to thank you - the eRepublik community, for supporting our vision and helping to make the greatest eRepublik project ever undertaken a huge success! With more than 9000 registered players participating and over 100,000 Gold flowing in and out of our systems, this project can be considered nothing short of that.

We would also like to thank the people who have chosen to support the site financially by donating. Funds will be used to cover server costs and encourage further development across the site. In addition to their upgraded ERX status, these people will be the first to receive notifications of new eRepublik.ws projects, beta invitations and other surprises as a token of our appreciation.

More than 50 updates/upgrades have been made to ERX since launch, incorporating much of the tremendous user feedback we have received. Yet there is more to come, including investor profiles to see what other users are investing in and upgrades to the portfolio page, among other things.

On another note...
Previous news articles indicated that eLottery would be returning, however we have decided to delay this until the official eRepublik.com API is released (if that ever happens). ERX takes a full time staff to process donations manually, even though the eRep API already supports instant-donations/withdrawals - this feature however has been disabled, for no reason, since January 2009 (!!). In fact the entire API project has been dead in the water for more than 10 months.

The eRepublik team's support of our (and other developers') projects has been incredibly lackluster, offering no help of any kind, congratulations or even just a simple acknowledgement of our efforts - it reflects their indifferent attitude towards all efforts to make their stagnant game more complex and more fun, and quite frankly, we are not impressed in the least. The only thing that has kept us going over these years is the eRepublik community itself.

Lastly, the iPhone application, as you may remember, will be delayed until the new eRepublik modules are released (again, if that ever happens).




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