Article
I began my E-Sim life on day 220, after I read an article which was posted on a swedish news site. The first thing I read in that article was that the nation of Sweden was under occupation by Lithuania, and that the Swedish government there needed all help they could get. I found the whole thing intriguing, that one could become a citizen of a nation and take part of many aspects of its economic and militaristic life. A desire to help out my nation grew strong early on.
Over time I began chatting with other players on IRC and got to know quite many swedish players. I early set out a goal to first build up an economic empire to later be able to have the economic strength to fight more. I traded a lot on the money market. I started up what is now a quite sucessfull stock company. I started taking part in the political side and became an active congressman in sweden for several months.
During this whole time I liked that everyone in the game had a fair chance. Basically the only income you had was from working daily, and some gold from a few medals like the train/work medals. I never was any good at getting any friends to join though and to this day still have 0 refs who have reached level 7. Always I kept complaining about the unfairness of recieving gold for inviting other players, because my impression was that a lot of people used proxy servers and created a lot of multies, leveled them up and quit with them.
Because honestly, why would anyone get 5-10 days worth of working income for inviting a friend? Sure, the game needs to grow to prosper but I thought it was way too much.
Anyway, I like the whole economy part of the game, that every single thing you do is for the ultimate purpose of being able to do more damage while fighting. I like the big battles between nations where a lot of people participate but you don't really know who will win the rounds until after. Fighting for your nation gives purpose, a thrill and enjoyment that you are part of something big.
One thing that bothered me though was that old players had a big lead in strength and thus damage and it has pained me endless times that I didn't know about the game earlier and be able to start on day 1. When the other server came along I thought - great! Finally I can be on equal footing with the oldschool players. Sadly there was a big difference between the two servers. There was an option to buy gold on Secura. I didn't feel like spending irl money on a game. I'd rather play where long term planning and skill were what depended on if a player was sucessfull or not. Since then I have been 2clicking on Secura just in case something interesting will happen in the future there, so that I'l still have that day 1 character with max strength and economyskill.
Overall I'm very happy with this game, with the people I've met and the battles we've fought. Yeah, its a bit boring to have the same battles over and over, especially with one side being that much stronger and the state having the economy to supply their fighters. But overall for individual players it doesn't really matter that much. Individual sucess still depends on how you plan your e-sim life and what you do in it.
As I mentioned earlier, for a normal player the only income you have before investing in something is what you get from working daily, and a few medals&level ups. That's not a lot really, and it takes many months to be able to save up for a decent company. And that's without hitting anything at all in the battles. But once you have that company you begin to get an income from your investment in addition to your normal income, so that saving up for the next company after that doesn't take quite as long. And on it goes.
This system has a good basis. Unfortunately there are other factors which make life a bit harder for the normal citizen to compete in. Gold from refs/multis is one thing that I mentioned. Advantageous "loans" from states with little to no interest for the people in command there. "Donations" from states to their strong Military Units is a privilege for the people in those Military Units but not so much for the rest of the citizens.
Things have been working quite well on Primera and I have been content with my economic situation. Lately I participated in the presidental elections and became the president of Sweden, which was interesting. Takes up a lot of time which means a few things are suffering that should have my attention havn't got as much love as they should.
When I joined this game, people were always comparing it to "the other game" which was not to be named. It took me like 2 months to find out the name of that other game to understand what people actually were talking about. The general view was that they praised E-Sim because the admin listened to the players, and I thought.. okay.. that implies that wasn't the case in the other game.. I'm happy I ended up here, since it seems good where we are?
To sum most of it up there are a lot of things that work well here and makes this game enjoyable. Not only because I'm a stubborn fool who refuses to give up in occupation and want something worth fighting for even if it is only for the good cause of my nation.
Sadly now there has come a big change to the fair economy system, which is even worse than the ref gold. This completely favours the players who take part of it a great deal. With a few clicks and entering your credit card number or email adress you can get the income equivalent for several weeks and even months salary from working. It completely changes the basic reason why I play actively on Primera and not Secura. I refuse to click on spamlinks which could give me viruses, spam and in addition cost a lot of irl money. I have seen others cheat the system by registering false information and instantly gained as much gold as I get from working daily in 6 weeks.
I just don't see the point of playing when the basic foundation is so advantegous for people who cheat or actually risk getting those viruses/spam/bills. What they do in a few minutes takes me months to do. Even while I like the game in general and its players, the whole reason to fight for it just vanishes with such an unbalance in the game. What makes it worse is the complete denial that there is an issue about this.
To me and many others this is game breaking. It makes me sad to think that all the hours I've put in playing this game and being part of its community would be total waste. All the hours, days and weeks of fun times and memories vaporized in minutes when my faith in the game falters.
I really should not have to write this article, but regardless of how much faith I have and how patriotic I am to my country, I cannot continue playing if this feature stays in the game. If the links would give a days worth of working income or at most 2-3 for the really big things then perhaps I could live with it. But seeing another player gain a 6 week leap ahead of me in a few clicks is just disheartening.
I will finish my duties as the swedish president until the 5th of March, but if the situation hasn't changed before then I fear I will have to write another wall of text and thank the other players for a nice run.
That coveres most of what I wanted to say in this article I guess. I want to have faith, but it is so hard the way things are going..
Also, I apologise for not continuing with my swedish "approved congress candidates" list from last month to this months congress elections. Somehow I wasn't in the mood. Hopefully it will be better next time
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About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. It's creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.
