2011 eRepublik Rebellion/Polski

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Logo stosowane przez większość rebeliantów podczas Buntu Erepublik 2011.

Bunt Erepublik 2011 (zwany również Buntem Prezydentów lub Buntem obywateli) był światowym protestem, trwającym od 2 marca 2011 (Dzień 1198 Nowego Świata) prowadzonym przez graczy przeciwko przeciwko trzem następującym kwestiom: złymi zmianami wprowadzanymi przez administratorów gry, cenzurze oraz oraz brakiem komunikacji między graczami a adminami. Protestujący za głownego wroga obrali Plato, oficjalne konto eRepublik służace do komunikacji z graczami, jako źródło twardej cenzury i totalnego braku komunikacji między graczami a zespołem adminów.

Tło konfliktu

Wyciekłe dokumenty dotyczące Programu Najlepszych Kupujących.

Rebelia składała się przede wszystkim z protestów obywateli przeciwko licznym i niezapowiedzianym zmianom wprowadzanym przez zespół eRepublik. W tym czasie, zmiany te były niepopularne i mocno dyskusyjne. Ponieważ niektóre z nich nie były zapowiedziane przed wdrożeniem protestujący mieli obawy, że były one pełne błedów. Było także ogólne przekonanie, że komunikacja na tle obywatel - zespół praktycznie nie istaniała. Datuje się to na czas realizacji eRepublik "V2", gdy wiele drastycznych zmian w grze było na ogół nieporządanych, dyskusyjnych i nasyconych błędami. Do protestów zachęcano także z innych powodów:

• pogłosek o wprowadzaniu zmian silnie faworyzujących kupujących gold obywateli;
• obaw, że projekt "zjednoczenia inwentarza i pieniędzy kont" ponownie spustoszy gospodarkę Nowego Świata;
• korzystania z botów przez zespół eRepublik do kupowania dóbr na krajowych rynkach oraz emisji waluty na Rynku Pieniężnym
• długo i głośno żądany limit na paczki zdrowia;
• uczucie, że ulepszenia systemów mediów i prywatnych wiadomości wprowadziły restrykcje;
• planowanie usunięcia organizacji, a wraz z tym zniszczenia znacznej części historii eRepublik;
• liczne opóźnienia w realizacji poszczególnych faz związanych z branżą nieruhomości i szpilati

Dlatego można śmiało stwierdzić, że bunt nie wybuchł z powodu jednej sprawy - niezadowolenie i gniew gromadzony przez długi czas osiągnął punkt kulminacyjny, a ciężka i niesprawiedliwa cenzura w mediach i na forach nie pomagała załagodzić tej złości; w rzeczywistości jeszcze ją podsycała.

Linia czasu Rebelii

Drugiego marca 2011 roku(dzień 1,198), Plato oznajmił obywatelom, że w ciągu 5 dni, "każdy obywatel będzie mógł zdobyć, poprzez dotacje lub Rynek Walutowy, nieograniczoną ilość Golda" poprzez wiadomość pop-up. Biorąc pod uwagę, że do tamtego dnia, ilość złota, które obywatel mógł pobierać była nieograniczona, a metoda ta nie była równoznaczna z długo oczekiwanym limitem na paczki zdrowia; a także po ujżeniu wyciekłych programów Najlepszego Klienta oraz innych czynników, wielu Prezydyntów na znak protestu wzniosło petycję pod głosowanie Kongresów do zmiany Wiadomości dla Nowych Obywatel na tekst przeciwko eRepublik. Zostali oni permanentnie zablokowani za nie szanowanie "Warunków korzystania z usługi" eRepublik.

	“ Jednymi z powodów dla których zaproponowałem to prawo był drzemiący we mnie Żyd i Południowy Afrykanin. Dzielenie klientów; zamienianie nie płacących klientów w obywateli drugiej kategorii. Równie dobrze można było przyklejać żółtą gwiazdkę na każdym z nich i zacząć umieszczać znaki "tylko biali". ”
	(Krimpiekat)

Pod wpływem silnego gniewu wobec zablokowania konta, Jonathan Joestar stworzył kanał IRC #Rebellion na serwerze Rizon. Ruch zbudował poparcie na IRCu z nocy w środę na czwartek, kiedy to setki obywateli weszło na kanał. W szczytowym okresie było na nim około 1,100 użytkowników. Odtąd różne anty-admini i anty-Plato artykuły były powiązane i głosowano na nie. Obywatele uczestniczący w publikowaniu tych szczerych artykułów otrzymywali Punkty Grzywny (FPs - Forfeit Points), później przemianowane na "Punkty Sławy" i "Punkty Lojalnościowe Rebelii", oraz tymczasowe zawieszenie. Cenzura dopięłą granic, gdy nie tylko artykuły rebelii, jej feedy i posty na forum były karane, ale także obiektywne artykuły i wszystko, nawet niewiele związane z eRepublik, zespołem eRepublik, Prezydentami, czy też mówieniu nie wojnie. Skutkowało to zawieszaniem dzienników urzędowych Ministrów Obrony Narodowej, którzy publikowali rozkazy "wstrzymać się" w oficjalnych krajowych gazetach militarnych.

The private presidential section of the eRepublik forum was also broken in to when the password to the channel was leaked, and it was added to the channel topic for all to see. Tens of threads voicing dissatisfaction towards Plato and the eRepublik team were created in this forum, and many more in the public sections. The eRepublik Facebook group was then targeted, with citizens being called to rate it with one star and post negative comments. The eRepublik team later removed the rights to comment on the group and admins and moderators started to rate the game with five stars .

Minor vandalism also occurred in the eRepublik Encyclopedia.

Throughout the day, Most heads of state and other representatives signed an anti-"admin" Charter, blaming the eRepublik team of failing to listen to the general public and implementing unrequested and unhelpful features to the game which would "ruin [the] game even more", in order to "maximize the Gold usage". Side-by-side with this Charter, the Presidents made a mutual agreement to cease all wars and fighting in a stand against the eRepublik team. After that, the Presidents of many countries, including major ones like Spain and Poland declared a General Hold Fire in their countries. In the meanwhile a few, non-signing countries went on with their attacks, like Romania on the no-war signing Hungary.

An independent forum and several further IRC channels were established to provide some organization to a so far spontaneous and unplanned protest. On Friday, 03:00 (eRepublik time), a meeting was arranged with Belea2008, a member of the eRepublik team, and around 40 heads of states or representatives attending. The heads of states had four spokespersons, representing the main alliances, and the unaligned smaller countries, and painstakingly prepared a document, detailing the main points of the users' dissatisfaction, signed by 43 Country Presidents, from all alliances and unaligned countries - a previously unheard-of cooperation in the eWorld. (Over 1,040 citizens were watching on in #Rebellion chatroom for information on how the meeting was going, a record-breaking attendance in eRepublik-related IRC channels) However, the discussion ended extremely quickly, with Belea declaring the discussion pointless, as the players had "non negotiable demands".

Many of the Presidents present and the onlokers in the #Rebellion chatroom thought that Belea's declaration might have been an excuse - he apparently did not want to talk at all (if his behavior was anything to go by, as the chatlog shows) and when he found a convenient excuse to leave he took it. He firstly demanded that legitimate heads of states must not be attending (the banned presidents, who were the initial leaders of the rebellion; also Presdents egitimacy comes from players, and lasts until impeachment); he then specifically demanded that certain persons, whom he did not like, to leave the channel (he expressed this through SirMokeShag, the coordinator of the meeting); he then said nothing while Nalaja, one of the spokespersons, started the meeting with emphasis on the importance of communication; he then declared the negotiations over, not waiting even a second in order to anyone to react. The so-called 'non-negotiable' items that he cited as excuses were in fact the points that the rebellion considered the most important that must be talked of.

The concerns voiced in the rebellion

The main issues of the protesters:

• Communication between the admin team and users. The whole starting paragraph in the signed document was about this issue, because the protesters felt this of paramount importance, in which the eRepublik Team so far has failed.
• Limiting the wellness packs themselves, instead of the 10 gold rule, which the protesters did not feel an adequate solution to the issue. This point is what most eRepublik citizens demanded for long, and in every possible forum.
• Bringing back the strategical options that admins removed from the game - as eRepublik advertises itself as a strategy game, it is quite logical to have strategical options in the presidents' disposal, while the NE rule, the removal of retreat option, the automatic battles, the cost of the battles, and the auto-activated MPP-s practically reduced the wars into no-brain, mindless fighting.
• The economy was plunging to overproduction when the work as manager option was introduced and the bots that bought up goods did not solve this, only made the MM crash too, and currencies became devalued. Therefore it is obvious that in the interests of a self-sustaining economy the overproduction must be solved somehow.
• General pardon for the protesters for the temp bans, perm bans and FP-s - excluding the multi and exploit cases. The reason is obvious - the well-meaning protests are always penalized at first, but it is the sign of the ruling powers' willingness to negotiate to dismiss some or all of the punishments - therefore generating a healthier, less anger-, and hate-driven atmosphere.

The less important section of the document:

• The use of the aforementioned bots must be stopped - we all know that these bots exist, and wreaked havoc in the markets and MMs.
• Freedom of speech - under this section was the free movement of newspapers again, as the eRepublik team expressed it long ago, that real free speech will never be allowed (cf the unmovable public debate rule).
• Ability to appeal every ban or FP including forum ones and the questioning of the present Game Mods - eRepublik citizens expressed their views about the no-appeal system long ago, and their concerns about some of the present game moderators, and the deleting of those articles and forum threads were of course inadequate answer to those concerns. The eRepublik Team has not voiced anything in this matter, unless further bans are to be taken as answers.
• Keep all organizations 'as is', or return them to full functionality - except voting and subscribing. The reasoning behind this is such: citizens don't feel that organizations are bad, quite the opposite - they want them to stay, as the rumored unified inventory will probably have the expected shortcomings. The only real problem with the orgs are the voting/subscribing, not their existence - and also admins have never said anything about the orgs' newspapers that contain valuable historical information, which would be gone if the orgs are deleted.
• The functionality of the advertisement module, and the usage of the parties' gold
• A really usable API, and the full battle stats - both is long asked, and would be absolutely necessary for the game experience.
• Bringing back EI or a similar general announcement system that is available to every citizen in the homepage - and the use of it for announcing changes before they are implemented.
• changelogs of the implemented new modules.
• more focus on the development of the political module - eRepublik is supposedly not a war-game, but a social simulation - it should be developing all modules, not only the war one.

Rebellion in the Media

Anti-Platod seal of Indonesia

A variety of graphical images were used during the protests in articles and forum threads, portraying Plato as a dictator such as Hosni Mubarak, Colonel Gaddafi and Adolf Hitler. On top of this, it is estimated that hundred of articles were made in support of the rebellion, many of which were moderated by the team for breaching the eRepublik Laws or Terms of Service. Thousands of other articles, many simply reporting on the events as they happened, or making fun of them in the best traditions of eRepublik media, or even just remotely connected to the happenings were deleted as spam or flaming.

Admin Censorship

There were numerous instances of members of the eRepublik team deleting articles, forum threads and warning for rebellious messages.

Many articles ranging from out-right rule breaking rants to just friendly articles saying let's have peace with the country next door were deleted during this time.

Pictures used during the rebellion

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Aftermath

A image passed along many rebels to show that they consider the banning of presidents distasteful

A image also passed along many rebels to show Admins they want change.

The banning of the presidents

As a result of the rebellion, many Country Presidents were permanently suspended for disrespecting the eRepublik Laws, and Terms of Services. The presidents suspended include:

• Krimpiekat, President of South Africa
• Laya, President of Iran, and Game Moderator
• Kistru, President of Serbia
• 1shakalas1, President of Lithuania
• Howly, President of Slovenia
• Cerber, President of Poland
• gvstavo v2.0, President of Peru
• Kallmar, President of France
• Gregory Gallangher, President of Hungary
• Antiko, President of the Netherlands (Temporarily banned)
• The moi, President of Chile
• Jan Parma, President of Slovakia (Temporarily banned)
• Hans Molemann, President of Bolivia (Temporarily banned)

‎Grouth, President of Norway, was also suspended during the period of the rebellion, but was banned for multiple accounts usage, meaning it was not associated with the rebellion.

Further developments

In the days after the rebellion was heavily put down by admins, the owners/managers of the game (Alexis Bonte and George Lemnaru) came out with articles and answers to some of the concerns - neither of them unfortunately said much new information, only some generalities and promises; and neither of them has shown any willingness to negotiate or talk with users about the concerns raised in the document ; and they steadfastly refused to even consider the unbanning of the presidents and other banned citizens. This shows that they still believe in the 'heavy hand' policy, instead of the 'openness and talk' one. Also, new missions were quickly implemented, all promoting war and NE, with strength and gold rewards, to entice the no-war signing protesters to give up their protests. On the forums, the heavy hand continued, and Plato is seekeing even more moderators for the forum. It is painfully obvious that a user who becomes a forum moderator, cannot in fact answer to issues that would require a long negotiation with the game developers and the managers; they can only answer generalities, which does not help the communication issue still. It must be added that these forum moderators do answer in the Help section of the forum, but as it was neither a problem, it cannot be called an improvement in the communication issues. The forum is now moderated by all those who enjoy banning, and there is absolutely no appeal against their bans(There is no reference, but there is no appeal against forum bans, as everyone knows who was banned there) - which start at 10 days for anything, even for a simple signed comment. The cenzorship is now ten times worse on the forum as it is in the media - and it is stifling even there. Instead of communication, admins chose to silence all opposition, and put their minions in charge - and gave them free rein too...

In an effort to avoid the limiting of wellness packs - the very thing most players agreed on - admins changed the company market, by limiting the selling price to within 10 % of the buying/creating price. After some days, it was proved that the measure wasn't useful in what limiting wellness packs concerns.