Dincolo de distractie, eRepublik ma intereseaza pentru ca este un revelator foarte bun in privinta retelelor sociale, a comportamentului utilizatorului de internet in interactiunea cu ceilalti. (Sa va mai spun ca spre deosebire de alte popoare din joc, romanii se tin mai ales de scandaluri politice, de acuze si mai putin de constructie/edificare?).
Astazi, George Lemnaru, inventatorul jocului, imi spune ca eRepublik a depasit 1 milion de cetateni inregistrati (fara sa fie integrat in Facebook si fara mari investitii in promovare), dintre care 320.000 il joaca in mod regulat iar dintre acestia jumatate intra zilnic.

eRepublik, finalizat in proportie de 30%, are acum o echipa de 45 de oameni in Irlanda, Spania, Marea Britanie si Romania.
Jocul a fost nominalizat in OnMedia top 100 Winner  ( Categoria Digital Publishers), o selectie internationala a celor mai interesante proiecte din lumea digitala.
Mai multe puteti citi in scriptul interviului video acordat de Alexis Bonte, CEO, co-fondator si investitor in joc. Cititi-l, e interesant.

Desigur ramane problema monetizarii. Chiar George, cum stati din acest punct de vedere?

So Alexis why don’t you tell us who you are and what the big news are?
I’m Alexis Bonte the co-founder and CEO of eRepublik the social strategy games publisher, and we are very excited that eRepublik.com that we launched just over one year ago in tis public version hit on the last days of December 2009 the 1 million registered users milestone, mostly by word of mouth and without any facebook integration and the game is just 30% finished. We also really happy to learn that we have been selected as a AlwaysOn top 100 winner.
What does it mean to eRepublik to be included in the OnMedia 100 list?
Well its really cool especially when you are a European start up to get some recognition and awards. Starting a company in Europe is much harder than in the USA so everything counts and we have been lucky enough in the past to be recognized by LeWeb, FOWA, TechCrunch or the Webby awards and this of course is important not just for the team that now consists of 45 people in Bucharest, Madrid, London and Ireland but also from an industry perspective and it makes our investors happy. 
How is eRepublik today?
Well we has I said we have over 1 million registered users, about 320.000 are active players and over 50% play on a daily basis. So we have a super active user base that has created close to 50.000 newspapers, 40.000 companies and 1000 political parties in the eRepublik world. Our revenues are growing steadily and our main markets are the USA that accounts for about 20% of our revenue, France and the UK, Spain and Eastern Europe. Our users have also created about 400.000 pages of content in the past 6 months and France my native country is down to one region, the rest having been invade by Poland and Spain. Other than that things are going pretty well.
Do you have any comment for eRepublik citizens on upcoming developments for eRepublik?
Yes we will be launching a much more visual and rich military module in a few weeks, this is particularly challenging become some battles in eRepublik have tens of thousands of simultaneous players. We are also working hard on the economical side of things to allow more customization and will be making the first few weeks of eRepublik a much more easy experience for new players as we are loosing to many people in the first few days.
You mentioned eRepublik is not on Facebook, is there a reason for that?
Well eRepublik in its complete form was to complex and deep to be a facebook only game, we have a more ambitious vision for it and we have proven that you can grow and have great user engagement outside of facebook. Also I think that solutions like facebook connect are interesting and done at the right time and in the right way can provide a similar distribution boost and at the same time give you more control of your platform and what you can do with it. So its more a question of timing and control.
If you think about it there have been 3 major waves of change that the web has brought to the games industry.
-       The first one is MMOG games with traditional subscription models such as WOW or Runscape with a focus on RPG
-       At the same time you have had the browser game wave, led by companies like Gameforge and Bigpoint.
-       The third wave, the one that everybody is talking about has been the social games on platforms like facebook that is led by Zynga, playfish and playdom
I think that there is a third wave, a tsunami wave that is really going to transform how games are created and played that is going to emerge in 2010 and explode in 2011 and I’m working on making sure that eRepublik will be at the center of it.
And what will be this tsunami wave like?
Well I’m keeping that undercover for the time being but if you look hard at some of the things we are doing with eRepublik.com you may find a few tips.
 
Thanks Alexis and congratulations on reaching the 1 million registered users milestone.

studiez de ceva vreme jocul online erepublik, creatie a lui George Lemnaru, finantat de Alexis Bonte ( care, intre timp, a devenit presedintele frantei :) .  E un model interesant de comunitate online.
la inceput m-a intrigat pentru ca avem de-a face cu un joc fara componente multimedia (sunet, 3D samd) asa cum ne-am obisnuit. erepublik vine cu o interfata destul de minimala.
intre timp,  a ajuns la 35.000 de membri activi, worldwide.
mai nou, dupa cateva luni de munca, George si echipa lui au pus online noua varianta a jocului si surpriza a fost ca foloseste intens doua aplicatii: wiki si trivia/quiz. wiki pentru help si profilurile userilor si trivia/quiz (foto) ca mijloc de afirmare in comunitatea erepublik.
am stat aseara destul de mult de vorba cu George, era in transa dupa munca intensa din ultimele luni ( puteti citi aici o statistica amuzanta despre ce a insemnat programare la noua varianta).

deocamdata inscrierea in joc se face pe baza de invitatie dar george spera sa-l deschida pentru toti jucatorii inainte de sfarsitul anului 2008.

obisnuit cu alte universuri virtuale, am fost putin sceptic cand am intrat in erepublik.com: niciun peisaj 3D, niciun avatar, nimic spectaculos aparent.
in timp studiind relatiile dintre romanii de acolo, am inteles forta de atractie a retelelor sociale si acum intru in erepublik  pentru 3-5 minute zilnic.

puteti afla mai multe din comunicatul oficial sau dintr-un articol care apare maine in business magazin.

PS: mai am disponibil un cont in joc. cine doreste invitatia sa dea de stire la comentarii. mai am cateva invitatii pentru conturi in erepublik, for free. cine doreste, sa lase un comentariu.

stirea serii a fost parteneriatul dintre Calin Fusu si Emi Gal pornind de la proiectul acestuia din urma vertimo. surpriza generala! (vezi poza de mai jos, stanga)

emi nu a vrut sa-mi dea cifre (procente, bani, alea, alea) dar mi-a spus ca impreuna cu neogen va lansa o multime de siteuri de anunturi: masini, etc etc). cam unul pe luna.

au fost prezenti si doi oficiali microsoft (tudor galos – windows business group lead si bogdan musat- seful evangelistilor microsoft) care n-au ezitat sa vorbeasca indelung cu managerul local yahoo!, chiar daca fuziunea dintre cele doua corporatii a esuat. (cele doua poze de deasupra acestor randuri, din dreapta)

dupa discutii a urmat networking-ul pana tarziu in noapte.(vezi pozele de mai jos)

a fost asadar lume multa, discutii interesante. m-am bucurat ca m-am revazut cu multi si ca i-am cunoscut si pe altii in lumea reala, dupa ce discutasem mult timp pe email, de exemplu pe george lemnaru de la erepublik.com sau pe dragos manac.

vorba cuiva: daca pica un avion peste cladire sau punea cineva o bomba, disparea internetul romanesc.

Care internet!? – a replicat cineva sec.

PS: scuze celor care au stat frumos la poze si nu s-au vazut aici… orele sunt inaintate si peste 10 ore trebuie sa moderez un seminar la cerf. dar ne mai auzim noi.

a mai scris si va mai scrie: manafu

noul joc online de care mai toata lumea vorbeste acum este creat si administrat la bucuresti. se numeste erepublik, este opera a doi antreprenori, Alexis Bonte si George Lemnaru, iar luna viitoare va primi prima finantare externa. intr-un interviu publicat azi, Alexis spune ca perioada beta se va sfarsi in mai-iunie, cand erepublik va fi deschis jucatorilor din lumea intreaga.

alexis bonte este cel care a cumparat 10% din trilulilu cu 100.000 de euro.

in esenta, erepublik este un joc de tip online massive multiplayer, un simulator economic, politic si social; orice jucator are sansa sa devina cel mai mare politician, cel mai bogat cetatean al unei tari sau cel mai bun manager. amanunte aici.
deocamdata, in perioada beta, are 12.000 de locuitori din 43 de tari, inscrisi pe baza de invitatie, iar 5.000 de persoane se afla pe lista de asteptare.

“vrem sa ajungem intre primele 3 jocuri online din lume, cu o populatie mai mare decat a portugaliei si, de ce nu, sa fim recunoscuti de ONU”- declara Alexis Bonte.

portugalia are in jur de 11 milioane de locuitori, second life declara cam toti atatia inscrisi – este clar unde bate bonte.

veniturile vor veni din bunurile virtuale tranzactionate de locuitori si din advertising.
filmuletul de mai jos a fost inregistrat in birourile de la bucuresti.