interview_2017_reaverpt

1- Who is Jimkats1?! Is there a special reason for you to choose this nick? And why and how you choose to play this game?

I'm almost 25 years-old, from Greece, studying computer sciense, playing games, listening to Eurovision...you know, typical stuff xD.
Truly my nick is [b]jimkats[/b], but when it's occupied, I choose [i]jimkats1[/i]. This was the occasion aswell, but somehow when I registered it auto-capsed the first letter. Thanks Plato... It derives from my real name and I use it since 2005 approximately. Yes, I try to build an online carreer for this name :P.
Till January 2013 I was very active at the game, at almost every aspect of the game. Then I stopped for 1 month and since I returned again, I started being 2-clicker. You could say I'm [u]2-clicker+[/u] now, even though you may see me almost all day in-game and dealing with stuff, such as being Minister of Press for 3 months in a row :P. Also not considering I'm admin at eGreece's forum and mod at eGreece's Discord :P.
In general, I play this game for fun and not to achieve great in-game stuff, because I know it's difficult to achieve them. Whenever I can though, I try to achieve what I can. For example, I almost never hunt for BH, that's why I have so few BHs.

2-Did you have any difficult in the beginning? What kind of difficulty?

Even though I never played a similar game before, it wasn't that difficult to understand what to do. Back then there were also many active players, so it was easy to ask for help in-game, at forums or in chat (i.e. IRC, which was always used more than TS).
At the first battles, I did the mistake many new players do: spending gold for medical kits. Thankfully it didn't cause me any big troubles afterwards.

3-You were Greece CP for one time, what were your greatest achievement? Any funny or remarkable situation?

I don't really want to discuss about it (greeks of that period know why), so I will just say it was a really bad period for me irl and for the country. I let my people down due to bad conjuncture... I remained CP for 1 week before I handover the presidency to the runner-up, [url=https://www.erepublik.com/en/citizen/profile/3119689]Apostolos6[/url]. If it was any other period, I would stay for sure and even complete my presidency.
I remember that period was near EDEN's ending and we were discussing about future alliances. I was having small conversations with Albania to go together at a new alliance. Of course as stated above, nothing was completed. I don't know what my successor did, as I left the game.

4-Greece is living at the moment a rough time, invaded by Macedonia and Bulgaria. What is the feeling of Greek population nowadays. Do you feel that your community is united to conquer the liberation in near future?

These wars are just for all three countries to spend their time, it's not actual war. That's mostly because there are few active players and lack of interest from many. It's like the old days. Wars scheduled to last for months, especially for summer as it's considered vacation period for most of the players.
In my opinion, Greek citizens are determined to fight for Greece and especially for the core regions, no matter what the goverment is thinking about each battle. So, you could say our community is not fully united at the moment. But worry not fellas, we shall survive.

5- Why is the reason that Greece dont belong to any alliance? And how do you see Portugal & Greece relations ingame?

Because alliances are changing again, as it happenes almost every 2 years. Old are destroyed, new are borning from the ashes. At the moment, we search for allies for new alliance. We already have some allies locked in.
I don't know the exact relations of Portugal and Greece, but I would say they are decent. I hope of course for the best. I think so far Portugal wasn't discussed for future ally. But we shall see. It's summer now, so I guess the new alliance will come from September.

6- You also were responsible for the organization of Erepublik Eurovision. Are you satisfied with the participation and results this year? And as an Eurovision fan in RL, how do you saw the victory of portuguese singer Salvador Sobral?

Besides the difficulties and the issues that were occured, mostly during the televoting period, everything went pretty good. We reached a bit better level by participation than in 2015. And that made me happy :D. Did you know that me (and maybe [url=https://www.erepublik.com/en/citizen/profile/5980925]Gwom[/url] aswell, don't remember) are the only players who participated in all 3 editions of the contest? If it wasn't for me, Greece would never participate and maybe there wouldn't be 2017's eEurovision. I'm not boasting, that's the truth. Well, I've got online song contests' hosting experience from before, so it wasn't that difficult for me to do anything :D.
I tried to implement many features in the contest that weren't before, but few things couldn't occur. At least I did a decent trailer, a good looking scoreboard, allowed players for non-participating countries to vote and there was a money prize for the winning country. What I wanted to do also was to stream the songs presentation and the televoting results, so to make it more realistic like the real Eurovision :P, but my Internet sucks...
From the first day the song won Festival da Cancao, I didn't really like the song. Still don't, sorry :D. But I like that it won the contest (and we have one country less left to win the contest :P). In general this year's contest had a low music level than other years, even from 2015 which was full of balads... But now I'm realyl curious to see how Portugal will host the contest in 2018. From the first day you won, RTP started the procedures and now with the help from Jon Ola Sand's manual and the rest of the Reference Group, RTP is going to make Mediterranean (well, Atlantic :D) great again for Eurovision hosting.

7- What can you tell us of the real Greece? A place to visit, something to eat, something that make you different from all cultures?

Every country has its own beauty, every place has its own stuff to show, it's a bit difficult to suggest where to go if you give me such a big range to select from :D. But I can say where NOT to go :P. For example, Athens is good only for the historical buildings and some other areas, but in general Athens isn't that great. I would fully suggest though Thessaloniki. If you want small towns and/or nature, I would suggest Nafpaktos (the place I study) with a cool combination of sea and mountains, half an hour from the city of Patras, crossing the bridge of Rio-Antirrio.
What makes us different? Feta, ouzo, tsipouro, the beauty of the greek language, etc. xD.

8- Greece, like Portugal, lived, not a long time ago a difficult situation with the economic crisis. How are the things currently there, any improvements?

Individually there are still many difficulties, as prices for basic stuff such as food and health went up, the income went down and all of that because of the goverments and of the people who still support the goverments...anyways, improvements there are somehow at innovation and especially when it includes Internet of Things (IoT). That's more global though and not only local, but still...
Rise people against the wrong, support the right.

9 - Any tip or encouraging message to the newbies in Erepublik?

Stay in the game, don't be afraid if you face the game with difficulty, [url=https://youtu.be/XgGahKsBtts]you are not alone[/url]. Add friends, join any Military Unit and you will find yourself in some friendly situation. Political parties are not suggested, mostly because they are less active than MUs, so more chances to find active players in a MU, as the game is mostly for military campaigns.
Have fun :).