[WC] Ask questions or shoot: Which one do I do first again?

Day 1,171, 23:04 • Published in Canada Canada • by Chamrajnagar

eRep is a social strategy game, assuming of course we take out multis. The reason it's successful at all is because of the community behind it. Often cited as the number one reason that new players leave is that they never got involved in the meta-game.

How would you measure success in this game? Regardless of how, the only non-social aspect I can think of is if you were a faceless business baron. Even then, knowing proposed tax changes in congress would give you an edge in that regard. This brings me to my first point:

It's very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve success in this game without engaging in the community.

Boiling this game down to its basics gives us 4 major modules: Military, Economy, Political, Media.

I would argue that their relationship is similar to the sciences. Anatomy boils down to Biology, and Biology to Chemistry, with Chemistry being little more than applied Physics. So too does the Media module empower the Political Module, which serves as a regulator for the Economy module. The Political module and Economic module also serve merely to augment the Military module. I'm sure you've heard it before, but everything can boil down to the Military module.

With some basic facts out of the way, it brings me to the point of this article: Success in this game is measured in the Military module, and to achieve succes you must engage in the community.

Role-playing military organizations play just this role. They extend the community aspect and focus it on the most basic part of the game. They are fundamental instruments in getting new players involved with the community, and getting them involved in the game.

These organizations are incredibly important for a variety of reasons. They help organize damage where it's most needed, they help their members to maximize their own damage to benefit the team, they give a sense of camraderie and adventure to an otherwise boring game. They ALSO represent something larger than the individual player. This itself is good because it suits the interests of both leaders and followers. Leaders thrive in this environment because they are constantly looking for ways to prove themselves. Often their leadership is recognized by improving the group as a whole. Competition breeds innovation. Followers, too, benefit from this behaviour. They have increased their ability versus standing alone. They also belong to a group, which is what they look for.

The question then comes, why choose one organisation over another? This, of course, is up to individual taste. Though most of them share the same benefits, HOW they get there is quite different. I would argue that we need MORE of these organizations, to appeal to a broader population. Again, competition breeds innovation. The more organisations spring up, the harder the existing ones will work both to retain members, and recruit new ones.

For proof of this, look at the people you know in-game. If you ranked them (in your own terms) in order of "success" in this game, I'd wager that most of the top ones have served in a military organization at some point in their elives. Every single one of the CPs in my lifetime has been in one organization or another. The authors of the top 10 newspapers in eCan (other than the 2 orgs) have all been in one. It seems I can't filter by sales anymore, but I'd bet many of the economic barons have also been in one. Looking at the current battle with the UK, the top 5 damage dealers are all in a military organization right now.

The long and short of it is our military organizations help their members suceed. So join one today! If there aren't any that suit your fancy, gather some like-minded people, and start your own. Nothing in this game beats the community, and, after that, you might as well play this game for what it is: war.