Join the new world

So this is the 100th article of The Musicman. That’s 4700+ votes, 518 subscriptions, and so many comments (that I didn’t want to count) so far. I figure I’d celebrate this article with a little bit of self-congratulations, a little bit of humor, a little bit of helpfulness, and a little bit of perspective. That’s to say that this article will be an amalgamation of all the best parts (or the worst parts depending who you ask) of this paper and my personality.

Six months ago, I asked where we would be now:

“Where will America be?

I ask this question because it is approximately at that time a generation of players will be reaching just short where I’m at. A very large generation—in fact, it’s the generation that pushed America to the top of the population charts—will be reaching maturity and will be able to inflict at least 80 damage with a single weapon. It’s this bubble of people that will have a major effect on whether America is a pre-eminent world power in 6 months. America will never catch the nations like Romania and Indonesia with the number of players that are approaching or over one year old today. They hold a distinct advantage in that age range and have effectively used such an advantage. For example, the strategy of tanking utilizes this advantage. However, over time and with attrition, those numbers will dwindle some. That difference is great right now and I suspect in 6 months that will be the case still. For example, I’m one of the top 40 ranked Americans but I wouldn’t break Romania’s top 200. What America should be doing is starting to take advantage of those V1 boomers and those born today and developing strategy that is most beneficial for them. We hold an advantage in this age range and should be maximizing the benefit of such an advantage.

The most significant area where we are concerned with this is in the military. We can and should incentivize certain actions to support consistent activity. More funding would be needed in order to do this. The central tenet of such a strategy would be targeted training (War games are necessary for this strategy). The National Guard should be pumping out 4+ strength sergeants in one month. We would focus funding of supplies on three training phases (which I’ll call T1, T2, and T3). The goal of T1 would be moving them to FL or NJ and to get their wellness over 90 so that they can fight five times in subsequent battles. T2 would aim to get them to corporals. T3 would aim to get them to sergeants and thus have 40% damage bonus. Targeted training is simple and straightforward. Further, it is uniform and fair, and it is an easy way to start to take advantage of the age demographics of this country. It overrides the differences between good and bad COs and it provides immediate benefits by increasing activity and damage of Americans. The case should be made that we should help all those V1 boomers in other branches level up to colonels and generals so they can make America into a military power in 6 months.

It is my belief that government leaders should take the lead in developing strategy to make America the best it can be. That’s part of the reason I’m running for Congress and that’s part of the reason for publishing this article. In six months, this game could look very different. First, a V2 could be released (which I doubt). Or second, America can be emerging from its Beta slumber and asserting itself. We cannot change whether the former occurs but we should strive for the latter.”

And using this article as platform, I would like to answer. I still believe that the military is not optimized for new players, so in that regard, I am slightly disappointed. However, the gains have been substantial and more than enough to make up for any disappointment. America now has 70 field marshals, numerous generals, etc. However, it has been the attrition of time that it has also stunted our enemies. In the six months, I believe we have seen the peaking of some of our enemies and that has helped to complete the arc of war strength over the time period as we regain our last enemy-held states. They have come and gone. For example, I’ve moved up about 400 spots in the world rankings because the near-constant fighting America has provided me, coupled with the departures of some of those in front of me, stopping their progression. It’s not shocking to see America (with its allies) win the big battles now. That couldn’t have been said six months ago.

I’ll conclude by picking out some of my favorite articles in my archives:

50 Most Important eAmericans: The Top Ten – It’s hard to believe it’s almost been a year since I wrote who, in my opinion, were the most important eAmericans of all time at that time. It’s cool to go back and reminisce as an older player and also it allows younger players can learn some eHistory. It’s also the article that helped this paper sort of explode.

Go Ahead, Make My Day – I don’t think anyone realized that the article was a combo of just Clint Eastwood quotes, even after I commented on it. But it’s funny to me that I twisted all those into a topical attack on the prevailing politics of the time.

It’s A Game!: A Devastating Critique of the eUnited States – What the Clint Eastwood article helped to foreshadow was the clean break I had with the political culture back in the day. I gave up the partisanship before giving up partisanship was cool.

Help For New Players v5 – I always assumed that the Top Ten would be my magna opus but I think that this series of guides has turned out to be my most important contribution. They help new players. They’ve been translated into Russian and French, which is admittedly pretty cool.

The Long War – This project didn’t receive as much attention as I had hoped but I always liked the idea of Propaganda Now and this was my version.

Thanks for reading! I’d also like to submit an early congratulations to all the eventual Congressional winners across the world.