Join the new world

Find yourself without a political party membership, or looking for a change? I went through this after I moved to eSweden so thought I'd share my experience for others in the same position.

First off you need to think about what it is you want from your party. There is no rule that says you have to be politically active, but if you'd like to be what are your motives? Are you looking to meet new people and join a community who share your political beliefs? Do you want to get involved in government? Do you want to express yourself, and promote your ideas? Joining a party gives you a better opportunity to promote your grand ideas for a better eSweden with support from your colleagues.

Also think about your political ideas. You don't have to follow your RL beliefs, this is a role-play game after all. Do you want to be a power-broker? A populist? A bleeding-heart liberal full of tears for the oppressed or a hard-nosed conservative? Maybe a wild-eyed revolutionary hell-bent on turning the system upside down? There's a party for all of you...

First thing you do is go to Community-My Party. If you're not a member of a party you'll be offered to Join a Party, and presented with a list of all the parties in eSweden. Take a look through each party, consider these aspects of the party page:

1. Avatar - a picture tells 1000 words, the party avatar may tell you a little about the mindset of the party leadership and how they'd like to be perceived by the outside world.

2. Political orientation - The official orientation on the party page describes first the party's economic orientation (Far-Left, Center-Left, Center, Center-Right, Far-Right) then their social orientation (Totalitarian, Authoritarian, Libertarian, Anarchist). Though this orientation doesn't necessarily mean much it is at least a guide towards the party's mindset and traditions.

3. Info - Read the party info, it is a small outline of the party's purpose, limited in number of characters.

4. Membership/rank - A couple of things to note here. If your main interest is to get involved in government quickly you should join a party with a rank in the top 5. Only top 5 parties may nominate members of congress and in reality most of the executive government comes from the top 5 as well. If you're more interested in a long-term project to help build a party from the ground up then join a smaller party, you'll probably find you can have a big influence in some of the smaller parties but it is a difficult job to build them up to a position of power.

5. Members of Congress - The party page also shows the percentage of congress seats held by the party. A high-ranked party (ranking is by number of members) with a low congress seat count is indicative of a party on the wane with lots of inactive members, while a low-ranked party with a high proportion of congress seats may be a party on the rise.

6. Party members - Follow the 'Show all Members' button and take a browse through the membership. A lot of high-rank players might be an old, traditional party while a lot of low-rank players might be a party that focuses on recruiting new citizens.

By now you probably have an idea of what parties exist, and maybe have a shortlist of which ones look right for you.

If you haven't already joined the official eSweden forums go to erepublik.se and register. Under the 'eRepublik' section you'll find a 'Partiforum' where each party is able to post a thread to outline the party platform in detail. Most parties also have a private forum where most communication is done, and you can request access from the party thread in this forum. Read through the detailed platforms for your short-listed parties (use google translate if you don't read Swedish, some are also posted in English), take note of how recently they've been updated. Look at whether the private forum registration has been attended to recently, if there are long-standing requests that haven't been attended to the party president may be inactive.

You're probably close to a decision now, but don't stop there!

Send a PM to the party president (you'll find a link on the party page), tell them about your goals and ambitions and what you want. You'll find most PP's will respond to you and let you know what the party is about and whether you can achieve what you want with them. If they don't respond that will tell you just as much about the party as their response 😉.

It's now as simple as going back to the party page and clicking on the 'Join Party' button. Sign up for the private forum membership (if it exists). Send friend requests to party members. You'll find you now see a tab for your party in the 'My Feeds' section of your home page. Don't be afraid to shout an introduction. Once you have membership of the private forum introduce yourself and get involved in party discussions.

If you're interested in politics, be it as a behind the scenes powerbroker, a consensus builder, a leader or a troll, the political party organisation is a great way to enhance your identity and profile in eSweden.

Good luck, and may we meet one day in the halls of congress 😃.