I am about to commit heresy: Q2 Hospitals for every state
Aeros
My fellow Americans, the eUSA has a serious retention problem. Part of it is the learning curve involved with finding the portions of eRepublik that are interesting. The other portion of the problem with our retention I feel is the inherent nature of our Fortress strategy that renders the vast majority of the country barren.
Hundreds of new players are born into the wasteland every day in the USA, yet our retention rate is among the worst in eRepublik. This is NOT a coincidence. A moving ticket out of the wasteland costs more than 7 dollars. Most noobs are making 20 cents a day after taxes and food. This is why the eUSA has welfare programs to get moving tickets out to new players. But this requires that those citizens get in contact with the welcoming committee. I have to wonder how often this actually happens with regards to the number of citizens born every day. I seriously doubt the welcoming committee gets 300+ ticket requests every day, and if it did that is almost 3,000 dollars a day in moving tickets alone for the government. Probably more as it would increase prices for tickets exponentially. What this say’s to me is that a large portion of our new players are remaining in the wasteland when they hit their level 5.
At level 5, as all know, we can fight. Of course, a common Noobish mistake is to fight without being in a hospital region. I’m sure we can all remember that first week playing eRep. I remember it took me 2 weeks to figure out where my newspaper subscriptions were, the battlefield looked like a bunch of pretty colors, and I bought a Q5 Gun expecting to be able to keep it for continuous use. We are giving our noobs far too much credit in thinking they have any concept what a Hospital is, What the Fortress Region Strategy means and what a Moving Ticket is for. But what every noob can understand is what the “Fight” button does. It is fairly self explanatory after all. What happens after they push that fight button is what worries me. They pretty much nix their wellness, and get the message “you cannot fight anymore”. They will also get fired from their job for being a low wellness worker. Combine that with the seeming inanity of this game as it presents itself at first glance, and you have all the workings of a rage quit.
We have discussed Hospitals in every state for months now, and most advocates of the policy have been delegated to the loony bin. I feel however that this is because nobody has actually tried to present the cause in a manner that makes sense. Retention makes sense, and our retention as a nation sucks. Every day is a baby boom in the USA compared to other countries, yet we are falling behind. Soon, even Serbia will pass us. I have seen people trying to get a baby boom going in the USA through other methods, and I must now ask the question nobody else seems to be asking. If we have a Poland style baby boom, what will we do with it? Remember, Poland had Q5 Hospitals in every single one of their regions.
Admittedly, Poland only has 6 home regions and we have 51. But the argument stands. Does the welcoming committee have the infrastructure necessary to support a Poland style baby boom in the United States? Having 2,000 new citizens a day = almost 20,000 dollars a day in Moving Tickets and dozens of volunteers. If we follow laws of averages, a repeat of Poland’s boom in the USA could conceivably give us as many as 5,000 new citizens a day. Does the welcoming committee have the infrastructure for that many new citizens?
If the answer is no, then why the hell are you trying to start a baby boom if you are only going to watch it die? After all, if we are having crappy retention with a manageable 400 new citizens a day, we will have horrible retention with 2,000 a day. New citizens won’t get moving tickets, even if they ask for them and get pissed. New citizens will also fall into the trap and hit the Fight button while in the wasteland and join the tens of thousands of dead US citizens that preceded them.
I understand the need for the Fortress strategy, but just look at California and Florida. The walls of those states are huge! Mission accomplished! We got a pair of sexy of fortresses! Now for gods sake, take a look at the rest of the country. I can understand that we will need to retreat territory to absorb invasions, and that we cannot afford to spread our population around. That is why I am advocating Q2 hospitals. A Q2 hospital can be sacrificed in a way a Q5 cannot, because it does not cost near as much money (4,000 wood vs. 10,000 wood + labor). What a Q2 can give us in exchange for the investment is granting our noobs the time they need to build up wellness and money to buy a ticket to the Fortress regions on their own if the Government ticket program is slammed. Having population spread around will also be a non issue, since by its nature a Q2 will encourage someone to move to a Q5 region.
Let’s face it, not even state pride will hold someone in place if they can only get 2 fights a day. Especially if we remind people how much experience gain they are sacrificing by being stubborn. We must also remember that the people using these hospitals will be noobs and thus not be offering much damage anyway. What these hospitals WILL accomplish however, is mitigating the loss of people to rage quits. A Q2 can give a noob a net gain of wellness after a fight, that a Q1 cannot and certainly what no hospital at all can accomplish. This will also set in place infrastructure to prevent our government from getting slammed if we ever do get a baby boom started.
Or, we can just go on pretending that this is not a problem.
Comments
Yay, it worked!
😃!
2nd, now to read
Voted!
Interesting Article.
The Newton Factor: http://www.erepublik.com/en/newspaper/the-newton-factor-189830/1" target="_blank">http://www.erepublik.com/en/newspaper/th[..]830/1
now it works
Still not doing it? I thought you already done that ages ago...
Fragreg
Nobody's pretending this is not a problem.
In fact, there have been Infrastructure Committee discussions on Q2 hospitals in every state. 🙂 The idea, despite some possible benefits, was ultimately rejected because of the detraction from Fortress States. Plus, the only real benefit to non-individuals was an economic benefit and our economy doesn't need any more productivity... on the contrary, there's already an excess of produce on the markets (thanks to low import taxes and many American-held companies)!
The original discussion: Sept. 27th, 2009:
http://eusforum.com/index.php/topic,11679.0.html" target="_blank">http://eusforum.com/index.php/topic,1167[..]html
Topic revisite😛 Oct. 9th, 2009:
http://eusforum.com/index.php/topic,12523.0.html" target="_blank">http://eusforum.com/index.php/topic,1252[..]html
But, yes, the committee agreed with you that a Q2 hospital would be an excellent boon to newbies. We'd much rather just send them moving tickets to California or Florida, though, and there are many government-funded efforts, in terms of manpower and time, to accomplish this. No newbie left behind! 😉
Voted!
Good stuff
C-C-C-Combo Breaker! Good article.
Aeros presents good logic
@astra kat, but his point is that it's not working to keep newbies here.
i agree! 😛
Hmmm
Aside from the huge initial outlay of resources and funds, there still comes the problem of if we come under attack. With all these pointless regions, retreating is great. Under this, each region we retreat would be costly. Also, how many of these noobs will stay in Q2 regions rather than move to the Q5s?
Agreed. At least some for ur larger states.
In terms of increasing retention, The Wasteland Commission, The Salvation Army, Welcoming Committee, mentorship program (hmm, not entirely sure that's still around) as well as private efforts by citizens such as Max McFarland 2 and Colin Lantrip exist. All encourage newbs to move to Cali or Florida and talk to them in their early days. I think we just need to make sure these efforts reach every newb and there are very dedicated people in the government attempting to do that as we type.
Nice article, keep on writin' em'
I agree. But who will build those hospitals?
Anyway, you got a Vote!
\o/
Well siad. I agree we need a retention plan. I took me a while to figure things out just to surrvive.
If there is a massive invasion send out huge "ZOMG MOVE" articles like the UK is doing. For now u need to be working on player retention which Q2 hospitals can help.
We have to do something about this problem.
I STAND READY TO SAVE THE NOOBS!
voted
Devoi😛 Consider it an investment for the future. Besides, how often do we get invaded and how far does the enemy get anyhow? The last time was almost 2 months ago, and then the UK never got out of New England.
Hooooo boy. Here comes the usual debate.
Texas should have a q5 then we can talk about q2's for the next round of states. That's my opinion anyway.
Would we really need Q2's in every region? I mean focus on the other RL population states in the US. Newbies won't be starting out in the the western states, save California and to some extent Washington and Oregon. Massachusetts is the only New England state the would deserve a Q2.
I remember raising the idea of Q2's also, only to be scolded that if the Welcoming Committee were doing its job then Q2's aren't needed. However that argument implies that the Welcoming Committee is actively contacting new citizens; which to my knowledge isn't happening (nor particularly feasible in the long term).
I think this is an issue that shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.
Well articulated Aeros!
I'm really torn on this.
This is going to be interesting to watch. 😁
BURN THE HERETIC! BUUUUUUUUUURN!
We in Croatia with 7 original regions have 4 Q5 hospitals and 3 Q3 hospitals. And our neighbors are Hungary and Serbia, the two strong Phoenix members.
@ Aaron S: Texas doesn't need a Q5 all it has is oil.
Totally agree, I would put out maybe 3-5 more Q5 hospitals instead though where it is most needed.
But Q2 is pretty cheap and would help a lot too!
I think you should consider offering at least a Q3 hospital in New York and Texas.
I try to message 40 new people a day.
Well ..the wood can be obtained through the state owned companies dedicated to noobs that need to increase their skill 🙂
BTW : eRomania was the first country to have Q5 hospitals in all it's regions (I think 🙂 ).
good article
As a relatively young player, only an eGuy for a month, the first week or so is very confusing. I was unable to tell my elbow from a hole in the ground most days. If it weren't for a wouldn't quit attitude and the fact that early on the work and training obligation can be met within a couple minutes, I'd have moved on in search of greener gaming pastures.
Or some place in Europe.
I have no experience with any of the programs or efforts aimed at helping new citizens. I fell through the cracks. I could have been stuck in some state with no idea how to improve my lot.
While programs and philanthropic citizens can go a long ways, they will ultimately fall short simply due to a lack of time and resources with which to help.
Is there any sort of record keeping in place to show the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of government programs? How about measuring the work of individuals? How many young citizens receive more than one contact while others sit surrounded by silence?
Yes, there is a cost to building hospitals, and a concern if a state has to be abandoned in wartime.
Perhaps the goal of a hospital for each state cannot be realized, but clearly the status quo is also a faulty strategy.
I agree we need retention of players! either that or someone needs to sit around all day and send out a form letter to every noob the second they join!
Excellent article! Coming round to the Imperialist point of view are we? (chuckle) Player retention is paramount, no question. Every new player wants to be born in their life state and stay there. With the Q2 hospitals in ever state (I would prefer Q5 but...)a lot more people would stay if they could live where they want.
The Fortress Strategy was good to get our country back, but now we have a mobile Army that is head and shoulders above every other country. You us to fight in the wars, but make us live in a fortress.
eAmerica is getting very close to being a Dictatorship, power is held by a few and dictates what every player should be doing. A new player comes here and very qickly is discouraged because they are told move to FL or CA.
When someone drops below 40 they get fired, instead of the boss of the company doing what he can to help that player get well they throw them out on the street. Sounds like sweat shops to me.
My only problem is that I bet we outlay this much funding for Q2's and STILL have the same retention problem we have now.
Gold exists to be spent.
The problem with this entire argument is that neither side addresses the basic flaw in the game that causes the problem. There is no reason for a country to be divided into as many regions as the US is. Having this many regions is clearly a disadvantage in both citizen retention and the efficient distribution of hospitals.
Have there been any efforts to petition the admins into consolidating US regions? Redrawing the map into roughly 12 regions (say AK, HI, plus 10 regions in the lower 4😎 would put the US better in line with its eRepublik size and the region counts in other countries.
There are several other countries for whom this is an issue (France, Spain, Germany, Italy, China and India) but none of them have anywhere close to the absurd number of regions we have.
There have, but the Admins won't do it.
lets go on strike!!! then the admins will do it, or maybe we could just bribe them...