Should "trap companies" be allowed?
Krimpiekat
Most of the older players in eRepublik know by now what a "trap company" is.
A company with no other purpose than to kill of n00bs. The company put up a shedload of very high paying jobs, as the screenshot I took shows, at ridiculous salaries. New player X joins said company. After all, who would say no to a skill 1 job with a skill 7+ paycheck?
Screenshot
That's when the fun starts. The company either has no money in it to pay the players or no RM. N00b X keep getting a message that there's no RM or Money to pay him. After several attempts he either get's smart and see what happens if he click "resign" and look for a new job, or he just gives up and leave the game for good. The Spanish used this very successfully against the French recently. Stopped the French babyboom cold.
As a tactical tool it serves a very good purpose over the short term. Over the long term, detrimental to eRep as a whole. I bet none of those disheartened n00bs that left the game will turn into shining eRepublik ambassadors. They're probably out there, right now, telling their mates what a fscked up game it is.
My opinion? Ban such companies. Not only do we lose players, countries lose out on tax revenues...
And Mr Admin, how many of those players would have bought gold packs later on? Isn't that what's paying your salary?
Comments
Flat out BAN 🙂
voted- these issues need more publicity.
Numerous amounts of people have tried reporting them in the past and it appears they do not care
I might make one just so I can name it trapcard. derp.
I agree, though. It's genocide in a nice way.
Agreed that it's bad long term. But how to you determine what a "trap company" is or isn't? Wages 50% higher than average? 100% higher? How many false positives will be generated?...
Like Moot said.
I was amoung the first ones to report this.
Good part (at least for Hungary) was that it did make a natural selection. People who would have quit after max 2 weeks anyhow were eliminated fast, spearing the money the country would have spent on them after that.
It also made those in the biggest need for a mentor visible.
@Sinistral Chirality: you check if the workers in it could work. That is a big sign.
Putting out high wages and being able to pay them is not a trap company, it is stupid.
what amazes me is when you look at the employee list is how many higher level players are there also... like level 8 to 14 level
on the plus side it is a good place to look for workers if you have a company; find someone with the skill set/wellness you want and send them a message "if your current job doesn't work out I have several openings at XYZ Company a decent wages"
I have picked up about half my employees this way
@ E.P. Alexander - that's a great idea actually! The government n00b companies should hire trap company "watchdogs", that once a day or so PM everyone in a known trap company stating the problem, telling them to resign and offering links to official skill-raising companies like McFarland Homework Assignments in the US.
Though one problem with noobs spotting this or more importantly getting out is that if you're at a company that can pay and does have resources you must stay there for a set length of time or the resign button does nothing (think it's like 48 hours, but not sure), so if someone has tried to quit before and failed to be able to they are less likely to try again when their job sucks.
the government should sponsor mass macro "parties" to apply and resign over and over like I am doing right now