Join the new world

Happy New Year! etc etc. If anyone is interested, the Godfather Trilogy is one filmfour at 9 tonight. You should all watch it.

When I first started, domestic policies in at least the eUK were what I would describe as somewhat primitive. However, over the past two years they have been developed; and even now are still developing. But why is what we describe as ‘domestics’ so important?

It often isn’t taken as seriously as it should be, and certainly when I first ran for president, being MoHA numerous times still wasn’t seen as a lot of experience at the time. In many ways, Home Affairs, or domestics underpins the entire country, and is vital to prospering in eRepublik.

To take the eUK as an example, the Ministry of Home Affairs expanded from a two man ministry to a very large multi-departmental ministry which began to encompass a vast range of jobs. In my opinion, you can split domestics into two (4) fundamental areas, recruitment/retention and education/information. Surprisingly, the latter of which often requires more support from the government, although recruitment often requires direct action from the active player base in order to get significant results (significant results don’t always mean a baby-boom).



Recruitment & Retention

Recruitment is obviously fundamental to the growth of a country, and generally speaking, countries have a base intake of players every day. What I mean by this is simply the number of people who sign up daily, through advertising on the admins behalf or by googling online strategy games (herp). In other words, the rate that people sign up without the intervention of the existing player base.

A babyboom is simply a rapid increase in the rate of player intake, but is always very short lived, and if retention is low it is possible that very few of the players stay for more than a week, and the population go can into decline as people drop off and go inactive. However the rise in population is still significant and we all know how the babybooms in Poland and Serbia have made them the power houses of the eWorld, and have left many countries wishing for a similiar population increase.

Alternatively, you can aim to boost the rate that people sign up by distributing referrals, perhaps funding your own extra advertising or by advertising through viral videos, gaming forums or chat sites. An even spread such as this requires a certain amount of zeal from a large sector of the community, and the results are often very hard to measure and comparatively insignificant compared to a babyboom.

Regardless of how you get a population boost, keeping your gains is a whole different ball game. Keep in mind that this game may not be quite what people expect when they sign up, and forumphobia may prevent people from getting fully involved in the community. The government may run games and give prizes to keep people involved, but there are other vassals of retention that exist.

For the majority of players, involvement in a military group or party is what makes them stick around. In other words, they form a bond with a community that exists ingame or on the forums. Admittedly it is harder for people who don’t use the forums to become a part of these communities, but recruiting attempts can provide some form of identity or cause that makes people stick around.

Fortunately population increase and party recruitment often go hand in hand, and although any particular party may have the goal of expanding membership, we also have to recognise the role that party recruitment and competition plays in retaining players who are interested in the political side of the game.

For those not interested in politics, the army and forum based games can offer a source of retention. It is very important therefore that regular recruitment efforts are maintained and people are kept aware of national events and games that take place in the eUK. After all, when you start the game you are effectively rudderless, unless someone finds you and tells you what you can do to make the most of the game, then you may find two clicking pretty tedious.

However, once you are contacted, or you get on the forums and join a community, whether it be political, military, or even religious, you will find you have a greater urge to return to the forums and get involved in the game.



Information & Education

In many ways, Information and Education tie into retention, mainly because helping fight through the web of confusion new players may experience is key in keeping them in the game. I for one am pretty sure I have quit one or two browser games because I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on (or I was getting raped by a level 20 dwarf).

When I was MoHA, all eUK citizens were messaged approximately 2-3 times a week with important news updates and information on what was going on entertainment wise. We published articles multiple times during the week and also urged players to subscribe to our papers. Messaging is a very important part of educating and informing, even if it is just directing people to articles on anything they may need to know about.

However the dynamics of the ministry have changed since then, mainly because the dwindling active player base has meant less people are available or willing to do the work. For example when I reinvigorated the ministry, we have at its peak around 40 people working for us. Many of which focused on PM’ing people. Nowadays we’d be lucky to get 15+. I feel it is vital to ensure that when we have limited staff, to make sure they are flexible. I would sooner 15 people spend two days doing nothing but PM’ing, then a day working on an article and running entertainment than have 3 people slowly making progress with separate tasks.

In other words (for the eUK) the MoHA needs to be centralised. Perhaps a seperate ministry for communications should be made, but even then if I was MoHA I would urge my apprentices to get involved in the PM’s, as they are vital. Entertainment, education, culture, wiki, lulz or whatever names are given to the factions of the MoHA should remain as departments, or just as items ont he agenda of the MoHA - not split up into seperate ministries. Solely due to the limited workforce which are better utilised as a flexible task force rather than splitting them up into small numbers of slow progressing ministries.

~

Thanks for reading.

OBE, KCVS, MC, DIFA.
Formerly CP, SG.








In the next Issue
The Life and Death fo eRepublik