What's gonna work? TEAM WORK!

Day 801, 08:32 • Published in USA USA • by PigInZen

Presidential Platform - 10,000 Fists! Yet Again

First, we interrupt this platform article with a little announcement:



Secretary of State Bradley Reala has accepted my offer to be the next Chief of Staff of the eUS. I'm excited about this because Bradley has shown that he can handle large tasks and duties in the Executive - he's always around, has a keen mind for the game and gets shit done. More on his role as CoS in another article on Organization and Operations, to be released tomorrow.






10,000 Fists! - Revisited

RETENTION RETENTION RETENTION. Jeebus, everyone and their brother is talking about "citizen retention" these days. You cannot turn the corner or read the news without finding yet another article on retention. It's enough to get one thinking that there's a rash of constipation or a ton of menstruating women in the game. (pssst... get it? water "retention"? Alright that was really lame, I admit it...)

I think it's kinda frightening, actually. We're freaking, yes, literally FREAKING OUT about seeing our overall population and ranking drop since the end of WWIII. All primary indicators are down... voting, eusforum.com activity, economic demand. Cue massive collective wailing and gnashing of teeth...




Cue the CHICKEN LITTLE!

Look, I'll be upfront about it. eRepublik as a whole is an interesting game to those who get involved. For those on the periphery of eUS society (people we like to call "two-clickers&quot😉 the game itself is pretty damn boring. Work, train, fight and not necessarily in that order. Read a bit of news, send a message or two and you're done. After a couple of months of this, what is there to keep people coming back? Not much if we, the more active members of eUS society, sit on our hands, bicker back and forth about stuff that just doesn't matter (i.e., Congressional elections sniping, personal vendettas and other snarkiness).

I believe that this is a multi-faceted problem that requires many tactics to counter. None of what I'm going to say is new. These ideas have all been tried before, some effectively, some not so effectively. What I will say is that the PiZ/EC/BR administration will attack the problem of retention. Here is my laundry list of programs to do just that:

1. Use the citizen database to easily identify new citizens as they enter the game and track their progress.

2. Open this new citizen report up to the general public so organizations of all kinds can use it for recruitment, outreach, education/mentoring, and newb assistance (think food, gifts, moving tix).

3. Actively seek the assistance of political parties in outreach, assistance and education programs. The more contacts new citizens have the better.

4. Provide a "Level 5 Bonus" to new citizens of 5 Q1 guns IF they've met certain criteria (i.e., registered for the eusforum, moved to CA/FL/KT, have been responsive to messages, etc.)

5. Give people a reason to log in. THIS ONE IS HUGE. SO DAMN HUGE... The ideas about this are endless. So endless, in fact that EC, BR and I have made Fun and Lulz a part of our campaign platform (and campaign for that matter...). More on that in another article.

6. Expand the scope of the REACH program. The REACH program is our recruitment tool and it could use more attention. Stuff like ads on Facebook, in gamer forums, on academic forums.

7. Investigate the potential for groups, political parties and organizations to receive matching grants from the Treasury for outreach. Again, more is better. This would involve some oversight.

8. Finally, last but not least, encourage respect, civility and above all, KINDNESS. We see everyday on television, on the radio, on the internet examples of people being dicks to each other and venting anger for little or no apparent reason. Hopefully the fun and lulz will counter this. kyle321n discusses this idea at length here (and yeah, I'm in that article, I'm self-serving): kyles' retention article






It Ain't Hard but It Does Take Effort

Look, I've brought this up numerous times before; it takes collective effort to change things around here and change comes painfully slow for many. But by putting a grand idea out there and working towards it I believe we'll make some great things happen. Which leads me to...




E Pluribus Unum. From Many, One.



I'LL SAY IT AGAIN: Together we have strength beyond measure. Do your part. Follow DoD orders. Fight with weapons. Maintain your wellness. SUPPORT THE CAUSE.