Why smaller parties can create active players
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by Jny123
So I read Gali's interesting article here and it got me thinking about other ways we can help keep young players active. For the purpose of this article 'active' means engaging in politics not fighting. When I thought about it I realised that there is one way I don't think many people have thought about.
Small Parties...
Now before you go all Sheldon on me hear me out
(please note the following is generalised) When a new player joins the game one the first things the game gets them to do is join a political party, and they will almost always join a top 5 party or at a push a top 10 if they prefer one of the names. However that is generally what happens, new players are snapped up by big party recruiters or join on impulse. They are then put into the parties group discussions, if they have one, and probably click run for congress or run for PP. And in fairness to the big parties they generally run some low level inexperienced players for congress or put them in some kind of mentor program they run. But sadly this is where a lot of them disappear, maybe they 2 click or fight but a large percentage of them just stop involving themselves in politics beyond clicking a vote button 3 times a month.
Why? Well they're new, and new people need to be taught and require serious efforts to get them to the level that our current top political bodies are at and basically it is easier to get them to the level of voting and then leaving them to learn the rest themselves. Now I am not blaming the top parties for this because it isn't directly their fault and they have, and continue to, produced some excellent political players. However big parties tend to produce more inactive players.
Small parties do the same but I would like to argue they get a higher percentage of new players active. I'm suggesting that lets say 5 new players join the game, if they join a top party then maybe 1 or 2 tops will become active but if they join a small party then 2 or 3 become active. Simply look towards the lower end of the party leader board and you will find that there tends to be some pretty active players down there.
Take ESO for an example, when I was a member they had about 16 players of which pretty much all were actively involved in the party, perhaps not nationally but they engaged in group chats. I suspect that now they have more members they have still got a fairly high activity rating because they have built the party on that concept. When I was there it was about getting active members not 2 click voters.
Another example of good political players being made in small parties is, anyone who knows me will guess it, GBDP. GBDP was a small party a while back which I was part of and one the key features about it was that it had really high activity percentage. Some of eUKs greatest and current political figures started off in GBDP. CheetahCurtis, Bob Bloggs and, although he doesnt like to admit it, Addaway. Other players like Lord Halifax, who now plays in eNetherlands, started out in GBDP. Of course we can't forget one of the most memorable CPs of eUK, Aleksandar.V Popovic was introduced to eUK politics through GBDP.
Now before people start shouting how none of them achieved anything while they were in GBDP think about it. They got into politics through GBDP and have used the experience they gained there to get where they are now.
No doubt when you start talking to other players you will realise that quite a few got into the politics of eUK from a small party. Now i'm not saying lets all join small parties because that would be counter productive but i am saying that perhaps we should look to allow small parties room to speak, after all quite a few small parties are started by young players who think it will be cool to run their own party.
At this point I'll stop talking and let you put in your opinions and have some discussion, and then I'll probably not write a follow up to this.
Thanks for reading, please vote/shout/subscribe and leave any comment you have below.
Ps. this is definitely not a pre-emptive article about me restarting GBDP for the 4th time
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Comments
Excellent, well-thought out article.
And the logical conclusion is...
JOIN ESO! Because ESO is awESOme!
Interesting, but it wouldn't solve the new player's lust for power and unfortunately small parties out of the top 5 can't take part in congress or many of the other important country affairs. If this was solved or the power lust could be replaced with another thing then this could work.
it is the down side of small parties, they do an excellent job of getting them active but after that they are short of useless. GBDP is a prime example, it feel apart because members wanted more and the party couldnt supply it
Can't say that I agree. I think what makes new players inactive for the most part is lack of activity from other people in the game, and from jumping around parties I'd say the bigger parties have more active feeds. I haven't paid much attention to politics when GBDP was around but from the sounds of it it retained new players in the game not because it was a small party, but because it had a high number of active people within. IMO, smaller parties (at least the way they are now) have the opposite effect of raising activity.
true, until ESO's recent rise i would say there arent many small parties left really. the days of 1V, IA, GBDP and others is virtually none existent now
'although he doesnt like to admit it, Addaway' - since when do I not like to admit it?
and its often not a matter of a parties size but its activeness. For example, if a new player joins PCP, BDP or TUP they are likely do die as those parties are completely devoid of activity. ESO and UKRP are the most active parties, with WRP and UKPP(minus willy's nonsense) are good places to.
The trouble we have is our community is so small that having more than 5 or 6 parties doesn't really work; the likes of a GBDP is unlikely to be able to exist
Aside from internal conflict (BC's importing of those Proud and Horny 'Muricans, the Lord London fiasco and now Silly Willy), I've found UKPP to be usually a pretty quiet place. Even during the attempt to have the 'Murican STRIKE MU as the "official" party MU (after Alfa left and the RAF died), you'd be fortunate to see half a dozen posts on the party feed in a week. I'll say one thing for "Lord" London and "King" Willy - they've certainly stimulated the party wall...
In response to the article, unless there's a wholesale revamp of the politics module, smaller parties are always going to have to rely on the generosity of the top 5 in order to get places in congress, no matter how active the party members might be. I personally believe that eUK is already saturated with parties (and also, to a larger extent, MUs, but that's a whole different story), many of which are little more than personal vanity projects right now, especially when we consider the state (i.e. non-existance) of the country.
TL😉R? UKPP feed used to be dead before LL/Willy. Too many parties already (and too many MUs).
Small parties don't necessarily bring about activity, it's the characters in a party that determine what kind of party it is.
Take BDP- they're a party of modest size, and yet practically the only person in that party that's active is Buce Wayne. ESO are active because they have a high concentration of active and fun players, The same goes for the UKRP. You'll also notice that, whilst they have 100+ members, TUP are a very quiet party. So size doesn't always have an effect on activity.
With this in mind, I am trying to include a range of active players in the PM, but the entire thing is set around a core group of active players- I'm hoping that this will rub off on the others and inspire at least some engagement in the community.
One way to help smaller parties is for larger parties to give them seats in Congress. ESO, for example, benefit from this.