[IRULE4POTUS] A Balanced Approach

Day 2,446, 21:27 Published in USA USA by irule777


In the most expansive campaign article yet, Civil Anarchy did a phenomenal job outlining some issues with the ideas behind retention and domestic programs. I do disagree with some points of his article, and I intend to explain, but I do as well agree with many other portions of it. I’m also very happy to see some actual debate being stirred in the field of domestic affairs, and overall in the campaign.



Recruitment before Retention

My opponent’s Interior Secretary pointed out many obvious benefits of increasing recruitment efforts. Driving new players to the game is an important part of any domestic program, and it’s one that does need to be used seriously next month.

My return point here is quite simple. While many organizations and the game itself do put a large focus on retention, I believe the American government still does not provide the best opportunity we can to new players to easily get involved in a difficult process of community acclimation. I believe we tend to shy away from new players in many regards and I believe we can do a far better job making it easier for new players to enter into the game and get involved, and I believe many new players will tell you this as well. We have an expansive infrastructure now whose job it is to bring new players into the game and to keep them here, but I believe the infrastructure lacks on the basis of what principles it puts forward first. Our infrastructure generally provides food, tanks, and guides more than it does friendly assistance, extra heartfelt welcoming messages, IRC invitations, and opportunities to actually do something in the community. The community itself is largely where most new players will find enjoyment, should they be able to get involved, and its where we have the best chance of keeping new players around. Pushing them to use IRC, get government jobs, and more can build our new players’ desire to stay around.

Right now America’s retention process is very much divided for as large as it is. Parties, MUs, and the government all run their own individual programs focused on assisting new players ranging from food, to jobs, to events, and I believe that while this can be seen as an adequate existence, it can also be seen as often confusing. Pushing next month to use our abilities and some energy to better coordinate retention efforts between the many entities involved in it is something that should be done. We coordinate with MUs for defense, parties for unity, and nations for alliances, and we should broadly coordinate for retention as well. I do not believe we need to kill party programs or anything of the sort, but a more simple way of direction and coordination can be achieved.

Many nations have gone through the process of experiencing some sort of baby boom in the past, and generally their numbers jump and then soon fall afterwards. These nations put the effort into recruiting, yet don’t have the infrastructure built to keep the new players involved in order to build their communities. While I believe we have a far better infrastructure in existence, I believe we can also improve further.

We gain so many players every day without a recruitment program that we simply don't keep, and while that's going to happen, I believe we can reduce the number we lose through simple measures, and I think it's important we do before bringing on loads of new people to the game.



A Balanced Approach

In many ways however I agree with Civil. We do a lot of retention nowadays and even I have talked most about it. But in truth, recruitment is an essential part of building our future. Programs where we send players to other sites to advertise the game are just as important as programs where we help new players get involved, and I would like to push these programs back into full force as well.

In my opinion, with the gold incentive behind recruitment, we do have the manpower to fully undertake both the improvement of our recruitment and retention processes. I think while an ambitious goal, choosing to work on just one is selling our capabilities short. America is a nation full of many, a nation that has done much over its time, and a nation that can do anything we put our minds to.

As a community we must work together to build our domestic capabilities as a whole. A balanced approach to me, is the only answer. It shouldn’t have taken a full month for any President to have decided on that, and it shouldn’t have taken a full month to finally make that switch. I’ve been dedicated to these issues from the start, and will be throughout my entire tenure.

As a good friend of mine put it, "We need to do both well, not one or the other."



Improving our Community

A community is often defined as “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals”. America has, for very long, been a community of many sorts. Together we’ve sought to protect our home regions, to expand into others, and to promote our many common interests. We’ve sought to take regions for bonuses that would provide a greater economic boost for us all, and we’ve sought to improve our relations with foreign entities that would enhance our position in the world.

America’s community has at many times worked together to accomplish a great deal of things. Over the years we’ve seen our community take on new players, say farewell to old friends, and embrace game changes together. We’ve seen our community’s activity rise and fall, we’ve seen our community’s friendliness rise and fall, and together we’ve done a lot.

As a nation we have to collectively decide to alter our community. Our goals, ideas, common interests, and attitudes can only be effected by a broad consensus of a need for change. Our nation is in a very good place right now. We’re in a period of time where the super alliance is nonexistent and where individual relationships rule foreign policy. We’re in a period of being capable of maintaining good bonuses, a good economy, and a prosperous defense. An overall change is not necessary, neither is a massive one, but a change of smaller proportions is in order.

I’m running for President because I seek to add to our community another goal that perhaps isn’t always on the top of the list. My opponent has discussed the idea of bringing in a new group messaging system between party leaders next month to promote unity. I disagree with the broad implication that a single message between five or six people will do more than a little, should those people readily respond. I think the best way for a nation to unify is to choose to promote and push a new interest or goal and to collectively seek to achieve it.

Next month I want our goal to be a simple, yet incredibly complex one. I want our goal to be to improve the activity, enjoyment, and opportunity in our community while improving recruitment. I believe that in the month ahead, should we coordinate with the parties and military units for the purpose of building retention, recruitment, activity, and opportunity, we’ll find that unification, while impossible to do completely, is something that can be improved upon. It sounds naive or dull, but parties, MUs, and the federal government all play a pivotal role in the retention process. I think for us to not promote a broader cooperation between these organizations is to not push ourselves to build the best infrastructure possible for new players.

In the month ahead I want our community to add new goals to its already bulging list. I want to continue to push our foreign relations, our defense, and our media, but I also want to work to improve the community itself. I believe I’ve laid out one of the most platform-focused campaigns in a long time - and while we’ve made some mistakes in controversy and cabinets, I believe that pushing our community to evolve is an important part in keeping our nation alive for as long as we can in this slowly dying game. I believe we can build our activity through many the measures I’ve already discussed, I believe we can do a better job recruiting new players into the game, I believe we can promote much more media activity, I believe we can build an infrastructure that allows new players the opportunity to get involved, and I believe we can improve our ailing community.

I do not believe these things just because they would be nice, but because I have worked and succeed in doing them in part before, and I do fully believe my team and I can do so again.

~On August 5th, vote Irule777 for President of the eUnited States of America.

Let’s refocus America’s attention on player retention~