[Canada] An Argument for Letting the Forums Die.
DMV3
In his article TBRaider posed a dilemna I think most players who don't play the meta-game face, they lack the knowledge and information most of the most active players in Canada have because they do not use IRC or the forums. If you would have brought up this issue years ago when the game was at its peak I would have said join the forums and irc and there are people who will help explain things to you, but the game has changed and communities are dying off (especially the meta-communities). The game has changed fundamentally and us older players are clinging to the past as if the meta-game is still necessary or desirable for running a nation.
Why we’re the endangered species.
Once upon a time eRepublik was more of a sandbox where a nation could decide how it governed itself and what institutions to have, but eRepublik has long left the sandbox and the developers have created greater infrastructure in the game. Where we once used irc and forums for our parties and Military Units, Plato has created party and MU feeds, along with a MU chat interface. Where once MUs were entirely meta-institutions they are now a mechanical part of the game. The same goes for alliances, alliance positions, and cabinet positions. The sandbox days are over and those of us still living in the meta-game are old relics of a bygone era.
Where once this was a political and social game where wars were driven by political and social necessity, this is now a war game where politics and social aspects of the game are driven by the MUs and the desire of the populace for war. We once needed a lot of external planning and infrastructure to carry out a war efficiently, but now you don't even need a national military to do that. To win a war in this day and age all one needs is more funds for COs and mercenaries than the other side. Our nationa identity and culture have become relics of the era most of us older players have tried to keep alive, but by clinging to these relics we have been doing ourselves, our nations, and new players a disservice.
Thr Meta-game was necessary when nations had hundreds of active players all vying for power and control, but these days most large nations are lucky to have a few dozen meta active players and most smaller nations are lucky if they have ten to fifteen player interested in running the government let alone get active as members of Congress. The game has gotten so small that unless certain players are active in a given month small nations have a hard time even putting together a working cabinet. So we're now at a point where we must retire the old way we did things and we must adapt to the way the game is now. We can cling to the game many of us started playing years ago or we can devise new ways of playing the game that no longer require the time and dedication most new players are unwilling to give to this game. We're now at the point where we can either change or perish. The choice is ours, but the choice must be made in the very near future.
The benefits of forum free society.
Instead of creating forum topics for Congress we can create in-game articles which will both open up debate to a wider range of people and help educate new players to what their government is doing and why they're doing it. Obviously some things would have to be kept private for OPSEC, but those could still be handled in-game through the CP communicating with PPs who would then pass information on to their Congressional delegation and other members when necessary. By bringing government in-game we will build greater lines of communication between the government and those they govern which should strengthen transparency, accountability, and help to give new players a chance to get involved in the debate and hopefully bring a new generation of players into the government.
Comments
pertamaxxx
o7
" we can create in-game articles which will both open up debate to a wider range of people and help educate new players to what their government is doing and why they're doing it."
I agree, but the forum should still be used by congressman (for further discussions )
And voting*
funny you say that, the game already has a mechanic in place for voting without the forums 😉
Thank f**k someone finally said that! Agree, agree, and agree...
What I see with just a little over a year in the game is that small countries either need a workaholic, perfectionist, RL unemployed CP (no disrespect there, Rusty! 😃 ), or one with a lot of energy and a huge cabinet; with luck half of them will stay active enough to be useful and maybe one or two youngsters will stay on in politics.
IRC is great situationally but with so many time zones represented, it's hard to organise more than a few people at a time. And the forums- well, tbh, I mostly only see them as useful for getting an underrepresented vote in the absence of a democratic system.
Articles, yes, an awesome tool for smaller countries; not sure how the bigger ones can ensure good contact without awesome writers who consistently can hit top 5... Though I guess an active congress can help.
Really good article and food for thought, cheers!
I typically am very energetic and active as CP, but even for someone like me I'm lucky if after a term or two in government I'm not totally burned out.
Yep, true of all the good ones, I think. It's too much for one person- hence the need for the MegaCabinet, even in small to medium size countries...
Interesting point. While I still am on the forum side, it's definitely some reason as to why it might not be working and how to address the problem! Well done!
Voted and supported.
I visited forums and irc only when I really needed anyway 😃
Yeah we still need them for extended discussion and private talks, but generally I think an ingame article is a good idea.
I remember when #ecan and #Crimson were treasure troves of lulz and conversation. It will *never* be that way again and that's certainly a shame.
#Crimson? #eCanCAF was where it was at, man.
hehehe rabble rabble! rabble!
#eCanSP
#greenroom #Northern-Exposure
#secretz
Been saying this for years! Die! Die! Die!
Aren't you hippies trying to amend the off-site government charter to affect changes in regards to the dictatorship module so that you can impose your off-site penalties for those who would dare to introduce fun and efficiency to your poisonous monkey-barrel?
Can't have it both ways, McVicker. I know you want to be both Prom Queen and an efficient fascist, but you can't be both a populist windbag catering to hippies who don't know what the hell they want AND efficient.
We've dallied with going Forum-less in the past and it was a dismal failure.
PM's are easily derailed, points get lost, articles expire in the media, You can't add or remove people from conversations as things develop or change.
They're simply too rigid a structure to serve any kind of real purpose in the long term.
Forums aren't perfect, but until some better in game mechanic comes along (and honestly I don't see it happening) they are sadly required.
I always see links to the forums in articles yet we are forced to log in to view the most mundane of topics. Simple solution, unless it is some super duper secret information, stop making people log in to view the content.
well you see the thing about the forums..... they are about control....
I like forum.
The top 5 argument is a lazy argument. You realize there are 7 different categories that can have top 5...all accessible from the player's main page. Also, it's not hard to get at all newspaper articles. The lists expire after a few days, but that should be more than enough time in the compressed timelines we deal with in eRep.
Muglack's PM argument is the only valid argument I'm aware of.
Articles posted under Newbie News or whatever it's called only expire after 7 days.
tl:dr:dv:ds
I don't mind forums - so long as forum access isn't used as a weapon over people. Keep the discussions open, remove the masking and let us use PM's (in game and in forum) for private discussions that we might not want our occupiers and enemies to know about. But, that's it. No bans, no blacklists. Open politics with no retaliation and no threats.
Having fought for years to bring more of the forum activity into the game to promote game activity, I can say that this article gives me wood. Voted, hard.
I support this message.
I think we should keep the forum, but simplify it! Remove all those crappy thread in there and keep simples discussions. Remove masking and use PM instead.
Fully agree with Simulare (probably others, don't read all comments, to much words!).