Join the new world

Yesterday I promised that I would write about being a newbie. About a minute after I published my first article, I thought "I have no idea what I am going to say tomorrow."

Fortunately, after much tossing and turning in bed, I decided that it would be best to start at the obvious place. The beginning.



So if I can take you back to when you first joined eRepublik, which may be easier said than done, I want you to imagine that you are a newbie. You've come across eRepublik somehow. You've liked the sound of the idea. You've just registered, and you are now logging on for the first time. And then...

Information Overload. A mesh of buttons, and you have no idea what any of them do, but you certainly don't want to touch them, just in case they explode.

That was how I felt logging on for the first time. It was like someone had dumped me into the middle of a Maze. Except this Maze had large, flashy signs, each giving me contradictory routes to the exit.
Confusing right?



Thankfully, I was then distracted by mail, and over the next few days, I realised that the interface isn't that bad. With the help of some older players, I got the hang of what I was doing, and in the process learnt something.

It would have been better for me to start clicking those buttons. It would have been better to start finding out exactly what happens when I press those buttons. The enemy was not that I didn't know what to do, but rather that I chose to do nothing. By choice I was indecisive, and that just led to greater confusion. So next time you find yourself in a similar situation, press the buttons. You will probably find that you learn a lot more, a lot faster.

Besides, when has something bad ever happened to someone who just presses buttons?



Ok, maybe don't answer that one...