Observations from an experienced newb

Day 1,858, 15:53 • Published in USA USA • by ligtreb
Thank you to those who have welcomed me back. I greatly appreciate all the kind words.

Most of you know I used to be very dedicated to this game. I knew this game in-and-out and was involved in congress, the military and the executive branch.

That was before I quit in April 2011. I came back a few days ago out of curiosity and felt lost. Not only had aspects of the game changed -- this was inevitable -- but information on how to play the game was really hard to find.

I can see why so many quit this game. When I came back, I had 7,788 friends and went through 6300 of them or so on my friends list. Of these, only about 500 are still alive after I deleted 5800 dead ones, for an 8% retention rate. (If you're curious, I did this to try to get under the 2,000 friend mark, so I can see everyone's shouts and they can see mine).

The wiki is out-of-date and unclear on many things. It's inexcusable that the people running this game make it so hard to look up the basics of how this game is played.

Of course, citizens back in my time knew this too, which is why many have gone out of their way to reach out to others. I know our Department of Education, the White House Press Room and other sources like parties and the forums make an effort to reach out to the new people and help them. But these can be hard to find -- I knew these existed and still struggled to find them.

If the game is not going to do much to help out new citizens understand what's going on, it's up to all of us to reach out -- and more importantly, make sure the information easy to find.

Are there guides people have written that explain how to maximize working, training, fighting, joining the military or getting involved with politics? I'm sure there are, but we need to publicize these more.

If I stick around here, I offer to help with these myself like I've done many times if you look at the history of my newspaper. But I'm sure there are many non-old writers I'm not aware of who have been doing this.

Also, on a semi-related note, if any of you know of good newspapers to subscribe to, I'd greatly appreciate it. One of my favorite aspects of the game before I left was the media module, I loved reading informative and amusing pieces. Don't be shy, please link to or send me any good newspaper you know of.

Thank you for reading, and all the well-wishes so far.