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Before I begin, I would like to announce the winner of my inter-party contest. In fact, the Federalists won the gold! The minimum 500 respondents was not reached, but I will give the Federalists gold proportional to the number of actual respondents.

As my Congressional term comes to a close, I wish to address everyone and thank them for the experience. During my first eLife around Day 300, I had always dreamed of becoming a congressman. I wanted to serve my country and to do what I could I move the country in what I believed to be the right direction. Now having the opportunity to serve, I want to share with you and my fellow Congressmen what has become the product of a month of work in eRep



Intent

My proposal seeks to establish a program which rewards with 25 gold, every three weeks, the party which has demonstrated the highest retention rates among all parties.

The Problem

We are losing active players--active players are defined here as those with the potential to continue playing eRep for an extended period of time. There are many reasons why active players don't stay: It's not fun. They feel like they can't go anywhere in the game. They feel their ability to achieve self-established goals is suppressed. And many other reasons. These are players that have at least made it to level 7, but decide to quit after a couple days.

As a result of our failure to retain players, our country is weaker than it needs to be. There are less people in fortress states, less people working, less people fighting, less revenue. The entire nation is depressed by our missing eCitizens. Retention is a matter of national security, of financial well-being, and of a well-oiled economy.

The Solution

This program is not designed to save the "unsaveable." There will always be people who quit after a couple days. Accordingly, our efforts should be directed at those who would stay except for the lack of opportunity and direction. Oftentimes, these people are identified by their initiative and ability as demonstrated by the fact that they have joined a political party. Already, there are several different government programs, but often, the response time is slow and communication is lacking. Notwithstanding the success of some of these programs, more can be done. At the very least, we need to try a different angle.

By rewarding political parties for retaining players who are active and participate in all facets of the affairs of our country, we can be more successful than we ever have been at retention:

First, this program does not create artificial or arbitrary goals. Parties already have a strong interest in retaining strong, active players but due to a lack of interest, or because of the workload involved, many recruitment programs fall into disuse. However, when party officers recognize that a sizable amount of gold is at stake, they will be given the opportunity to re-energize their recruitment campaigns and begin their programs again. Additionally, it should be highly encouraged to take the reward money to award those who have demonstrated excellence in recruitment and retention, further incentivizing the execution of the seeming never-ending task of reaching out to the newbs and offering them an eHome.

Second, as parties compete for the 25 gold prize, parties will be encouraged to look to successful parties and adopt their programs, discarding those that don't work. Does a mass-mailer or do personalized messages work better? Does the promise of a congressional run or the promise of money do more to convince people to stay active in the party? These are the questions that parties can answer best. In this process of "natural selection," our parties will become highly efficient recruitment and retention machines.

Third, the reward money is given to those parties who show excellence. Parties may use the money however they wish, but they will likely use the money in a way that benefits them directly (i.e., increases activity) and thus benefits the US indirectly. Even if the money is spent on ads or Lana, the 25 gold is an investment in recruitment and retention; the 25 gold is but an investment in our future.

The Metrics

Active player retention will be measured in several different ways, utilizing three different factors.

First, this program will measure the recruitment of players level 7-9 and 10-15. Second, the program will assign values to player levels, weighting high-level players more heavily than lower level players. (NB: This weighting will be slight so as not to discount the efforts of those parties who began recruitment late in the cycle.) Third, the program will measure the number of respondents to a distributed form.

With these three factors, we can approximate how well a party is doing in terms of retaining active players in the early stages of their eLives.

I have already set-up all three metrics and have utilized them all to some degree of success. The program can work given the right amount of popular support and advertising.

The Board

The supervising board will be composed of one representative of each of the Top 5 Parties, who shall elect a sixth as their chair. They shall perform the calculations using a standard formula and shall be responsible for distributing the form to the various parties. All of their work shall be open to the public.

I will formally propose this in the Congressional forums shortly, but I wanted to get feedback from all of you first. Please, your comments and suggestions are welcome. And aside from answering questions, I will refrain from spamming the comments section. All edits shall be recorded at the bottom of this proposal so that everyone can see the process unfold.

Thank you so much for your time.