On Retention & Military Units

Day 1,878, 07:14 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Betafoxtrot


Retention is one of the key things within any country in eRepublik and it is something that most nations struggle with. We’ve not been helped in recent months by admins introducing change after change that has raised nothing but issues amongst the community and, like V2, have completely destroyed most decent populations. Unfortunately for us within the eUK, we have our work cut out. If you take a look at the Balkan nations that are the top countries in the eWorld, or the likes of Spain for example, the nations that succeed and have decent populations are pretty nationalistic countries. For us in old Blighty, this isn’t the case. We had an increase in numbers when we were invaded by Ireland, Canada and France but that is a situation that in other countries has caused baby-booms that have greatly changed the appearance of geopolitics. And baby-booms are truly the holy grail of our little island. When I first joined and HRH Stephen Fry was the “King”, lots of people sent messages to Stephen and his management hoping for one small shout out on his twitter account and who knows if he ever saw the messages; he never shouted about us or the situation. So it’s fair to say the odds are against us – I’m fairly confident we’ll never have a baby-boom the likes of which Spain and Brazil have witnessed.



So, if we’re not going to have a baby-boom, what should we do to improve the country? Frankly we have to put all effort into keeping as many people who sign up playing the game, and so we come back to retention. Anyone who puts the eUK before anyone or anything else should be helping to improve retention. The majority of the things I’ve done have aimed at new players to make them stay longer and in my time I’ve learnt a thing or two about how to improve things. Unfortunately with the turn-over of governments and people of opposing opinions it’s not easy to do, and amongst all the squabbling and party politics, new players are forgotten, and ego and proving yourself right has taken their place. If we want a decent country, then it’s about time we change that but in order to do so we have to work as a community and keep at it whether our party is CP or not.

So what can we do? Anyone who’s seen any of the stuff I’ve done would have noticed that most of what I do are in-game articles with guides and news aimed at people who don’t really know or understand what’s happening, who people are or what this game is. Quite a long time ago I something just for this which I called the Library Project (which you can see here) and the point of it was to have one article with all the relevant information that acted as an archive so that with one link people would have access to any guide they wished to read and all anyone would have to do is provide one link to one article. The benefit to this is simple, just like how people complained about the external congressional forums, this would keep everything in the game. And so this is what I propose; A community project where people write guides and articles about what they know about and we put them all in an article that anyone and everyone can show people whenever they need help with any aspect of the game. We have a lot of talented article writers in the eUK and they shouldn’t go to waste! If you want to help or think it’s a good idea, please vote, comment and show other people this. We could even expand this to other countries and work together to make the eWorld more educated!



So as I may have hinted, one of the ways to increase retention is through education. Those that understand the game and can find information easily are more likely to stay longer. But this isn’t the only way to do so. Like so many people, the thing that kept me playing was community. With the advent of private Military Units and a lack of a true eUK Military we’re severely lacking in any decent community and have to rely on the infighting parties which as time goes on will only make the divide in the eUK worse. Recently Legion was reinstated as an “official” MU with applications for other units that wish to follow suit. In my opinion, unless the rules that have to be followed to be official are stringent, this is a mistake. A single place for new players to be directed to that is large, apolitical and full of friendly people is exactly what community needs. I’m not saying that Legion has the best and most open setting – and this is something that certainly needs to be worked on – but it is the closest we have at the moment and every effort should be put in to make it welcoming to new players and open so that people can meet others, make friends and ultimately go on to stay and help other new players. The only thing that can save this country from culturally imploding is one apolitical area that people can rest in knowing that the “us” vs “them” fight doesn’t affect them in one solitary place. People who can take a break without actually leaving the game is what we need to achieve. Once they leave, they may never come back!



So again, I ask if you want to help out, please vote, comment and spread the word and we might just about do this.

Thanks for reading,

Betafoxtrot