Better to burn out than fade away?
Ranger Bob
Grrr
I am not active again. But, I have been around in comments a bit recently, and I suppose if I feel motivated enough about something I am prompted to comment on it.
I'll be the first to admit I perhaps don't see all that's going on. And, I am most CERTAINLY not in the loop on much anything. So, I am speaking from ignorance perhaps. Perhaps, this is the best place to be given my thoughts in this article.
One of the first things that struck me when I logged back in after a long hiatus was how bloody quiet it was. Articles tended to be of little substance - fight here, do this, we did that - OH LOOK, A FLUFFY KITTEN OR DOG!
Then I happened upon the recent shenanigans where rusty stepped back after a long period of seeming to be CP and dictator, others filled the void, then claims of conspiracy theories to and fro about whether we wanted to be a dictator-led nation or not, and proposed governance style.
I made my thoughts on this clear. The rationale for our CP-led dictator was NOT to take over the country, but to defend from a military take over from another country so the treasury couldn't be raped and all kinds of mess in forcing changes to alliances etc. Aus was always intended to be a democracy regardless of the mechanics we were defending against. But there seemed to be some implication the dictator had actually become a dictator, and the Aus congress were at best inactive, at worst, stupid (i.e., the end justifies the means).
I wonder sometimes if erep has become the means of its own demise. SO MANY GAMES now offer the military module, usually with better graphics and less crap. And if they want you to spend RL money you tend to get more instant gratification (for example, games like mobile strike, GOW or anything else you care to name). The thing that originally set erep apart was the political and economics module, and both of these have fallen in importance with the continued focus on fighting. I think this will eventually spell the end of erep as a game, as the times are moving on and admin don't appear to be keeping up with it - or, what MIGHT make this game as a whole a bit more interesting. That's my 0.02c on that.
BUT you deal with what you have. If admin won't care, then to retain and attract new players, if you still want a country and people playing in it, you have to MAKE YOUR OWN FUN.
So, to the crux of it.
You need more debate. You need to come up with your own political way of engaging on debate, and you need to come up with your own fun. And, I'm not sure other than occasional articles saying we will give you gold loans, or weapons, or fight here, you are getting that.
So, invent it. Come up with a new model and way of doing that. Get some differing views. Think about more driving alliances and battles. Structure your military to ensure more activity and coordinated fighting. Have fun with a smaller number of peeps (in the short term) if you must but stir the interest of new people and see how you go.
As I've just commented in another article, eAus was at its finest when there was some conflict. Be it with other countries in war, the nature of our political alliances or even over whether to use a bloody forum! But, do something different and see how you go.
Love you all.
Ranger.
eAus has been.
Comments
Written with passion and integrity Ranger. This game misses people like you!
It's too bad he can't/won't come back and pull us out of the slumps again. He knew how to do it. 🙂
Ranger Bob 4 CP \o/
You're right, probably like always. 🙂
We are obsessed with safe. Safe keeps our regions. But safe is boring. 2015 went by with barely a hiccup, militarily speaking (diplomatically it was tough). We had an ally wipe us twice and an MTO that, compared to what else has been seen, was pretty benign.
Our politics is stagnating. The last 2-3 months have seen CP candidates publish an article apiece. Occasionally a bit of sideline sniping or grumbling and that's it.
Congress voted down an AS opportunity to relieve an ally that was fully funded by said ally. Because it might offend someone and we'll get wiped later for it. Because we are militarily weak. FFS we haven't had a real war since June or July!
We are militarily weak because people are bored and stop playing actively. It takes over a year for a new citizen to even be a little competitive in D1 (I know because I've been here nearly a year and I'm only marginally competitive). I stayed because politics and media and making pretend rich like monopoly are fun. Were fun.
I don't know why a n00b from November 2015 would stay. There was no media, no politics. They can't fight with any effect. And there are no national problems to solve that the public can see. An elite clique keep (kept?) it all to themselves. I know because I was part of he clique...
I hope we have reached a watershed moment. Safe is boring. A bit of conflict and risk sharpens people's mind. Like playing cards for stakes. 🙂
o/
I hope you stay around in some fashion mate, us oldies are a dying breed 🙁
Rusty baby \o/
Mm you need fresh blood more than oldies. Good to see many still here - I wonder if IRC or some of the old haunts are used much or at all. A while ago I went on there just to check in, talked to myself for 20 minutes and left. It used to be a lot more fun when people would spend nights on there taking crap, drinking (well, some of us) and generally having a good time. Has the community spirit left eAus?
I feel like the community spirit has already left most small- and mid-sized enations (unfortunately)
IRC and forums are dead. All discussions are done behind closed doors with the next government or congress not really knowing what was said or achieved by the previous one.
No spirit in the community as many are too scared to speak, to give you an idea a multi went for congress so that party asked another to step up and block. Well after it was successful party A included party B in their internal food give away as a thank-you for helping (mind you a once off give-away) well shit hit the fan abiut bribing others and the people who threw the first stone once they had stones thrown back started crying foul of being singled out. So no spirit and no willingness to help others due to personal attacks
Well, that is a shame. I don't know why people feel they are scared to speak out - that's something in eAus there was NEVER a shortage of - but I'll take that on face value. I must say I sensed more apathy than anything else on my return so the more concerning part is no use of means like IRC or forums and stuff behind closed doors. Maybe this is where you need to start.
Tried the forums many times but congress uses a single in-game pm to discuss everything, the issue here is one person doesn't like something then every discussion point is derailed to take focus away.
Another issue is the guys that may only respond every 2 days due to RL commitments are then expected to go through every PM to catch up. Most people wont read 60 pm's they will just give up.
I know when I was stepping back in my last congress time due to RL I never read half the pm's or responded so I came under attack for being in congress and not talking. Mind you this was the last week and half of congress time the early part I was involved.
Without having a better in-game communication network the forums - due to you can log on and respond at any time of the day and IRC - if you can get suffcient people on at the same time to make immediate responses to urgent actions are both a better way to communicate.
Unban Rusty D !
http://www.erepublik.com/en/citizen/profile/8441119
-Shout-