My Testing Article

Day 856, 07:57 Published in Canada Canada by Kronos Q

In my last article, I did my best to describe eCanada's top 5 political parties. People seemed to enjoy it, so let's do the follow-up article. I ended the article with a game, where people would guess which party I planned on joining. Let's take a second to look at the guess statistics.

How many people said I'd join...
5 said the Canadian Progressive Front,
5 said the Clan Wolf,
2 said the Sons of Anarchy,
2 said the Military Dictatorship Party,
3 said the United Party of Canada,
2 said none/other.

The statistic I was more interested in was that...
7 people said I'd join the party they were a member of, and 10 people said I'd join a party other than their own.

But before we do get to handing out the prizes for who guessed correctly, I wanted to make this article a little bit longer. Plugson had suggested that I explain the decision I made, and well.. that's what I was planning on doing; I wanted to lay out some reasoning.

So let's look inside this monkey's mind.

I don't think I've truly been "active" for about 8 or so months now. My last term as President did to me what it had done to many Presidents before and after me: it made me tired of eRep. I kind of wanted to step away and let everyone else play pinball for awhile. So I did. I spent my time 2-clicking, reading an article here and there when things seemed interesting; I really enjoyed my summer

But over the past month, I was starting to do more than simple 2-clicking. Reading more articles, interacting more in the feeds, and filling up my once empty inbox. Personally, I think it's because my courseload had gotten lighter, so I had more free time to waste (and what a waste eRep is). And while paying more attention, eCanada sparked some interest in me once again... so I decided to test the waters.



I had this spark, so I put some thought into it, turning it into an idea. I then had this idea, which with some deliberation, evolved into a plan. Then this plan, that after consideration, had become a goal. I think that's what I had been missing: a goal; something to strive for.

When I first started eRepublik, I had a plan and I carried through with it. I was successful, well-known, and respected. Then it was over and I just.. kind of rode the wave for awhile. I don't think I did much that I was interested in, but rather hung around and participated with what others did. So of course it got boring. And that's why I stopped; I just didn't want to anymore.

So now it's a little strange to be back with a goal. I need to once again figure out how to take this original idea in my head, spread it around, and nurture it in such a way that everyone can take pride in it. But most of all, I need to keep it interesting. I want this to be a new experience, rather than an old one. So I want to change my playstyle.



And here is where we start to tie in with the reason I chose the party I did (don't worry, I didn't forget about that)...

If you take a look through my newspaper, you'll notice a common trend about my articles. They'll all.. pretty formal, very reserved (boring, as I'm sure some think). I've never written too many opinionated or critical pieces, but would usually tiptoe around topics. I was really good at that, and I did more of it than just in my articles. So if I'm going to be spending this much time on a game (again), I want to get some sort of transferable skill out of it. Ergo, I want to try to develop a different writing style. Something more interesting, more expressive, something more out-spoken.

Now, from my discussions with the Party Presidents, there was definitely a party that had this sort of attitude. Somewhere (I can't find where anymore), the party was described as having an "in yo face full o' swagger" sort of attitude. Don't worry, I won't be going that far, but you have to admit, it's a change for me.

On top of that, this party has proven their conviction that activity is paramount in politics; this party acknowledges that we need to change our attitude to prevent useless bickering; this party accepts that we cannot be over-ambitious when looking ahead; and this party recognizes the driving aspect behind the basis of this game. These are all things that I like and agree with.

So as long as this party continues to work towards these ideals (since I definitely wouldn't say their journey is over), then I think I will join them for the time-being to help out. Of course, there are other parts of the party that I disagree with, so we'll have to keep a watch on those.

And lastly, this move is one that will be more likely to keep things interesting as time goes on. Why make things easy for yourself when easy turns into boredom?

So, uhh.. if you haven't figured it out yet, that original idea of mine has a large part to do with military aspects and eCanada's MUs. ...come one, you should've gotten it already if you actually read my last article.

So anyway, I Bleed Blue, ElPatoDiablo, your prizes are ready for pick-up.


"Did I do alright? Did I properly express some reasoning behind this monkey mind of mine?"


Thursday, December 13th, 2012.

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