Join the new world

THIS IS A VERY VERY VERY LONG ARTICLE. MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT IN A HURRY, GRAB A (BIG) CUP OF COFFEE/TEA/STFU, RELAX, AND ONLY THEN BEGING TO READ 😉 (sorry for the caps, it was stuck, and I have no delete button (and don't know how right click and cut) )

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Hoh_Rain_Forest_Maples.JPG[/img]

Is there life beyond the congress elections? Apparently there is, even if not that much, with one or two decent articles a day, and a bit of debate..Things only get really fired up in our small country when the elections are near (but that's really normal, no problem there). So, in my platform which I am sure YOU (the one reading this article) already have a link to in your inbox (or did have, no comment) I have promised that I will invest as much as possible into developing eSA in some field as I can, IF I get voted. Well, I got voted, and got quite a good position too, so I can't find anymore excuses, thus I had to come up with some lousy, cheap, two minute idea I can rely to the next month if anyone accuses me of not being active.

So my idea is: Let's send PM to everyone in the nation to vote up a blank article. If would really unite us as a nation, watching an entirely blank article grow in votes merely by being fueled by the patriotism of our fellow South Africans! Maybe it would even reach the international news. Wouldn't that be a glory? Okay, have a nice day, see you on the 25th.

Okay, now the serious:

eSouth Africa has serious concerns regarding to growth. Basically, we get around 10 citizens a day (on a good day). That's 0.33% of the total world growth. So the world grows 299 times faster then us. That's a disaster. To give you a better example, PEACE member Serbia (I know we have many USA natives here, be honest, do you even know where it is?) is growing 40 times faster then us. That's right. 40 times. That means that they get more players in 1,5 day than our entire population. To reverse, it would take us 3,5 years to grow to their current population size. Knowing that Erepublik is merely two years old, that should really give us a thought.

I think you can pretty much see why we need to do something about our growth. There are two ways of increasing growth. The first one would be increasing the number of players that join. That means heavy advertising both in-game and outside it. Our problem is that we have a really small number of real South Africans. So launching a big baby boom using their influence and knowledge in the real world SA is next to impossible. Of course, we could always invite our friends, spouse, parents, grandparents, the girl next door, other neighbors, that nice lady from the newspaper stand, our old teacher, any random passer by on the street, our dog, our dog's puppies, our goldfish, and half eaten carcasses of a dead rat to South Africa. That would increase population, but unless it gains EPIC proportions, it doesn't really need a program to help it. Just send your damn referral link to anyone you can, tell them a few words about the game, and they'll manage the rest (if they don't, you can always force them to play with a plastic gun/ water blaster/ real Browning/ bazooka/ nuke/ naked pictures of sister you own etc.).

The other way population growth can be helped is by increasing retention...Because the statistics say that 10 players joined, but it never tells you how many have actually remained in the game, and not abandoned it after a day/3 days/ Ajay loosing elections etc. I don't have exact figures on the eSA, but the average retention rate in erepublik is around a shocking 20%. It's not that surprising if you think of it, you can't shoot any roaming monsters, no killing of innocent rats to gain the first levels, minimal graphics, high intelligence needed to become "hooked" to the game (you need to read the media, otherwise it's just a 2-7 click a day game.)

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Rain_forest_NZ.JPG/800px-Rain_forest_NZ.JPG[/img]

Retention however can be drastically increased simply by CARING (that sounds like a rain forest protection ad, but my article really isn't that. There aren't even any rain forests in eRepublic. So come on! Rain forest ad? Lol.) about them. Yes, it's that simple. Just take this scenario:

You are new player. You sign up. You get an automated message from your president (anyone with half-a-brain can realize that). AND THAT'S IT. Your message tells you to register on a forum. F the forum, you are already active on a dozen, you don't need another one to read. And anyways, there's one site already to this game, how many are they expecting me to use to play a SINGLE game? Also, it tells me to read. What? Read? I came to play, dammit! You close the message, and notice Plato. Wow, that's nice. In-game tutorial. Really nice. Let's see..I should find a job. Hmm, the payment is different, and also those little icons next to job. Hmm, let's pick weapons, it'll be uber-cool to craft weapons. I wonder how it's done..A mini-game? Nah, that's lame. Something better.. So you get hired, click on work, and..WTF? This is it? That's working? A single click that brings up calculations? That's not cool. At all. I won't be working a lot I guess. I hope there are better things then this.. Let's see, next advice, upload an avatar..REALLY fun. Buy food. ULTRA-fun. You are getting a little frustrated. Yay, I reached level 2. That's good. Now I can train. That's good. I wonder: will I have to lift weights? or shoot stuff? or something even better? I bet it won't be a one click thing again. That'd be too cheap. You go, train..That's it? Again? And now I should go and read the forums? I can fight if I play for more then a week? And it's just clicking too? You know what, f this game, I am off to play *insert random MMORPG here*.

I thinks that's not a rare scenario. This game really looks boring unless you play for a while, and realize it's magic. But only a few players really do that. And that's where the low retention rate comes from.

We can raise retention through a ridiculously simple way. Just send them a message explaining what to do, and why to do it on the first day, then another one when he reaches level 5, and perhaps another one if his wellness goes below 40. And also a promise to answer their questions. Monitoring our daily 10 new players really isn't a bid deal to do. I am certain we could "save" at least 3 of the 10 by this simple and effective method. It can also co-exist harmoniously with other programs, such as our (at the moment clinically dead) Mentorship program, or anything that pops up later on from our little heads.

Now, I am willing to do this. Making a message and sending it isn't really a big deal, and it would help out a lot. And I'll even do it for you. I am just waiting for you opinions 🙂 Tell me what you think, and I'll launch it.

Thank you (and congratulations) for reading this far!
ANA Congressman Stormclouds

P.S: Don't cut the rain forests. They are really nice. And useful. And women will do anything for people that protect the nature! So don't cut them, please.