The Great Compression
![USA](http://www.erepublik.net/images/flags_png/S/USA.png)
Aeriadne
Two days ago, Gnilraps announced that he would be running for POTUS, and just yesterday Tyler Bubblar threw his hat in too. Now, there isn't anything particularly surprising about the announcements. They come from two of the arguably most invested players who still do not have their shiny CP medals. But there is something strange about the timing.
If you take a quick stroll through the newspaper vendors stands here in Emericka, you'll notice the curiosity I'm speaking of, chiefly that it is a week before congressional elections and we have two people already announced to run. Furthermore, the only articles concerning Congressional elections are ones published by parties as wholesale announcements.
This is because the way we played the game, as I have mentioned before, has fundamentally changed.
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7Qowzzqi4WQ/TifVDYtD22I/AAAAAAAAAoc/3FJNjDQbaTg/s1600/DP%2BSW%2BPB%2BCVR%2BCSE%2B041511%2BOTP%2B2.jpg)
You know the tune.
Congressmen and women don't control their fates in congress. In reality, the only importance Party Presidents really have these days is that of listing their candidates. So if a congressional candidate wishes to be one of the many statistics their respective party wishes to put in congress these days, they sign up, suck some party dick, and hope for a high spot.
Generally, this lack of real investiture on Congresspeeps parts creates nothing to talk about. Gone are the days of campaigning for states, departed are the times for jockeying and sniping. These are tricks and traps of the old ways, they are not our tools of these new days.
So, with congress being treated with all the pomp and circumstance of grocery store checkout aisle, there's no real reason for new players to get excited. There's nothing to write about, no reason to campaign. Just ask the oldfags what they're up to, meet your party requirements, sign here, fill this form, don't be a terrible PTOer, and then step on through to the other side.
CP is almost as bland a process.
![](http://images.idiva.com/media/content/2012/Sep/573051481.jpg)
Some might even say milquetoast.
With no congress articles going up, the sacred, unwritten rule of not putting your campaign articles up before Congress elections can be broken with ease. I mean, who cares? Which of the congressmen and women will complain? Hell, even the parties don't care the process is so automated these days. Go two years back, and if either Tyler or Gnilraps had done this they would have probably been chewed out.
But this isn't that time.
This is the time when our game is so lackluster that brilliant writers like NewAzazel and Derphoof have to beg in the shoutfeeds for interesting things to write about. This is the time when elections are so predictable that it's no wonder we have fewer and fewer people staying around.
This is not a Great Depression. This is the Great Compression.
All of our game world is becoming smaller, and thus the divide between older players and newer players grows larger. As fewer and fewer people stick around, the ones with the most experience now reign supreme. Why try something new? What's the point? We know what works, so go for the guy who has it all.
With fewer and fewer people having more and more of the responsibility, there's also less and less opportunity for new players to even get involved. We're not shutting doors to new players, we're taking them off the hinges, bricking up the hole, and plastering up wallpaper.
![](http://bsugarcoated.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rosesprig.jpg)
Maybe a nice floral print.
Recruitment and Retention is dead. Just look. Do you see any party even putting out an effort? The strategy now is to try and get the coolest old players in your party. There are no discussions about out of game advertising, and if there are, that task is given very little thought.
The honest issue is that we don't care about getting new players because our insular system demands that we look to the person with the most experience. We have stemmed our own tide.
I don't have any answer other than the one I've been saying for months: if everyone wants new players, we need to all support an active babyboom.
But no candidate is going to do that. We're all talking about the cool new alliance we're in, the important stuff going on abroad. There are more interesting tasks at hand for our future Presidents, thicker papers to shuffle and harrumph about. Recruitment and Retention has always been the thing that you give to the new, on the rise player in a party to give them something to do, the busywork you use to test them. It's our equivalent of peeling potatoes.
And the lack of importance we have historically placed on it is killing us.
Everything else has changed. It is a different world. And yet this one old standby remains: that recruitment and retention isn't a matter older, bigger players should concern themselves with. And that must change.
You probably won't see this be the focus of either Gnilraps or Tyler or any candidate the months after. Foreign affairs and MU shifting will dominate the conversation. That's the most interesting thing to talk about. It's a shame it's not the most important one.
![](http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/219/e/7/susan_coffey_maxim_wallpaper_by_luistoluca-d5a5gpq.png)
Comments
First, as always, reserved for Susan.
Susan just adds to an already strong article; voted.
NEEDS MORE GREELING!!!
I agree, but with a game that holds no promise for new players, its tough to make them stay around, and tough to dedicate much effort to the task.
Yes, there's a game element that's an issue of this, but there's also an us element. We've contributed to the decline. That's just the point I was trying to make here.
Very true, we could and should be doing more, I just wish the admins weren't fighting so hard to make it more difficult for us 😛
Great article, it would be ridiculous to say that those who have been around eRep for a long time are not dedicated, but many are definitely not willing to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to working outside the game to bring in new blood.
We've become complacent and resigned to the world as is instead of what might be.
And you're doing what, exactly?
I don't disagree with you, but you're lecturing people because you're bored. You aren't doing anything about it, nor do I expect you will. Not because you don't want to or because you don't care to, but because going out into the world and selling eRep as something people should do is not only difficult, it's disingenuous.
I have to agree with the sentiment here.... I always kind of wanted my real life friends and other people I knew to play eRep; I've told several of them about it, and they know I waste a good portion of my time here, but when push comes to shove, I've never really been able to recommend eRepublik as a game they should play.
To begin with, it takes a particular sort of person to find this game interesting, and secondarily, with the game in decline as it is and now so clearly oriented to wringing money out of its playerbase, I just can't see this as a great use of people's time. I mean, I think we all would like to see the "good days" back again, and I think we all would like to have a massive babyboom with the girth to allow use to stomp a hole in eSerbia, but to me, the game itself no longer seems worthwhile enough to sic it on thousands (or even tens) of other people.
In the end, I think we're all still here out of nostalgia, or for old friendships, or just out of a morbid desire to keep riding the lightning until it finally hits the ground.
[removed]
A month ago, I spent a week advertising eRep. On Facebook, in RL, on various forums I visit. I dropped links, I talked with people, I got some members to sign up. Still don't have my Society Builder medal.
I tried, but it's awfully lonesome when you're the only one doing so, and no one else seems to be wanting to even discuss it. Don't try and obscure the point of this article when I have legitimately tried.
I actually have a legit SB, and I had to badger my friends to get it.
I'm not trying to 'obscure' the point, and I'm sure you tried super duper hard for that week, I'm simply telling you what you already know.
99% of people can't sell a product they don't believe in. You are the 99%.
Well written. V&S
Speed Read Synopsis for Generation ADD : The game is dead, again.
Voted.. I love you Aramec 🙂
Excellent read. Voted. 🙂
It's nice to see someone intelligently identify the key component in the downward spiral of party politics.
Plus, you used the words 'suck some party dick' and for that you get a vote.
I liked it all except the "brilliant writer" and "dumbhoof" in the same sentence.
And sadly I agree with Pieffer, I'm ok with the current lecture you just gave, now lets see you have a plan of action. No need to slob the party knob, if you have good plan and you work that plan it will happen and people will notice and it will have a better chance to succeed.
I would love to see you build on this article, lemme see what you got man.
See above reply to Pfeiffer.
The game administration itself gave up on the idea of baby booms, how do you expect the players to go advertising a game that is getting harder and harder for new players.
lol even the holders programme isn't a good approach any more...
Well, I'm a new player, even though I did play this game a few years ago (When you trained with Napolean for 200% strength) . Either way, I never got beyond level 25 and I won around 1~2 BH medals by sheer luck.
Returning randomly to this game I faced so many new things, one of the things was MASSIVE support from the people around me.
>I've been messaged by mentors
>I've been given a change for many rewards by the DoE
>I've been given donations and loans simply by asking
I basically get a lot of assistance, I don't think this was widely done in the past.
The real people that ruined eRepublik, at least to my limited knowledge, are the admins by ruining the economy/changing systems that don't need change...etc