Notes on a creeping cynicism
barbarbar6
It's been interesting to have been able to see the start of my party's rise from second to first place, as I have been here since before the WTP party really blew up. I remember when I started it was certainly in a great place, but only now has it reached the point where we have seen the electoral benefits. The success in the congressional elections today, for anyone watching, was not a surprise for anyone on the outside or the inside. Now, it has attracted claims of cheating and bots and vote manipulation, and I do not think that this is an unreasonable claim, but I think a bit of perspective would help bring this claim into a reasonable doubt with a bit of my perspective from inside the party.
First off, the reason I joined the WTP is because I was attracted by who was currently the president when I joined the game, chickensguys. It's important to note that new players are attracted by which party they think will allow them a voice and a chance, and usually that will be the one with the most power. Last month, every single party except WTP supported Paul or another candidate against Groot, but Groot still won, closely, but still won. Any new player seeing this would understand that this means that WTP is the dominant party and therefore be attracted to them, even if they didn't understand the benefits Groot had as an incumbent and following up on chickenguys' term. This election, I think, really kickstarted the major confidence the WTP had to really increase recruitment and try to leverage this win for themselves.
Second off, the current events have caused people to stay home, obviously. As COVID-19 has ravaged the globe new players and old players have come to the game simply trying to relieve their boredom. This coincided with a massive recruitment drive by the party. If you were a new player, you probably got a message from a WTP member talking about how great the party was for new players and how welcome you were to join the party, while you probably just got radio silence from every other party.
Speaking of radio silence, look at the articles that have been published recently. WTP has been by far the most active in the media module, which is also one of the first places a new player looks to get their standing on what is going on in politics. The proportion of articles written by WTP is immense compared to the other parties, especially the Federalists, who were the only party that started out the month with a larger amount of members than WTP. This paints a picture of one active party versus four stagnant ones. Is this true? No, but to a player who is outside these parties, it might as well be. On this game, there is a transient population, people who play the game for two to three months and then leave. WTP has been able to seize these people in a very critical time where this population has grown. I don't think this burst in activity is even permanent.
I still think something is a bit fishy, though. I think perhaps the growth is mostly accounted for, but a bit is still not, and I think that the WTP should embrace any investigations that might happen. But to go into the country shoutbox and accuse an entire party of being bots is completely ridiculous. What it does is alienate an entire section of the population that newly voted for the WTP party by calling them robots when they know they are not. Now is not the time for rampant cynicism, but for community, for activity, and for an introspection for every party to try to understand how they can bring that to the table for every player.
Good night, and good luck.
Comments
lmao
When I see the results so far today for SFP. I wouldn't be laughing.. but I'd be worried 🙁
Wow!
I can get behind this!
Hard work pays off.
Groot
https://gyazo.com/a1f1e117c20cc8dcec6107d6a626029b
XD
o7
I was one of those players that this party reached out to. I didn't receive any greetings or offers to join from any of the other parties. That shows me that this party was working their ground game and everyone else was resting on their laurels.
We just did our job. And we will keep it up regardless of the talks. Everyone who suspect can report and the admins will take care of it.
[removed]
o7
In both rl and eRep, it's remarkably hard to avoid cynicism as one gets older.
I think that's called "experience".
Good article though, reasonably presented POV.
Seems like a fair observation, so I will try to respond fairly.
There is plenty of basic player's remorse for anyone who plays Erepublik for a period of time. There is motivation, but little fulfillment, kind of like being a heroin addict. As many have noted over the years, the fundamental reason people keep playing -- aside from the less-than-fulfilling schedule of fixed ratio / fixed intervals rewards and the occasional attempts at "changing it up" with a little variation -- are the intrinsic kind of emergent rewards that are associated with the social and creative sides of the game.
I'd offer -- without trying to be snarky -- that many of the e-USA players have a deep-felt antagonism towards the WTP and some of its principles, especially CG, due to the way they (and he in particular) repeatedly "violated" the only part of the game model that has any real intrinsic value -- its social aspects. In other words, he repeatedly attacked the social/community cohesiveness that folks had tried to create, through a variety of means. This was especially evident in his calculated attacks on the SFP community, but were not limited to that. (Though it does explain why players in that group have such animosity towards him and his cabal.)
Generally speaking, the use of bots encourages "player's remorse", as it accentuates the lackluster motivation/fulfillment ratios already inherent in the game. CG is by no means the only player to have ever succumbed to this temptation. You'll find critiques of this behavior all over, in virtually every country and community, going back years. "Winning" and "being first" in this manner is to exhibit a kind of false pride, and it is, again, very de-motivating for other players.
Finally, I'd offer that his on-going promotion of Trump and Trumpist motifs is clearly intended (as it is in real life) to "own" his "opponents" (which seems to be... everybody who is not a CG loyalist). This is neurosis bordering on psychosis, frankly, and again, has a strongly negative effect, psychologically speaking, on the larger community even it if has the appearance of "solidarity" for those who are inside of his circled wagons.
I expect CG himself has some remorse at this point regarding these behaviors, and I don't mean to say all members of WTP are "the same" or "bad", etc.. But I would offer that a kind of "general healing" of some kind would be needed in order to recover from it, a period of "de-chickenization", if you will.
Being of a violent and cynical nature myself, I expect the only way this could be accomplished is with a certain dose of "e-Terror". But I don't know what form that could take, nor do I expect there are enough players left with sufficient motivation for it.
There seems a lot of history that I am completely unaware of, none of which this article is meant to be a comment on. If you want to DM and talk about it or redirect me to any resources, I'm for looking at this rationally .But from the perspective of someone unintroduced to this history, the accusations of bot use seem alienating and unfair. I think there's something to be said that perhaps the tactics of recruitment, the rhetorics that have been pursued by the party aren't entirely to be overlooked or immune to criticism. But I am not a partisan robot, and not a cabalist in the slightest, it's just that this particular attack seems completely caustic. Thanks for your reply.
o7
o7