Join the new world

Is the hand that rules the world...

Most of us have heard that quote before. It implies that the person or persons who most closely look after the youth are the ones who will stand to benefit the most in the long term.

With the introduction of the new military module, there has been much ballyhoo about the use of a babyboom to help stock Division 1 and 2 units. Babybooms are not a new concept in eRep and there have been many of them in the short space of 3 years in which I have been here. Some have been successful and others have been unmitigated disasters. Some have taken off with aplomb while others died on the planning room floor. With the recent changes to the military module, talks of babybooms have once again become a dominant subject for many military minds and government leaders. The question is...how do you do it and how do you sustain it. This 2 part article series will seek to address the latter of the two issues and then examine what should be done once success is achieved.

Getting people to come to the game is the easy part...curiosity alone will draw many in. Where most babybooms fall apart is in the retention strategy. I believe that many of these population gains are brought about by sound strategy. The issue is that too much time is spent on the “How to get them here” and not enough time is spent on the “Holy crap, they came, now how do we keep them?”.

Any government that seeks to make mass populations gains, needs to have a contingency plan in place before the actual boom occurs, to address the issue of retention. If you are not laying out a firm foundation for retention then you’re spinning your wheels. What I have learned from my RL experience in this issue is that the only way to keep people is to provide them an exceptional experience. You need to deliver something that blows them away. It is simply not good enough to send a PM and welcome them with a few trinkets. There has to be more. A fully stocked and functioning mentoring program that takes people by the hand and walks them through the critical initial phases of integration is key. This program has to address the issues of basic game mechanics (eating, fighting, working) and later progress to advanced mechanics (business ownership, governance, military achievement, etc). This however is not enough. Mentoring must also include a component of social integration...that is, getting new players on to IRC and connecting them to the fibre of the game itself...the community. Many of us “oldfags” stay, not because of the game itself, but because of the relationships we have forged in the community through forums and IRC usage. What keeps us coming back are those relationships...and of course we click the buttons along the way.

Its not enough however, to do these basic things. The delivery of this mentoring must be both exceptional and consistent. To give you an example. When you go to McDonalds and order a Big Mac...you know what your going to get. 2 beef patties, sauce, lettuce, tomato etc. You KNOW what its going to taste like and you KNOW that its going to be the same each and every time. Its a consistent repeatable process that delivers a standard of service that you expect each and every time. This is what the mentoring program needs to look like. Consistent and repeatable. The next step is to make it exceptional. Another example. Why are coffee houses like Starbucks and Second Cup in business charging $5 for a cup of coffee when I could pay $1.25 at my local donut shop? How do they remain in business? Its simple...people pay for the EXPERIENCE of having coffee at Starbucks. There is an atmosphere and aura that exists at these coffee houses. There are value added services (comfortable couches, free WIFI, ceramic mugs, nice artwork, free newspapers, etc). You pay that $5 for the experience and value added service! Our mentoring program needs to be more like Starbucks and less like the donut shop. Lets provide a 5 star new player experience that makes them not only stay in the eUSA, but in eRepublik period.

This message is not exclusive to governments...the same can be said for MU’s and any other organization in game. Political parties as well! By employing these very simply retention concepts, any group, party, country, etc can quickly become the toast of the town. It is up to the leaders of each group or organization and especially our government, to come up with the plan for recruitment AND more importantly, retention. It wont be easy...it will take time, effort, commitment, and resources, but it WILL be worth it. You need only look to the North, and ask questions about a once very dominant political party known as the DAL. Their leader and party face, CitizenB was a masterclass worker when it came to recruitment and retention. It was for this reason that the DAL was the largest and most influential party in eCanadian politics for such a long time.

If we can emulate what the DAL did on a grander scale, the results could be legendary. The question that remains to be addressed in part two is, what do you do once you have recruited and retained? How do you translate that into success in the military module?

I will address that in the next article...

Yours In National Unity,