The Javits Center
New York City, NY
Tuesday, October 4th, 2016 9:16 PM EST
Yankee! Yankee! Yankee! Atlasia is a nation of immigrants.
We call them by a different name here, either recruits or newbies, but the concept is the same. Atlasia's whole existance and success is based on the voluntary participation of enough players to sustain itself. Our actions and our motivations should and must be geared towards creating the kind of environment that is welcoming to as many players from as many different backgrounds as possible. This creates not only diversity of experience but also of opinion and such is the lifeblood of this game, creating debate and discourse that make the game fun.
It would seem obvious to encourage new participation and even old participation. However, whether it was Cathcon in 2010 or Clark in 2015, "newbie nativism" keeps rearing its ugly head and it is harmful to the game, in spite of those instances of malevolent abuse of the recruitment process that has indeed occured and necessitated a response. Indeed, the biggest harm done is the suspicion that redounds as litterally attacking new players the minute they join.
There are some in this game who desire it be smaller and exclusive, while there are others who may have been motivated to extremes by a few bad apples, but nonetheless have the impact of discouraging new members who are perfectly legitimate. Tmthforu94 fought against this the entire time he was in this game and I have always defended and supported increased participation from my first days right up until now. I have had the pleasure of twice being a long term, right of center party chair and having the responsibility of finding and encouraging mutltiple, successive generations of Atlasians, on the right.
Supporting new players and reaching out to try and bring old players back into the game is critical, and it is a message I have always approved of.But the number one motivation for them leaving has to be addressed and clearly there are still problems when it comes to the environment in which this game is being played. One of my opponents said a few weeks ago, that we have lost players and that is unnacceptable. Then of course we lost a Presidential candidate and a good friend. I agree it is unacceptable, but the primary root cause cannot be ignored and that is the negativity and hostility between players and certain groups of players in this game. It is the response I have heard over and over again from players merely inactive to the deregistered. So many people cannot be a misrepresentation when both people on the left and right express the same sentiments.
It is hard to address the former problem decisively and remain a free society, but there are steps we can take to boost membership and keep good members.
1. A massive newbie drive
2. Outreach to old players.
There is in fact a model for how to do this. It was done in the Fritz administration back in late 2010 and it involved the President, a conservative star recruiter (Tmthforu94 if memory serves me) and a liberal one and they actively worked to encourage new members to join. We could take a similar approach, but with the expanded mandate of reaching out to departed members and encourage their return.
3. I agree we do need to elicit opinions, but I think to just do so among current residents leaves out the picture of those who have departed. Some are unreachable but a number of a people are still active on the forum and could be in the game if they so desired.
4. As for the tone of which we approach players still in the game, as I said, it is hard to legislate that away. It is possible to send a message that certain tactics and methods are unacceptable and I hope that in voting for me you can send that message or at the very least start a dialogue and a dynamic that works counter to them occuring.
5. One thing that should be looked at is a ban/restriction on critical posts in the Mew Register Thread. Of course the enforcement mechanism would be a source for debate, but it is ridiculous to force new members to have to run a gauntlet of fire just to play a game. If that is the cost of doing so, what is the benefit of playing? Seems to make so much sense, yet it has happened again, and again.
Atlasia depends on new blood to survive and therefore it must exist, acknowleding its heritage as having been built and sustained by the arrival of new members and new participation and energy. I can think of no better place to deliver this message and it is a topic that is near to my heart when it comes to this game and how we play it.
Thank you, and I hope to earn your vote on October 21st-23rd.
