A few issues I found difficult when I was a “2-clicker” newbie and how I overcame them
1. Got stuck playing the tutorial video without knowing what to do.
Due to my unstable internet connection, I found it difficult to load and play the Plato tutorial video, as you have to understand that for a Day-1 Hour-1 new player of a GAME, how eager it was for him to quickly get involved and entertained.
Fortunately, I know a few basics about web-browser based online games, so I skipped that video and started to explore my profile, and soon I found that old man talking to me at the top right corner of the window. There I go!
P.S. I reloaded that video later from the Tutorials under the Info menu, waited for it to buffer and watched it to make sure I didn’t miss a thing.
Suggestion: Instead of having all game mechanics introduction in a video, can we have an eNewspaper style of thing with graphics and step-by-step instructions to let the newbie know what’s what? If eRepublik admins do not do this, maybe we can have one in one of our newspapers and link the article directly to eUSA Welcome Letter.
2. Got bored and frustrated by “2-click-only life” from Day 1.
After I uploaded my avatar and applied for my first job, my day ended with work-click and train-click, the good old “2-clicks”. Not like many other online games that you have a lot to do on Day 1 setting up your character and going around doing quests, eRepublik start was a short and quiet one.
“The first time you sell a gun is a lot like the first time you have sex. You have absolutely no idea what you're doing, but it is exciting…and one way or another it's over way too fast.” by Yuri Orlov in “Lord of War”.
My first day ended just like that, and if it wasn’t out of curiosity, Day 2 would never happen.
Suggestion: Maybe our welcome letter should include a friendly reminder to tell the new citizens that their first few days could be as boring as 2-clicks a day but don’t give up? Give them an overview, an appetizer?
3. Got nervous by the failure of my first company, and was worrying about the living cost and Wellness balance, and ALMOST got misled.
When the second or the third day of my eRepublik life came, my first company ran out of raw material and I was not able to work. It seemed unfortunate, but it was fortunate to me IMO because:
1）I got my first live lesson about eCompany: Don’t run out of raw material or your employee will leave you.
2) I got my chance to quit the low pay company and seek for higher pay without waiting for the 3 day limit.
3) I got to know my current boss, who is a caring and responsible player. His welcome letter impressed me a lot.
4) Of all the 3 business skills, I accidentally took manufacturing (not knowing why) as a start, not land, not construction, which proved to be the most productive and beneficial at this time.
However, life was still uneasy. I found that my Wellness recovery is not catching up with my Working + Training schedule. I read a post from the HELP section of in-game forum that says “newbie shouldn’t train in order to keep wellness balance”. I tend to believe so which it was later proved so wrong!
Of all the things I did to make myself a better life, the best one was to actively seek for friends. I added an online co-worker who is even newer than me to my friend list, and was trying to teach her not to train (lol). She replied that she is getting free food from the great Meat-on-Wheels! OMG! That was the great start of everything I’m having now.
Suggestion: Maybe in future we could have a guild of newbie-friendly companies? Like an alliance of companies that offer working opportunity for newbie, and have the boss to address helpful welcome letters to guide the new employee about the basics of working, skill choosing, food choosing, the concept of wellness, etc.
4. Finally, getting to know the game, the mechanic and the jargon in everyway I could.
I guess what made me enjoying this game and many other games and things IRL, is the curiosity and the initiative to learn.
I noticed that I must’ve been missing some information about all the great helping programs and the right place to seek for information. I reviewed those welcome letters and that’s how I found eusforum.com.
I started to ask questions like “how can I upgrade faster than just 2-clicks a day?”, and got answered that I should fight when I get to Level 5, nothing more I could do before that. And from there, I learned about the importance of living in Q5 Hospital State and fighting for Wellness technique. I started to subscribe newspapers for my own interest and for the sake of Media Mogul Project that could save eUSA.
At this point, as I am now, just a few millimeters away from the Magical Level 5, I feel that I am actually STARTING to play, not from Day1, but from here! How exciting.
Suggestions: During this period of time, I found the biggest difficult for me is to find handy / interactive tools to know my world and my country better, and to do calculations. Sure, there are a lot of amazing tools out there, and a lot of dedicated players have done their part to make things happen, but, with limited gaming experience, and just from the Top Articles, the Welcoming Forums, I don’t see any link / directory to tools like cccp-group.org or erepublik.ws. I am sure that wiki.erepublik.com might have included many of those resources, but the wiki-style is honestly not user-friendly enough if users don’t know what they’re looking for at the first place, plus the wording in that wiki is not quite reader-friendly and the data (e.g. what countries in what alliance) are kind of out of date. So, I propose that we either further perfect our wiki, keep it updated, or start some newbie dictionary / directory in a tidier format.
Above all, thanks to all those who’ve help me so much. As my friend list counter is getting close to 30 and keep growing, I feel more and more involved in this wonderful New World!
I would like to use this article as the first edition of my newspaper which is coming soon, and I hope to hear your feedbacks and suggestions on how we could provide more convenience to new eCitizens especially new eAmericans.
Thank you and God bless eUSA!
