Author: thehopehitman2, S
(**Note: This article was originally written by thehopehitman2 in trade period 65. It is being republished/ revisited to open peoples eyes at the growing problems we have faced in the past, and are still feeling to this day.**)
The number of active citizens in the federation (especially virtua) has been a growing concern for some citizens. Over the tradeperiods,thousands of people have come and gone, which has left us with the issue; is the federation growing at a good enough rate? Now the answer to that question, I believe, does not lie in the hands of one man, it needs to be a census obtained by the entire community. The numbers have been somewhat hard to decipher and the topicgrows increasingly frustrating for those that are working very hard to make it easier for new citizens to learn, and want to stay. Now the actual statistics, is not what this article is about, and I do not intend on insulting anyone or their hard work. This article is to try and offer a new way to approach teaching incoming players. No matter what the retention numbers for miniconomy are (good or bad) it does not matter; any good game should try and improve itself. This brings me to my proposal, of creating an interactive tutorial for the basics of miniconomy. This tutorial would teach such things as how to build your first shop, manage prices, exim goods, choose products to sell,how to implement skill points, all before they even get access to their starting money. This way it would ensure that they get the actual hands on experience that some people need and can’t get from just reading a Documentation or FAQ page.This tutorial would be required to be taken before you gain access to your actual starting money and would only takeapproximately five minutes. Then from there, after the “Basics Tutorial” was completed you could take the reinsand start managing your own money, or take a more advanced tutorial teaching such skills as opening an MV, howto become a premium Member, managing your vehicles, how to use harbors, building clubs, etc. I think implementing a hands-on tutorial like the one I just described would drastically shorten the time it took people to learn how to manage their assets. It would take some time and devotion to create such a tutorial, but from my experience, the federation has some very computer savvy citizens that I’m sure would love to help out with something like this. As well as eliminating such questions as “can I expand my warehouse”, or “why does it say I can only buy lots next to my own”, it will also give them a taste of the fun parts of miniconomy in the first five minutes of becoming a citizen and prevent new citizens from leaving when joining in the slower third week of the trade period. And that, I think would be better for the entire federation and every citizen within it. In conclusion, I feel this is exactly what the federations “newbies” are missing, and with a well planned outtutorial, the days of standing in the streets of the federation by yourself should be over.