EDIT Day 2199
Dear Citizen,
Starting today, we'll add 100 new users to the New User Experience each day. Players will be selected randomly from the registrations. Players who have already registered won't be affected by these changes.
The tests are going well and the results look promising. We're still trying to fine-tune everything, so that the New World would be as appealing as possible to a new player.
We would like to thank you for the enthusiasm and interest you've shown towards this project. We're hoping to be able to share more details with you a bit later.
o7
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Original post
As some of you already noticed, yesterday we started testing some new features that aim to improve the experience of the new users. We are impressed with the interest you have shown to these new features. This proves a lot of commitment to the game and we cannot overstate how grateful we are for this. We are sorry that at this moment we cannot get you involved more for reasons that we will try to detail below.
The project is currently in Alpha testing so a limited number of new players will be able to access it. At this stage, we aim to see how they react to this new approach, how this improves their experience and what changes need to be done to further improve it. We are aware that things don’t turn up right from the first time, that’s why we are testing the project with a small group of players. This will minimize its impact on everyone else until we are certain that the new features are beneficial.
We gain a lot of valuable knowledge from these tests and with your help we can continue testing and improving until we have everything running smoothly.
Many of the existing players are probably wondering how this will affect them. First of all, the new module is not a radically different eRepublik experience. It basically replaces the usual “work and train” routine with something more enjoyable and easier to understand for new players. The end results are roughly the same: players produce items, train, build Rockets and Bazookas and gain Experience Points.
We saw many concerns about the Strength received during the first days. We want to reassure you that everything is planned so that in the long term there won’t be big differences between how much Strength new players can receive now, and how much Strength new players received a few years ago. For many reasons (balancing, gameplay) new players need to quickly pass over the period when they have ridiculously low levels of Strength ( 15, 20, 30 Strength). It’s important for them to have a sense of making progress in the New World. In a short time their Strength gain will be smoothly lowered so it’s equal to everyone else's.
We want to state very clearly that we don't intent to give advantages to the new users with this project. Instead, we are trying to make the new players’ experience more “playable”. We need to “buy” them the time to understand the game and get to the heart of the community. Everyone knows how hard it is to make “noobs” to remain active in the game. And it’s even harder to make them stay in the game long enough so they can actually interact with one of you, the existing players. We know you are trying to get them involved and we hope that this project will come to your help.
The Alpha testing will continue in the next weeks. We will make incremental improvements during the testing and measure their impact in order to be able to make further improvements.
We are fully aware that the more experienced players need to know these new features since new players may rely on them to guide their steps. We know that you are eager to know everything about this new project so once it starts getting closer to a final shape we will release all details about it. We will be glad to receive your feedback as it is very valuable for improving the game.
Thank you for your understanding,
The eRepublik Team