[Inside Government] How Did Cryptomania Come to Be?






How Did Cryptomania Come to Be?
What Goes Into a Recruitment Incentive Project

Written by GrandfatherClock




With the opening of the newest recruiting incentive, titled 'Cryptomania', on July 19, its creator was approached to gain a new perspective on what goes on behind the scenes in the preparation and operation of such a project. That begs the question: what is Cryptomania, anyway? "Cryptomania is a great way to introduce yourself to recruitment. Unlike many of the recruitment games of the past where either large numbers or 'streaks' of consecutive days of recruitment [were] prioritized, Cryptomania offers a rather less activity-intensive way to have fun while also contributing a critical service to the region," Minister of Interior Le Libertie explains. "[T]he 'starter package' allows players to immediately participate, and I think Cryptomania offers an overall fun, low-stakes experience for anyone who might be interested in recruitment. As this 'summer slump' continues and nation count continues to lower, any and all effort towards boosting our recruitment numbers is welcome and very much appreciated."

Providing constant incentive to recruit has been a facet of the interior ministry since December 2020, with the introduction of Monopoly games, and before then, many smaller contests were held periodically. For Le Libertie, a lot more work goes on behind the scenes than what appears in the semiweekly updates: "I first thought about the core aspect of cryptocurrencies: their fluctuations in values. Partly inspired by my experience managing our Monopoly game, I figured that having value fluctuations based on simple probabilities would be the easiest way to mimic this phenomenon. This was opposed to basing the fluctuations on RL-data or some sort of actual simulation game. I've used a random number generator for Monopoly, so creating the fluctuations for this game is pretty easy. Next, I wanted to have different currencies have different levels of risk. Mimicking the stock market, I created cryptos ranging from having high values that were likely to rise but would appreciate very incrementally to cryptocurrencies that were much less likely to rise, but had a likelihood of increasing in value percentage-wise in a significant amount."

In President Calvin Coolidge's eyes, it's not a simple ask: "[There's] spreadsheets and a huge time commitment! [Le Libertie] has a lot on his plate when it comes to managing the [M]inistry of Interior, and taking time out of his day to enter in the numbers, run the random number calculations, etc[.] is something that not every minister has to do. It's a real chore." Moreover, the tediousness of a project like this is something that sets it apart from others: "[N]o shade to the [M]inistry of Interior, but recruiting itself is another rather tedious task that it can be easy to put off or avoid due to the nature of the work, but the reward is too great to pass up. This cryptocurrency project we feel will lead to those rewards as well, since it should encourage more consistent recruiting, so it's definitely worth it."

Indeed, Cryptomania has needed a few tweaks already, both to fit into the daily dose system and to keep the game balanced: "Having dose earnings was also necessary to motivate consistent recruiting. But I also wanted people to be able to engage immediately in the game, so having a starter package made sense. Lastly, I tweaked with numbers generally with both the crypto information and dose earnings. I recently had to make adjustments for the up and down values for some of the cryptos because based on the simulations I ran which projected overall term outcomes with my spreadsheet, like 3-4/5 of the cryptocurrencies would have had values lower than their starting points, which wasn't ideal."

It's safe to say, then, that while a recruitment incentive project such as Cryptomania and others before it may look simple, it is not always the case, and the minister behind it ends up devoting a lot of time to make it run smoothly. The incentives are made to get more people recruiting and recruiting more consistently, in the hopes of boosting the population, as Le Libertie explained earlier. The Ministry of Interior is one that is sometimes shrouded in secrecy for non-staffers, because of the value of our recruitment tools, but that does not mean the work being put in by anyone should go unnoticed. So then, it's up to the players and the roll of the dice to 'pay dividends' on this project!

 
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