Interior: Does Failure Lie Ahead?
Editorial
By Lime
Editorial
By Lime
Interior has rightly been receiving a great deal of attention recently and has been the subject of many articles or radio shows. Due to the intense efforts of the Ministry during the “Drewpocalypse” Europeia now has its highest nation population in our history, our WA Delegate now has the most endorsements in its history and we have the most citizens in our history. In just under four weeks, Interior has become a record-breaking and history-making machine, however, like all good things this will not last forever. The real test for Interior will come on Wednesday when many of the nations founded on the first day of the Drewpocalypse will cease to exist (CTE). Our nation population will fall, our WA endorsements will fall and eventually, our citizenship numbers will also fall. The question is, how great a fall will we see in each of these three areas, and will Interior continue its strong performance, or will it too see a decline?
It wasn’t too long ago that Interior, and the region at large, was facing a crisis because of the lack of recruitment. Beginning in the Summer of 2018 our population fell below 1,000 nations for the first time in years, and for the rest of the year and the first half of 2019, it remained at around the 900 – 1,000 nation mark, briefly returning to above 1,000 for two weeks in April 2019. Then beginning in the Summer of 2019, our population fell again with the average population around the 800 – 900 nation mark, even dipping briefly into the 700-nation mark. This low population level has continued right up until the recent explosion in population. A low population and low recruitment levels are bad for any region. With a low population, we will likely have fewer WA nations which means our WA Delegate will have fewer endorsements. With fewer endorsements, the WA Delegate has less of an influence in the WA, which means Europeia’s power and influence on the world stage is diminished. Poor recruitment levels will further perpetuate the issues associated with a low population count and create further problems. If we are not attracting new nations to our region, it also means we are not attracting new citizens. With fewer citizens actively engaging in our region, the stench of decay will begin to take hold and will grow stronger and stronger. New nations and new citizens are the lifeblood of any region, and unlike the feeder regions, we do not receive a constant supply of new nations and new citizens. Recruitment is the only way for our population to grow and to prevent decay from taking hold.
Right now, the crisis of a lack of recruitment seems long ago and of little concern to us. We are effectively the 2nd largest User Created Region, our nation population has never been higher, our WA Delegate has never been more influential, and we have new citizens joining us, many of whom have bright futures ahead of them. While everything is rosy right now, we must remember this is not normal. The Drewpocalypse caused a boom in our population, but with every boom comes a bust, and the first bust will come on Wednesday. I see two potential scenarios that could happen on Wednesday and how their outcomes may affect our future recruitment efforts. In the first scenario, we will see a large bust on Wednesday and our recruiters will become disheartened and demotivated when our population takes a steep fall. After all their time and effort helping the population increase, to see it all be effectively for nothing would be demoralising for anyone, and I worry that our recruiters may simply give up after the first bust. The second scenario has a positive short term story but raises concerns about the future of recruitment. In the second scenario we will see a bust on Wednesday, but not a large one.
Our population will fall, but not by a great deal, and our population will still have seen a large net-increase in our population level. While this would be a positive outcome, it could still raise some concerns. The biggest concern is that the region becomes complacent. When we see our population levels remain broadly stable and when we believe we’re on the up again, there can be a tendency for our region to become complacent. Recruiters don’t recruit as often as they used to, some completely stop, believing other recruiters will fill the gap, and the region doesn’t value the work of our recruiters as much as we did before. Ultimately it was complacency that caused the recruitment crisis and led to our population decline. We can’t, after all, our efforts, allow complacency to take hold of us once again.
There is evidence to suggest we are heading towards the second scenario, but also evidence to suggest we are heading in a more positive direction. Firstly, many of our new nations are active. The RMB is constantly busy with conversations, roleplays and discussions that the region simply isn’t used to. It suggests that many of our new recruits are active nations and they aren’t going to CTE on Wednesday. Some nations naturally will CTE, but we may not see as big a bust as we might expect on Wednesday. Secondly, we have the largest number of active recruiters we’ve had in months, even years. In the last three Interior updates, there have been anywhere between 13 to 20 individuals recruiting for the region, many of whom have been recruiting multiple times a week, some daily. This is a good sign. Europeia is recognising once again the importance of recruitment and how strong recruitment levels are vital for our region to survive and thrive. Provided that we do not fall into complacency and continue to place great value in our recruiters, we can ensure that the region leaves the “Drewpocalypse” stronger than when it entered it.
. If relatively we experience a pretty big loss than at least it means our recruiters were effective at getting out there and recruiting new nations, even if the retention rate might have been low.
