noah2
Second Place
Hello everyone!
The North Pacific Cards Guild was once the absolute pinnacle of card organizations. We were richer, more organized, and more powerful than any other group of card players out there. At times, more than half of the top 20 was a guild member.
However, at this point, I think it is important to formally acknowledge that we are a shell of what we once were, as are the vast majority of the regional card organizations that once saw glory in the pull event era. In the latest edition of the Card Awards, we failed to receive a single nomination in the best organization category. Now, I would like to make it clear that there is nobody to blame for this decline, but we need to look at where we are and learn from our mistakes. This process will likely take more than just this term, so I have laid out what I believe to be key goals for the guild in the long term as well as the short term.
Short term goal #1: Provide more benefits to guild members. This one is fairly straightforward. Past programs such as the daily lottery give a random legendary card to any given WA nation in TNP. The inherent issue with such a program is that sustaining it requires us to farm 100 puppets per day on average. In addition, the majority of nations who receive these cards do not participate or care for them. Thus, my primary focus early in this term will be to restructure the way we give away cards to ensure that guild members receive the majority of the benefits. In addition, making rewards opt-in preserves our supply and allows us to be more generous when necessary.
Long term goal #1: Establish our guild as the best possible organization to join from a rewards standpoint. We have the stockpile and capability to vastly outperform the giveaway outputs of other groups, and we need to take advantage of that. Once we find a sustainable, effective way to give away valuable cards, we need to implement and widely advertise it. With our region as a whole beginning to recruit due to the frontier update, we need to make cards a primary reason for nations to join us.
Short term goal #2: Evaluate the viability of all programs going forward. Some, such as the executive rewards, see minimal interaction, and others don’t see much benefit to us.
Long term goal #2: The departure of r3n and subsequent failure of our tech has rendered many things inaccessible for us, from the Card Farmer puppets and their cards to the legendary cards of The Northern Light. 9003 in particular has been critical in developing emergency tech to assist us, and it is paramount that we move past manual methods for recurring events such as the giveaway. Any tech we develop needs to be easily accessible by more than just a couple of users.
Short term goal #3: Shift staff focus from tedious, card-centric tasks to more community minded tasks. Executive staff members farming community cards is a great temporary solution, but time is better spent planning out events and building a community rather than pulling a legendary card. Many events are possible with very few overall rewards; we certainly don’t ever need to match r3n’s 3000 puppet farming sessions.
Long term goal #3: Attract prominent members of the cards community, especially in a manner that encourages interaction or staffing. We want everyone, not just members, to interact with our events. The more positive interactions a user has with us, the more likely they are to view our region favorably or get involved elsewhere. A healthy, active community is best for everyone who plays the game. Programs like the Symposium and Card Awards are a great way to achieve this, but we need to come up with more ideas beyond these two annual events. Incentivizing outsiders to join us and contribute will be key for ensuring consistent output, and could potentially enable items such as the Monthly Snapshot to return.
In addition, the following items from my previous address remain true, copy pasted below:
Many card organizations began to stagnate following the death of TCALS, and some continue to struggle to this day. I believe that the success of this organization relies on engagement and interest in cards throughout NationStates, not just in the North Pacific. Everyone knows that two is better than one! Thus, I will be placing a greater emphasis on collaborating with outside organizations in the upcoming weeks, in hopes of boosting both programs.
It is still important to show the power of the North Pacific! For the unaware, there are 31 legendary cards this season belonging to our region, and 131 epics. While a program exists to promote TNP cards, I’d like to expand on it, with more details to come!
In the last term, we successfully hosted another Symposium, another set of Card Awards, and made progress towards the rebuilding outlined above. Special thanks to all my deputies, @DGES @9003 @Fauzjhia @Treekidistan @Rewan Demontay , especially @DGES , who has really made all of this possible. I’m looking forward to this critical term in guild history, and am honored to be the one to lead us in this new direction.
Second Best,
Noah