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[YesNOnoNOYes]

Season 6 MAIN GAMES have now concluded!

Huge congratulations to:

• The main season game runners: Terrabyte20xx, Kawl and cabot and ScraftyDevil and RetroMG! (click on their names for links to their awesome games)

And to everyone who had taken participation and shared laughter and tears in the last season :> Great games, everyone!

Firstly, our next generation of games.

Back in Season 4 when I was managing the Review thread, we had a plethora of submitted games. We have only one vetted and approved game waiting for Season 7 now, so if you have a game idea, the procedure is to submit it with the below form.

I’ll be using Crab’s application form here, this is it:

Number of player slots for the game:
People who have been told about, consulted, or hinted information about your set-up:
Theme:
Do you need an Outer Gafia game planning board?
Game Category: (click link for the scale)

If you want to moderate a game, please do not discuss the details with anyone except with tutor moderators. If you've already spilled the beans with someone else, that's fine, you can continue with them, but otherwise it can become a tactical way to end up in a particular game by ruling yourself out of others. Obviously none of you would do that, but I think it's a fairly bad precedent to set.

Season 7 will likely to run a reduced numbers of games. We are either looking at running only one or two at this stage.

And now, let’s review Season Six!

Current Issues:

• Drop outs – Season 7 will run only one or two games, thereby assuring availability of replacements. Season 6 saw the unfortunate necessity to take players out of the Spec Thread to cover for some drop outs. It was a dire circumstances and one that is very likely not happening again in the future. Is there anything you’d like to comment on this topic?
• Low Activity Games – Players will be expected to post at least five times within a game cycle. Moderators will PM 24 hours warning before a modkill is actioned. How has your experience in Season 6 been with regards to Activity Level?
• Game Size – Usually main season games are in the 21 to 24 player count whilst mid-season games have been in the zone of 15 to 20 players. There are notions that smaller, faster games induce a more chaotic and not-really-serious approach from the players. Do you have any opinions on this?
• Discord versus Forum Threads – There have been a few voices observing that our Main Thread at GAF and the Spec Thread at Outer Gafia are much quieter this season due to a chunk of us using Discord. Chandler, our upcoming best Mafia player of all time, has recommended a bot to Retro that can capture chat logs and download it as text file. Feppi suggested further that the log be made available for download periodically. What say you?
• In-Game Behaviours – A degree of hostility is expected in a mafia game. However, we need to again remind ourselves that we are playing with other people and that, in general, everyone should be having fun. We do encourage for the aggressive playstyle to be toned little down, and for the delicate players to toughen up a notch. Were there any specific issues with in-game behaviours in Season 6 that we need to talk about?
• Playing to Win – At the end of the day, Mafia is a team-based game and we expect our players to play to win. Yes, shitposting and chaos can be fun but ultimately they may be fun only for one and not for all. Do you have anything you want to share with the class on this?
• Proper Pronouns – New rule! Each player will receive one warning if they misgender a player through name or pronoun. After that, they will be replaced. We are still, after all, part of NeoGAF, and we are expected to abide by the site’s standards and policies. So, remember! The name of the game might be MAFIA but the dance of the game is INCLUSIVITY, yes/yes?
• Self-voting at MyLo or LyLo endgame. Should it be prohibited in the future?
• Were the games well designed? What did you like? What didn’t work? What could be improved?
• Any other feedback / gripes / constructive criticism you wanna raise, PLEASE SPEAK UP!

To illustrate the changing dynamic of our young and murderous community, I went back and looked at our past performances:

On Drop Outs:

This has been the historical trend with our community’s dropout rates (comparing main seasons only since Season 6.5 is yet to happen):

• Season 1 – 3.6% (1 Game: When Death is on the Line)
• Season 2 – 11.5% (2 Games: Animal Crossing, Star Wars)
• Season 3 – 18.5% (3 Games: Archer, Cthulhu, Danganronpa)
• Season 4 – 10.1% (3 Games: Harry Potter, Nightvale, Werewolf Reborn)
• Season 5 – 13.6% (3 Games: Ace Attorney, Love Boat, Disney Princess)
• Season 6 – 18.7% (3 Games: Bar, Bloodborne, Danny Phantom)

There was a drop from Season 3 to Season 4 because it was the first season that we allowed players to input their game preferences.

However, in Season 5 the rate bounced back up slightly. Not sure what the factors were, maybe a combination of things but it was the one season with the highest player base at launch (at 75 players required).

Season 6 launched with one of the lowest player base required for running 3 games (69, matched Season 3’s requirement), and yet we are seeing another spike in our dropout rate (in fact, besting Season 3’s record high by a graze).

On Player Activity Levels:

Oddly, it seems that we are at the other end of the spectrum with regards to the community’s appetite for activity levels. You see, when I went back to look at our previous review threads, I actually found that there were complaints of players putting in too much activity, and I quote from Season 3’s Review Thread:

High Activity / Low Activity play style. I see a number of the high-activity posters have already started to rein in their post counts, which is appreciated and noted :> But if there are further discussions on this point, please chime in!

And, again from Season 4’s Review Thread:

I see a number of the high-activity posters have already reined in their post counts, which is appreciated and noted :> Sorian, please keep up the self-restraint …. Or Gorlak would probably tease you about it, as usual :>

Maybe we braked too hard? Because the problem started to surface in Season 5’s Review Thread, and I quote Ouro’s observation here:

Activity levels. Disney Princess suffered from this. It's tough because real life does interfere from time to time, and the games do require a certain level of commitment. I'm not saying everyone needs to emulate Sorian

Spoiler

please don't

, but it's a bit disheartening to show up the next real-life day and see that not much discussion had happened.

In Season 6, this issue seemed to have affected all three games and a number of players and moderators have said that this is something that the community should address and fix. Your inputs and opinions are very welcomed on this matter! We want a happy-fun-murder family not a lifeless one!

RIGHT??? : D

-

Resolutions on Previous Issues

• One Game per Player – Now enforced as a rule in our community.
• Swapping prior to Role PMs – worked OK.
• Assigning players to game preference – worked OK.
• Game Running Support – Discord has been working well for game moderators to share their burdens and alert each other if and when they need another mod to cover for them.
• Overseer System – Previous season’s game runners are tasked with the duties to help run and oversee the next season as mentors. It has been working pretty well. The overseers are responsible to provide support and review upcoming games.
• Insanity Mechanic, Jester, Medium roles – are only allowed after clear permission by the Overseer Team.
• Fake Claims – Games are to provide fake claims to Mafia team, unless otherwise permitted by the Overseer Team.

I imagine this will be open for a while..., just to give everyone time to have their input. We would like to give the community a proper break this time around, before we start Season 7. However, there are a few mid-season games ready to run and I will leave their commencements up to you guys. Basically, is there appetite for mid-season games? Who would like to sign up for one? Speak here and be counted!

We will also return to this review thread once the mid-season games are concluded to recheck our position and see if there are further issues to iron out.

Lastly, since all three games have now been completed, I’m going to post the links to our Season Six Surveys here, so spectators can also get their opinions counted (should they be inclined to):
Survey 1: Multiple Choice
Survey 2: Open Ended


ALRIGHT. ENOUGH SPIDER CHATTER. LET’S HEAR YOUR VOICES!

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

Games submission tracker:

oh oh I have a game

Number of player slots for the game: 24, though this could be lowered depending on number of available players
People who have been told about, consulted, or hinted information about your set-up: NOBODY!
Theme: Rareware
Do you need an Outer Gafia game planning board? Yes please sensei.
Game Category: The link to the scale is broken, but to answer the question - probably about a 7.

Number of player slots for the game: 28
People who have been told about, consulted, or hinted information about your set-up: Roytheone
Theme: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Do you need an Outer Gafia game planning board? No, already got one!
Game Category: (click link for the scale) 7-8. Not entirely sure.

It is ready for review by overseers when you guys are ready!

Number of player slots for the game: TBD, Currently 20
People who have been told about, consulted, or hinted information about your set-up: Crimson (co-mod), Retro, A SPIDER
Theme: Persona
Do you need an Outer Gafia game planning board? Already got one
Game Category: A 7 on the Crab Scale.

Number of player slots for the game: 20
People who have been told about, consulted, or hinted information about your set-up: Palmer probably knows about it. Retro has looked at it. Board is on OG.
Theme: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Do you need an Outer Gafia game planning board? Already got it
Game Category: 5

 

[cabot]

Stop backseat modding.

 

[weemadarthur]

(Psst, spidercat. Your links are backwards.)

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

(Psst, spidercat. Your links are backwards.)

wew

how embarassing

OR MAYBE IT WAS A TRAP! DESIGNED TO TRIP THE UNWARY! HUHAHAHAH

...

thank you for telling me .__. <3

 

[weemadarthur]

OR MAYBE IT WAS A TRAP! DESIGNED TO TRIP THE UNWARY! HUHAHAHAH

I considered that! I was afraid I was falling into your creepy web. Then I thought, eh, circle of life and all that.

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

I considered that! I was afraid I was falling into your creepy web. Then I thought, eh, circle of life and all that.

i fixt it \o/

yay me

and dont worry. beef always falls to my web. you can keep him company.....




it puts its lotion on its skin~

 

[Hyperactivity]

hello there.

I wasn't sure about the exact numbers, but while this season had more dropouts and low activity than usual, as I sorta suspected, it wasn't that unusual.

I look at the post counts, and basically in next to every main season game, the number of inactives is somewhere in the 5-8 region, and at least in bar mafia, that sorta held true.

If you're looking at page counts, I think that has more to do with how much the highest posters are posting; in previous seasons, those post counts were much higher near the top.

The worry about high activity back in season 3 and 4 was partially due to the fear of overwhelming, which happened in NX and arguably in some other games. It was never that low activity wasn't an issue, the dropout stats confirm it.

The main issues that come up in our games are:

1) The mid game losing steam. The end game always has a noted increase in activity, and players and spectators being more excited. The early game is always more active. It seems that most of the frustration dropouts or getting gassed and not playing as much happens near the middle, in a sort of day 3 to 5 stretch of time

2) Players giving up, defeatist attitude, etc. Just something I've seen far too often, where a player just sorta gives up, seems bitter about it. Idk, lynches seem more fun even the player has 0 chance and takes the opportunity to at least have fun with it.

I'd just like to say this to the people that feel this way: fuck with them HARD. The players might actually fall for some bullshit, or scum might get nervous about certain things. Have fun with it

3) Playing to Win- eh, I'm going to address this on two levels. Hate throwing the game, giving up. At worst, you should sub out at that point. But on a regular level, I think the game is about having fun and letting the community grow. That's part of the reason why new players get a degree of leniency the first day, etc. While I acknowledge something roy said about harry potter (being scum and losing makes it feel like all that work went to waste), and while it definitely is fun to have tense situations, it is still a game.

I think alot of players can sorta tell by now when a player is down or frustrated. I don't know if it should be a mod or what, I just remember liking how ynny encouraged starsketch in gafia 1 when it seemed like she was frustrated. And I imagine that sorta stuff helps, not necessarily as a pm to the player that seems hostile (barring them going REALLY over boundaries), or as a reminder in the thread (that seems to be just "now now kids" sorta thing). Feels like the encouraging down players thing, either by pm or in game, would be most effective.

Or even those moments in game where nothing but a bunch of random useless flavor gets posted, or an obvious scum just chats with people in town.

4) Can't say I'm too happy with the bare mention of going down to one game, and I sadly suspect that a two game season will either leave a good two games worth of replacements. Three smaller games would work fine, but ok then.

Tbh, I'm sorta worried that this review thread will be too much about looking at what's wrong with season 7, and just assuming these are huge issues we have to compensate for. I'm not too sure, barring stuff that's been an issue since day 1, we have that much to fix, or more accurately imo, tweak.

5) I guess what was said about smaller games might be true, but that's also what makes them more fun at times: more experimentation, screwing around, not as much on the line because the game is shorter so you haven't invested as much into it.

I'm almost up for getting rid of the formal season format at this point and just doing bimonthly sign ups or something. I honestly don't see the huge difference between mid season and regular season games, or at least the need for it. No one's somehow acted as if regular season wins are more important or something. Main thing I like about the regular season format was how games seemed to pair up together for that season

For example: Harry Potter/Werewolf/Nightvale. Season 3 pair. Etc. This goes into my next point

6) Forum vs Discord. Eeehhhh, tbh, don't really like proposed idea. There's a reason we went from quicktopic to outer gafia, and a major part is just the general feel of a forum. Chats are good for chatting atm, forums are fun to look back on, analyze, pull up stuff, etc.

As to how my previous rant sorta goes into this, back during season 3, and gradually decreasing since then, at the end of the day all the players would post about the day's proceedings, the other games, etc. Hell, it wasn't even the end of the day necessarily, players posted about the game in the middle of the game.

Part of this probably that activity leads to more activity: if a few players start talking about the games, others will respond, and if the main thread is on the first page, we'll get replies. With the sign up thread, how do we expect to get sign ups when no one even posts in it and so GAF gets to see it for a couple hours at best?

I'm sorta worried people are too worried about spoiling the game, and acting in character, and not talking about the game outside of the game. This also goes for stuff like the right after end of day/post day ended post ban on posts. While I get that mods don't want players to play the game at night, and some reactions and stuff are bs, it's also something that imo, mods sometimes care too much about. Maybe this is again, due to the lack of the end of day stream into the main thread discussions making me say this, but I don't see the harm in the reactions that happen after a reveal, stuff like that. It's part of what makes the game less win focused and more on it being a game

7) Bar was balanced

 

[Hyperactivity]

Stop backseat modding.

Yeah ynny, stop backseat modding

 

[cabot]

I should probably clarify, but for instance requesting people getting modkilled via PM is not for the player to do, that's a moderator decision.

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

hello there.

I wasn't sure about the exact numbers, but while this season had more dropouts and low activity than usual, as I sorta suspected, it wasn't that unusual.

mind you, only 8 people dropped out from season 4 mains. that's almost half of season six's drop out (at 14 people). so whilst saying season 6's numbers are not unusual, we HAVE seen the community performing at a better ratio.

The worry about high activity back in season 3 and 4 was partially due to the fear of overwhelming, which happened in NX and arguably in some other games. It was never that low activity wasn't an issue, the dropout stats confirm it.

In fairness, I think Drop Out is different to Low Activity issue. For example, there has been complaints, say by Dragi and a few others, about how inactivity WAS a problem for some of the players.

To tack on another angle to this, Moderators also run games to have fun (of going mental), but if the games are dragging on, there is less joy and motivation to run games for the community.

Tbh, I'm sorta worried that this review thread will be too much about looking at what's wrong with season 7, and just assuming these are huge issues we have to compensate for. I'm not too sure, barring stuff that's been an issue since day 1, we have that much to fix, or more accurately imo, tweak.

This is a fair point. I also wouldnt like our resolutions to be over-compensating. So, let me say that our fixes will only be implemented if they have a majority favouring them (like allowing player preferences or swaps, etc)

But I do think every community have always rooms to improve, so we should always try to




All your other points are on point, I feels.

 

[cabot]

I know I stopped posting in the main thread after day phases because I saw people using it in meta discussion.

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

Yeah ynny, stop backseat modding

YOU ARE NOT MAH SUPERVISOR




Also, additional stats on average pages at finish lines:
• Season 1 – 42 pages (1 Game: When Death is on the Line)
• Season 2 – 69.5 pages (2 Games: Animal Crossing, Star Wars)
• Season 3 – 92.7 pages (3 Games: Archer, Cthulhu, Danganronpa)
• Season 4 – 67 pages (3 Games: Harry Potter, Nightvale, Werewolf Reborn)
• Season 5 – 63.7 pages (3 Games: Ace Attorney, Love Boat, Disney Princess)
• Season 6 – 47.7 pages (3 Games: Bar, Bloodborne, Danny Phantom)


Season 3 was crrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

 

[cabot]

That's a pretty big drop off this season.

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

That's a pretty big drop off this season.

all ur fault

OPEN BAR OR BUST, I SAY

 

[Kawl_USC]

I can only do my best in helping shoulder the blame for this season. And so emphatically say it was all cabot's idea and therefore fault.

 

[SalvaPot]

I want to point out that this season happened in a very busy period, mostly academic, sports, politics, gaming and others, and I blame that for the low activity, it made hard to follow up on games. If the next season is programmed in a few weeks from now it should be faaar more active.

 

[Zippedpinhead]

I will discuss my thoughts on the issues of the day a little later on but I wanted to get this out there right now.

I would like to be included as a mid-season replacement. If you have a drop out after the games start include me. I'm going to take a little bit off (outside of trying to make Big Brother Mafia work).

If you need someone to fill in, I'm your guy. If you run out of mid-seasons before season 7, I think BB Mafia might fill the gap.

Right now no one has seen "behind the curtain", Karkador has expressed interest in providing feedback on balance but he hasn't got back to me yet.

 

[cabot]

all ur fault

OPEN BAR OR BUST, I SAY

the world really goes to shit when I'm not there to post 6 times consecutively in a morning.

 

[Ty4on]

That's a pretty big drop off this season.

I think love boat skews the numbers too much. If you remove it you get like 52 pages on average from Disney and AA.

---------------------------
Pronoun wise, I apologize for using the wrong one. I don't do it on purpose, it's either a slip up or because I've thought it was OK.

I think the table of players should be more specific. [-] can mean gender neutral pronouns or any pronoun is acceptable. Something like writing [they/she/he/any/...] would make it more clear what pronoun they prefer.

 

[CzarTim]

I will discuss my thoughts on the issues of the day a little later on but I wanted to get this out there right now.

I would like to be included as a mid-season replacement. If you have a drop out after the games start include me. I'm going to take a little bit off (outside of trying to make Big Brother Mafia work).

If you need someone to fill in, I'm your guy. If you run out of mid-seasons before season 7, I think BB Mafia might fill the gap.

Right now no one has seen "behind the curtain", Karkador has expressed interest in providing feedback on balance but he hasn't got back to me yet.

Have someone give me access and I'll look at it.

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

I think love boat skews the numbers too much. If you remove it you get like 52 pages on average from Disney and AA.

---------------------------
Pronoun wise, I apologize for using the wrong one. I don't do it on purpose, it's either a slip up or because I've thought it was OK.

I think the table of players should be more specific. [-] can mean gender neutral pronouns or any pronoun is acceptable. Something like writing [they/she/he/any/...] would make it more clear what pronoun they prefer.

in that vein, cthulhu and danganronpa both skewed season 3's numbers? or was it archer that was the outlier.... lol

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

Have someone give me access and I'll look at it.

you should have access now tim :>

 

[flatearthpandas]

My opinion on discord vs og is that it shouldn't be discord vs. og. Both should be open for spec discussion as different types of discussion are likely to occur. If we can save it all for posterity, what's the harm?

This sort of ties into what Hyper was saying about main thread. Having a place to really chat about the games is going to build interest in other games and keep dead players interested in their own games imo.

A reservation about the main thread is just that we can't really help our meta feelings and to a degree shouldn't. If someone's supposedly neutral reaction seems scummy, it would be kind of dumb to ignore that. Might as well just spill all the roles and challenge players to only lynch on in-game logic. My main problem then is just that all players should be able to participate fully using only the dedicated threads to their game. Failing to troll the main thread shouldn't be a missed opportunity for reads.

My opinion there would just be that players should keep quiet on their own games but everyone should feel free to react to things in games they aren't playing in. As hyper said, keeping that thread bumped and exciting is in our best interest as a community.

 

[CrimsonFist]

On the self voting issue: I think Bloodborne showed that there can be times when it's fine during LYLO, since Camjo was getting lynched regardless but we'd have had to wait for Roy to end it. And there's occasionally times where it's a legitimately fine strategy ie. Woof 2. On the other hand, banning it would make the lives of future Tanners harder.

If there's going to be a rule, it should be for intentionally playing against your win condition, which is still kind of vague and hard to enforce. And wouldn't really need to apply to solo neutrals.

And I liked Discord better for spec discussion last season, although this time around I was in a game until the end anyway.

 

[CzarTim]

Does anyone have the stats on how many new players we're getting via the recruitment thread each season? Feels like we're getting less and less. Is there a way to make those threads more concise / palatable? Maybe add some pics to break up the wall of text ("visualization of the game" or something.)

There is also probably a cap on how many people we are going to recruit. Maybe doing a recruiting thread less often (twice a year?) would be more effective.

We also shouldn't start a season unless there are x number of replacements available. Even if it means not starting a game right away, or having a smaller game as backup ready to go if we don't meet the goal.

As for replacements, as a community we need to be more open to the idea that not all games are going to be successes. That's not anyone's fault, sometimes things just don't click. I don't think we need hard rules for this stuff, but mods should be okay with mod killing later in the game. It's not fun for anyone, but dragging things out or putting someone in a situation where they have to catch up on dozens of pages just for the sake of wrapping things up isn't fun either.

 

[Kawl_USC]

I agree, me and Cabot did the dirty to two players late in the game. It might not have been ideal but the point needed to be made that this stuff has a real impact on games.

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

Does anyone have the stats on how many new players we're getting via the recruitment thread each season? Feels like we're getting less and less. Is there a way to make those threads more concise / palatable? Maybe add some pics to break up the wall of text ("visualization of the game" or something.)

There is also probably a cap on how many people we are going to recruit. Maybe doing a recruiting thread less often (twice a year?) would be more effective.

We also shouldn't start a season unless there are x number of replacements available. Even if it means not starting a game right away, or having a smaller game as backup ready to go if we don't meet the goal.

As for replacements, as a community we need to be more open to the idea that not all games are going to be successes. That's not anyone's fault, sometimes things just don't click. I don't think we need hard rules for this stuff, but mods should be okay with mod killing later in the game. It's not fun for anyone, but dragging things out or putting someone in a situation where they have to catch up on dozens of pages just for the sake of wrapping things up isn't fun either.

ask and ye shall receive, tim. a spider has 8 eyes and has been keeping watch :3

New Players ratio:
&#8226; Season 1 &#8211; 100% or 28 new players (1 Game: When Death is on the Line) - ...duh everyone was new XD
&#8226; Season 2 &#8211; 69% - total of 36 new players (2 Games: Animal Crossing, Star Wars)
&#8226; Season 3 &#8211; 56% - total of 45 new players (3 Games: Archer, Cthulhu, Danganronpa)
&#8226; Season 4 &#8211; 29% - total of 23 new players (3 Games: Harry Potter, Nightvale, Werewolf Reborn)
&#8226; Season 5 &#8211; 15% - total of 12 new players (3 Games: Ace Attorney, Love Boat, Disney Princess)
&#8226; Season 6 &#8211; 12% - total of 9 new players (3 Games: Bar, Bloodborne, Danny Phantom)

not sure how to get new players if we're not even advertising at the main OT section :3

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

at some point, we may have to accept that we have reached the saturation of player recruitment capacity from NeoGAF members.... and cope with how meta gaming amongst established players will begin to take shape as people would base their playstyle based on their PRIOR knowledge of playing with player A or player B or Ouroborellia

idk

but yea, the community's rate of replenishing new blood isn't as what it was a year ago. astute observation tim, and one statistic that i had actually wanted to touch and cover, to be honest.

 

[Giant Panda]

I have Avatar: The Last Airbender mafia ready to be submitted, will do so when I'm back at a computer

 

[Camjo-Z]

oh oh I have a game

Number of player slots for the game: 24, though this could be lowered depending on number of available players
People who have been told about, consulted, or hinted information about your set-up: NOBODY!
Theme: Rareware
Do you need an Outer Gafia game planning board? Yes please sensei.
Game Category: The link to the scale is broken, but to answer the question - probably about a 7.

 

[Kalor]

The themes of the games can probably go a long way in attracting new players. In earlier seasons you would get some people signing up because they like a certain theme (Danganronpa sticks out as one) but I didn't see that in the last season.

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

oh oh I have a game

Number of player slots for the game: 24, though this could be lowered depending on number of available players
People who have been told about, consulted, or hinted information about your set-up: NOBODY!
Theme: Rareware
Do you need an Outer Gafia game planning board? Yes please sensei.
Game Category: The link to the scale is broken, but to answer the question - probably about a 7.

got u

*adds game to second post*

will organise an OG board soon!

 

[El Topo]

Could I maybe get a thread at Outer Gafia for Vampire the Mafia? I'm testing out graphics and similar stuff and it would be helpful if I could post/test it there and get impressions of others.

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

i made OG boards for camjo and topopi

let me know if they are working or what

 

[Hyperactivity]

The themes of the games can probably go a long way in attracting new players. In earlier seasons you would get some people signing up because they like a certain theme (Danganronpa sticks out as one) but I didn't see that in the last season.

yeah, and I imagine Harry Potter, ac, and Star Wars were pretty big draws too

on the amount if newcomers: you guys realize that asides from those first few hours when everyone was re-signing, a newcomer would have to know about the thread to find it? Contrast to maybe the season 4 recruitment, where we were using the sign up thread as the main thread already (somewhat), meaning that the thread was on page 1 more

That's the main issue imo. If we're not on page 1 for a decent or more lengthy amount of time, newcomers won't really see the thread.

Maybe we should look into when most of the newcomers each season signed up, but I imagine it's pretty front loaded, which will always happen, but can probably be addressed to minimize that issue

 

[Camjo-Z]

i made OG boards for camjo and topopi

let me know if they are working or what

The board is up but I can't access it ;__;

 

[Sawneeks]

in that vein, cthulhu and danganronpa both skewed season 3's numbers? or was it archer that was the outlier.... lol

It was Dangan. That monstrosity ended at around 100 pages and was the last to finish.

yeah, and I imagine Harry Potter, ac, and Star Wars were pretty big draws too

on the amount if newcomers: you guys realize that asides from those first few hours when everyone was re-signing, a newcomer would have to know about the thread to find it? Contrast to maybe the season 4 recruitment, where we were using the sign up thread as the main thread already (somewhat), meaning that the thread was on page 1 more

That's the main issue imo. If we're not on page 1 for a decent or more lengthy amount of time, newcomers won't really see the thread.

Maybe we should look into when most of the newcomers each season signed up, but I imagine it's pretty front loaded, which will always happen, but can probably be addressed to minimize that issue

I agree with Hyper on this one. More visibility of the main thread can easily lead new players into the fold. I want to say there was one season where people would come into the main thread in the middle of the season asking to join and we would check in in them later and they would be willing to play. Without the main thread popping up as much in Off Topic we haven't really had that lately unfortunately .

 

[YesNOnoNOYes]

The board is up but I can't access it ;__;

Try making a thread now?

 

[Camjo-Z]

Try making a thread now?

I was about to say "still doesn't work", then suddenly it works! Domo arigato, Ms. Roboto.

 

[Giant Panda]

Number of player slots for the game: 28
People who have been told about, consulted, or hinted information about your set-up: Roytheone
Theme: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Do you need an Outer Gafia game planning board? No, already got one!
Game Category: (click link for the scale) 7-8. Not entirely sure.

It is ready for review by overseers when you guys are ready!

 

[Hyperactivity]

if we have to, we could even look into artificially staggering the veterans that are signing up to try and get more newcomers

 

[Ty4on]

in that vein, cthulhu and danganronpa both skewed season 3's numbers? or was it archer that was the outlier.... lol

Late reply, didn't realize that I hadn't subscribed...

I was thinking LB was an outlier for having 30 players versus the 20-24 that games usually have. Kinda the same with HP and Woof 2. All three games this season had 22-24 players IIRC. LB's set up also meant mylo with "1" scum left had 8 players left instead of 4.

The point being that I think activity has gradually gone down since season 3.

I think it's worth trying to calculate posts per player and maybe also trying to see how much very active players skew the numbers. Batman as an example wasn't a very active game, but the post count was 3500.


------------------------
Unrelated, but is Bloodborne the first and only main season game with a D1 scum lynch? How many scum did it have?

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

The consequences for misgendering seem a little too harsh IMO. You can't edit in Mafia. People make typos all the time (especially on mobile). I would think that no one is deliberately misgendering out of spite.

But I haven't read Bloodborne and we are an inclusive community, so if we agree that being replaced for misgendering is a rule for future games, then I'll follow it.

 

[Xamtheking]

I might end up running that game Palmer made at some point

 

[Spoiled Milk]

Unrelated, but is Bloodborne the first and only main season game with a D1 scum lynch? How many scum did it have?

7 scum. 8 targets for town.

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

Number of player slots for the game: 20
People who have been told about, consulted, or hinted information about your set-up: Palmer probably knows about it. Retro has looked at it. Board is on OG.
Theme: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Do you need an Outer Gafia game planning board? Already got it
Game Category: 5

.

 

[*Splinter]

Might be echoing Hyperactivity here, but I think we're getting too rigid with the season structure.

It makes sense to have our big recruitment drives 3 or 4 times a year. That's probably the most we can get away with advertising in OT and there are a limited pool of potential players anyway. That gives us our 2 or 3 big "main season" games.

After that, we used to advertise and run mini and midseason games whenever there were people willing to play and host. Recently we've formalised the mid season games so we have ANOTHER big recruitment drive (I think without even advertising in OT?) and try to run another 3 games. I don't think this works for anyone: on one hand we're dragging in people that might otherwise prefer to sit out a game - leading to inactive games and burnout - and on the other hand there are times when plenty of players are available but they have to wait because the main season hasn't ended yet.

Also, I don't think there's much logic in the split between main and mid season games. It's generally understood to be split by "craziness", but we've had plenty of crazy main season games. I would propose a different system, based on the number of players in the game:

22-30 players: main season game. Must be approved and advertised through the existing channels. Complexity is allowed, but the game should be recognisably Mafia (ie. Of Gods and Men would be fine, Volcano Island stretches the definition a bit)

15-21 players: mid season game. Must be approved through existing channels, but advertised in the main thread whenever the gamerunner wants except for during main season recruitment. People can sign up/drop out as they please, and once the game is full* the usual confirmations happen and game starts.

*Note: to avoid re-introducing an earlier issue, there should be a minimum sign up time (1 week? Less?), after which we use priority as we have done in the past.

8-14 players: mini game. Not necessarily Mafia. No approval required due to the short run time. Advertising is done same as with mid season games. Can be advertised alongside main season but timetabling should be taken into consideration.

I wouldn't consider those hard numbers, just guidelines, and there is little to no difference between mid and mini apart from behind the scenes.

Another only slightly related thought is to regulate when our season starts. Some have mentioned that the timing of this season was bad due to lots of other events taking our attention. Christmas is another time that could be problematic. Perhaps we should choose 2 or 3 times a year and have all seasons start at those times?

That turned out a bit long and rambly
TL;DR
-Relax complexity constraints on main season slightly.
-More freedom for mid season / mini games.
-Regulate new season start times.

Thots?

 

[*Splinter]

Regarding Discord v Outer Gafia
I think it's good to have both, and people will use what they want to use. I am against artificially supporting one platform over the other.

 

[*Splinter]

I need a new avatar.

This guy is the worst.