OUTER GAFIA Q&A
As we near the beginning of the season, I want to take a moment to talk to all players, Old and New, about Outer Gafia.
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What is Outer Gafia?
When Crab first started NeoGAF Mafia, it became clear that certain conversations would have to be held off-site. NeoGAF is our home, but we are not able to create private threads, or lock people out of threads, so making a private and secure place for private game discussion was impossible.
The original answer was a site called QuickTopic, which allows users to make one-time use discussion threads. Unfortunately, QuickTopic was difficult to navigate, and not very robust in terms of usability. A new solution was needed.
In October of 2015, Outer Gafia went live, and the first Gafia game to be played on it was Metal Gear Solid Mafia, run by Ourobolus. Since then, Outer Gafia has hosted off-site game discussion, hosted smaller games that wouldn't work on NeoGAF, served as a place for designers to create new Mafia games, and otherwise helped the NeoGAF Mafia Community where needed.
Am I REQUIRED to sign up at Outer Gafia?
In order to play a NeoGAF Mafia game, yes, an Outer Gafia account is required. As I said before, certain chats for the game are held at Outer Gafia, including the private chat for the Mafia, or Scum Team. If you are in the game and do not have an OG account, the other players can immediately tell that you are not one of the Mafia. This gives you an unfair advantage. Therefore, we require everyone who plays to at least HAVE an Outer Gafia account.
Additionally, once you die in a Gafia game, we host a spectator chat at Outer Gafia, where all of the players gather to discuss the games and cheer on the remaining players. Many players, (myself included,) say this is the best part of the experience.
Outer Gafia is run entirely by the NeoGAF Mafia Community, and is completely safe to use.
You can sign up for an Outer Gafia account here.
How will I know if I need to go to Outer Gafia? How will I find the thread I'm supposed to post in?
If you are part of the Scum or Mafia team, you will receive a link in your Role PM to the appropriate Scum or Mafia Thread. If you have access to a thread for another reason, (For example, a Gossip Chat,) then you will also receive a link via PM.
Once you have received that PM, you will always be able to see the game threads that you have access to by logging into Outer Gafia and looking at the main page. Any game threads that you have access to will be at the top of the list.
If/when you die in game, your gamerunner will ask if you want to go to the Spectator thread, or stay out and possibly replace another player in a different game. If you choose the spectator thread, then that thread will appear when you log in to Outer Gafia.
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What should I do if I have access to a game thread, and my game runner hasn't told me about it? VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!
1. Do not go into the thread.
2. DO NOT GO INTO THE THREAD.
3. Contact your game runner, or RetroMG IMMEDIATELY.
4. DO NOT GO INTO THE THREAD.
5. Your gamerunner or RetroMG will contact you back, and either remove the access if you were not supposed to have it, or tell you that it is OK to enter the thread.
6.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT GO INTO THE THREAD UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD THAT IT IS OKAY.
(If I seem a little intense, it is because we have had people need to be taken out of games because they entered threads that they were not supposed to have access to.)
I am concerned that people will be able to cheat on Outer Gafia.
Here are some thoughts to put your mind at ease.
1. No one can see that you have access to any of the game threads.
2. Your posts in the game threads can only be searched or otherwise viewed by other people who have access to that thread.
3. As of Season 7, Post counts will no longer be displayed on Outer Gafia. In the past, game threads were configured so that they did not increase post counts, (and yes, this is still happening,) but now post counts will not be visible at all.
I think Outer Gafia is a little clunky or outdated.
I will always accept suggestions about how to make the site better, and I will try to accommodate whatever I can. I would like to upgrade OG to a better site, and even began working on Outer Gafia 2.0 earlier this year, but life caught up to me in the form of my newborn daughter, and the project is currently on hold.
