The Syndicate

Hey players! Let's get some feedback.

1. How did you feel about playing in a game with a posting limit like this?

2. Did you feel 45 posts was a decent limit, or would you make it more/less restrictive?

3. If [Light Game] became a unique game type, could you see yourself signing up for those games consistently?

This is updated in the HOF.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 2:45 pm Hey players! Let's get some feedback.

1. How did you feel about playing in a game with a posting limit like this?

2. Did you feel 45 posts was a decent limit, or would you make it more/less restrictive?

3. If [Light Game] became a unique game type, could you see yourself signing up for those games consistently?

I like Light games but MU’s software enforcing post count limits and showing total posts with one click (as opposed to 2 clicks and some math if you’ve memorized how many posts you had last day phase and several more if you haven’t here) helps a lot.

I don’t have a good solution to that.

I also like that MU lifts the post restriction an hour from EOD so at least at that time, there’s no worrying about going over the limit.

Jackofhearts2005 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 6:46 pm

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 2:45 pm Hey players! Let's get some feedback.

1. How did you feel about playing in a game with a posting limit like this?

2. Did you feel 45 posts was a decent limit, or would you make it more/less restrictive?

3. If [Light Game] became a unique game type, could you see yourself signing up for those games consistently?

I like Light games but MU’s software enforcing post count limits and showing total posts with one click (as opposed to 2 clicks and some math if you’ve memorized how many posts you had last day phase and several more if you haven’t here) helps a lot.

I don’t have a good solution to that.

I also like that MU lifts the post restriction an hour from EOD so at least at that time, there’s no worrying about going over the limit.

Agreed on all this, software helps.
I’d also say more restrictive on limit but i don’t think that really would have impacted this game. But like 20 and then remove limit at EOD would present the full game feel and, assuming players could be around at eod, would still theoretically allow for full discussion.

I tend to wonder if allowing the thread to blow up at EOD defeats the purpose of slowing the game down.

I do think a round number for the limit goes a long way in helping people figure out their targets quickly (e.g. 40 or 50 instead of 45)

I'll say this much, for what it's worth: The posting cap did not cause the mafia to win. To me, that's the most important element.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 9:22 pm I tend to wonder if allowing the thread to blow up at EOD defeats the purpose of slowing the game down.

I thought about that. It changes the style. It functionally means that people who can only be around for a certain time of day are able to play then. But if there’s only one game then I mean comply with the given EOD or else

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 2:45 pm Hey players! Let's get some feedback.

1. How did you feel about playing in a game with a posting limit like this?

2. Did you feel 45 posts was a decent limit, or would you make it more/less restrictive?

3. If [Light Game] became a unique game type, could you see yourself signing up for those games consistently?

Imho it wasnt different from ganes I used to poay somewhere else. The whole concept is nice tho I would play it. I liked just the refreshing setup. It had nice rolls.

All in all I enjoyed the game thank you alot!
Sry [mention]Quin[/mention] for the shot I rly didnt knew whom to target so it was a last minute choice.

Thanks to my mafia mates they carried it later on while I did my thing.

I had reasons to suspect Dom. Also if I would have been town I would have also suspected Dom. But now I know why. He was an insane cop.
I rly have to find out more about how to track down roles and see the hints.

[mention]novaselinenever[/mention]

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 2:45 pm Hey players! Let's get some feedback.

1. How did you feel about playing in a game with a posting limit like this?

2. Did you feel 45 posts was a decent limit, or would you make it more/less restrictive?

3. If [Light Game] became a unique game type, could you see yourself signing up for those games consistently?

I think 45 is generous considering most people didn’t post too much

I think 30 would be more of a hindrance to people if that’s the goal

Overall though I liked it, didn’t ever feel like I was so far behind it wasn’t worth catching up

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 2:45 pm Hey players! Let's get some feedback.

1. How did you feel about playing in a game with a posting limit like this?

2. Did you feel 45 posts was a decent limit, or would you make it more/less restrictive?

3. If [Light Game] became a unique game type, could you see yourself signing up for those games consistently?

1. My gut feel before I started was that 45 was a lot of posts. I still felt that way while we played but luckily I don't think anyone posted that much.

2. I'm in favor of what someone else mentioned (maybe you) to make the limit a round number. Also, I like the idea of ratcheting down the post limit but lifting it an hour before EOD.

3. Yes, I would play games with this concept. Like most people I have work and leg rehab and other things going on and can't keep up with a ton of posts which in turn causes me not to enjoy the game.

I have thoughts:

As others have said, some sort of software that keeps track of post counts per phase makes a game like this much easier for everyone involved.
Lack of such software is the reason I did not lift the post cap in the final hour of phases. I agree that that would have been preferable, but trying to keep track of everything with that mechanic in place would have been a nightmare. That was my thinking, at least.
A nice round number would probably be easier if we all are responsible for keeping track of our own post counts. I had no idea what number to set it at. I only registered one occasion on which a player hit their cap this game.

With regards to balance and setup and everything, it is difficult for me to gauge how well this game worked for a couple of reasons:
1) As I just said, there was only one occasion of a player hitting the 45-post limit in a phase. There were plenty more occasions where players came close to the limit, but even more where players did not end up near 40 posts. A few of you remarked that, without a system to keep track of posts automatically, the safest way to avoid violations was to simply stay far away from the cap. That was an unintended aspect of the setup that served to dampen conversation a little more than expected (like I said a few times before, the intention of this game was not to silence players, but to facilitate a more manageable game environment for everyone). I think it also hurt this game a little that another Full Game started up right around the same time as this one with many players double dipping in both games. The game without post restrictions is obviously going to receive more attention.
2) Town received absolutely nothing from their roles. Maybe that means they should have been given more role advantages. Or maybe it was just awful luck: The watcher and tracker, which were supposed to be the two most advantageous roles in the game, were both dead before Night 2. The doctor died quickly after that. The sane cop’s first target died on the same night she investigated him. The insane cop got a guilty read on his only shot of the game. The dual cop mechanic is just one that I’ve always been interested in and thought it could serve as an advantage in this setup if things went right for town. They did not. (That should not take away from the Mafia team’s performance. They were actively aware of the roles and all their potential uses and locations throughout the game.)

So I guess if we’re going to run more light games in the future, we’d want to focus on making the post cap more visible to players in real time so that they can easily assess when they’re likely to bump up against it. Balancing games like this is still a bit of a mystery to me. The setup should favor town slightly, but not too much. This was a single game in which the mafia caught more breaks than the town, but on paper the opposite could have been true.

Two games starting at the same time and often having corresponding day phases did hurt participation and solving somewhat.

Jackofhearts2005 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 4:56 pm Two games starting at the same time and often having corresponding day phases did hurt participation and solving somewhat.

Not to mention that many of us were playing in both games so opportunities for confusion abounded.

[mention]Jackofhearts2005[/mention] [mention]sprityo[/mention] [mention]Rej[/mention]