The Syndicate

It feels like the Syndicate has slowed to a crawl lately, and I can't help but wonder whether this is part of a typical cycle or if something is happening to make members fall away. Does anyone know whether the Syndicate is typically slower in the summertime? I've been here previous summers, but I don't remember. And what time of year is optimal for Mafia?

Anarchy.

It has been slow lately, and that seems to be attributable largely to the fact that the bulk of our regular members have different priorities RL for the time being, myself included unfortunately. Historically summers actually used to be the most active since many LPers and PAers were around high school and college years and had more downtime, whereas the slowest time always tended to be from Thanksgiving through New Year's due to holidays and such. We did lose some members in the summer temporarily due to summer vacation travelling, but overall I'd say that was the most active for a while; just off the top of my head (so I could be wrong, someone check me), I recall summer being the time we've seen some the larger games in terms of player number we've seen at the site (such as Bioshock and Fight Club, both my games). Of course, it depended on a member by member situation, but at least that's how I recall it being the first couple of years around here and back on The Piano and such. However, it seems that is no longer the case and most of our members may in fact be less apt to play in the summer due to travelling, being outside more, etc.

I'd love to try to get a bunch of regulars back and have been talking to some folks off and on, but still need to try to get in touch with folks more.

DFaraday wrote:It feels like the Syndicate has slowed to a crawl lately, and I can't help but wonder whether this is part of a typical cycle or if something is happening to make members fall away. Does anyone know whether the Syndicate is typically slower in the summertime? I've been here previous summers, but I don't remember. And what time of year is optimal for Mafia?

I would call it part of a normal cycle.

2 summers ago, MP hosted Fight Club mafia around this time (mid to late July) which had a vast number of players modkilled for inactivity. But Fight Club was followed up in August by Monty Python and Dr. Who mafia, two active games, including at the time a record number of posts of 7.3k in Dr. Who.

Last summer, llama hosted Frisky Dingo around this time (again, mid to late July). He had to reduce the number of roles down to 21 to get players to play, and it was a very quiet game. But it was followed up in August by Recruitment Mafia, which brought some players out of the woodworks, and managed a whopping 6.8k posts.



I think it's too early to worry. The difference here is that we have a very large game in the queue (by our standards), so based on the above pattern, it's just not going to be easy to fill up at this time. I imagine things will pick up again in about two weeks or so.

Leave it to MM to bring the facts to the table. Thanks for that! And you're right, I did have quite a bit of inactivity in Fight Club even though I managed to fill it to the mid-high 30s in terms of player number. I was pretty ruthless in that game with respect to activity though. And it was pretty unconventional.

But you're right! And Frisky Dingo is a good example as well, I forgot about how sluggish the site seemed around that time too.

With the way so many mafia communities come and go, even though we seem slow right now, we still have a lot to be proud of with respect to the activity and solid member base we've built here. Thingyman has even told me such.

All of that said, it doesn't hurt for us to try to proactively pump the life back into this place as much as we can though, either by talking to regulars who aren't around here these days or siphoning in new blood.

I retired before it was cool

DharmaHelper wrote:I retired before it was cool

You trend-setter you. :P

DharmaHelper wrote:I retired before it was cool

From what? Reviewing television programs?

Epignosis wrote:

DharmaHelper wrote:I retired before it was cool

From what? Reviewing television programs?

That and mafiaing. My motto is get out early

DharmaHelper wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

DharmaHelper wrote:I retired before it was cool

From what? Reviewing television programs?

That and mafiaing. My motto is get out early

You've got birth control figured out too, I see.

What you need to do is find a whole bunch of people with no social lives to distract them from mafia (like myself) and cram them all into a game. Problem solved.

Quin wrote:What you need to do is find a whole bunch of people with no social lives to distract them from mafia (like myself) and cram them all into a game. Problem solved.

Genius! I wish I had thought of that.

Quin wrote:What you need to do is find a whole bunch of people with no social lives to distract them from mafia (like myself) and cram them all into a game. Problem solved.

How to meet people with no social lives when they won't come out and socialize.

MP should hack the database of Introverts Anonymous, get a good long list of names and addresses, then mail a Syndicate business card to each and every one of them. It's genius!

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

Quin wrote:What you need to do is find a whole bunch of people with no social lives to distract them from mafia (like myself) and cram them all into a game. Problem solved.

How to meet people with no social lives when they won't come out and socialize.

MP should hack the database of Introverts Anonymous, get a good long list of names and addresses, then mail a Syndicate business card to each and every one of them. It's genius!

If only I could hack...

Last year I came hee to be able to keep playing mafia while my first site (NF) was dead.

But this year NF refused to die. We keep having one amazing game after another.

Then add myself now having a job and I'm barely able to keep with with those games. Adding Syndicate games sounds insane.

That game from Epi sounds great but I can't picture myself being able to play that while, say, the 50 player pokemon game at NF is happening and I have 3 hours a day to read everything and post.

I guess I'll stick to my strategy of lurking at the sign up thread until the last possible moment to see if I'm really able to play it nor not.

Dragon D. Luffy wrote: But this year NF refused to die. We keep having one amazing game after another.

I remember one such amazing game.

Ricochet wrote:

Dragon D. Luffy wrote: But this year NF refused to die. We keep having one amazing game after another.

I remember one such amazing game.

So... I'm planning to host a game based on the RWBY web-cartoon. 25 players, similar style to the OP game.

The new season of RWBY starts at the end of September and I intend to have a game ready by then.

Sign up y/n?

Completely unfamiliar with that.

Can't guarantee for September games (especially late into that month), because I'll have projects to prepare and school will start again. But shoot a PM or post in the Casa Nostra thread, whenever it's in signups.

Not expecting anyone to be familiar with that tbh, I just wanted to advertise that I'm gonna host another big game.

DFaraday wrote:It feels like the Syndicate has slowed to a crawl lately, and I can't help but wonder whether this is part of a typical cycle or if something is happening to make members fall away. Does anyone know whether the Syndicate is typically slower in the summertime? I've been here previous summers, but I don't remember. And what time of year is optimal for Mafia?

I've only been here for a little over a year so I can't speak for most summers, but I think it is a natural ebb and flow. We just had Golden's huge game which was time consuming, big, and really long both time wise and post wise. So I think games of that size burns the community out a big for awhile, especially if the game is high stress and has drama.

Also I think our membership group has something to do with it.. Any college graduates are looking for or have jobs, work doesn't stop for our adult members, and then there are vacations. Plus around this time people are preparing for another year of college or in some cases their first year.

Summers people have more plans, vacations, students have summer jobs as well. It usually slows up in summer. In the fall everyone goes back to school, and spend more time indoors... at their desks.

And big games with lots of stress DO cause people to take breaks as well, sig, good point. Even if I had not had internet issues, I wanted/needed a break after BSG.