『Mafia Game 8: Your maddest School Life ever starts from here...』

[FinalPyre]

I think its not just the complexity of the game that's the issue here but the players themselves since this game unlike the previous mg's requires a lot more strategy and illogical thinking and most of the players here simply aren't competent and dedicated enough for this type of game. The class trials are a perfect example for this and I've noticed in every succeeding trial, there has been lesser discussions and voting to the point where there is barely any discussions at all since most of the players are clueless and don't even know what happened which is a clear reflection of their incompetence in this game.

FTFY




I think making things simpler, and letting the players find ways to make it more complex, is probably the way to go. Making huge maps maybe also isn't a great idea, because you start having too few meaningful interactions between players. :)

 

[Sintarow]

I think making things simpler, and letting the players find ways to make it more complex, is probably the way to go. Making huge maps maybe also isn't a great idea, because you start having too few meaningful interactions between players. :)

I agree :)
But I think maps can still work as long as they aren't large.

 

[FinalPyre]

Yeah having a map is a nice touch.

The concept here is kind of similar to making any game: you want the maximum number of possible outcomes with the minimum amount of complexity. Every bit of complexity you add gives more of a burden to the player. The more burden a player has the less fun it is to play, at least (and especially) at the start, and for games like this that have a rule set that only lasts the life of the game, you want as little complexity as possible.

Having a map with a bunch of places the player can go is cool, but having a map with 20+ places the player can go is overwhelming.

 

[Sintarow]

I could not agree more :).

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm guess ill go with a more vague map then... xD But maybe some radar thing would also work for the mafia?~

 

[Sintarow]

Hmm guess ill go with a more vague map then... xD But maybe some radar thing would also work for the mafia?~

Don't question the idea Sammy :P
Believe in it!

 

[Satori]

I agree that having large maps with many possible places to go can be overwhelming for a player but you gotta remember that whole school wasn't accessible at the beginning of the game and new areas are unlocked after each trial so at that time, there were more than enough players to explore the first area of the school. I think the problem is that the cases here happen too often and almost on a daily basis since the players simply didn't have time to explore the school and new area's are unlocked too quickly before they even had the chance to explore the first areas of the school.

The train network may have also contributed as to why most of the players don't go to the school since the first case involved someone getting killed by the train and that would have made them more hesitant to explore the school since there's always the risk of them being run over by the train if they don't fully understand the system. Even the overwhelming number of players here could have also contributed as to why there is a lack of activity here since more players tend to drag the game too long to the point that some of them start to lose interest in it.

I do have a few suggestions on how these problems could have been addressed in this game.

1. Limit the number of players to 16 or less.

2. Ensure that a good number of players are active and competent enough for this game.

3. The dorm and the school should have been a single building or the connection between the two should have been a simple walkway instead of a train network.

4. A rule where no one is allowed to murder anyone for a certain number of days before the first murder and after each case. (2-3 days is recommended)

 

[MadSova]

『Yep, there are damn 24 players here... You all would have managed to explore all the locations (except for personal rooms) in 1 phase in Dorm and in School Floor1 if you just went 1 to each location... And even if only half visited 1 location at a time, 2 phases = 1 investigation should have been enough to explore it all. And in first and 2nd phase about 16 people made actions at the same time. But most people explored only the Dorm. And after Dorm was completely explored, the task they decided to do wasn't explore the School next, but give up and not do anything for some reason... And as they were doing nothing phase after phase, available locations increased and increased. I'm not even sure now if people are scared to death of trains or just don't know that there is a school building at all...』

『But other then that, I don't feel like limiting number of players or amount of kills able to be done would do any good. Personally, I feel that there is nothing worse in a game than wanting to kill but being unable to do so...』

『And for active players you never know... As I said, over half of the players were active at the start, but I guess the game didn't manage to keep their interest... Or just that the more active the players were the bigger was the chance of them dying, thus they all quickly died and only the inactive half remained...』

 

[Satori]

It is possible for everyone to explore the whole school from the start but the problem is the lack of unity among the group and since there was no clear leader among them to tell them what to do so everyone just minded their own business and so they didn't have any clear objectives other than killing. In DR, There was a clear leader among them and the students would hold meetings every morning during breakfast and discuss their plans for the day then they would all explore the school and report back to everyone what they have found in the next meeting. In this game however due to the lack of such leadership figure and the large amount of players here, its very difficult to communicate and keep track of everyone and its impossible for everyone to be online at the same time due to different schedules and timezones.

 

[FinalPyre]

I do have a few suggestions on how these problems could have been addressed in this game.

1. Limit the number of players to 16 or less.

2. Ensure that a good number of players are active and competent enough for this game.

3. The dorm and the school should have been a single building or the connection between the two should have been a simple walkway instead of a train network.

4. A rule where no one is allowed to murder anyone for a certain number of days before the first murder and after each case. (2-3 days is recommended)

Keep in mind this is a common, simple forum game played for fun, with people here doing a bit more unique twists than is standard.

My thoughts:
The biggest factor in player limits is the work load for the host, or hosts (delegating tasks could allow for much larger player bases), and while it is harder to tell everyone apart when they pick game aliases (which is perhaps a bad idea), it doesn't really make the game harder to play.

This is a forum game and it should be expected that people will only make a few moves a day, or less. I'm not sure what you mean by competent, as it isn't like the base game does or should require any high-level thinking (as in the jab I made at your earlier post, if anyone caught it :P). These types of games should scale directly with the abilities of the players rather naturally.

Yes it seems generally agreed that the maps should be smaller. Having big maps seems fun, but it probably causes headaches for both the host and players.

It seems okay to limit some types of moves people can make, but killing is a pretty integral part of a mafia game. This would not only drag a game out for far, far longer than they do already (and more people would leave or lose interest) but would often be a very strange restriction when it came to plotting ( e.g. you have to plan your murder so that it can happen one phase from now, rather than now when you are behind your prey).



Also for activity, I believe a good deal of the people on this forum are college or high school students, and it /is/ kind of crunch time in lots of places now. When I start to feel like I have a lot of work to do, these types of things are the first I whittle out of my schedule to alleviate more time. I suppose I also don't feel much like there are many productive actions I can make at this point.

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm... yeah work load... depends how much the host can do in a day... moves do take quite a bit of time to make =w= But it should only be until the player number dwindles where its trouble?~

 

[MadSova]

『Well, I did manage to do at least half of moves in a day, but when its not even moves but random questions and riddles and they come like once per 12 hours... It is kinda difficult not to ignore those...』

『Also, I'm doing phases slowly right now cause of mountain of programs I need to write for college now... Its last week already, so I think I'll be more free afterwards...』

 

[FinalPyre]

How are those going, for you? The trimmed assignment proving more doable?

 

[MadSova]

『Yeah, now that I also fixed that language errors, I already easily made the stuff for editing db. Now I only need to finish the saving into different files and a few searches...』

 

[FinalPyre]

Sounds good

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Lol well people will ask stuff at the start... =w=

 

[Sintarow]

Lol well people will ask stuff at the start... =w=

Of course they will, but some won't see the answer and ask again later ^.^

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm depends if they forget or it was unclear? =w=

 

[Sintarow]

I would like to say all of the above.
Final answer ^.^

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Then hit the button and lock in the answer~

 

[Sintarow]

I did, Sammy how dare you say I didn't :O

 

[MadSova]

/me doesn't follow...

 

[Sintarow]

Just know I'm in the right and Sammy is in the wrong.

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

/me drags final over to answer =/

 

[Sintarow]

/me waits, but no answers comes; so he announces himself the champion!