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Post by sachertorte on Jun 10, 2014 14:51:33 GMT -5
I took a quick look at recent results from the mafia games and I'm noticing a trend (or at least the beginnings of a trend).
Chronological order: Auction Mafia - Town Win Town's Revenge - Not archived. I think it was a scum win though. Cave of Gems - Scum Win
Over on the Giraffe boards (also Chronological Order): Par for the Course - Town Win Apocalyptic - Town Win Hell's Kitchen - Scum Win Journey - Perfect Scum Win
The trend I'm seeing is that recent games have all been won by Scum (if I'm correct about Town's Revenge being won by Scum). I also recall that inactivity has been rampant lately.
It is my assertion that inactivity does not simply help Scum a little bit, but that inactivity helps Scum quite a bit! I don't think this is a massive discovery. Lack of participation means lack of scrutiny, which means lack of finding scum. I just didn't realize how strongly lack of participation has been affecting results.
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Post by sachertorte on Jun 10, 2014 14:57:37 GMT -5
And how could I have forgotten the SDMB?! The last SDMB game was Sherlock Holmes where Scum also won (and there was lack of participation).
I don't recall what happened before that, but we've had significant hiatus over there.
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Post by storyteller0910 on Jun 10, 2014 15:20:47 GMT -5
Yeah. I think it seems like enthusiasm for the game is at a pretty low ebb - maybe, with three locations each producing a game or multiple games at a time continuously for 5 years, we've just burnt out the player pool? I know that you used to be able to fill a 24-player roster in no more than a day or two, but I've had the sign-ups open for the game I'm planning for a week now and we've still only got 15 players on the list.
I'm not sure what's to be done about it. For a long time we were cycling in a large number of new players, probably because our games were very active, but as the participation has dwindled so has the influx of new blood (and a lot of players who played a lot here once upon a time don't seem to do so much anymore).
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Post by Suburban Plankton on Jun 10, 2014 18:11:44 GMT -5
Speaking for myself: I think story's theory on 'burn-out' is pretty much it. I used to routinely participate in 2 or 3 games at a time, between the 3 sites in our little family here, but at some point a few months ago I just had enough. There wasn't any one thing in particular that did it It wasn't a person, or group of people, or a bad run of games, or anything like that; I just got to a point where i felt "you know...I really don't feel like doing this anymore". Combined with stuff going on at home and at work, I just decided that my time and effort was better spent somewhere other than Mafia.
Now, several months later, things are less busy in 'real life' and I've had a nice break from constantly worrying about being lynched, and I'm ready for more.
Which doesn't help answer the overall question of "what's going on?", of course. It could be that everybody else was feeling pretty much the same as me, all at more or less the same time...and once interest started to wane, that made it less interesting for the folks that remained, sending things into a negative feedback loop. I think that probably the best solution to the problem is "have fewer games". We started out on the Dope, and interest grew enough that we had often three games at a time going, with new ones starting the second a game finished; that might have been great while it lasted, but perhaps wasn't a sustainable pace. I think cutting back to one or two games at a time, maybe even having some 'time off' in between games, might let people catch their breath, and allow them to be more engaged when they're playing. The SDMB isn't terribly conducive to Mafia, given the structure of the site (games in a single thread, moderation that neither knows nor cares much about our little games, etc.), so leaving that board out of 'the rotation' shouldn't hurt; most of the players are already on all three boards, and we can still recruit there if we need to.
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Post by Høøpy Frøød on Jun 10, 2014 20:13:52 GMT -5
I don't play much anymore mainly due to lack of time.
Then again, I never played more than one game at a time either.
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Post by Suburban Plankton on Jun 10, 2014 21:16:37 GMT -5
I wonder if game length has something to do with it. Looking back, it seems that most of the games I've played in lasted between 3 and 5 weeks. The last two games I was in started the first week of January, and both were halted without being 'complete' in the latter part of March. I'm not sure if those were outliers, or if that's part of a recent trend...
I wonder it's a natural consequence of our Day/Night lengths; from what I gather most places that play Mafia online don't take an entire week to play one Day/Night cycle. Perhaps we need to look at making our Days move along more quickly.
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Post by BillMc on Jun 15, 2014 15:42:53 GMT -5
While I've played a few games on SDMB, I have to agree that the board format isn't conducive to play - I personally hate the one huge thread, and I don't sign up for games on there now pretty much on principal.
Also, games have been getting more complex - and thus need more time, so playing in multiple games just isn't practical. And with these more complex games, they tend to be dependent upon folk taking action - and when there is a drop of in participation, it really skews the game.
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Post by ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies on Jun 15, 2014 18:17:42 GMT -5
I've been snarking about low participation forever...
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Post by Special Ed on Jun 19, 2014 0:10:25 GMT -5
I might know a thing or two about Mafia burn-out.
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Post by gnarlycharlie on Jun 19, 2014 4:01:33 GMT -5
I might know a thing or two about Mafia burn-out. hey! can you come back then?
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Post by Høøpy Frøød on Jun 19, 2014 20:13:57 GMT -5
I might know a thing or two about Mafia burn-out. hey! can you come back then? Speaking of those who've disappeared, whatever happened to Flying Cow of Doom?
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