The Mafia Discussion Thread

[Pesci]

Remove the Waiting List in 08!

[Ruki]

I am no longer loving the waiting list, especially when people who are supposed to go don't go!

I think people should have to re-register, so that only people paying attention get to keep their spot....and people with games ready to go get top priority

[-A-]

And public outcry should be able to move a game further up the list so that good game-runners can be preferred. There's a pretty long chunk of games by people who haven't run that many, every now and then it should be possible to bump a Sousa or MPH game up to the top if they're amenable. Although Saved by the Bell is going to be the greatest game of all time.

[Ruki]

We need RW in here to make this important decision.

[Josh]

I was a big supporter of this current system, but I do think it deserves re-evaluation of some sort.

[Sousa]

TEOL, MPH, and I discussed it quite a bit yesterday. It may be worth getting a thread going so more people can weigh in on it. Of course, if a thread's unnecessary, RW can just merge it into this thread and all will be well.

I'll look at the logs and pull out ideas.

[-A-]

The part that I think's most important is the 'roughly 5/6 at a time' rule. RW should be able to alter the list as he wants and if everyone as a group can advance a game if they want (SBTB next though ) we have fewer problems.

There's obviously more going on than just the list, though - a Futurama mafia should always get activity regardless of what's going on, I think people are just a little burned out.

[Josh]

Yeah, there's definitely multiple factors. And I'll be naming "board failure in peak hours" as one of those every chance I get until it's fixed.

[Ruki]

I hope people aren't burned out

[oldskool]

I'm not burned out, but it sucks having the board go down at 11pm and come up who-knows-when, and on top of that I'm having to go through a proxy to even get it to load at all. That coupled with lack of discussion is slowing the games down big time, and the fact that Futuramafia & Mythology mafia have absolutely huge numbers of people playing doesn't help.

I'd be in favor of having each mafia game list the number of roles, and then ordering them based on that so we don't end up with 4-5 40-person games running at once. I'd like to see list separated, so you can have 2 30+ role games running, 2 <30, etc. so there's never a huge wait between game starts.

[Ruki]

That's actually a pretty good idea Oldskool. I like it.

[-A-]

I definitely agree as well. Having games like Devil's Rejects (with around 20 players) definitely gives them a better chance of avoiding the 'so what are we doing guys?' problem of inactivity.

[Sousa]

I'd be in favor of having each mafia game list the number of roles, and then ordering them based on that so we don't end up with 4-5 40-person games running at once. I'd like to see list separated, so you can have 2 30+ role games running, 2 <30, etc. so there's never a huge wait between game starts.

We talked about this a bit last night--having separate queues for large games (30+), medium-sized games (20-29), and small games (19 and under). Maybe keep two of each running at a time. Frankly, I think more people need to be willing to run small games anyway. Ross had a nice number for Futuramafia, and I think expanding it turned it into a monstrous unwieldy thing. Which means we've got at least three games running that are going to take a while. Norro has an iffy schedule but generally puts a ton of effort into his games and his updates, Futurama is really big, and Plubby takes 4 million years to write a one-sentence update ( ).

I also think it would be a good idea to start sign-ups while the last current game is still in endgame instead of waiting for it to end and then poking someone in the arm. Maybe the GM of a game that's approaching endgame is responsible for PMing the next person on the list to put a sign-up sheet. That way we won't be where we are now, with Scrubs Mafia sitting in limbo and everyone eager to see the next game started.

Edited November 15, 2008 by Scorching Sousa

[Jimmy]

Well my 21 player game is moving quite slowly. I think the board going down really is hitting the mafia's perhaps worse than anything else. Games seem to be moving awfully slowly.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

I'd be in favor of having each mafia game list the number of roles, and then ordering them based on that so we don't end up with 4-5 40-person games running at once. I'd like to see list separated, so you can have 2 30+ role games running, 2 <30, etc. so there's never a huge wait between game starts.

We talked about this a bit last night--having separate queues for large games (30+), medium-sized games (20-29), and small games (19 and under). Maybe keep two of each running at a time. Frankly, I think more people need to be willing to run small games anyway. Ross had a nice number for Futuramafia, and I think expanding it turned it into a monstrous unwieldy thing. Which means we've got at least three games running that are going to take a while. Norro has an iffy schedule but generally puts a ton of effort into his games and his updates, Futurama is really big, and Plubby takes 4 million years to write a one-sentence update ( ).

I also think it would be a good idea to start sign-ups while the last current game is still in endgame instead of waiting for it to end and then poking someone in the arm. Maybe the GM of a game that's approaching endgame is responsible for PMing the next person on the list to put a sign-up sheet. That way we won't be where we are now, with Scrubs Mafia sitting in limbo and everyone eager to see the next game started.

I'd lower those numbers a bit (maybe 17-24 as medium), because 28 players is still pretty fucking huge.

And I still maintain that the main problem is people signing up to a game, not liking their role, and then not bothering to pay much attention to the game. This wouldn't stop that at all.

EDIT: The board going down is nowhere near the main problem with Mafia right now.

Edited November 15, 2008 by Mr. Potato Head

[oldskool]

I don't know what's "wrong" with Mage Wars mafia. It's a good game, I enjoyed it while I was in it, I enjoyed my role (maybe that's the point?), but nobody seems to care and it's an absolute travesty.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, and I'm not quite sure what I can do. I really want to complete it as well. I put a lot of work into, had to cut out a load of roles. (Maybe for the better). And I don't want to have to wait an age to do my next mafia. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

[Josh]

Mafia needs Obama. He'll fix everything. He's the change we need.

[Sousa]

Josh, we should all just migrate to your board.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, unfortunately I'll admit that I'm really, really burned out on mafia right now, but that's because I'm burned out on a lot of stuff right now because this last quarter of college has like drained my will to live, basically. Sorry especially to Norro and Split since I've really been the laziest person ever in the cases of both of those games.