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***jumpluff**** · Jan 1st, 2013, 4:10:16 AM

To be honest, I don't think imposing further restrictions on what games can be run when we have none to run at all will help the situation. People do need to go back to basics, though, as we've agreed so many times.

The flagging playerbase is a huge problem, and passively waiting for people to come to us won't help. Either we accept mafia is just kinda dead or we try to get new players to join, make beginner games, and actively teach and play with them... it's an attitude change. Means getting them in our IRC channels and teaching them instead of just giving them orders. Our games are too daunting and too complex now. Honestly, I think they are too daunting and complex for us now. To comprehend? No. To be bothered with? Yes, for a lot of us. With more simplistic games, it's easier for us to teach and play at the same time, as well as letting people get absorbed in more easily. Something of a 'reboot' wouldn't be a terrible idea, I guess, trying to get a new generation in. The problem is we tend to take advantage of new players or ostracise them and refuse to play with them.

Aggressive recruitment is about all we can do. We're a pretty insular community largely comprised of ex-Pokémoners, old-timers, and other social forum-goers, as well as a few other people who are here specifically for the mafia, and it's killing us, I guess. I've kind of already accepted mafia as dead already, but I don't think it's entirely unsalvageable; the glory days are definitely gone, though, due to a dearth of hosts, players, and good ideas. Now, we just have complexity creep. Honestly, I think the best place to look is -- horror! -- the Pokémon community. There are a lot of people who play Pokémon on Smogon, a bunch of whom have played #fluodome-like mafia on the Pokémon Online servers who supported the script or maybe played it on other sites or forums, or would be willing to get involved in the activity with friends. There's the Orange Islands community, which is a community full of people who love to play games, do activities, and mess around. It's honestly the complexity and insularity of our version of mafia that are so offputting; beginner games are supposed to bridge that to an extent, but honestly, most of our beginner games are either foreign to them or foreign to us.

Anyway, there's this thread now, and if any of us have friends who aren't from this community, you could get them involved and ask hosts to pair them with you so you can teach them, providing people actually make games. Ideally, a few small beginner games and people'd be getting their friends into them and we'd have a new generation of beginner players, but it won't be that simple. It's pretty much all I see as doable about the playerbase, though.

2v1 is broken, but so are most experimental formats. Multifaction is broken in its own way and it's worn its welcome, to be honest.

Jan 1st, 2013, 4:10:16 AM	#9
*jumpluff とびだせ・どうぶつの森 Super Moderator** Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 5,437 Location: Australia Mentor	To be honest, I don't think imposing further restrictions on what games can be run when we have none to run at all will help the situation. People do need to go back to basics, though, as we've agreed so many times. The flagging playerbase is a huge problem, and passively waiting for people to come to us won't help. Either we accept mafia is just kinda dead or we try to get new players to join, make beginner games, and actively teach and play with them... it's an attitude change. Means getting them in our IRC channels and teaching them instead of just giving them orders. Our games are too daunting and too complex now. Honestly, I think they are too daunting and complex for us now. To comprehend? No. To be bothered with? Yes, for a lot of us. With more simplistic games, it's easier for us to teach and play at the same time, as well as letting people get absorbed in more easily. Something of a 'reboot' wouldn't be a terrible idea, I guess, trying to get a new generation in. The problem is we tend to take advantage of new players or ostracise them and refuse to play with them. Aggressive recruitment is about all we can do. We're a pretty insular community largely comprised of ex-Pokémoners, old-timers, and other social forum-goers, as well as a few other people who are here specifically for the mafia, and it's killing us, I guess. I've kind of already accepted mafia as dead already, but I don't think it's entirely unsalvageable; the glory days are definitely gone, though, due to a dearth of hosts, players, and good ideas. Now, we just have complexity creep. Honestly, I think the best place to look is -- horror! -- the Pokémon community. There are a lot of people who play Pokémon on Smogon, a bunch of whom have played #fluodome-like mafia on the Pokémon Online servers who supported the script or maybe played it on other sites or forums, or would be willing to get involved in the activity with friends. There's the Orange Islands community, which is a community full of people who love to play games, do activities, and mess around. It's honestly the complexity and insularity of our version of mafia that are so offputting; beginner games are supposed to bridge that to an extent, but honestly, most of our beginner games are either foreign to them or foreign to us. Anyway, there's this thread now, and if any of us have friends who aren't from this community, you could get them involved and ask hosts to pair them with you so you can teach them, providing people actually make games. Ideally, a few small beginner games and people'd be getting their friends into them and we'd have a new generation of beginner players, but it won't be that simple. It's pretty much all I see as doable about the playerbase, though. 2v1 is broken, but so are most experimental formats. Multifaction is broken in its own way and it's worn its welcome, to be honest. __________________ Last edited by jumpluff; Jan 1st, 2013 at 4:53:39 AM.