Because most of the game isn't done in thread. It's done in PMs, emails and chats. That decreases the workload greatly. You don't have to read the thread, or talk to everyone.
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Invitation to play a Humongous Mafia Game.
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uberfish Wrote:fixed Considering the insanity that happens here with no out of thread communication, the RB mafia games are the mafia games that need the most time, in my experience.
You only played in one game here, Krill, and that was with out-of-thread communication allowed.
One of the reasons I dislike that is that there is an unbounded amount of information to digest, since you can just keep PMing people endlessly, looking for additional clues. So you're never really caught up, at all.
If you know what I mean.
Gustaran Wrote:If 20-25% of the playerbase is mafia/wolf that's still an incredible number of people you have to stay in contact with, even if you use a chat. Read the rules. Most actions only require 1-6 people acting in concert.
Hello. :wink2:
I'm that friend of Krill's who told him about the game, and since askthepizzaguy hasn't been around to answer your questions (most likely because he's sending out another seventeen million invitations), I figured I'd step in... uberfish Wrote:How do you even keep track of posts in a 100 player game? As compared to your Werewolf games here (which look excellent, btw - I was tempted to join the the new one myself, but I'm already signed up for too many games elsewhere), most players don't post very regularly at all. So long as people show up to vote most days, that's all that is strictly required. Of course, some people post a lot more than that, and, assuming their posts are of sufficient quality, they will tend to wield much more influence than the less regular posters. Even so, and while this will be my first experience of a game quite this huge, I'd expect that the early in-thread action will be a little hard to follow, if you wish to keep track of exactly who said what and when. Thankfully, there are several reliable data-handlers signed up for the game, who should help the rest of us piece things back together later on. zakalwe Wrote:I got the impression that townies could also communicate out-of-thread in your setup. Correct? Indeed. Use of Private Messages is standard, but Quicktopics are likely to be used for groups, while some players will be conspiring via Instant Messaging (I have a hotmail account used purely for mafia games). If you want to make the most of the opportunities available, then private communication will be essential. However, for players in the standard roles at least, it ought to be possible to play the game purely in the thread. That said, if people contact you in private and you don't respond at all, your survival chances are likely to suffer as a result. (ps. I'm just about to finish Use of Weapons. Best sci-fi I've read in a long time.) Lewwyn Wrote:With that many people I just see a big shouting match for the first month at least. In terms of public discussion, you may well be right about that. Things will get much more focused at the business end of the game, though. Lewwyn Wrote:I mean if you really want to play and do it well you HAVE to be active. And I have no desire to read and post to that extent. Not to mention all of the private messaging and conferences. A high level of activity will undoubtedly be crucial to really effective play, and looking around this site, I can see that you Realmsians take such things quite seriously. As a reason not to play, I can certainly respect that. Serdoa Wrote:Sounds interesting though probably I won't have time. Anyway, I'm wondering, there are only around 900 posts in the Mafia X thread over there which had 36 players. We had 1450 with only 16 players in WW6. Not sure if there is a post-limit or anything in their games. If not I really don't understand that low amount of postings. That particular game featured an experiment with a new system of anonymous accounts - the idea being to allow well-known posters to avoid being tarred with the same old brushes, and to avoid the kind of metagaming that supposedly leads some people to get scanned or killed early on in every game. It was generally recognised, however, that it led to a lower post-count than normal. That said, as I mentioned before, it looks like you guys are used to a much higher level of activity than is usual at any of the four sites where I play mafia-type games (Civfanatics, totalwar.org, Total War Center, Straight Dope Message Board). In fact, I reckon some of the more reliably-active players I know from those places will be interested to know about your games here. Gustaran Wrote:If 20-25% of the playerbase is mafia/wolf that's still an incredible number of people you have to stay in contact with, even if you use a chat. It probably only works with a much more randomness, how do you coordinate 25 people ? There will be some people who actually do that kind of thing as the game progresses, but the mafia teams themselves will start off small (iirc, it's five teams of three players each), and I imagine that Quicktopics will be the primary mode of communication for them, as well as for the ad hoc groups formed by unattached players. (If you haven't seen a QT before, here's an example from a game earlier this year. This was supposed to be a townie network, but the ever-resourceful Renata somehow managed to infiltrate it, despite being a non-innocent third party, leading to one of the most memorable victories in recent times.) zakalwe Wrote:You only played in one game here, Krill, and that was with out-of-thread communication allowed. Actually, I only played the 1 because that one was the only game that had OOT communication. Since then the threads have exploded in posts. Quote:One of the reasons I dislike that is that there is an unbounded amount of information to digest, since you can just keep PMing people endlessly, looking for additional clues. So you're never really caught up, at all. And you can just ignore them, just as you can ignore in thread requests for information. Generally you form a habit that you then take into mafia games, and because you aren't changing from the norm, it's not a behavioural change that can pin you down as a wolf.
askthepizzaguy, in his ongoing quest to make Capo IV the greatest game ever, has posted a thread for new arrivals. To anyone tempted to join us, I suggest reading his advice to Capo virgins (ie. most of us who've signed up), especially his comments in post #6.
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