Pitboss: Secret Identity

[Lord Parkin]

The idea of a pitboss game played exclusively under pseudonyms has been floated around a few times, but as far as I'm aware nothing substantial ever came of those vague discussions. Seems like it could be a lot of fun if though, if it was organized properly. Here's how I think such a game might work:

- The sign up thread would be a pseudonym-free zone. If you want to play, you sign up under your real name. This way everyone knows the full list of who's playing the game, but not which player is which, because...

- After the sign ups are closed, all players create a pseudonym account to be used exclusively for this game. Each player uses their pseudonym account to start their spoiler thread. In this way nobody, aside from the player themselves, knows which pseudonym corresponds to their username.

- Once the number of spoiler threads equals the number of players, the full list of participating pseudonyms is randomized and the snake pick takes place. Players will continue using their pseudonym account for all posts in the pitboss forum until the game ends.

- The pitboss forum for this game should be accessible only by joining an open group. In this way pseudonyms and lurkers can join and participate, but the real accounts of the signed up players are voluntarily locked out (thereby preventing any accidental posts under their own account).

- Players should avoid using their pseudonym accounts elsewhere on the site. If possible admins should disable the registered pseudonym accounts for posting anywhere but the appropriate pitboss subforum (not sure if this is easily doable).

- Lurkers will not be aware of which player controls which civ. Speculation as to who is who based on playing or writing style is encouraged, but should be confined to the lurker thread. Analysing metadata such as post timestamps is discouraged. Admins should restrain themselves from using IP tools to discover who is who, or at least refrain from sharing such information. Players must not confirm or deny their true identity to anyone until the game is over.

I think a game along these lines could be a great deal of fun for all involved. Knowing exactly who is playing in the game but having no idea which civ they're controlling seems like it would be exciting and intriguing for players and lurkers alike. A "whodunnit" unfolding in real time, with the suspects known but keeping everyone guessing until the end. Players would of course be free to use their spoiler threads as they wished - making posts as brief as possible to avoid giving anything away, imitating a particular writing style to throw lurkers off the scent, or whatever their imagination could come up with. Perhaps they might even choose to try a radically different strategy to avoid a "signature" playing style.

Of course most folks are busy with other games right now, so this may not happen for some time yet. Still, I'd be interested to see how many of you are keen on the general concept. Feel free to chime in and share your thoughts.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Now this looks like a win for lurkers! I'd lurk with interest.

[Jowy]

I don't think it works if sign ups are under real names. If it's like a 10 player game it probably won't be difficult to know who's who when you know it's those specific 10 people playing in the game.

[Lord Parkin]

I don't think it works if sign ups are under real names. If it's like a 10 player game it probably won't be difficult to know who's who when you know it's those specific 10 people playing in the game.

I think you might be surprised, especially when some or all of the players could be intentionally disguising their usual posting or playing style.

But yes - the more people that are involved, the more difficult it becomes to sort out the signal from the noise. I would certainly hope that the game would have at least 10 players signing up.

[Lord Parkin]

Incidentally, there are two main reasons why I feel sign ups under real names are a necessity:

1. Many players like to have an idea of the general level of the pool they're considering playing in before they sign up.

2. The identities of the playing pool will quickly become obvious by checking who isn't participating in the lurker thread. It may even stifle lurker discussion if people don't want to post because they'll reveal they're not a player. Or else it would encourage lurkers to adopt pseudonyms themselves, which I think would detract from the experience.

[BRickAstley]

- The pitboss forum for this game should be accessible only by joining an open group. In this way pseudonyms and lurkers can join and participate, but the real accounts of the signed up players are voluntarily locked out (thereby preventing any accidental posts under their own account).

- Players should avoid using their pseudonym accounts elsewhere on the site. If possible admins should disable the registered pseudonym accounts for posting anywhere but the appropriate pitboss subforum (not sure if this is easily doable).

Both of these should be achievable without too much trouble from an admin perspective.

- Admins should restrain themselves from using IP tools to discover who is who, or at least refrain from sharing such information.

I don't think any of the admin group would be eager to spoil the fun in that way.

I don't think it works if sign ups are under real names. If it's like a 10 player game it probably won't be difficult to know who's who when you know it's those specific 10 people playing in the game.

This is very true, from a lurker standpoint. The bigger deal though is it won't be super easy for the *players* to tell, which I think is more important and a bigger draw.



I'll volunteer to make the map for this game, if it does come to fruition.

[Cheater Hater]

Why would you need pseudonyms for the boards? I'm assuming you could have bland/non-spoilery topic titles, and posting frequency has never been a reliable indicator of in-game activity. In addition, board pseudonyms don't solve the two main problems with a anonymous game:
1. Accidentally logging in to the game with the wrong name: This is the one thing Commodore did best with Goreripper: becoming a ded-lurker to excuse accidental logins--obviously that wouldn't work well in this game
2. Out-of-game communication/delays: The one thing board pseudonyms do help with are allowing for PMs and such, but assuming we're using AI Diplo (as basically every game does now), the few messages required (only turn splits and/or rules violations) could go through a third party (the game admin). The bigger problem comes with delays, especially when people start missing turns--as soon as one person goes away for a weekend, announces it in their other games, and ends up being the person holding up this game, their cover is likely blown.

[Sian]

Might be up for joining.

Vanilla or one of the mods?

[Lord Parkin]

Why would you need pseudonyms for the boards? I'm assuming you could have bland/non-spoilery topic titles, and posting frequency has never been a reliable indicator of in-game activity.

Pseudonyms for the players would mean that the lurkers couldn't be completely sure who is who, which I think would add an extra element of fun of the event.

Also, if players post their threads under their own names then it might inadvertently give away information to all players just by the thread sorting feature. (Threads tend to have more frequent posts and stay near the top during wars. There's also usually a general correlation between rank on the scoreboard and frequency of posts in many games.)

In addition, board pseudonyms don't solve the two main problems with a anonymous game:
1. Accidentally logging in to the game with the wrong name: This is the one thing Commodore did best with Goreripper: becoming a ded-lurker to excuse accidental logins--obviously that wouldn't work well in this game

This is a valid concern. I considered encouraging players to choose a random player's name on each login (so as to lose any signal in the noise), but I think that would be an unnecessary burden.

Overall I think a Pitboss 18-style "custom Civstats" might go a long way towards solving the problem. In that tracker - at least last time I checked - there was a column which recorded the current player login name, and another column which always displayed a static default name. Removing the current player name and only displaying the static name would mean any accidental logins under the wrong name would be invisible to anyone watching the tracker. As long as the player noticed and corrected their mistake by logging out and in again, there would be no harm done. Of course a player currently logged in to the game would spot the temporary change, but as long as they kept it to themselves it wouldn't be a big problem. I expect all players would be careful and therefore that these mistakes would not be commonplace.

2. Out-of-game communication/delays: The one thing board pseudonyms do help with are allowing for PMs and such, but assuming we're using AI Diplo (as basically every game does now), the few messages required (only turn splits and/or rules violations) could go through a third party (the game admin). The bigger problem comes with delays, especially when people start missing turns--as soon as one person goes away for a weekend, announces it in their other games, and ends up being the person holding up this game, their cover is likely blown.

This is also a good point. The ideal remedy would be for each player to arrange a sub privately (via PM or email) to cover any absences, so as to only spoil a single person about their identity. Of course this method can't always be relied upon, so as an alternative the player could post a sub request in their thread - this should work as long as there are at least one or two lurkers on standby for subbing duty. This would probably give away the identity of this particular player to the lurkers, but at least it would remain secret from the other players, which is after all the most important thing.

Subs would login to the game using the player's pseudonym, and (if desired) could also post updates to the thread using the player's pseudonym account. This would avoid stagnant threads - or threads updated only by lurkers - which might alert other players to an extended absence. (Players would need to choose unimportant passwords for their pseudonyms which could be shared privately.)

Vanilla or one of the mods?

I'd propose vanilla BTS, but if people have their hearts set on a mod then we'd go with whatever works for the majority. I'm keen to see it running in any form.

[spacetyrantxenu]

or threads updated only by lurkers

By the way, after reading through some PB18 threads now, I want to say thanks for your reporting during your extensive tour subbing for a lot of players. In several cases your reports were the only ones describing anything from that civ's perspective.