Old School

[reinoe]

With the recent necros I realize that mafia from ancient times is different from mafia of today.

No deadlines...
Delayed death vigilante, what the heck is that? That's a thing?
Not reviewed for balance

What other types of things from back in the day are nothing more than ancient memories.

[zoraster]

Mixed alignment Masons.

[fferyllt]

Mixed alignment Masons.

I was kinda surprised to find that masons aren't at least potentially mixed alignment when I joined MS.

Even before I joined MS it used to take me very much by surprise to find that fundamental (to me) aspects of roles had been rewritten on the MS wiki between when I started playing/designing and when I'd reuse a role or ability a year or two later.

[eyestott]

Mikeburnfires flash?

[Ether]

I don't remember delayed death vigs being a thing, at least as of 2006. They might have been a sometime gimmick?

You darn whippersnappers.

Except Flay.

We didn't have an open queue back in my day. There was nominally a normal/theme separation, but nobody actually observed it. You just signed up to mod mini normal games because you didn't have the experience to run it as a theme yet, and then you ran it as a theme anyway. All mini games were run out of the same forum. 13 players was a large.

The newbie games were C9s. I never won a game as town, but by Jove, they built character. (Even earlier than that, newbies used an open seven player with a guaranteed doctor and cop. You can see why they changed that.) They had 7 players and 3 ICs, and none of that SE nonsense, neither. If you hadn't played five completed games and been around for three months, you were a newbie like the rest of them, and that was that. This modern 1 IC system is a joke!

People played games in ScumChat, even me. And we liked it!

Also, a shout out to Bookitty, Setael and Elmo, who were around in 2007 to replace into all your 100-page games. That was important, because mid to late 2007 was when the thread lengths started really exploding, while the length of realtime per day was still "forever," and the number of replacements needed was just ridiculous.

Games are even longer now pagewise, but not in terms of time so much. Mods with two week days back then were nutjobs trying to run speed games; a day was supposed to take at least a month or you weren't using it properly. And I think I even believed that!

EDIT: To my knowledge, the first hydra on Mafiascum to play in a game that wasn't specifically meant for hydras was Glork/Primate as Gaspar, in 2007. It was my fault. (There was already one on the Grey Labyrinth at that time. Joint modding accounts and all-hydra games also already existed, although I don't think they were called hydras yet--I don't remember when that name first came up.)

We had a much stronger connection to the Grey Labyrinth back then. I mean, it was our roots and all.

[Bookitty]

Wall posts were welcomed instead of regarded with loathing and suspicion :p
Lynch all Liars and Lynch all Lurkers were accepted and enforced.
Third and fourth person on the wagon were obvscum.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Hydras are still pretty new territory for me, but I think I'm adjusting to them

Also, <3 Ether. Playing Mafia with Ether was always exciting and awesome

[kuribo]

With the recent necros I realize that mafia from ancient times is different from mafia of today.

No deadlines...
Delayed death vigilante, what the heck is that? That's a thing?
Not reviewed for balance

What other types of things from back in the day are nothing more than ancient memories.

When we did have deadlines, they tended to be alot looser and longer.

Games didn't have as many pages because people didn't spam post as much. Walls were more common.
Cases were expected more often rather than playing by gut.
Meta wasn't as widely used, at least that's how I remember it.
There were no hydras.
No dead QTs, I don't really remember seeing Dead QTs until after I came back in 2011 after a year and a half off.
Alot less people trying to "tee hee gambit," because lying was seen as lynchable and anti-town.
There was a LOT more theory discussion back then.

Even when people raged, it wasn't as angry and personal as it can be these days. (Myself included) Bans for personal attacks didn't really happen but that's because even when people were pissed it wasn't nearly so nasty.

Sometimes it was so hard to find replacements for a game that slots were modkilled or even had dead players replaced into a different slot. (I remember Darox once getting killed off by the scumteam, then replacing back into a different slot... which had been one of the scum that killed him)

[kuribo]

Like, I seriously remember a time when alot of people shied away from using the word "fuck" in a game (again myself included)


now i can't imagine a game going by where I don't use the word within three posts

[Ether]

I don't remember Lynch All Lurkers actually working, even though some of us tried. If anything, lurkers slid by much easier...which might explain why old games took so damn long.

[kuribo]

yeah, I distinctly remember making the case myself that it was easier just to wait for a replacement even back then when sometimes replacements never came

[zoraster]

I'm not sure whether too many posts or too much stuff in a post is worse. On the one hand, I can just ignore wall posts (although admitting that back in the day was a surefire way of being called scummy, now it's pretty much everyone's attitude and wall posters often spoiler stuff). On the other, the fact we still only have 25 posts per page (technically you can alter this, but have to do so through editing the url) means that it becomes more tedious.

[LlamaFluff]

I'm not sure whether too many posts or too much stuff in a post is worse. On the one hand, I can just ignore wall posts (although admitting that back in the day was a surefire way of being called scummy, now it's pretty much everyone's attitude and wall posters often spoiler stuff). On the other, the fact we still only have 25 posts per page (technically you can alter this, but have to do so through editing the url) means that it becomes more tedious.

Yep, the biggest change is losing quality over quantity. Five years ago games were more condensed, but posts were a lot larger. Today that is just the opposite with players posting a hundred times but having less content than players who posted only 20% of that.

[zoraster]

that was not what i meant. posts were longer, but not necessarily better.

[FakeGod]

people were barbarians in the ancient days of mafia

we're more civilized now

[MonkeyMan576]

I need to write up an Ancient Mafia game with only a cop and doctor, Mafia Godfather and no hydras.

[Ether]

What? No, oldschool mods loved decking their games out in way too many power roles and being broken by a massclaim.

[reinoe]

Has there ever been a large mountainous?

[chamber]

I believe an old mini normal had a -cult- in it.

[Ether]

Has there ever been a large mountainous?

Sure. Off the top of my head, Himalayan in 2006.

[Katsuki]

Back in the day Ether actually played mafia.

[Huntress]

Has there ever been a large mountainous?

Sure. Off the top of my head, Himalayan in 2006.

And NY170 in 2014.

[Vi]

Has there ever been a large mountainous?

Sure. Off the top of my head, Himalayan in 2006.

And NY170 in 2014.

Appenine Mafia, 2009. Very painful.

[chamber]

Back in the day Ether actually played mafia.

Questionable.

[Green Crayons]

Pics or it didn't happen.

[Ether]

They say, when the stars were aligned just right, you could hear her laughing voice on the wind.

And hear it. And hear it.