for those moderators who list players who have died by regular in-game means and those who have been modkilled separately in your opening posts, why do you do that? I've never really understood this convention, because in both cases, the player is dead, and being modkilled doesn't inherently imply anything else about that player -- there are a wide variety of circumstances that can result in players being modkilled. I also feel like it's generally a good idea to keep the amount of information in the opening post to a bare minimum so it's easier to learn about the game at a glance, and having a category of information that is generally completely empty runs counter to that goal.
if you list modkilled players separately, why? what benefits am I not seeing?
In post 0, Thesp wrote:Why separate "Modkilled" from "Dead Players"? Aren't they functionally the same, except you clutter up the opening post (and timing of deaths) to subtly remind players that you can end their game on a power-tripping whim?
It probably started as an extra attempt at shaming players who do things that require modkills, and because mods tend to copy rulesets and opening post formats from each other, it spread and became a standard without the current userbase really knowing why.
I do agree that in today's meta it's not the best idea.
This should be required reading for...everyone for anything, really.
It’s because people only host because they are power hungry and it serves to assert dominance via way of a “lol look where you’ll be if you miss up” and a “reminder than I am the host and I can modkill you”
In post 5, Mulch wrote:It’s because people only host because they are power hungry and it serves to assert dominance via way of a “lol look where you’ll be if you miss up” and a “reminder than I am the host and I can modkill you”
Honestly I only do it because every game I've been does it, and also the fact that dead players win with their old faction while modkilled players cannot win.
In post 5, Mulch wrote:It’s because people only host because they are power hungry and it serves to assert dominance via way of a “lol look where you’ll be if you miss up” and a “reminder than I am the host and I can modkill you”
Honestly I only do it because every game I've been does it, and also the fact that dead players win with their old faction while modkilled players cannot win.
this isn't necessarily universally true, though -- what if a player has to be modkilled because of the actions of another player? for instance, if a role cop quotes a PM from the moderator with another player's role in it, the player whose role was quoted may end up needing to be modkilled, but they didn't break any rules and should not be ineligible to win. while it's true that most modkilled players cannot win, that's not a universal truth. plus, why can't you use some other notation to indicate players who are ineligible to win?
The idea of separating unusual damage control from the actual game playout is appealing to me.
So, this was an extreme edge case, but I had a role in one of wegrut's series of bastard games where I could have a player killed if they said a certain word. Town thought I was fake claiming this role because I said players could be mod killed for saying a word. While I literally meant "killed by the mod," the town consensus was that the term "modkill" was strictly for extreme out of game circumstances or ethical dilemmas in game.
This was about two years ago. I haven't had a game with much drama in recent time, so my thoughts on this might be anecdotally tainted. Is there an issue with mod bullying/incompetence I'm not seeing? Are people playing to the edge of game rules more than before?
In post 5, Mulch wrote:It’s because people only host because they are power hungry and it serves to assert dominance via way of a “lol look where you’ll be if you miss up” and a “reminder than I am the host and I can modkill you”
"I used to think you had this elegant-trolly, minimalist playstyle. Then I realized the playstyle is ~Lazy~
The true enlightenment was realizing that they are the same thing."
~fferyllt
"who the fuck fakeclaims Tracker like that
WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT"
~Alisae
I mod games because I enjoy the creative expression of designing unique setups with unexpected and surprising interplay of roles and players, and I think in general anyone who's moderating any game should make their primary goal be that the players are having a smooth experience and that everyone has a good time, so while there probably are people who moderate because they like being able to power trip, they probably shouldn't be moderators.