Secret Identity Queue

[Dunnstral]

My pitch is as follows: There is a subset of players who likes to play under secret alts, to avoid meta. Some portion of those players avoid using meta themselves, others do not care.
There is another subset of players that dislikes secret alts. This could be for any numbers of reasons but it's clear that there is this portion of players that dislikes this kind of thing.

Occasionally, you'll get a secret identity game in a queue where you have to pm a mod to sign up. What if there was a whole queue dedicated to these games?
I posit that the existence of such a queue would decrease the amount of secret alts in other games, as these players will have found their niche. Not everyone will migrate over, but a good portion will.

Alternatively, such a queue could also include

Geriatric Ruleset games

, and perhaps other off-kilter but popular concepts. Not combined, all in one game, but hosted regularly enough due to an interest in this kind of thing

[Aristophanes]

Ooo you roped me in a bit with that last proposal!

As I said in SGB and should have here, it needs a lot of testing before the mods wilm consider it. If there is definite interest here, I'd reach out to the likes of MariaR and see if she will do a themed month to gauge interest in it!

I kinda like the idea of a set place for post restricted/quirk games when you put it that way. Geriatrics, Secret Alts, etc would probably be run there with more success and interest.

[skitter30]

I think by itself, a whole queue just for secret alt games might be a bit overkill, but I like the idea of, say, running a game in an existing queue as a 'secret identity' game, where it's understood that everyone in the game is a secret alt

I do think tho that joining all such 'speciality' games in a separate queue could also be a good idea
you could add blitzes to this queue too

[Nahdia]

yeah ill reiterate that a purely secret alt queue is probably too much. the fact is (and this is maybe a topic in of itself), the queues are... sort of slow these days (or at least it feels like they are). not sure if it's a matter of less players what.

so idk that i believe making an entire new queue is viable. i do think running more secret alt games is something people should consider tho.

[Nahdia]

i actually quite like the idea of a "specialty" queue i just don't know if it would take off. similar to how the blitz queue failed. but maybe by casting a wider net it could succeed? would like to see it get a trial anyway.

[zoraster]

I think until or unless we either get identity masking (for example, every time I post in Game A I post as "Mr. Mephistopheles") or have it such that moderators can limit the game to only certain posters, it's really a nonstarter. (For the record, I see the former is better than the latter because it'll result in fewer players who are inactive because they don't think to log into their alt account but either would work).

If we could get one of those two things, a queue might be possible (though as I've stated before I'm sort of resistant to increasing our number of queues so replacing one would help) or given those better tools it's possible more mods would just be happy to run more anonymous games.

[Blair]

I posit that the existence of such a queue would decrease the amount of secret alts in other games, as these players will have found their niche.

I use secret alts (is this one?

OoOoOoHhHhHh

) and I can confirm an alt queue would not impact my participation in other queues.

People use secret alts as a temporary respite from meta (Night 1 kills, paranoia scumreads, etc.) or to experiment with different playstyles without being constrained by others' expectations of them - not because deep down they really just want to play secret identity games.

I couldn't care less if the other players in my games are on alts or otherwise, so I'm not even sure I would be drawn to an alt queue in the first place.

[Nancy Drew 39]

i actually quite like the idea of a "specialty" queue i just don't know if it would take off. similar to how the blitz queue failed. but maybe by casting a wider net it could succeed? would like to see it get a trial anyway.

I think that would be an excellent name for it. Players would then know, the would find games that are different than the same old same old in there.

[Nancy Drew 39]

I think until or unless we either get identity masking (for example, every time I post in Game A I post as "Mr. Mephistopheles") or have it such that moderators can limit the game to only certain posters, it's really a nonstarter. (For the record, I see the former is better than the latter because it'll result in fewer players who are inactive because they don't think to log into their alt account but either would work).

If we could get one of those two things, a queue might be possible (though as I've stated before I'm sort of resistant to increasing our number of queues so replacing one would help) or given those better tools it's possible more mods would just be happy to run more anonymous games.

Yes, very valid point. Those games can be lots of fun for the players but with the current coding, it’s a lot more work for the game mods. Any game mod considering running a secret alt game, needs to make a X number of anonymous alt accounts and make a separate email for the anonymous accounts.

One dividend can possibly be that the players get to keep that game account post game.

[Nancy Drew 39]

I posit that the existence of such a queue would decrease the amount of secret alts in other games, as these players will have found their niche.

I use secret alts (is this one?

OoOoOoHhHhHh

) and I can confirm an alt queue would not impact my participation in other queues.

People use secret alts as a temporary respite from meta (Night 1 kills, paranoia scumreads, etc.) or to experiment with different playstyles without being constrained by others' expectations of them - not because deep down they really just want to play secret identity games.

I couldn't care less if the other players in my games are on alts or otherwise, so I'm not even sure I would be drawn to an alt queue in the first place.

I agree with this, I doubt one would impact the other. I mainly prefer alts to avoid bad and inaccurate meta reads that make playing my games unfun.

I was in one game where a player wrongly proclaiming themselves some kind of expert on accurately alignment reading me off of meta, incorrectly decided I was lockscum in that solely based on that. I had put a lot of work up to that point in trying to solve that game, so I didn’t see any point to continuing if I was just waiting to be executed at some point wrongly due to that.

When people wrongly mischaracterize your meta, it’s extremely hard to argue against it, unlike your actual play in the specific game you’re in and in this case it involved a player who was widely regarded as having above average reads in general who was being obvtown read. I think meta can be an extremely useful tool to form reads but I really hate it when players abuse it like that.

[Mephistophanes 39]

(for example, every time I post in Game A I post as "Mr. Mephistopheles")

I feel seen

[Nancy Drew 39]

(for example, every time I post in Game A I post as "Mr. Mephistopheles")

I feel seen

This account looks very familiar. Hmmm . . .

[zoraster]

I think until or unless we either get identity masking (for example, every time I post in Game A I post as "Mr. Mephistopheles") or have it such that moderators can limit the game to only certain posters, it's really a nonstarter. (For the record, I see the former is better than the latter because it'll result in fewer players who are inactive because they don't think to log into their alt account but either would work).

If we could get one of those two things, a queue might be possible (though as I've stated before I'm sort of resistant to increasing our number of queues so replacing one would help) or given those better tools it's possible more mods would just be happy to run more anonymous games.

Yes, very valid point. Those games can be lots of fun for the players but with the current coding, it’s a lot more work for the game mods. Any game mod considering running a secret alt game, needs to make a X number of anonymous alt accounts and make a separate email for the anonymous accounts.

One dividend can possibly be that the players get to keep that game account post game.

Sure, it's a lot of work for mods. But it's ALSO a scenario where people are going to mess up with some frequency by posting as their normal account and then I think activity is also a concern for those who aren't as used to signing into a second account just to check a game.

[RadiantCowbells]

i have not played or seen played any secret alt game where less than 66%ish of the participants mains were common knowledge and the unknowns were people who would have less meta following them anyway. it's not really a solution to anything.

[Nancy Drew 39]

I think until or unless we either get identity masking (for example, every time I post in Game A I post as "Mr. Mephistopheles") or have it such that moderators can limit the game to only certain posters, it's really a nonstarter. (For the record, I see the former is better than the latter because it'll result in fewer players who are inactive because they don't think to log into their alt account but either would work).

If we could get one of those two things, a queue might be possible (though as I've stated before I'm sort of resistant to increasing our number of queues so replacing one would help) or given those better tools it's possible more mods would just be happy to run more anonymous games.

Yes, very valid point. Those games can be lots of fun for the players but with the current coding, it’s a lot more work for the game mods. Any game mod considering running a secret alt game, needs to make a X number of anonymous alt accounts and make a separate email for the anonymous accounts.

One dividend can possibly be that the players get to keep that game account post game.

Sure, it's a lot of work for mods. But it's ALSO a scenario where people are going to mess up with some frequency by posting as their normal account and then I think activity is also a concern for those who aren't as used to signing into a second account just to check a game.

In the anonymous game I played on MU - Ditto - the game mod had extremely strict rules against meta hunting and if the coding could be upgraded to stop alt slipping, that would of course be optimal.

I think that the activity part of that could be handled by making these game invitationals. There should be a thread where players preferring these games could sign up and invitationals could be directed only towards those players, unlike the usual ways signups occur.

[Nancy Drew 39]

i have not played or seen played any secret alt game where less than 66%ish of the participants mains were common knowledge and the unknowns were people who would have less meta following them anyway. it's not really a solution to anything.

The point is that those games are a helluva a lot of fun to play in. Have you ever played in one? I enjoyed it tremendously.

[Klick]

We could have an alt queue and then ban alts from playing outside of it

[Aristophanes]

We could have an alt queue and then ban alts from playing outside of it

Or we could have a Mains Queue in the Speakeasy!^*

So, like, you have to have Speezy access or the forum won't be visible! That way the dirty alts can keep playing in regular games while those who hate them get a break!

Plus, Speakeasy would mean

a more mature playerbase[/b] we could play themes that wouldn't be allowed in regular mafia queues!

*or tied to Speakeasy access, you get the idea tho.

[Nahdia]

viewtopic.php?f=115&t=83720 on the subject, if anyone wants to help me balance out an Open disguiser setup (which would necessarily be a secret alt game)

[Nancy Drew 39]

We could have an alt queue and then ban alts from playing outside of it

Why would they need to be mutually exclusive? At the very least you oughtn’t to object to outed alts. It’s up to the game mod if they feel strongly enough about that. I think that would be ridiculously and unnecessarily draconian and I would hard oppose banning of alts in games - outed or otherwise and you’d also be likely driving a lot of players off if this site.