Planned Changes: Newbie Game Deadlines

[Nachomamma8]

On a personal note, boo to 7 day deadlines for D1; wouldn't IC for games anymore if early game was that shortened.

Day 1 in newbie games is awkward because we get a lot of players who are not a good fit for mafiascum and there is no way we are able to cater to them without changing forum mafia period; players who are expecting something close to a town of salem/telegram experience/playing with a bunch of people who also have no idea how to play experience. Sometimes these players recognize it immediately and flake, but usually they make three posts in a three day period and then take two days to flake out. There's also a slower start a lot of times because there are 3 people who know how to start the game and 6 people who don't; in that time, if one or two of those three people are inactive or don't help things get rolling then the game drags. I do understand that extensions will probably be given for replaceouts/until everyone posted in thread, but if we end up having two week deadlines Day 1 anyways then this change will do more harm than good.

I also don't think that newbies want shorter deadlines. They want faster paced games - maybe shorter deadlines will get us there, but I don't think that solves the problem that we have.

[Nachomamma8]

And to that end, I think a shorter prod timer would help. I think that following through with the IC review group (but making each review less in depth) would help. I think holding experienced players (SEs and ICs both) to a higher standard would help.

Like, look at what ruru's saying here. She's frustrated with her IC flaking and getting policy lynched for no activity. Will a shorter deadline help that? I don't think so, but if the IC had to post once every 24 hours and didn't, it's possible that the moderator would be able to replace them quicker and someone would be able to contribute and turn around the game instead of the most experienced slot in the game getting policy lynched. If the IC review group noticed that this person was obscenely flaky in general, sent them a PM, and then they were obscenely flaky in the future then they're not ICing for the next group of newbies. If the SE group has a better set of standards, maybe they're more able to drive the game on their own.

I don't really think that it's about punishing people (everyone has crappy games and someone shouldn't be banned from ICing forever just because they had a crappy game), but I think that if we want to improve newbie games then we can't be afraid of holding people to a higher standard even if the bench is a bit thin.