Planned Changes: Newbie Game Deadlines

[Umlaut]

I support this change. I agree with others that 7 days is somewhat shorter than I would have gone with if I were making the rules, but I've gradually come to feel like 14 days is excessive, particularly for micro-sized games. And I agree that the #1 complaint I've seen from newbies in-game is the day lengths. If this leads to shorter customary deadlines across the site then it will be because that's what people prefer to play; and as long as there are old-guard players who prefer longer deadlines there will be old-guard mods catering to that.

[Umlaut]

A lot of people here enjoy playing in newbie games. I enjoy it myself. In fact the usual barrier to newbie games starting sooner is... well, newbies. There are always more than enough SEs and usually at least a couple of ICs in the queue.

I would probably queue up for even more newbie games if there were more variety in the setups (instead of using the same variable-open setup all the time). But convincing non-newbies to sign up for more newbie games is not something the site should be doing, really.

[Umlaut]

I really don't think I was actually suggesting that the newbie queue

should

be run with more setup variety, just saying I personally would queue up for it more often.

It's almost certainly true that it would draw in more experienced players, but I see no reason it would draw in more newbies (who have almost certainly never played 2d3 before and won't be bored with it after one game). And in my experience SEs are the one group the queue is never lacking, so I'm not sure this solves a problem anyone actually has. The Newbie Queue is for newbies, we're just visiting.

It would also make ICing a slightly greater responsibility, in that the IC would have to guide players through navigating an unknown or at least unfamiliar setup, which would probably cause a few people on the margin to decide not to IC.