How much commitment do we require?

[Zachrulez]

There was more I meant to say in that thread but didn't. It's probably worth saying that through my mafia career beginning to end we went from no standard deadlines to three weeks, and then finally down to about 2. My annoyance with this shift to 7 day deadlines is that the people making it acknowledge it will lower the average deadline, but kind of evaded the idea that the new standard deadline will become 7 days. I've been around long enough to know that is exactly what will happen with the new newbie deadline. I'm not aiming to complain about a time past here just looking to point out that we once had a time where there were no standard deadlines and they were imposed only when the mods felt the game needed them. (Stalled discussion, no movement in a game, ect.) Then we went to 3 week deadlines (The site adopted that as standard shortly after the newbie game deadline was outright set to 3 weeks. The important thing I didn't say in the above post was that that era of the site was the best for a player like me. The prod timer was very friendly. It didn't hit you when you unplugged from the game on the weekend or for a day or two. When the site switched to 2 weeks... again following the change in the newbie deadline weekend considerations started going away. The time commitment got shorter but the time you were expected to invest in that shorter period of time got greater. Frankly I did the best at mafia the better I was able to emotionally disconnect with the game. I played the worst when I wasn't able to do that. With shorter deadlines and shorter prod timers you're pretty much expected to be constantly invested in the game and never really able to unplug from the game and take time off for a breather to calm from pressure, or an abusive poster... or someone that just grates you.

I'm not even trying to pretend the site isn't moving away from my preferences. I'm just saying as a player I would like to be able to go a day or two every now and then without having to eat a prod for not posting. That's pretty much impossible with 2 week deadlines let alone 1. Moderators were getting hostile to no weekend posting even back on two week deadlines. (Usually a time some people have other things going on.) Also as a player when players post I would like for them to actually have something worthwhile to say. This whole hyperposting argument thing kind of works into that. The issue being complained about is that some players (Not looking to single anyone out.) would manage to post so much while saying so little. As a player you have to read through that and it's not enjoyable at all. Good players would not expect a reasonable player to have to do that. That's the other reason I like it being okay to go a spell of time without posting. Sometimes you just don't have anything to say until other people have had a chance to say something. As a player I'm not interested in your 20th straight post in a game day. I'm interested in the player I haven't heard from in 2 days. I want to know where they weigh in on things. Someone who posts 50 times a day. I know where they stand... I dunno does that make any sense?

Probably would have helped if I said all this in the other thread. Sorry for rambling on here. The main point is that even though the time requirement is shorter overall with shorter deadlines, it requires much more of an activity commitment within that shorter amount of time with far less down time possible which makes it a lot easier to get wound up without really being able to wind yourself down from all of that. (After all there's no time for that. Gotta post again in 4 hours! Hope I've put some thought into what that post will contain!)