Shorter deadlines question for the community

[Zachrulez]

Talking about the queues for a moment, I've had a thought recently that we might have fucked up when we introduced the normal guidelines. Before that point, there was this notion that normals were easier to run than themes because its one less thing to think about. So we funneled the newbie mods into the mini normals first. Then we got a bunch of shitty mini normals cause it's where all the first time mods were, so we introduced a bunch of strict rules about what it means to be normal, put together review groups etc. Does it really still make sense to channel the first time mods into them if we are setting that higher standard for them? It might actually make sense to just open up mini themes to first time mods. This would also explicitly let them run blitz speed games.

I'd say require a first time mod to mod a micro first. Then open up all mini games for the 2nd game of experience. Then Large games at 3 games or more games of experience. That order of experience makes sense to me. (Though I think the size of the game you maintain is the biggest determiner in the degree of difficulty... not necessarily the setup you run or whether it's a theme or normal.)

[Zachrulez]

I just tend to see things from the perspective of size. The larger a game is the greater the investment and the greater the number of people you screw over when you get it wrong. We probably shouldn't be emphasizing a need for perfection as much in a micro game as we do for a mini or a large. That's just how I see it.

The difficulty of designing a micro also likely rests on how original you are trying to be with the game. If you stick with something that is known to be relatively balanced and works well, it's not that hard at all. If you're trying to reinvent the wheel and do something new... well... there's not a lot you're going to be able to do in a micro with that.