The Newbie Queue Setup

[PenguinPower]

Hey all. The current Newbie setup is going on 4 years with some slight variation (2 years - 2d3 and 2 years - Newd3). The site has changed over those four years, and I wanted to pose the question: Is this still the setup the Newbie Queue should be running, or should we explore moving to something else?

If we're going to move to a new setup, I would also like to consider items such as:

• Game size
  - is 9 players still the right mix? Should it be less than so that games can fire faster with fewer Newbies/SEs?
  
• Phase lengths
  - previous feedback from Newbies was that the 14/2 mix wasn't ideal for them so we began to shorten phase lengths. Should we keep the phase lengths the same or modify to be quicker/longer?
  
• Design
  - we've utilized a Matrix-style system for the past 8+ years. Should we keep a new setup in the same system or move to something else? Previous ideas raised included a rotation of closed or open setups.

Feel free to discuss openly, but please keep the following priorities in mind:

• The primary goal is Newbie attraction/retention. Whatever setup we continue with/move to should be easy to understand, but also be engaging for new players for preferably more than one game. It should be continuously engaging for our SE population so that they have desire to continue to join games and help integrate newer players to the site.
  
• Secondary is game balance. Game balance does tie into the primary goal, but I would prefer a setup that addresses the primary goal even at the cost of the secondary. So long as people want to keep playing it - and do feel like they have a chance to win as either alignment - I am not particularly concerned with theoretical balance.

Just wanted to get this discussion started - I'm a fan of change and 4 years seems long enough to me.

[PenguinPower]

Is the question of how to bring new players to this site part of the scope of this thread?

Sure. Ultimately, this is about attraction and retention. I’m fine to hear all ideas, though the focus is on the setup.

[PenguinPower]

Also, like, a lot of how we get users is through exporting stuff to small offsite mafia games and then people taking interest and eventually coming over. NewD3 is fairly commonly played on small mafia sites, as was Matrix6 before it.
Regardless of what Penguin says about balance if we end up with a newbie game that is generally agreed to be poorly balanced that will hinder it being taken up on other sites which will reduce the inflow of traffic which, etc.

I did include balance as a focus, but achieving perfect balance is secondary to a setup that people want to play. If we can get both, great!

Also, I'm not sure where you're getting your referral information, but it doesn't jive with the the user reported reasons from newbie accounts over the previous 18 months.

[PenguinPower]

Sorry - should have inculded that.

In terms of volume: Found via the wiki > Google/Search engine Search > Current user referral = Discord (including specific reference to mafia.gg's discord in here) > Other listed forums (mafiauniverse, pokemon showdown, epic mafia) > gibberish reasoning

[PenguinPower]

and what sources have the most user retention? do we have that data?

I don't have that data.

I would consider the wiki to fall under the category of exports, so.

I haven't gotten that granular, and tbh most don't say much besides "the wiki," but anecdotally further description is mostly IRL players searching for role descriptions or online players searching for setups to use. I haven't seen the Newbie setup as a reason.

[PenguinPower]

I don't disagree that our setups are good for attraction. We're talking specifcially about the Newbie setup here, not any of our multitude of others. I am fine allowing an introductory setup to not be perfectly balanced if doing so impacts the overall fun and desire to play; and, I don't think if we end up doing so that it will negatively affect site attraction.

I look forward to any postive input you can bring to the setup discussion, especially given your design input for the current one.