Thank you to the players, as well. Even though the game was definitely boring and/or frustrating at times, you guys didn't lash out at us in any meaningful way, and I appreciate that. Obviously, this game didn't quite go as well as we hoped for, although you guys were still an active bunch, even if a lot of the gameplay was a little passive and Pagonging-y for my taste. Still, there's no wrong way to play Survivor, and every move that's made or not made will benefit some people and not benefit others. I won't get upset with people playing poorly (at least, as a mod), as long as they
believe
it's in their best interest. People intentionally not playing to win does bother me, though, but I'm not sure that actually happened this game.While I don't think this game's design was the sole reason there was a Pagonging, I do think the lack of a tribe swap contributed to it. I'm always in favor of swaps in the real show, because they are the simplest and easiest way to prevent a likely Pagonging. This game, we didn't add one, and it wasn't because we wanted this to be a "nice, pleasant game" as Danny stated at least once. Personally, I thought we had enough other twists to compensate for the lack of a swap (4 twists in a 16-player game felt like a lot at the time). And really, with the mutiny, we didn't think the players would
expect
a swap to happen, because swaps and mutinies don't really go well together. Imagine mutinying from your tribe but then the game just swaps the next round. It would kill the entire purpose of the mutiny.In retrospect, what we should have done is had a tribe swap early in the game (within the first 3 rounds) and introduced the mutiny after that. It would have given players a reason to mutiny without completely undermining the twist. That likely would have made things a lot more exciting. Instead, we took a more indirect route with the game, trying to create twists that would cause the players to adjust their own gameplay, while keeping all the power in the hands of the players. Unfortunately, it didn't work, although if the game did flip at F8 like we all were hoping it would have, I wouldn't have regretted a single thing about the game design. Well, except maybe some of the details of the challenges, but I won't get into that.
If I were to mod again, and I really really plan on doing so, (Season 2 Finale, anyone?) I would definitely be way more aggressive with the twists. Or, I could go completely insane and make a game that's 3 times worse than Arkham. That would be fun, too.
Congrats to Snakes/Jesse, as he played phenomenally, and with him not playing in Hogwarts, that should make everyone else significantly more likely to win! I hope that game goes well for him, and I hope the boredom and frustration of this game hasn't plunged too many of you into retirement so Hogwarts will be able to find enough awesome players.
