/in-vitational Round 4 Discussion

[callforjudgement]

I don't generally have huge preferences for people I want to play with (and when I do, I normally just look for a game they're playing and replace into it). So if I participate in this as a player, it'd be because people want to play with me, rather than the other way round. Is there some way to participate as "include me if it makes other players happy, otherwise leave me out"?

I'd be willing to join this as a mod, though. I'm not sure I have anything much to recommend myself in terms of actual modding practice, but I've become somewhat typecast in the sorts of setup I run (small, mostly vanilla, often symmetrical using unusual mechanics for balance) and many people seem to like playing in them.

[callforjudgement]

In terms of the algorithm:

Perhaps it'd make sense to do the /in-vitational queueing in two stages, one with nonspecific signups (as player or as mod, that's it), and after that, to post the whole list and ask people to (probably secretly) rate how much they'd like to play with each player (I'd suggest a +2, +1, +0, -∞ system). That's likely to resolve the issues of players not giving enough "I'd like to play with player X" preferences. (I don't think I could list many players who I'd particularly like to play with, but on the other hand, given a list of players, I'd almost certainly give many of them positive ratings.)

[callforjudgement]

Right, in every queue except Newbie, it tends to be pretty easy to tell whether a game has enough open spots that a bunch of players who want to play it together can all join it at once.