Scummies Nomination Thread 2017

[Varsoon]

Nominating this thread to show up in my Ego.

[Varsoon]

(cough)
second.

[Varsoon]

It helped that I gave every player an ability that forced me to write flavor in regards to their role flavor.

[Varsoon]

Nominating Varsoon for Best New Mechanic for his 'Stress' mechanic in Steven Universe Mafia 2.

For those unaware, the 'Stress' mechanic featured a meter that could go from high stress to low stress. When scum was doing well, the stress would be high, allowing town to gain access to abilities gated behind high stress requirements--but the opposite was also true! With many strong abilities also affecting stress, both teams had to critically think about how they would approach the game in terms of tipping the balance of power.

Flavor-wise, this mechanic was borne from the show's own ebb and flow of episodes that often go from very comfortable moments to incredibly dramatic scenes--that feeling of letting one's guard down and being surprised by a climactic twist was something that was replicated very well here, especially due to flavor writing tied to many of the stress-dependent abilities, called 'Events.'

The 'Stress' mechanic provides for a tangible visualization of how the game is going for either side. What makes it work so well as a new mechanic is that it mitigates one of the largest issues with role-madness (and large) setups--swing. By only allowing players to use powerful abilities when the game is going poorly for them, town and scum power comes into play in a natural tug of war that doesn't snowball out of control. Just being able to, at a glance of the votecount, understand how the game is going for your faction and what's likely to be around the corner, informs a much more involved gamestate with all players.

While its implementation in Steven Universe II may not have been the most successful rendition possible, I am self-nominating because I genuinely believe that this may be the most effective way to mitigate swing in setups that would otherwise be very heavy with it. Some tweaking should be done in order to make sure that your numbers line up and that pro-town powers always lower stress while pro-scum powers raise it--finding the right balance of how much stress any given ability should require and add/subtract is a numbers game that, if perfected, could provide for a very role-heavy, engaged, mechanically diverse setup while mitigating swing entirely.

Moving forward, I think that more moderators, especially ones who care about balance and swing in their games, should consider mechanics like this one, as it provides an innovative building block from which a very functional and fun mafia game can be built. This sort of mechanic is so fundamentally game-changing that it deserves recognition and emulation that I don't believe it will get otherwise. In short, I really feel like I've come up with something that could be considered a core part of theme games, as integral to their design as anything else.

[Varsoon]

I understand that 100%, self-noms are never taken seriously.
This is mostly a joke but also because I want to create a modicum of awareness for a mechanic that I designed that I want to see featured in other games.

Think of it this way:
Imagine you are the first person to come up with sliced bread. Everyone else just pulls apart their loaves. This discovery of yours could fundamentally change how people engage with bread. Are you gonna just sit around and hope other people recognize how great your sandwiches are, or do you go out there and promote it?

On the realer-real, I also don't want

my

iteration of this mechanic to win a Scummy. I want someone else to take this mechanic and implement it perfectly and for their implementation to be incredibly well received.

So, that's my challenge, you loser mods. I'm intentionally casting to the winds my chances at winning a scummy for what's easily the best mechanic ever thought of on this site so that you can steal it, perfect it, and take my title from me. Are you a bad enough dude to win the adoration of the masses and ingrain your name in Mafia history?

[Varsoon]

Well, I've got to officially self-nom regardless, or I run the risk of someone else nominating my unrefined version of the mechanic.

[Varsoon]

Well, I've got to officially self-nom regardless, or I run the risk of someone else nominating my unrefined version of the mechanic.

C'mon Firebringer, reading comprehension

Fwiw, anti-swing mechanics can be tricky. Star Fox on MU had where there was a notable mechanical boost given to the scum team for every wolf lynch, and we won the game in substantial part due to bussing the right people at the right time (I say "we" as if I was anything other than a mid game sub who somehow managed to avoid dayvigs and lynches even tho I was close to outed most the time I was alive). It can be useful to try and reduce swing, but so it too much and you risk incentivizing play that would normally be anti wincon.

Exactly why I say the fine-tuning is very important. I think that I had something close to what would work, but there were a few flaws in my iteration. Still--a visible meter, posted with every VC, that informs gamestate and gates powers is something I really believe in. For multiball, obviously, there are more considerations to take when it comes to that tuning.

[Varsoon]

Yeah, now I've kept that from happening and given other mods explicit capability to steal the mechanic, improve on it, and get mad recognition.
Or do I need to win Best New Mechanic for 3 years in a row?

[Varsoon]

I propose a new body of work award: Most Improved.

I'm also behind this.

I feel like a lot of lackluster players are often treated negatively on-site rather than encouraged to move from one bad experience onto a new game with an optimistic outset. As a mod, I don't enforce blacklists because I genuinely believe in the capacity for any player to rise to the challenge and develop beyond their past. That said, I wish the site had more ways of encouraging player growth/improvement and that it wasn't the norm for bad players (either in terms of social skills or gameplay) to be ostracized.

[Varsoon]

Notably, there used to be a Most Improved, but I think it kinda got rolled into Rising Star.

I feel like 'Rising Star' is something I'd give to an outstanding newbie--someone on their first year on-site who shows incredible promise.

Most Improved, though, I'd give to any player who has shown dedication and marked improvement on-site, not just in terms of win/loss ratios, but in the sense that their attitude towards others and the game has improved and been refined through hard work and determination to improve.

[Varsoon]

I can see where they would overlap, but you can just make an easy distinction:

RISING STAR is based on GAMEPLAY PERFORMANCE of players during their FIRST YEAR on site. Things like Win/Loss and promise as an effective player go into it.

MOST IMPROVED is based on PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT of players and is only awarded to those with more than 1 YEAR on site. Things like coming back after a ban and performing much better in regards to the behavior that caught them a ban in the first place, improvement in quality of play.

[Varsoon]

just want to point out that a bunch of people said they were nomming me but no one actually did

Welcome to every game I mod
;_;

[Varsoon]

I know, BUT I WANT THEM ALL, NAHDIA
I AM A GREEDY, GREEDY MAN

[Varsoon]

The other issue, iirc, is that hardly anyone would nominate teams outside of people on those teams, which basically made every nom a self-nom.

[Varsoon]

Regardless, it makes for a somewhat biased set of nominations.
There just aren't enough people spectating great games that they then go on to nominate.

[Varsoon]

But I exist.

[Varsoon]

Oh yeah btw
how come no one nominated this for best setup yet?
I mean sure its a Varsoon game, but I mean FUCKING LOOK AT IT
IT LOOKS AMAZING

Thanks,
putting that game together was such a labor of love. The amount of effort that I put into that setup was crazy. I had to dredge up a ton of game assets to make all the classes and rolecards work.
I also, apparently, love running setups that can only be done once. The whole hidden-player recruiting a scumteam in pregame fit the flavor so damn well but it's really something that I couldn't run again without it being obvious to anyone who knows my mod meta--sort of how I can't pull off the shenanigans that I did in Space Dandy 2 (multiple game threads, everyone given the main character's flavor secretly) and Bloodborne (multiple secret PTs that scum could drag players into).
Just wish that the anonymous mechanics worked out a little better. It'll likely be the last anonymous game I run on-site just because of how poorly it turned out in regards to players slipping/finding replacements.

[Varsoon]

That's a really neat setup and I'll second it. It reminds me a lot of wgeurt's (frankly brilliant) Evolution Mafia, which should've won awards for its design.
Speaking of RPG mechanics, I thought my FFTactics game rendered them really well, but because it was a hidden/secret alt game and run privately, I doubt it'll ever be given much attention. T_T

[Varsoon]

Notably, I'm seconding it for best Mutation/Mechanic.
The setup itself feels a bit dry independent of the mechanic, imo.
The roles themselves aren't incredibly imaginative/groundbreaking and all the neat setup oriented stuff is such a large part of the mechanic. To compare back to the game that I mentioned, Evolution Mafia, that game also had amazing matching flavor for why players were 'upgrading' and the setup had some very interesting potential role combinations that aren't present here.

[Varsoon]

Every time I make a game and it isn't celebrated as the absolute best game designed and run on any mafia site ever, it somewhat bums me out, yes, but I'll get over it. Even if others fail to recognize my genius, I'll always feel proud. That's what it means to

be a narcissist

never give in to despair!

[Varsoon]

<3

[Varsoon]

I mean, I think I've been basically running games back-to-back for the last several years.
Steven Universe 2 started in September 2016 and ran to February 2017,
Final Fantasy Tactics started in January 2017 and ran to May 2017
Protomen Blitz started in November 2017 and ran through November 2017

So, I mean, yes, I was only running games on-site for half of the months in 2017 and only started two games during 2017, but
between those three games, I ran games for 10 months out of the last 16, sooooo
That's kinda cool.


Maybe the real trick to get best mod is just to run a bunch of really small games
Or the other trick is to just take some time and pre-design three games I could run back to back.
Honestly, what's terrifying is that if I just ran two games like Steven Universe 2 back-to-back, I could've been moderating games literally this entire year and still fall under the total number of games needed to be run to hit the 3 game minimum.
Take that as you will. D:

[Varsoon]

I'd go further back in the timeline, but I'm actually kind of terrified of how much I must've just always been running a game on-site.
Another consideration should probably be that all of my games are original theme setups with lots of unique mechanics that I had to spend lots of time developing.
Like, heck, I could just run infinite open/normal setups forever because those are already designed/figured out for me, but I find that less interesting.
Hum-ho.

That does make me curious how many mods fall into this category of spending a majority of their time on-site running games of their own design.

[Varsoon]

Terrifying.

[Varsoon]

...I, uh, still think SU2 was the best game, too.
I will contend that FFT Mafia has the best flavor/design of any game of mafia ever run anywhere, but that's maybe because making those rolecards took more time than any rolecard process rightfully should.

[Varsoon]

will varsoon ever stop sucking his own dick in these threads?

Excuse me, it's called 'blowing my own horn'
Also, I'm pretty sure my spine is stuck like this now.

[Varsoon]

I love you all
but I love myself the most.
Except when we're in a game of mafia, then I hate everyone and I hate myself the most. Unless I'm winning.

[Varsoon]

Nominating this page's discussion for

Most Off-Topic Discussion That Keeps Updating My Ego-topics

I keep thinking, "Oh! Scummies updated! I got nominated for more rewards because I'm the best ever!" and then, no, no one got nominated for any rewards; no one is even discussing nominations or rewards; people are just arguing over what's civil and accepted on-site, as if there isn't a clear-cut rules list about it.

[Varsoon]

Perhaps you should consider a handful of things:
The site is intended as an all-ages forum and has rules in place intended to preserve an inclusive atmosphere.
People in real life have various responses to a variety of crass and vulgar remarks; people online are the same--it turns out people online ARE actual people in real life!
If you wouldn't say it to a relative stranger in real life, why would you do it online, where there's an archived record of you making the remark?
This is a thread about nominating players for arbitrary rewards, ego stroking, and discussing said nominations and ego-stroking; take other discussions elsewhere, maybe?

[Varsoon]

I've designed games where RC got beaten.

[Varsoon]

I can only hope that the justification given when/if I win any award this year is, "Because Varsoon."