Game Classifications

[KingdomAces]

In my opinion, the communication methods category could be a bit more specific. PM communication is so powerful that a lot of times it's better to ignore anything else if possible. Are other methods specifically referring to ways to communicate with people that you normally wouldn't be able to PM? The way it's currently worded, having a tribal forum would push it up to standard even though those from my experience are primarily used for talking about availability and little else. With a note that I may be slightly out of touch at present, if I were forced to make the scale myself it would be something like:
1: Communication is strictly on tribal lines, no more, no less.
2: There exists some basic and consistent deviation from 1, such as a public forum or periods of time when all PM communication is disabled. (Like Medivac's walking to tribal council.)
3: There are non-public methods of cross tribal communication, or unusual or unexpected communication restrictions. (Eon's pairs, both for their existence and their forced secrecy, though only one of those two mechanics would be enough to qualify for this tier.
4: The way communication occurs significantly changes the foundation of how the game is played.

And more of a personal gripe than anything else, but the minimum number of points in each tier should be increased by one, in order to prevent games from falling in multiple categories.

[KingdomAces]

Honestly, that's something else that I think should be being at least a little more mandated anyway. Really, from my memory any difference between having a public forum or not is purely theoretical. In the past it hasn't mattered all that much, but it still has the potential to make a large impact.

[KingdomAces]

The premerge for MLS flat out was not Survivor. There's an argument for saying that it was barely even a social game. There's a difference between conventions being broken and it actually being something else entirely. That being said, I think I remember the biggest complaints being that jigsaws made the game overly reliant on a single skill, and the fact that there was constantly 19 other people to talk to with no way to trim that number down was way more relationship juggling than anyone was prepared for, and that created psychological problems worse than any twist possibly could. The mechanics themselves were much less of an issue than I think people are currently implying.

I kind of agree with PI that implementing a system like this could actively change how games are designed, rather than just how they are presented, though I think Movie/TV Show/Video Game age ratings are a more applicable comparison. If producers know that they are going to be getting the maximum rating, that gives them licence to go way overboard with the mature content, even when it's completely unnecessary. (Noting that I'm not anywhere close to being an expert on the subject, and that pretty much everything I can say would be hearsay. I'm only like 80% sure that has been an actual issue.)

How any of this should affect any official policies, I'm not sure. I spent way too long writing this so now I'm burnt out. I may or may not consolidate this and make a point/suggestion later. I think I had one initially, but I've long since forgotten what it was.