Werewolf Mini - Times, Discussion and Future

[Rainboy]

Hey everyone, we had a blast today playing Werewolf Mini. For now, the game is played both on IRC and on the forums without much automation. Soon I hope to finish JWolf (my old IRC bot for hosting games) so we can do it all on IRC. Until I can finish it and get it tested a bit, though, we'll need to stick with this.

So, here's what I need. All of you who are interested in participating in these games should post the times you'll usually be available each day. (ie, the times you'd prefer games to be hosted.) Please post all times in UCT so we have a common timezone. Games have been taking about an hour an a half to play, with 9 players. More players will mean longer games, in general. Players who are willing to host a game should also indicate that they'd like to host.



I am available:
Sundays - 6PM-9:30PM UCT. Very unreliable.
Mondays - 8PM-2AM UCT.
Tuesdays - 10PM-2AM UCT. May get on as early as 8:30PM.
Wednesdays - 8PM-10PM UCT. May get on for an hour or two at ~1AM.
Thursdays - 10PM-2AM UCT. May get on as early as 6:30PM. Frequently have Calc review sessions ~10PM.
Fridays - 2PM-5PM, 8PM-2AM UCT.
Saturdays - 5PM-2AM UCT. May get on as early as 4PM.

I am also willing to host at any of these times.

[Toon]

I am available:
All days after 5 (gmt+1)
on saturday and sunday almost everyday

[Shadi]

I don't enjoy it as much as I do with the normal games and I don't think I'll be participating in mini games it doesn't really catch my fancy nor interest. It requires constant focus to IRC and I cannot really do that as I often have million other windows open and would like to have time to think my actions through. In addition, as you very-active IRC guys have already noticed, I don't really like IRC and therefore barely use it. I use it a few times when asked I prefer Steam a lot more although it has less options the options it has are better made . Just so you don't keep asking me on IRC/Steam to join, and don't get too surprised if my answer is a no.

[Unown]

I'm available every day after 19.00 (gmt +1)
saturday and sunday, all day mostly

[HATER]

Aaaand I can't put a single time down because my schedule changes around so much. Even yesterday I was constantly running into problems.

To be honest though, I'm not sure I really like this new direction the game is going. I like werewolf on irc as much as the next guy, but I like games better with GERTY working and with a longerish game or two running on the forums.

Also, the complex brand of game I like to play in and run just doesn't seem to be happening on irc. I think we should start up forum games again, maybe re-run mafia III since people loved that one.

[Rainboy]

This is just temporary, like I've said before. I believe that playing a lot of games over a short period of time is the best way to teach players how to play, giving them experience with each role and with the success of different play styles they employ.

More than that, though, it also puts people in an active environment where the vast majority of players are communicating and networking - or at least active and able to be communicated with. That's in direct contrast to what we've been seeing in the longer games, where people seem to ignore the private networking side of things, which in turn leaves them without any leads of their own (unless they have a power role). I think this is the root cause of the rampant inactivity we've been seeing, and I think the mini games provide a good way to hit the reset button on it and return us to an active villager base. People just don't know how to play with a role they don't consider important, and quite frankly, the game just dies when the so called 'unimportant' roles decide not to participate.

I realize many players will find these inconvenient or less enjoyable, but I firmly believe that the small price you pay by playing anyway will yield strong dividends when we return to the regular setup and I strongly encourage everyone to participate in this for the few weeks we focus on it so we can get the most out of it.

[HATER]

I get what you're saying Rain, but it just doesn't work out for a lot of us because most of us are students with irregular schedules, not to mention that we're spread out over several timezones.

I, for one, cannot keep setting specific chunks of time out several days in the future. And although I like the snap judgements and improvisation that the quick irc games provide, I need a bit more flexibility than what we're doing here allows.

I don't want to wreck your plan here, but I'm afraid I won't be able to commit to any more scheduled irc games.

However, I understand all too well that it is all very easy to bash the status quo, but much harder to actually improve it, and at some point we must find a way to bell the proverbial cat, as it were (protip: I don't usually ever say "as it were" since it sounds pretentious as hell, but it just seemed warranted here).

So I propose a different solution:

Short, quick games with 24 hour speedplay rounds and compulsory votes. Also, no more than 16 players in any one game.

They can be either WW or mafia, but must meet the above requirements. They do not count as official games and will not have the same numbering system or be counted in the win/loss records.
Additionally, I'd like to see someone elsebesides you and me host the first game of these unofficial games, preferably one of the nD-ers.

[Maki]

We definitely need fast paced games, but I doubt that forcing people to use IRC and using 20min round games will do anything good for the current community of players we have.

Maybe host one of those randomly and instead go with HATER's proposition which seems okay aswell.

I honestly didn't like the game I played (IRC one) knowing how long it took and the time we took to get the players which made me have to quit before I could even play my second game, I would rather see more forum games instead and as HATER, my schedule varies quite a bit aswell so I can't give out any predetermined schedule for those mini games you want to make.

[JTc]

I'm always aviable for minis.