Has mafia become less fun?

[Ruki]

I would be ok with that.

I just want bandwagons back!

[phatman]

Vote: Ruki

Let's get this bandwagon rolling...

[phatman]

In honesty though, I don't think (or at least can remember) since I've started playing mafia games, there actually been any of the old gung ho bandwagons that I saw in the older games...

They always seemed to be good for info later on in games too if people looked back at them with detail, which is why I don't really understand why people went gun shy with early game speed-wagons...

[R.W.]

Night starts where the cop doesn't find scum are just the same as day starts except with dead people. Day starts aren't the problem. People not going out on limbs, not trying to make things happen without confirmation, and being afraid of being wrong are the problem. And that's the people who actually decide to show up.

Thats why you have things like naive cops, trackers, flavour cops etc.

They usually turn up something which can be hugely misinterpreted, and voila! Discussion.

But yeah, people not playing also suck.

[Guest Owned by Quickquid]

EWB's 10 Most Active Mafia Games (Posts Per Player Per Day)

1) TEOL's Traditional Mafia V (7.21 posts per player per day)

2) Split's Mage Wars Mafia 1.5 (6.32 posts per player per day)

3) SDM's The Thing Mafia (4.67 posts per player per day)

4) Zan's lol, mafia (4.55 posts per player per day)

5) MPH's Perfect Ten Mafia (4.25 posts per player per day)

6) SDM's SDM Mafia (3.9 posts per player per day)

7) -A-'s Newbie Mafia II (3.74 posts per player per day)

8) Ruki's Final Fantasy Mafia (3.33 posts per player per day)

9) -A-'s Newbie Mafia (3.28 posts per player per day)

10) Essa's Movie Monster Mafia (3.09 posts per player per day)

EWB's 10 Least Active Mafia Games (Posts Per Player Per Day

1) Bill's Tag Team Larry Zbyszkos Mafia (0.21 posts per player per day)

2) Rider's Strip Mafia (0.26 posts per player per day)

3) Norro's Webcom Mafia 4.5 (0.26 posts per player per day)

4) Norro's Anime Mafia V (0.27 posts per player per day)

5) Cloudy's Watchmen Mafia (0.29 posts per player per day)

6) Plubby's Witches 2 Mafia (0.32 posts per player per day)

7) Blehschmidt's Action/Sci-Fi Mafia (0.32 posts per player per day)

8) TEOL's Silent Hill II Mafia (0.33 posts per player per day)

9) burninator's Jurassic Park Mafia (0.33 posts per player per day)

10) Norro's Mythology Mafia (0.35 posts per player per day)

One more set to go!

[Jimmy]

Mage Wars 1.5 being really flawed probably helped it be so active

[Plubby]

A lot of the problem I see with mafia activity starts with themed mafias, and the desire to be the "first in" and run a game with their favourite theme. Not sure if this has come up already or not, but nowadays I only join a mafia if i'm really into the theme. There's not enough people who have played enough, or have enough experience designing mafias that can carry a game on pure game design ability without generating mass amounts of fanboy love. That's why it's so heartwarming to see TradMaf doing so well in these stats. TEOL and Sousa are the two I would number among this as the best at designing mafias with Norro close behind. Honourable mentions go to RW and MPH, in that order. If anyone else runs a game it's gotta be right up my alley theme-wise, or i'm sorry my dear but I don't give a shit.

Only my players could say if I am among the aforementioned designers or not, but from my own experiences as a game-runner, and in particular of the Return to the Golden City "franchise" - which is a series i've never struggled to meet signups for...the reason i've felt that my games are successful is that I build roles first before I meet the context of the game. Now, nobody has blundered as big as I have on this in terms of disgustingly OP roles, and i'd like to think we can have a somewhat serious disucssion about this without going "lol, gatekeeper" - but when I see game design docs and whatnot for other players...The biggest consistency is that players make a Themed Mafia, whereas when I run a game, it's a Mafia Game with a theme. (when it has a theme, as I consider Golden City to be unthemed.) This might sound like semantics but I cannot stress enough how important I see the difference between the two to be.

In order to make games more fun and accessible for players - it has got Got GOT to start with game runners. I'd advocate a buddy/mentor system for promising/new game runners. I for one, and i'm sure other senior game designers too, would be happy to miss a game or two to make sure that games with promise don't fall over on their faces three turns in when a lucky target torpedoes momentum.

[Noah]

Aren't you the Naruto guy?

I really enjoyed that one.

[Plubby]

I did start a Naruto mafia, I think I had to bring it to an abrupt end due to personal issues.

[Noah]

Not before i died

[TEOL]

I kind of agree with Plubby. I mean, there are people in here saying they think I'm a good game runner, and I do try to put a lot of effort into designing my set ups, but it's disheartening when I know I can't run the game I want because I'm stuck behind so many others in the list. And half the time, people are reserving their place to run their next game before their last one's even done, and the game they're reserving is basically the same game with different role names. I pretty much gave up because I couldn't think of a way to fix it without people throwing the elitism card at me. They probably will anyway about this post

[Ruki]

I vote for elitism in mafia!

[Pizza]

Yeah, I'd rather play TEOL's game than any other on the list. There's probably only 3 or 4 that I have any interest in playing at all. I say let TEOL go next.

[DMN in the House]

Elitism is awesome.

We need a 'mafia of champions', no roles, just people who post and play.

[Pizza]

Let's just go as elite as possible and set up a promotion/relegation system with the newbie mafias. Vote on game LVP's along with MVP's. Send the Newbie MVP's to the main games, and the LVP's down to the Newbie league.

[Ruki]

Let's just go as elite as possible and set up a promotion/relegation system with the newbie mafias. Vote on game LVP's along with MVP's. Send the Newbie MVP's to the main games, and the LVP's down to the Newbie league.

But how does that help out game runners like TEOL and Sousa run their games soner?

[Pizza]

I don't know? Only proven game runners can run the elite mafias. New runners and runners who suck have to run the newbie games.

This is a terrible idea.

[Plubby]

I think the problem starts with designers before players. Some players are just bad, and this is true. But I feel the vast majority of players fall into a category where if your role is poorly designed then you can only sustain your effort for so long.

EDIT: I don't mean some players are just bad...at mafia (although that is also true). Players who are bad at mafia isn't a bad thing in the abstract. I mean players who are bad at contributing and being active.

[Jimmy]

Could always bring back the poll so the one game people are excited for can run sooner.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

I do like modding newbie games. Id give up running other games to do that.