Player Slot and Game Census

[quadz08]

The mini theme games tend to be smaller than the maximum of 13, at an immediate glance.

Additionally, keep in mind that a lot of the players who would usually be in mini themes right now were probably playing Team Mafia.

[quadz08]

Zor, we need more regular data points to make something like this truly meaningful. There's too much potential for seasonal fluctuation / gamestart and end fluctuation / etc.

I'm willing to help you gather data on a more regular basis, if you'd like.

[quadz08]

Zor, we need more regular data points to make something like this truly meaningful. There's too much potential for seasonal fluctuation / gamestart and end fluctuation / etc.

I'm willing to help you gather data on a more regular basis, if you'd like.

I just want to reiterate this before we start discussing changes being made to our mod rules, etc. There is not enough information in this dataset to determine what it actually means.

[quadz08]

That's a fair point. I'd like to set up a regular (monthly?) data-gathering system regardless of whether or not changes are made now; are you interested?

I personally think that Large games in general have undergone a loss of popularity in recent months. Post quantity + game size has reached a tipping point where people are simply uninterested in playing huge games, regardless of flavor / mechanics. The only really huge games that still fill quickly are the ones that are very very big news (see Gay Mafia II, for example). Look at Mafiastuck, by Gorrad and I, or Politics Mafia, by Haylen and Jordan, for examples of very large games that took just ages to fill. People are realizing that with post quantity being what it is, a game with >20ish (threshold depends on the person, of course) just isn't worth the amount of reading that goes into it.

The point is that I don't think there's an undue lack of mods in the large theme queue; I think there's a lack of both mods and interested (and qualified, for those with experience requirements) players in the large theme.

[quadz08]

What I'm trying to say is that I think that both things are happening at once: players don't want to play large themes, and not a lot of mods are running them. This is actually the opposite of a problem.

[quadz08]

And what I'm saying is that I think the evidence more clearly points toward not enough mods at the moment because there are ZERO games in sign ups right now.

False.

That's a Large Normal. we were talking about Large Themes.

It's not a Normal, it's a Theme. The title just happens to include New York.

[quadz08]

If you want games that size, Bumi, you'll want to try the Micro queue. Most game days there are between 7-10 days.

[quadz08]

I also think that it's pretty clear that Large Normals are a Very Small Thing now, and I question the need for separate Large queues, looking at this data. I don't know how different the LT and LN listmod jobs are, so it's possible we need separate jobs just because of the separate responsibilities, but I definitely think this ought to be discussed.

[quadz08]

I mean, it's not like it's a huge deal to have the extra queue / listmod; it's not like we're paying someone to do it or anything. If it's more sensible to retain the separation, then leave it. *shrug* I just figured it was worth mentioning.

[quadz08]

I think mod requirements are as relaxed as they need to be (and honestly, I'd like to see them structured better, but we don't have the numbers to make my ideas feasible).

[quadz08]

I think a regularly enforceable game limit, regardless of how it's structured, isn't going to happen until automated signups are done.

[quadz08]

That said, I think UNLESS things are automated, a site-wide limit is very difficult to do.

This is pretty much my point. The benefit does not outweigh the cost.

[quadz08]

I agree with Zoraster.

[quadz08]

People who say "I'm in too many games, so I'm not going to join another" are already policing themselves. Good for them! We don't care about them from a policy-creating standpoint, as long as their personal limit is lower than the administrative limit we'd set.

These rules would have literally no effect on them.

Adding a sitewide game limit would be policing a fringe case, while simultaneously causing no harm to the majority of users.

[quadz08]

I'm not necessarily arguing in favor of a site-wide limit; I think that targeted limits on known trouble-users is probably a better solution anyway. I was more trying to further explain Zor's perspective, I think.

[quadz08]

Mods aren't running them anymore, because larges started having trouble filling. (I believe this stems from the whole EVERY LARGE IS 30 PLAYERS business that was happening a few months ago.)

[quadz08]

yayyyyyyyyyyyy

Also, looks like the micro queue levels are dropping. I wonder how much of that is affected by my intentional bottlenecking of the queue. (I only update 3 times a week, which makes a max of 6 new Micros per week. If I were to update every day, for example, I fully expect that number would jump to at least 9 Micros per week.)

[quadz08]

It was at first, and I suspect if I switched to "update queue every time a game fills" that we'd run out of mods within 2 weeks. At the moment, we keep a queue of about 5-8 games, which means you /in to mod and your game goes into signups about a week and a half later. I do it now partially to avoid draining the mod queue and partially to keep me sane. I like schedules.

[quadz08]

Both, from what I've seen. Large Normals aren't too popular as a general rule. (This is not based on any data.)

[quadz08]

There are plenty of mods, it's just a short queue.

It's also because a micro game is almost never going to be somebody's "baby," like a Large Theme (or even a Mini Theme or Large Normal sometimes) will be.