Scummies Ideas, Suggestions and Comments Thread

[hitogoroshi]

For excellent moderation, is the three-game minimum just "you have to have modded at least three games ever", or is it three games within 2016?

[zoraster]

3 games within 2016. Possible there might be some exception made for an ongoing game as a third?

[xRECKONERx]

I feel like team play is pretty integral to how the game is played regardless of alignment. no1 can do it on their own.

team play already considered for town award

next question? or will you continue ignoring every piece of reason thrown at you?

[SleepyKrew]

do people actually go out of their way to try to win awards on this site

[N]

I broke my thumb for an award!!!

[AngryPidgeon]

I was in the game that spawned that joke!

[AngryPidgeon]

Bonus: I was on the scum team whose Pt got outed!

[Davsto]

do people actually go out of their way to try to win awards on this site

I'd say some people would, from time to time, go out of their way to get a Kodak moment.

But not the others. When I specifically aim to play well as town or scum, my thought is always "I'm gonna play well to win this!" If I put a lot of effort into designing and modding a game, my thought is "I want to make this awesome game which people will enjoy!"

I never do it with the thought "wow, maybe if I do this well enough i'll get a scummy" and, in my opinion, you'll be hard pressed to find someone who does.

[Psyche]

do people actually go out of their way to try to win awards on this site

winning professor mafia was totally on my bucket list once

[Venmar]

I don't think people go out of their way to try to win awards on this site because people could have have a great performance or mod a great game and they could go unrecognized; in my experience a lot of people involved in these games don't care enough to nominate others, don't even know about the scummies, or it doesn't occur to them to do so. If someone takes their time to nominate someone, there's a chance it's because the nominee is well known or the person nominating is a friend of the nominee so idk, it does feel like a popularity contest at times.

[chamber]

I don't think people go out of their way to try to win awards on this site because people could have have a great performance or mod a great game and they could go unrecognized; in my experience a lot of people involved in these games don't care enough to nominate others, don't even know about the scummies, or it doesn't occur to them to do so. If someone takes their time to nominate someone, there's a chance it's because the nominee is well known or the person nominating is a friend of the nominee so idk, it does feel like a popularity contest at times.

Have you considered any measures to change that?

[Venmar]

We consider a lot of things, though a solution to something like that, not that i'm aware of. We unfortunately cannot have someone (or a team of people) look over every single finished game to see (objectively) if anyone was deserving of an award because that's a lot of to ask of someone or even a small group of people, so we just have to continue to hope that people nominate fairly and people recognize others for things they deserve to be nominated for regardless of the nominee's standing or reputation. Judging nominations themselves however is fair and objective and definitely not a popularity contest, so at least on that front we are covered.

[Faraday]

I dont think judging is objective. I mean everyone has different criteria for what good play is, after all.

[Venmar]

I meant that the Judges themselves try to approach the process objectively. Whether or not the awards themselves are or aren't objective is a whole different subject/beast, and some of our changes this year are aimed at addressing that actually!

[chamber]

Them attempting to approach it objectively doesn't make it objective. People are very easily biased.

[Psyche]

i feel like you guys take this too seriously
mafia is a game; the scummies should be fun
it seems like every year something silly about the whole deal is taken away

[Psyche]

also the updated scummies stuff should be linked to in the op
it's all hard to find now :(

[Venmar]

Them attempting to approach it objectively doesn't make it objective. People are very easily biased.

-shrug- Let me know when you figure out the solution to fixing normal human behaviour.

[chamber]

Them attempting to approach it objectively doesn't make it objective. People are very easily biased.

-shrug- Let me know when you figure out the solution to fixing normal human behaviour.

When you acknowledge it you can take measures to limit it. When you pretend like it doesn't exist you can't.

[Venmar]

We don't pretend it doesn't exist. I don't know what to tell you, the Committee in general is outspoken about the Judging process as a whole and combating bias and friends is something we have done our best to do when possible.

[Davsto]

On a different note, about how long into the year do the scummies ceremonies usually take place?

[Faraday]

Oscars weekend usually.

[xRECKONERx]

i feel like you guys take this too seriously
mafia is a game; the scummies should be fun
it seems like every year something silly about the whole deal is taken away

I'll counter that while the Scummies should be fun, they should actually feel like they matter, and they haven't in recent years.

[Psyche]

i mean i wish my ability to build really tall cones of frozen yogurt mattered but

[Untrod Tripod]

additional counterpoint: this hasn't been fun in the past few years and we hope the changes will make it so

additionally: it's hard to actually quantify "fun", so we're just trying to make it less of a sprawling mess where everything feels like a participation trophy and a metric fuckton of busywork