dodging posting restrictions

[Karo]

I noticed this in a lot of games: Once players have posting restrictions, they tend to creatively find new ways to avoid them.

Most people turn to morse code. On this site this is tolerated. But doesn't it somehow go against the spirit of the rule to morse? Since so many people use it, it's also not innovative enough anymore to let it slide imho. I'd like to hear opinions from you about this.

[Dragon Phoenix]

If I am the mod and a player tries this, he or she is modkilled. Harsh maybe, but fully in the spirit of the game.

[GreenLiquid]

In one of the 10 or so 'setups' sitting in my documents, that comes up and I would allow it. The player will have to decide to either not post and gather suspicion, or go through the trouble of doing it so he/she can talk.

[rajrhcpfreak]

i would make restrictions where they couldnt..

like only one vote and unvote in a post...

and then no double posting when you can only vote.

[BabyJesus]

I don't like posting restrictions. You WANT people to participate, making a game mechanic that inhibits that is bad.

[mith]

There *are* posting restrictions that encourage participation, but in general I agree with you.

[rajrhcpfreak]

There *are* posting restrictions that encourage participation, but in general I agree with you.

like my game

[Thok]

The spirit of posting restrictions should allow a player a chance to be subtle and hide the restriction until needed. I liked Cadmium's restriction in Muppet Mafia-he had a task each day that he had to accomplish in each post in order to become unnightkillable, and he did a decent job of hiding that fact (I didn't realize he was posted restricted until he claim it, and even on rereading it is difficult to determine what his daily post restriction is unless you know what you are looking for).

I'm sort of disappointed that I missed Mostly Mute Mafia, that seemed to be a fun game.

Drat it, now I want to go run a Haiku mafia game.

[Mgm]

I was in Mostly Mute Monk. And let me tell you, while fun to play, the 2-word restriction was a pain in the you-know-what...

[MeMe]

Agreed, Mgm. Frustration in every post. Damn Leonidas.

I'd be completely blindsided if I got modkilled for loopholing a restriction. I think that if the mod doesn't give you a list of modkillable offenses in your role PM (or restriction PM) then

not

doing everything in your power to communicate while adhering to the letter of the restriction is just lazy. I think every player has a

duty

to communicate (and therefore participate) to the best of their ability.

[Coron]

If I mind you comunicating dispite your restriction I will put something like DO NOT TRY TO LOOPHOLE THIS RESTRICTION OR YOU MAY BE SUBJECT TO MODKILL.

But then again, I probably won't ever use that unless it's something as simple as the morse code thing, I like to promote creativity.

[Stewie]

The whole point of posting restrictions is to make the player think how to get around it. If you disallow them to get around it, you might aswell not let them post.

[AniX]

the best way to avoid posting restrictions is the vote for people and unvote people repeatively, bolding only certain letters, thus spelling words. Its so good, in fact, I'm calling it "AniX's Stolen from the Amish Theory of Posting Restrictions".

[halo freak]

I totally agree with DP, it isn't in the spirt of the game to try and find as many loopholes as you can.

[Aelyn]

I'm perfectly OK with looking for loopholes, but I will double-check with the mod that it's OK before using it. If I ask if there's any restrictions other than what (s)he's said, and (s)he says no, I take that as me being allowed to post whatever I want within those rules. I think it really depends on the flavour - if someone's drugged, for instance, it makes sense to be harsh on restrictions, but if they're gagged or have lost their voice, they'd still try to communicate as well as possible despite that.

Basically, I think the thing to do when you have a restriction is to ask the mod whether to obey the letter or the spirit of the rules. If I want a restriction to be obeyed in the spirit, I'll normally put that in the PM, but I can see why others wouldn't.

[VisMaior]

I dont like restrictions in the form of "you cannot post more than 1 post" or something like that. It really is a break for the game. I like the restrictions like this "you have to suck up to a player of your choosing the whole game or be modkilled" or something like that. That generates discussion, instead of stopping it.

[Seol]

I dont like restrictions in the form of "you cannot post more than 1 post" or something like that. It really is a break for the game. I like the restrictions like this "you have to suck up to a player of your choosing the whole game or be modkilled" or something like that. That generates discussion, instead of stopping it.

Tha'ts really harsh, actually, because it's subjective. Anything which could result in a modkill should really be as objective a measure as possible.

[VisMaior]

Tha'ts really harsh, actually, because it's subjective.

Yeam but it still can be fun. I have seen worse... (like "dont be stupid" mafia)

[Stewie]

How's "don't be stupid mafia?" harsher than "you can only post once"? Sure, you needed three smart posts per day, and you couldn't say anything stupid (which translated to a very short game ) but it's still very linient as opposed to only one post.

[the silent speaker]

I think he means harsher in terms of subjectivity. I also think it depends on the nature of the loophole; IIRC in Points Mafia MeMe bought a post restriction that allowed only smilies and got around it by making a cipher of them. (I wasn't in that game, only read it, so I could have any or all details wrong.) As a mod, I would probably have stopped that, because it defeats the whole idea of the restriction, which is to convey what you want by way of the emoticons rather than by what amounts to writing in an emoticon-based font; but if she found a site with twenty million custom smilies and used those, that I would have allowed even if I initially meant for the smilies to be limited to the line under the Fast Reply screen.

Here's a post-restricted role I thought of: the Rising Politician (pro-town). During each game day, he must make at least one statement which is game-related and provably false (phrasing it in the form of a question or an opinion doesn't count, because it is not provably false that such is your opinion at the time of posting) or be modkilled; if he meets the restriction, he is given a doc-protect, a cop investigation, and a vig kill of which he can use any, none, or all as he wishes. Balanced? Unplayable? Thoughts?

[Mr. Flay]

Sounds very hard to balance, tss, because early in the game it's hard to prove/disprove statements that are false, and would depend on the definition of "game-related" - would "miscounting" a player's # of posts count? How about typing a list of players in the game, and misspelling one person's name? But by the time anybody else knows what's going on, the player's amassed a LOT of power. And if you balance the game assuming this player will be there, what happens when they're nightkilled sheerly by accident N1? Now all of your scum are out of whack...

On the other hand, I agree that posting restrictions designed to *stifle* conversation are less useful than ones which modify/distort conversation.... but I'd probably still modkill someone who evaded the spirit of it (after a warning, depending on the offense). Posting restrictions are very meta, anyway, because the moderator has to make the decision to enforce them, or not...

[Iammars]

I like creating posting restrictions that allow the player to talk, but make it hard to, whether I'm the mod or the player in question...

[VisMaior]

I like postrestrictions that are not inherently in the role, instead that are consequences of actions, and can be avoided by careful play.

[halo freak]

I like the idea of the smiles!

[Thoth]

I don't like posting restrictions. You WANT people to participate, making a game mechanic that inhibits that is bad.

I agree completely with this.
Maybe in part because I'm completely unable to follow posting restrictions. I've (unintentionally) broken every one I've had.