I've read through TWGs and the jTWG and the ideas threads for both, and I personally LOVE the idea of jTWG and TWG both. But I see some thought process that is making jTWG slow and barely pales in comparison to a TWG, and I see things that make it so jTWG will never get that many members.
TWG has a lot of avid users, and a lot of intelligence going on, and as you can see from the jTWG the first game was pretty bad. It was slow, there wasn't much deep thought or attempts to make things smarter going on. The win of the humans was absolute luck in my opinion.
Now, I can see it getting better, but not with the current set-up because:
1. People can't be in TWG and jTWG at the same time. Part of this (since there will also be two running at the same time) leaves a lot of the complex TWG-routined thinkers out of the game. Where do new players learn from except the people who have their own TWG style and good thought-process. The best way to get a feel for the game is not reading through TWG, but playing with complex players and putting in an arguement or thought, and seeing reactions from developed-TWG-minds.
Another part of me can see the flipside of this thought, in the fact that if you allowed jTWG and TWG to have the same people, it WOULD just be the same avidly adamant players.
2. Secondly, jTWG needs to have reward banners. Probably the smartest thing to do would be to have the same banners, but different colored bubbles for jTWG. I'd have to say that jTWG NEEDS to have new users come through, so the games overall get more variation and don't start to get totally based on personality and past games. Not much variation, but a little is good.
Of course there will be, but what I foresee with this new usergroup is not as many new players coming. Thus, I think a smart thing to do would be to get jTWG banners, or add jTWG bubbles to the banners, because this gets more banners seen on the forum, and more users see these prestigious signatures and say "I want to be a part of that." or "He's a cool forum-user, I want to be like him/her."
3. Considering it seems there is some opinion that you should have to play in a jTWG before you can play in a TWG (I've seen it, I don't know if this is a well-liked idea, or even noted idea, but it IS logical...) and since jTWG doesn't look to have promising popularity if a person can't be in jTWG and TWG at the same time, as well as the fact that the first game bit the big one. It looks like it's live may be shortlived, and then there would definately be less new players in TWGs (which would be bad for me to say the least
)
I can understand if a veteran TWGer wouldn't want to have new players that much because it would take down some of the high-level and layered thought processes in the game, but on the flipside not knowing EVERYONE's personality probably does add a lot to the required input and keeps some variety. Additionally, not everyone is going to be able to stay interested and avid forever, and if there is no new members then by law of human nature it will die. (This is pure speculation and thinking much farther into the future, though true if my postulations have validity...)
In light of these two things, I think having TWG and jTWG signatures by people who play even if they haven't won any games is also a smart thing to do by all users who play them. (Albeit this is not related to the topic at hand is a sidebar of opinion. Don't take a note of this when contemplating the overall structure of jTWG and it's correspondence to TWG)
I understand that I am new here, so my opinion is
probably next-to-worthless, but I must say that I can see three simple things that would probably help out jTWG a lot, and subsequently, help out aspiring TWGers a lot.
1.) Allow and encourage jTWG to have some "esteemed" or "veteran" players even if they are in another game. Someone who will FOR SURE try to raise the intelligence level of the game (Like Tass, who I must say even though I am new here, is a genius at this game). Keep it ratio'd so there is still more new players than not, but I think having good players with a good feel for the game and good logic (even if they are playing in another game) would be fair.
Additionally, I think part of the jTWG should for sure have people who have never signed up before. This keeps new people experimenting and trying the game and seeing if it is a good hobby for them to get into.
Something like, 2 veteran players (even if they are in the other TWG), 2 completey brand-new players, and the rest is anyone (unless they are in the other TWG).
2.) Make sure there is a requirement for jTWG players to have read ONE FULL TWG and jTWG BEFORE PLAYING It's a requirement for TWG, it should be the same for jTWG (Edit: I see that it is, but I think it should be stated in EVERY Sign-Up thread). This way people have SOME idea of how it works and the game cannot have fallacies such as "He didn't follow the rules, he's a wolf" and stupid things like that (which actually did appear). THATS NOT INTELLIGENT! THATS NOT PREPERATION FOR TWG! That's just giving wolves an easy win and takes 0.00% intelligence to pull off.
Lest, some people will still sign up and not follow the requirements but by requiring it, it is less likely, and thus, the game has a better probability of actually being good.
3.) Lastly, in lieu of the current sign-up rule, and correlation with the former ideas,
Make "You must have played 1 jTWG/TWG game before to join a TWG" a finalized thought and requirement for TWGs. This makes it so jTWGs have more signifigance and members, and TWGs keep their high-veteran-desired-thinking-level. Nothing changes for the old players, just the new.
Overally I can see the fallacies in my own ideas, but I can see some good in them. If I thought they were perfect I would have made this a PM instead, but I can see they are not, and therefore made a thread about it to make further inquisition.
Charlotte