BriDynN: TWG's Community Initiative Project

[Brilliant Dynamite Neon]

Hey guys, I'm finally doing this!

If you didn't know, now you know: TWG on FFR is in a unique, unsure, transitory period. The activity in games has been all over the place, some questionable setups have been run, and the traditional style of FFR TWG has nearly disappeared; it's all far from a golden age. However, there are people as passionate as ever about this game and it's community, and want to work in it's best interests. At the same time, we are attracting a lot of new blood, bolstering our playerbase, and it's important that we are welcoming to them and provide them a good experience. It's quite heartwarming, but with that said, it's apparent that the TWG subforum is falling short in some areas.

We would do well to make some improvements and do some house cleaning around these forums, in order to both create more enjoyable experiences for those who are already active players, and expand our potential reach to more people. As comfortable as the status quo gets, sometimes old, inefficient institutions must make way for the new, and as a former TWC member and general steward of this community (that is very glad to see its revival), I feel that I must take up the charge once again and put forth some initiatives to make things better, more elegant, and more inviting for all. Of course, since these issues concern all players to some degree, it's fair -- indeed, essential -- to involve the whole community and welcome their opinions and ideas on such projects.

That is what this thread is for. Here, any proposal that people wish to put forth for the betterment of TWG shall be considered, discussed, and if it garners enough support by the community, I will work with the proposer and the local moderators if necessary to try and make it happen.

ON THE TABLE

1. Host Signups Reform

Proposed by: Brilliant Dynamite Neon

Now, I know people here aren't dumb. They are mostly capable of making good decisions, and have the capacity to look at things critically and spot potential problems. But that ability seems to have fallen by the wayside on several occasions when choosing the game to be hosted. Now I'm aware a lot of things can potentially be to blame for that. But personally, I feel that the biggest culprit is the antiquated way in which host signups are run.

The current system is messy and how it works does not match up with its apparent aims -- to let the community decide the best, most sound game to host. It has near-zero regulation, gives little incentive for prospective hosts to think in depth about their games, gives even less incentive for prospective players to do so, and is hardly democratic. I would think it obvious that a lack of organization in host sign-ups is simply not conducive to careful consideration, especially when a mere 5 votes is apparently enough to decide the victor and completely close off the discussion (which really hurts its inclusiveness as well.) As such, people usually don't have much time to form any "reads" on the game's possibilities, and those who simply couldn't be there are just screwed.

In addition, the low amount of votes needed in combination with the lack of a decisive voting period leaves host signups vulnerable to "hype wagons", where tons of people rushvote someone's game because it has a cool story/theme or other superficial appeal, or grips people with a unique concept. The extremely short time frame in which the decision is made...well, for one, it doesn't include the community very much, and two, it's bad for people actually looking at the game and thinking critically about it. This can come back to bite us when we vote in a setup that turns out to have major issues down the road, but it's perfectly allowable under the current system, and thus people once thought it was acceptable. Even with increasing awareness recently, usually by the time something imbalanced is discovered, the game is already underway and everyone tends to suffer for it (TWG CIV majorly, TWG CV to a lesser degree)

So, how can we change Host Signups to resolve these kinds of issues?

My idea is to run host signups in 2 stages, a very simplified version of my previous idea:

PROPOSAL STAGE - This is where hosts post their game writeups, and things are open for questions and feedback as per usual. What is unusual is that nobody votes at this stage.

VOTING STAGE - This is where people may vote on the game setups as usual, only there is an expected time frame for voting now. There is no "insta-host"; whichever has the most votes by deadline gets picked. (And of course if there is a tie we can hold a shorter second round of voting.)

IMO the stages should last at least 2 days each, but this is open to discussion. I think 2 days/3 days is a good boilerplate.

I think a system like this one addresses the problems on several levels. In general, it's a process designed to make people think about their participation in host signups as both voter and host.

TOPICS FOR DEBATE:
– Ideal length of the stages
– Sufficiency of the in-thread discussion to ensure balance (linked to Proposal 4, Bring Back The Workshop)

2. New History Threads

Proposed by: Brilliant Dynamite Neon

As evidenced, this is already being worked on, starting with the mainline games. Once that thread is finished, I will work on the history of jTWGs too.

While I'm mentioning it, I would like to again call attention to thesunfan who is being a huge help. He is working from the most recent games down and his pace is putting me to shame. I am very thankful for him.

Anyways, chronicling the history of games is obviously important. Those who don’t learn their history are doomed to repeat it! There can be learning experiences on all fronts by looking through past games, people can learn what did and didn't work in the past, and why. Also, when someone refers to a past game, someone can quickly look it up and find out what they're talking about.

TOPICS FOR DEBATE:
– BDN being a lazy bastard and not updating

3. A New, Comprehensive Beginner's Guide and Knowledgebase

Proposed by: Brilliant Dynamite Neon

Okay, I'm not one to demean others' work, and there's no doubt both parties were very sincere and great in their intentions. But frankly, I feel that both of the current "Beginner's Guides" in TWG are very inadequate. StoicRoivas' is very surface level and doesn't get into how players actually conduct themselves in game, while rzr's is awkward and scattershot (despite his attempts to actually characterize a game), grabbing for too many things, including stuff such as Items and Conversions that have no place in an introduction to TWG.

I am currently working on an outline for a new guide that should be much more helpful than either of the above two, and also a system of community contributions, such as articles and game commentaries, that can serve as further teaching tools.

Manti, I have made a general outline of topics I want covered with some scribblings of my own in some places; contact me if you still want to see and/or collaborate on this.

4. Bring Back The Workshop

Proposed by: Brilliant Dynamite Neon

No matter what type of game you are running, balance is crucial, and is the center of discussion in any Host Signup thread. This is common sense: the more balanced a game is, the more the outcome of the game will depend on the skill of the players, therefore the more enjoyable it will be for the players. This concern is especially dire for mystery games, which by design can only be run once, and will turn out to be a massive disappointment if it's balance is poor.

The crucial question is, is discussion in the thread good enough to balance games?

The easiest answer is that it depends on the game in question. And to me that alone is enough to warrant a dedicated place for game review. Some games have mechanics or role combinations that people can't grasp the full consequences of in the time given. Some people just don't think their games are ready and want to get them looked over before they visit them on the unwitting playerbase. Every case is different and it is important that there is a resource available for people who think their games need directed/intensive review.

I will be collecting arguments on both sides for this issue.

5. A Place For General TWG Related Discussion

Proposed by: Brilliant Dynamite Neon

This is pretty simple. People want to discuss TWG! They want to talk about events in past games, they want to talk general theory and role/game ideas, they want to know people's opinion on good Serial Killer play...the list is endless. The obvious problem? We have no place to do so. Everything in here is a Game Thread, or a Signup Thread, or a Postgame thread; none of these welcome discussion, and when there is such discussion it is not organized at all. Having a subforum would take care of these issues. Recently, Zageron was requested to help us out in this regard, which resulted in the move to a main forum and the addition of a test subforum, so it looks like we're on track to do this?

Danceguy, can I get an update on this, I believe it is you who contacted me about plans to have archive/discussion subforums.

6. jTWG?

Proposed by: Jurs, others



(but I'll get to this later.)

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So if you have any commentary on the above ideas, go ahead! Or maybe even propose your own idea, and I can add it to the OP for consideration? I hope to make this thread pretty much an open forum for you guys -- a sort of suggestion box for the community at large to consider.

Fire away!