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Game longevity/quality:Predicting.

   
I'm not going to quote them all but a lot of replies seem to put store by number of posts. I think part of where I was coming from originally was how it seemed a blunt tool. When you only have a blunt tool and you're new to the site it's difficult to make choices.

I was suggesting that some way of recording peer views of reliability seemed more appropriate. I am aware that means someone has to start modifying bits of the site which were never meant to behave in such ways. I guess the comments reaally illustrate the many different ways there are of using it, blunt though it is. I accept that peer views on reliability are also likely to seem unfair sometimes because of RL issues. I was going to put some sort of conclusion that it's a good idea despite this. I'm not so sure now though.


There are of course problems with the way some game adverts are apparently abandoned, some really are and others just appear to be because the DM only informed the people who were successful.
Either by PM or using private text, I've seen both. I really hope the new game ad system will go some way to dealing with some of these problems.

And as this thread has menaderd around I'll cover this.
The word association thread, being used to increase posting rates. Sorry, I just don,t buy it. Anyone who gave it more than two minutes thought could come up with a far more efective way than using that. (I won't post the method just in case it encourages anyone but I reckon you could manage about 600-800 posts an hour if you were half asleep).

Right, but people regularly post on said thread, in some cases, more than they post elsewhere, and doing so isn't considered bad form in the site. It's an entertaining thread, but said thread is not, at all, a reference to a players reliability. Same with people, such as myself, who actually play no games on the site, but instead post in the general discussion threads, just for entertainment.

Quote:
I'm not going to quote them all but a lot of replies seem to put store by number of posts
There's also the possibility to search for all threads or post started by a particular user.
If unsure about a prospective DM, a quick search can give you another estimation - and it reveals whether those 7000 posts are just from said thread.
(Of course, checking the search result is going to take some time for a 1000+ post count...).

The whole peer review thing is already there. I can't believe that nobody has expanded on this already. It's not quite ideal because it can be difficult to see what POV things are coming from. I shall investigate and post more on this tomorrow.

EDIT: delayed, more on saturday

Hmmm... for me, I'd say the first thing is detail. Detail about the campaign, detail about guidelines within the campaign, detail is very important, and not just because I have a detail oriented mind. The more detailed the ad, the more likely it is to catch my interest. I might be looking for something specific, or I might not. I do have certain guidelines of things I look for. Not gonna elaborate because not having it doesn't make it wrong, just not well suited to me. Either way. But a one liner (proverbial or otherwise) is going to detract from my interest.

Once the campaign is set up, the next important thing is to start things off on a high note. While that interest is building, it is sensitive. Keep things moving. Grab the player's attention with something intense, asap. After this initial period, things are more stable. You don't have to try so hard then but if it takes a while for anything of note to start happening, it detracts from the interest. The simplest way is with a combat, even if it's a mock or otherwise nonlethal one. See: Barfight. It isn't the only way though. For me, I look for a balanced approach. Sometimes, I want nice long detailed interactions with PCs and NPCs. Sometimes, I want a big weapon in my hand and an enemy skull to bury it in. I consider myself good at the flavor and mechanical aspects of the game, so one alone is only half the fun. Balance. Way I see it - hack and slash is done better by video games, so if I want pure combat I can just pop in a CD/DVD and go at it.

I give little weight to post counts though. I am all too familiar with the power of spam, and just because someone is new to this forum does not mean they are new to this style of gaming, or D&D itself. I am living proof of this. Granted, slightly under a year is still new in many of your eyes, but I am an incredibly fast learner. It's not what time you have, but how you use it. Needless to say, I do not consider myself new in any sense but the relative one.

Also, quality of posts is paramount. I haven't really seen anyone here that 'talkz liek this lolz' though. In fact, everyone I've seen has been of a high quality. Whether this is because of a high grade community, simple luck, or a mix of these two things I don't know. It probably helps most gaming communities are primarily populated by younger people (15-) whereas this one is mostly adults - who are well into adulthood at that.

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whereas this one is mostly adults - who are well into adulthood at that.
Certainly a lot of the fantastic people I've got to know over the past few weeks not only aren't kids but have kids of their own.

Not that I have anything against playing with younger players. Some seriously high quality RP comes from younger players on this site.

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Originally Posted by Plugsy View Post
Certainly a lot of the fantastic people I've got to know over the past few weeks not only aren't kids but have kids of their own.

Not that I have anything against playing with younger players. Some seriously high quality RP comes from younger players on this site.
Indeed. But where lies the cutoff? Many here would consider me young (22) and comparatively, I am. But when I'm not deliberately goofing off I'm quite mature for my age, many have a hard time noticing or guessing right as a result. Overall though, the traits I've found to be less than desirable are more common among the younger ones.

On a random note, it'll be a few years, minimum before I have any children. First I have to find the right person as that's something I don't take lightly at all. But that's a different topic altogether so I'll leave it at that.

The question isn't just age, but perceived maturity. There are teenage players on this site that I would have assumed to be in their 20's at least until I looked at their profile one day.

The use of something that can at least pass for proper English (or a reasonable attempt at it by a non-native) helps a lot. And that sort of thing is self-selecting. Every now and then someone shows up who doesn't follow that 'rule'. And what happens? First of all, they notice that nobody else posts like that. Perhaps that inspires them to do better, perhaps not. If not, a second thing kicks in. They don't get into games. Either they leave the site or they (rarely) figure it out and change.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Plugsy View Post
I reckon you could manage about 600-800 posts an hour if you were half asleep.
*Lays his money on the table*


I got ten bucks, old man...

On a combat in any tabletop game, it is very intruding and exciting if the game is going at a good pace. Every second matters. Every action matters. Every emotion matters.

On the contrary, PbP gaming is a very slow going style. Usually, the game is proceeded at a rate of one or two posts a day for the average often-visiting members. For the casual players, it could be one post per three days. One post with a set of dice rolls, and another follow-up to counteract the post, and it can take potentially a month to finish up a normal-scaled battle.

There is one advantage of this slowness in battle, though: You get a lot more time to think about tactics and possibly surprising actions. You move can be as precise as you want it to be.

However, most of the time, players would prefer a slightly more weighted game in RPing, in comparison to combat. Of course, you don't want to play for a month in a game just to kill some bandits, right? That's not fun for such duration at all. As an agreement to Roy's post above, and as an expansion to his comments, PbP is really better for deep and interactive roleplaying with expressive descriptions and action sentences. Hack and slash is not as so.

That said, it is difficult to keep up the "excitement" in combat in a PbP gametable, compared to the fact that on tabletop you are interacting with the battle face to face, instant to instant.

What I wanted to say was, a game with poor battle management can go down quickly. It is a huge pause on the game pace.

Solutions vary. I do know some DM/GM's actually arrange a posting fest time with their players, and just get the battle done in a day. It works if the arrangement can be made.

I myself use another method. I try to keep my battles interesting by making them unique. Unique, not with different monsters in DM disguise, but different sceneries and situations. A battle, if forced, can take place at any given situation. Ending a battle is another story.

In short, I keep my battle environment useful and useable. That means, if there is anything particular to the area, I will try and make them as part of combat. The most commonly used examples would be the Cover in the D&D 3.5e rules. Very nice and very helpful in a combat. Focusing on strategy instead of how much damage your character can dish out in one shot is usually the best deal in my experience.




 

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