Codeskull's DRG Experiences, Thoughts, and Opinions
Oct 25, 2016 21:55:52 GMT -6
Jay Braavs and Hosh like this
Post by Codeskull on Oct 25, 2016 21:55:52 GMT -6
>Obligatory RIP AFK status
>Here, have some music while reading. You're going to need it.
[/b]
Hi. I'm Codeskull, a moderator on this here site. I've been here for slightly over a year now (2015-08-21), and a moderator since this previous winter (I forget the exact date.)
Many of you already know me, of course, but due to my lack of activity on the site for about 3 months now, many don't. While I have stayed in "I'm not quite dead!" status in the Skype groups, due to IRL time commitments I haven't been at all active on the site. So to those of you seeing a new post of mine for the first time, have a belated "Welcome to the site!".
This site's been going through a rough patch. In fact, I believe it's been happening since February of this year. I'd like to put forth my experience with DRG to show what I've learned in my time, and put forth my beliefs on what makes an ideal Game.
All of the following is how I personally feel about DRG's state. In no way does it necessarily reflect how any of the other staff members, previous or current, feel about DRG.
Back in August of last year, I played my first Game: Game 42. For those of you interested (So likely none of you),here's some links. There are too many links. It's on page 9 of the previous trials board if you really are interested.
Game 42 was, and still is, the most fun game (Not just DRG Games, all Games) I've played in my life. I spent hours trying to put evidence together to solve the mystery that had been put forth; In total, I probably spent at least 24 hours pondering, scrutinizing, and theorizing over the course of 11 days.
I joined the Skype Group during either Trial or Deadly Life 3 of that Game. I became quite good friends with the Skype Group over the course of time, and we've had quite a few fun escapades outside of the Games. Over the course of a single Game, I came to love both this site and the community.
In both Games 43 and 44, I was the first victim. You know that rule about not being able to die first two Games in a row? That rule was implemented because of me.
Game 46 had a problem. Indrid Cold (Nova) introduced the "Game of Change" add-on (which was voted for in a Sign-Ups poll), which made it so the Blackened changed after each trial. After the second trial, Cold prematurely ended his Game due to popular demand. The players did not enjoy that they only had 1 trial to win a Game in a system that usually took multiple trials to win. Personally, I did not enjoy the Game because each trial was essentially it's own 1-trial Game, except you needed to live through the previous "Game" to participate in it. I do not know if others felt this way at the time, but after dying first in two of my 5 Games, I especially did.
Games 47-50 went without incident. Game 51, however, once again used the Game of Change add-on. Game 51, once again, was ended prematurely. This is when I feel the site started to crumble; In an unrelated incident, around the time, the member Hitomi left the site.I'm not going to stop waiting for you, Hitomi. I'm still keeping your chocolate milk cold and your glasses pushable.
If Game 51 was the tilting point, Game 52 was without a doubt the nail in the coffin. Cold and Yosuke paired up for the annual birthday Game. They were hosting 2 different Games, which they then connected via clever ways. The Game itself was a fun one. The issue here is that while Sign-Ups were posted on January 25th, the first Deadly Life didn't go up until Februrary 15th, and the Final Results didn't come until March 13th. The month-and-a-half of complete lack of Games for new players to sign up for was ridiculous.
I tried to make up for this long period of time by hosting my first Game immediately after. While I attempted to make my Game as short as possible, I learned the large time commitment of being a host, and was unable to hold myself to the short 11 days that Game 42 took. It was also in this Game that I first made people include personal details about their character in the form of hand dominance and height category, which I feel was a good way to eliminate suspects after thorough investigations of crime scenes; I didn't have to hand feed the players, and it wasn't a ridiculous challenge.
I honestly barely remember Games 53-59 (save Akira Day, a lovely Game of AFK host). What I do know is around Game 55, Yosuke left the site (April 6th). Enter the System Overhaul period. For the next few months, the mods had on-again-off-again discussions about how to better our Game system. We all had different ideas we wanted to test, all in hopes of fixing our fractured site. Games 56-58 were all last minute hosts who wanted to host under the then current system (As I like to call it, v2.0).
Enter Game 60, and DRG v3.0.
You'll note, looking at the previous trial board, that there is no Game 60. Game 60 was intended to be the trial Game for Cold's new system. It was never finished. I had tried to host a one-off whilst waiting for it to be continues, using the rules I wanted. I also never finished my Game due to AFK.
I haven't really been on the site since then. I'm not quite sure what the contents of Games 61-65 are. What I have gathered is that they all seem to have their own rule sets, loosely based around Aqua's update ideas (Game 59, I was actually there). I don't know what the quality of the Games has been like. What I do know is that they're taking wayyyyyy too long.
(These include Sign-Up times.)
Game 61: 1 trial, 5 days.
Game 62: 3 trials, 23 days.
Game 63: RIP Game 63
Game 64: 3 trials, 14 days.
Game 65(1&2): 1 trial+, 14+ days.
I believe the biggest problem, one that has been plaguing our site since February, is the longevity of these Games. People lose both interest and focus over these amounts of times. This is the first reason I believe we need to revert back to DRG v2.0.
To clarify for those who have never played a v2.0 Game, it consists of the following phases:
Sign-Ups: Usually 24, 48, or 72 hours. Depends on when the Host will be ready to start hosting.
Blackened Plan: 24 hours. Starting immediately after Sign-Ups, the Blackened is chosen, and they have 24 hours to send the host their murder plan. Sometimes takes longer due to needing to re-roll the Blackened.
Deadly Life: 24 hours. The Monokuma Files on the crime are released. Everyone then investigates and receives their results.
Trial: Easily the best 24 hours of any Game. You should all know how the Trial phase works.
Results: Trial results. This is when the Blackened receives another 24 hours to create a new murder plan, assuming the Game continues. Rinse and repeat from Deadly Life at the end of this phase until the Game is over.
If we were to stick exactly to this time schedule, a Game takes (x)+3(y) days to complete, where x is the number of days Sign-Ups is and y is the number of trials. For example, a 1 day sign-up with 4 trials should take 13 days - almost 2 weeks, and very likely to be 2 weeks with any scheduling conflicts from the host.
Games with the Daily Life phase make this impossible. Depending on the player size, hosts have to process anywhere from 60 to 120 actions from players, all being sent in at various IRL times, but all being chronological in game time, which means each action may-or-may-not be impacted by another person's action. I believe it's impossible for anyone on this site to accurately process all of this as a host, and to also do literally anything outside of stay home and be on DRG on the same day. This leads to long Daily Life phases, which leads to really long Games, which leads to loss of interest and activity.
Time issues aren't the only problem with Daily phases. My biggest complaint with Daily Life is that it takes far too much power away from the Blackened.
DRG Games, at their core, are about solving a mystery. There are 3 key components in this, all in the form of one of the Game's participants:
Blackened: The Blackened's job is to create a murder mystery. Plain and simple. They can make the mystery as cryptic, unrealistic, or unsolvable as they want. Blackened "God Mode" goes a long way in making this happen, and is necessary for the Blackened to do their job.
Host: The Host's first job is to make the Blackened's mystery solvable. Whether it's done by leaving evidence, making the Blackened commit a mistake, or some other form, the Host has to make the players able to win, without making it too easy. The Host does this via the investigation phase by revealing crucial evidences to players who have investigated the proper places.
Players: The Players' job is to solve the mystery. This is done via investigating rooms in hopes of finding evidence, and then linking the evidence together in a trial to paint the picture of "Whodunnit". The old investigation phase, however, needed work. Finding the right rooms to investigate were far too luck-reliant. Originally, this is what the System Overhaul was supposed to fix, but it got way off track.
In DRG v3.0, Players are tasked with controlling where they are in the Daily Life. This both adds an unnecessary step to what Players should have to do, and takes a lot of power away from the Blackened, heavily limiting the mystery they can create. Hosts should never have to make a mystery harder to solve, to compensate or otherwise; If hosts make a mystery harder, they are essentially making it their own mystery, taking away the purpose of the Blackened.
...Wow, this is a long post. I was originally going to post this a responce to Hero's thread, but this evolved. I'm legit not even done. But it's been ~2 3/4 hours since I started, is now almost midnight, and I have to get up for work tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll remember everything else I want to say, and can continue this tomorrow.
TL;DR: Kuma! you you Kuma! go read my Kumaing! post.
>Here, have some music while reading. You're going to need it.
[/b]
Hi. I'm Codeskull, a moderator on this here site. I've been here for slightly over a year now (2015-08-21), and a moderator since this previous winter (I forget the exact date.)
Many of you already know me, of course, but due to my lack of activity on the site for about 3 months now, many don't. While I have stayed in "I'm not quite dead!" status in the Skype groups, due to IRL time commitments I haven't been at all active on the site. So to those of you seeing a new post of mine for the first time, have a belated "Welcome to the site!".
This site's been going through a rough patch. In fact, I believe it's been happening since February of this year. I'd like to put forth my experience with DRG to show what I've learned in my time, and put forth my beliefs on what makes an ideal Game.
All of the following is how I personally feel about DRG's state. In no way does it necessarily reflect how any of the other staff members, previous or current, feel about DRG.
Back in August of last year, I played my first Game: Game 42. For those of you interested (So likely none of you),
Game 42 was, and still is, the most fun game (Not just DRG Games, all Games) I've played in my life. I spent hours trying to put evidence together to solve the mystery that had been put forth; In total, I probably spent at least 24 hours pondering, scrutinizing, and theorizing over the course of 11 days.
I joined the Skype Group during either Trial or Deadly Life 3 of that Game. I became quite good friends with the Skype Group over the course of time, and we've had quite a few fun escapades outside of the Games. Over the course of a single Game, I came to love both this site and the community.
In both Games 43 and 44, I was the first victim. You know that rule about not being able to die first two Games in a row? That rule was implemented because of me.
Game 46 had a problem. Indrid Cold (Nova) introduced the "Game of Change" add-on (which was voted for in a Sign-Ups poll), which made it so the Blackened changed after each trial. After the second trial, Cold prematurely ended his Game due to popular demand. The players did not enjoy that they only had 1 trial to win a Game in a system that usually took multiple trials to win. Personally, I did not enjoy the Game because each trial was essentially it's own 1-trial Game, except you needed to live through the previous "Game" to participate in it. I do not know if others felt this way at the time, but after dying first in two of my 5 Games, I especially did.
Games 47-50 went without incident. Game 51, however, once again used the Game of Change add-on. Game 51, once again, was ended prematurely. This is when I feel the site started to crumble; In an unrelated incident, around the time, the member Hitomi left the site.
If Game 51 was the tilting point, Game 52 was without a doubt the nail in the coffin. Cold and Yosuke paired up for the annual birthday Game. They were hosting 2 different Games, which they then connected via clever ways. The Game itself was a fun one. The issue here is that while Sign-Ups were posted on January 25th, the first Deadly Life didn't go up until Februrary 15th, and the Final Results didn't come until March 13th. The month-and-a-half of complete lack of Games for new players to sign up for was ridiculous.
I tried to make up for this long period of time by hosting my first Game immediately after. While I attempted to make my Game as short as possible, I learned the large time commitment of being a host, and was unable to hold myself to the short 11 days that Game 42 took. It was also in this Game that I first made people include personal details about their character in the form of hand dominance and height category, which I feel was a good way to eliminate suspects after thorough investigations of crime scenes; I didn't have to hand feed the players, and it wasn't a ridiculous challenge.
I honestly barely remember Games 53-59 (save Akira Day, a lovely Game of AFK host). What I do know is around Game 55, Yosuke left the site (April 6th). Enter the System Overhaul period. For the next few months, the mods had on-again-off-again discussions about how to better our Game system. We all had different ideas we wanted to test, all in hopes of fixing our fractured site. Games 56-58 were all last minute hosts who wanted to host under the then current system (As I like to call it, v2.0).
Enter Game 60, and DRG v3.0.
You'll note, looking at the previous trial board, that there is no Game 60. Game 60 was intended to be the trial Game for Cold's new system. It was never finished. I had tried to host a one-off whilst waiting for it to be continues, using the rules I wanted. I also never finished my Game due to AFK.
I haven't really been on the site since then. I'm not quite sure what the contents of Games 61-65 are. What I have gathered is that they all seem to have their own rule sets, loosely based around Aqua's update ideas (Game 59, I was actually there). I don't know what the quality of the Games has been like. What I do know is that they're taking wayyyyyy too long.
(These include Sign-Up times.)
Game 61: 1 trial, 5 days.
Game 62: 3 trials, 23 days.
Game 63: RIP Game 63
Game 64: 3 trials, 14 days.
Game 65(1&2): 1 trial+, 14+ days.
I believe the biggest problem, one that has been plaguing our site since February, is the longevity of these Games. People lose both interest and focus over these amounts of times. This is the first reason I believe we need to revert back to DRG v2.0.
To clarify for those who have never played a v2.0 Game, it consists of the following phases:
Sign-Ups: Usually 24, 48, or 72 hours. Depends on when the Host will be ready to start hosting.
Blackened Plan: 24 hours. Starting immediately after Sign-Ups, the Blackened is chosen, and they have 24 hours to send the host their murder plan. Sometimes takes longer due to needing to re-roll the Blackened.
Deadly Life: 24 hours. The Monokuma Files on the crime are released. Everyone then investigates and receives their results.
Trial: Easily the best 24 hours of any Game. You should all know how the Trial phase works.
Results: Trial results. This is when the Blackened receives another 24 hours to create a new murder plan, assuming the Game continues. Rinse and repeat from Deadly Life at the end of this phase until the Game is over.
If we were to stick exactly to this time schedule, a Game takes (x)+3(y) days to complete, where x is the number of days Sign-Ups is and y is the number of trials. For example, a 1 day sign-up with 4 trials should take 13 days - almost 2 weeks, and very likely to be 2 weeks with any scheduling conflicts from the host.
Games with the Daily Life phase make this impossible. Depending on the player size, hosts have to process anywhere from 60 to 120 actions from players, all being sent in at various IRL times, but all being chronological in game time, which means each action may-or-may-not be impacted by another person's action. I believe it's impossible for anyone on this site to accurately process all of this as a host, and to also do literally anything outside of stay home and be on DRG on the same day. This leads to long Daily Life phases, which leads to really long Games, which leads to loss of interest and activity.
Time issues aren't the only problem with Daily phases. My biggest complaint with Daily Life is that it takes far too much power away from the Blackened.
DRG Games, at their core, are about solving a mystery. There are 3 key components in this, all in the form of one of the Game's participants:
Blackened: The Blackened's job is to create a murder mystery. Plain and simple. They can make the mystery as cryptic, unrealistic, or unsolvable as they want. Blackened "God Mode" goes a long way in making this happen, and is necessary for the Blackened to do their job.
Host: The Host's first job is to make the Blackened's mystery solvable. Whether it's done by leaving evidence, making the Blackened commit a mistake, or some other form, the Host has to make the players able to win, without making it too easy. The Host does this via the investigation phase by revealing crucial evidences to players who have investigated the proper places.
Players: The Players' job is to solve the mystery. This is done via investigating rooms in hopes of finding evidence, and then linking the evidence together in a trial to paint the picture of "Whodunnit". The old investigation phase, however, needed work. Finding the right rooms to investigate were far too luck-reliant. Originally, this is what the System Overhaul was supposed to fix, but it got way off track.
In DRG v3.0, Players are tasked with controlling where they are in the Daily Life. This both adds an unnecessary step to what Players should have to do, and takes a lot of power away from the Blackened, heavily limiting the mystery they can create. Hosts should never have to make a mystery harder to solve, to compensate or otherwise; If hosts make a mystery harder, they are essentially making it their own mystery, taking away the purpose of the Blackened.
...Wow, this is a long post. I was originally going to post this a responce to Hero's thread, but this evolved. I'm legit not even done. But it's been ~2 3/4 hours since I started, is now almost midnight, and I have to get up for work tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll remember everything else I want to say, and can continue this tomorrow.
TL;DR: Kuma! you you Kuma! go read my Kumaing! post.