If people asked for a pause, I think a complete pause would be better. Otherwise they will miss the discussion and will be missed in it.
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My opinion:
Players should post their time constraints in the game thread and other players respect it. That is how we managed the Second Battle Royale and it worked well.
I also stated a rule that a player who goes incommunicado without prior notification for more than 48 hours may be subject to replacement or resignation. I never had to enact that rule.
There is no need to pause discussion as someone can catch up when they get back.
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Iām not sure about this one. The discussion is a major part of this game. Not saying anything because one is taking a break may be very different from not saying anything for strategic reasons. Hard to tell apart and players might even use breaks strategically - e.g. claiming they were silent because of taking a break.
For that reason I think Iād prefer a break to be a break in every aspect. (But only slightly, should a majority see it differently, no big deal.)
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I agree, which is why it is good that players can go back and review all the posts made to the thread. If someone is out for a bit, they can read the posts they missed when they return.
If someone is being silent strategically, I donāt see that as a reason to stop others from interacting.
I disagree. The discussion in this game is important, interactive, and dynamic. Not being a part of the conversation as it is happening can be a huge disadvantage.
For example, lets say:
- Player š§ makes an argument that player š¦ is a werewolf, and player š¦ is unavailable. š§ gets some push-back, but after a bit of discussion the group is convinced of š¦ās guilt.
- š¦ comes back after two days and has to catch up on 60 posts of arguments, and is tasked with countering the arguments against them AND the inertia thatās built up in the group over time and moves that assumed their guilt.
Catching up isnāt as simple as reading the previous posts. I think if people know their going to be away for a bit itās fair to slow the conversation.
I think there are a lot of ways we could go about this. My suggestion would be if we agree on a pause each player is allowed to post one final message at any time until the game resumes. That way the game doesnāt stop dead, but people taking a break arenāt left behind.
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I disagree, but that is OK. I will do whatever the majority agrees to.
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Independently of above comments, but feeling confirmed by it, I am getting worried about the amount of discussion content that is being produced right now. While I donāt want to tell you how to play the game, I still want to say the following:
- If you feel worn out because of the game, please (also) inform me about this in your secret PM thread with me. We can then talk about what to do about it. I have no problem with forcing a pause for all players.
- Players are not obliged to read and / or partake in the discussion.
- Players who are posting a lot: Please donāt burn yourself out. It is a game and not worth neglecting your other daily life.
This may also be a reason for a lot of discussion. There is a reason why in a courtroom, there are strict rules about who speaks when etc. Maybe we should limit peopleās communication in a similar way, e.g. limit the number of characters between two moves, or limit the number of posts. But Iām not sure what would be appropriate.
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I believe the amount of discussion will settle down after all team colours are decided. Before that, there are clear advantages to convincing others of your right, but once everyone knows their team, there is little convincing to do, and it will be more similar to, for example, the simultaneous fractional Go game.
So, although I agree that there has been a lot of text written in the past couple of days (more than I personally could keep up with), I believe this is a temporary artefact of the current stage of the game, and will be resolved probably before the next round of moves.
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I donāt need a pause myself, but if anybody else does, Iād be in favor of pausing all communication for a couple of days.
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This concerns me, and I believe Iāve heard similar thoughts from others.
Iāve played a lot of in-real-life secret-role games, and most of the fun for me comes from working on incomplete information. Iāve also played plenty of team and co-op games, and the worst tend to be the ones in which optimal play can be reached by one player calling all the shots.
Good hidden roles games tend to limit the amount of mechanical certainty anyone can have, either by having time limits so everything canāt be hashed out or by making mechanical relationships such that things arenāt settled until the very end.
My concerns for this game is that once everyone (thinks) they have everything figured out this becomes a dry team-captain vs. team-captain match, where the highest ranked Go players are calling all the shots. None of this is for sure, obviously, and it may be too late to change course for this first game but maybe we can open up some discussion on how things could go better.
I like @martin3141ās suggestions of limiting word-count or posts per move, because it may help quieter players get some words in, and playing with constraints may make some fun challenges and opportunity for creativity.
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Itās hard though, because I really do enjoy the logical puzzles / discussing optimal strategiesā¦ I get more enjoyment out of games with complete information than of those with incomplete information.
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I think it is part of theses types of games to expect a large amount of discussion and analysis. Admittedly, there may be a lot of over-analysis too. That to me is part of the interest for such games.
Regarding your assertion, that a team is guided by the best player, I think that is only partly true. People generally want to have input instead of blindly following directions.
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I enjoy puzzles as well. Discussing puzzles is a tricky thing. I have a lot of thoughts on this, but for the sake of brevity Iād say that I enjoy collaborative puzzle solving when multiple perspectives are a necessary component for success.
What interested you most in playing a hidden-role style game?
Iām interested because that could give us some clues to improve the game.
I totally agree!
I also feel the nature of the discussion is very important. I donāt think thereās anything wrong with a ton of discussion, what I think causes problems is when the discussion is dominated by few voices. This can become especially tricky when the discussion/puzzle solving is competitive and a viable tactic is shutting out a person from the conversation because ātheyāre obviously evilā.
Another thing I think is important is that since this is an online text-based forum, thereās a strong bias toward those who have the time, opportunity, and interest to read/write more-numerous and longer posts.
On top of that, long complicated posts compound into longer/more-numerous replies. (This reply being an example of that effect.)
I donāt say any of this to condemn anyone, and I donāt pretend to have solutions for these issues (suggestions maybe), but in hopes of sparking some colaborative problem/puzzle solving.
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Me too! Or the Emoji curse. I would have liked to keep this aura of mystery instead of being subject to ābe part of The Plan or be The Planās targetā.
While I donāt enjoy coming up with statistics and plans myself, I do enjoy reading them and the interpersonal drama that goes with it. And people geeking out is a lovely thing to see, so if theyāre happy, Iām happy too.
I wish there was more chaos, though.
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I had forgotten about that, and I love that mechanic! Maybe whoever gets a stone captured canāt talk until itās their turn again, or the player/ers who kill a stone (max 4 obviously) get it.
I mentioned early enough that the ārush through to an agreed position because obvi/ letās just focus this on the go game and solve the thing/ every move is pushed down from the top because optimal move because calculationsā isnāt fun for me, honestly. This doesnāt feel like a werewolf game, it feels like a rengo game with me being decoration.
I feel like this is a āwhen your mind is a hammer you treat everything as nailsā. Different people are used to different things, not everything is a proof concept. Just my two cents.
I like puzzles and enjoy the geeking and stuff, but itās werewolf go and we should honor all the aspects of the game (especially considering people might have signed up expecting all the aspects of the game).
Just my two cents. Or maybe Iām not a good match for werewolf go, which I wonāt be offended if itās the case. 
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Iāve never played Werewolf (Iāve only watched people playing Among Us), so I donāt know what aspects the game normally has. Which aspects do you think are missing?
Well, like you said, that may be a viable tactic.
I think that has to do with the audience more than the speaker.
I donāt allow someone to influence me. I make my own judgements. It is also likely I will listen more to the minority viewpoint.
I take the opposite stance. I tend to skim long posts and those from someone posting much more than others. So, I usually end up paying more attention to someone who is brief and direct.
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In short, it doesnāt make a difference if itās 10 of us or one person given the board and told to play it.
You are sovereign. Nobody can tell you what to do. Someone can try to tell you what to do, but itās your choice to listen and follow.
Play the game in whatever way is most enjoyable to you.
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Well, (A) itās a Go variant, I kind of like to make up new variants and play those others come up with, (B) I find the role-playing quite enjoyable, although there seems to be less of it in this game compared to the usual werewolf games (probably because of the lack of a narrator) and (C) I like the discussions and the effort people put into finding out who is who.
As said, I enjoy the game as it currently isā¦
But I can of course understand that other people have different preferences, and I did feel a bit overwhelmed with the largest wave of discussion happening while I was on holiday (although if I wasnāt, the amount of discussion would have been significantly larger, without a doubt)
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