On Handling Multiple Games And Gametypes

Part of Mastin Academy.

Original Lecture: On handling multiple games and gametypes

Suggestions for Exploratory Newbies

A problem frequent on mafiascum is a player over-committing to multiple games, only to flake out or request replacement, though this article can have advice applicable to other sites as well. While originally written for newbies, even more veteran players could use this advice.

When signing up for a new game, I recommend having a HUGE amount of buffer space. Sure you can handle X games now, but will you be able to two or three months from now? If you have that time, great. If not, plan for the reduced amount rather than the current amount. Because that's the amount you can REALLY handle, especially given how long our games last.

Additionally, always plan for emergencies. Things go wrong. Something might pop up you didn't anticipate. Your current schedule for the future may have nothing reducing your free time...but life happens. You need to have a buffer of free time available, in order to ensure that if something does go wrong, you have the availability and ability to keep up with all your games.

Further influencing the factor of time: games vary in their time commitment. A game taking only a few minutes a day may at some point change, taking an hour or two a day. While vice-versa is also possible, you cannot rely on a reduction to happen at exactly the same time an increase did. Leave extra time for each game.

External variations in life, internal variations in games, you must account for both. Only combined can you schedule appropriately what you can handle. Essentially, free time is your "inventory". Inventories' cycle stock is free time. Buffer stuck is the variations in time commitments for a game. Safety stock is the amount of free time you'll have on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

Because everyone's different, here's no universal guideline on how many games a person can handle; every situation is different. Some can't handle even one. Many can only handle one. Others, two or three. Some can even handle ten. But the most important thing to remember is that you cannot sacrifice quality for quantity. Leave enough time so that if things get busier you don't neglect your duties.

Knowing your limit can be a bit hard to find--the best teacher is experience, so play around and experiment. Honestly analyze your performance, and then you'll know what you can or can't do reliably well. Just be careful to make sure the integrity of all your games is maintained and you never exceed your capacity.

Now, in my experience, different queues have different overall experiences. Micros are larger short-term commitments, but finish faster. Larges are going to be larger long-term commitments, but may have periods of inactivity which require little attention. Which of the many forums you hang around the most depends on your preference and abilities (some players thrive on themes, others on 'boring'), but can also vary on circumstances.

But for a newbie fresh to the site, generally theme games are tough to handle. It does vary by playerlist (some players spam more than others), but the culture is very unforgiving with little sympathy: hostility for not grasping mechanics and consistent pressure for failure to keep up. There is a higher standard of play, and if you fall short, you will be frustrated (and/or eliminated).

You're not only expected to grasp mechanics/roles/flavor if applicable, keep up with the game, and be reasonably competent, but also having enough familiarity with the site that you won't do something tremendously stupid. (E.g. quoting mod communication, voting conftown.) This is often why moderators require previous game experience for their players.

This is compounded by large games, as they're intimidating for a newbie to face since posting rates in larges have exploded. Games today produce more pages in a large for a single gameday than the entire length of a large game from two years ago. (Let's just say that if you have a place on the records page for largest game/gameday page-wise, it's not going to last very long.) 24 hours will produce more pages than a newbie game in its entirety.

So when you combine the two in a Large Theme, expect over 20 pages per day--this is not uncommon, and if you can't handle that rate (most cannot), it's not something you should sign up for. A general rule of thumb I make: every large game I sign up for is equivalent to me playing 2-3 other games, so if my capacity was 6 games, I'd only play 2 larges to be safe.

My recommendation for newbies is to explore other places first. Mini Normals are fairly forgiving, decently easy to grasp, and newbies are often encouraged. There will be a slightly higher degree of complexity than your average open game (which are the first non-newbie queue generally recommended for newbies explanding), so newbies may receive slightly harsher criticism from players.

However, overall it is a safe way to get a more 'true' experience of mafiascum games, where newbies are common and games aren't hard to grasp. Of course, a word of warning: your experience will vary depending on your playerlist. Some players are, bluntly, jerks; you may face some unwanted toxicity if you get the wrong combination in your game. Trust me when I tell you they are a vocal minority and that the majority of players will treat you respectfully and openly help you grow.

Opens aren't universally easier than mini normals (some have complex mechanics), but most tend to be familiar. (In particular, Semi-Open games.) In my experience, players there are usually some of the least-toxic, though their skill level varies more than in most queues. It's perhaps the most socially diverse of queues, featuring an equal mixture of cultures between newbies and veterans, mingled together.

Micros are similarly newbie-friendly. They're guaranteed the size of a newbie, but pay attention to the type of micro you're signing up for. Open micros are easy and relaxed; Normal micros are relatively simple; theme micros are more complex and you may encounter some difficulties in mechanics/roles, though on a smaller scale than their larger cousins.

But I should make it clear, once again, these are just guidelines. They are not absolute, and are merely from my own experience. Your experience may differ, but this can give you an idea of what you'll be in for. Hope this can help!