Mafia Round 39 - Resonance of Fate Arena

[Final-Fan]

noname2200 said:
Alright guys, I'd like to call a time out. The following is not intended to have any relation to my role in this game, and any response to this interruption shouldn't be read in light of the game either.

So we've been "playing" for over three days now, roughly 80 hours. In that time, we have collectively amassed exactly 150 posts as of this one, broken down as follows: [...]

Only three of the twelve players have posted more than the moderator. Five of the twelve players have posted as much as or less than a non-player (Rol). On average, somebody, player or not, posts in this thread less than once every half hour. We just went 18 hours with no one saying a word, and the game's just started.

So, erm...what's up? I know it's the weekend, but are we thinking things are going to get better anytime soon?

I have a few proposals. First, that we vote for that time limit. If we go with this one, we can bring it up later, since again I'd like this to be a complete time out, whereas the time limit is built into the rules.

Second idea, we institute a rule change. This game is based on items, with every player having the ability to possess and use items during the Night phase. So let's institute a rule that you can not use whatever item you hold unless you post at least an average of X times a day. That can be "day" or "Day," depending on what folks want, although I favor little d, for pacing reasons. To go along with this, the mafia can not murder at night unless all of its members average that X number of posts. I think this change will prove beneficial.

Third idea, we keep puttering about, saying little and doing nothing, until the impending apathy calcifies completely and we repay Stefl's hosting generosity by blowing him off. For the record, I don't like this plan.

Fourth idea: insert your own proposal here. Open forum, go nuts.

Thoughts?

"To go along with this, the mafia can not murder at night unless all of its members average that X number of posts. I think this change will prove beneficial."

BAD IDEA
REALLY BAD IDEA
Any day we find out the mafia had a kill last night, oops, I guess that means all the lurkers get a free pass.  Surely they won't interpret that as an excuse to coast even more through the rest of the game.    (I find it almost hard to believe you didn't spot that massive flaw in your plan, but I will refrain from forming conspiracy theories for now.) 

I also forsee your little-d post requirement producing lots and lots of "check-in" posts, which might be of some value by themselves, and might increase participation just because they might decide to participate for real once they got here to check in, but the signal-to-noise ratio would become pretty terrible IMO.  It is very possible to have a Mafia game with too many posts; I don't know if you were playing in the mega-games we had for a while, but a lot of people had trouble keeping up. 

On another note, I still don't like time limits in general, but I guess I'd vote for one if we hit another dead zone.  Right now, though, I think things are putting along acceptably.