There was this one, then SANDS went up shortly afterwards, then Jiggs decided to post sign-ups for Metroid; many people who would've joined Mythology probably decided to join at least one of the other two;
Surprisingly enough, the SANDS signups consisted of almost exclusively people I knew had played mafia before. I guess beginners and people with like 1 postcount got the memo they should be going to Beginner. I'm glad, because SANDS is definitely not for people with no clue how to play.
This sounds good in theory, but not so great in practice. Mafia games can take a variable amount of time, as FF3 took like a month and a half, you wouldn't be able to make sure that they all end at the right time.
That one mafia with Spiderman and the factions took like 2+ months if memory serves, the name escapes me. Venom and crap and the Sinister Six. Meanwhile, the first Overkill ended on N2, admittedly it was like the third N2 in a row due to crap items, and thus was over very quickly. Mafia games run at different paces, and when you factor in those that get canceled/abandoned due to no PMs, you can't really keep a schedule unless you set aside a week between when one game ends for another to start.
Another part of this is that SANDS sign ups started, and everyone in survivor thought that game was hopeless so they asked zorbees to cancel the game so their priority would go back up. This left an extra spot for my game, and I wanted to get it up soon which in retrospect might not have been the best idea, adding to the amount of games up there.
Yeah, in my opinion, it's not the best idea to start two Standard signups at once. I was anticipating starting after Survivor was officially canceled, as opposed to Ancient ending due to 20% kills. Survivor's updates were far and few between, and small, anonymous mafias have been consistently unsuccessful in my experience.
There should be some regulation that if two games either end around the same time or one gets canceled, one Standard signup goes up, and once that closes the next goes up. People can tell what is coming next from the Game Listing thread, which is updated fairly regularly, and ask hosts what the game will feature to choose.
Three signups at once is like ..x.x especially drawing from the same priority base.
I think the problem is a combination of Christmas, big mafia AND expert mafia at the same time, and, as I have been saying for a while, the general decline of standard, which beginner is following.
If your statements are true, Big and Expert wouldn't affect Standard much despite being active, because the people who would either get in or play in them wouldn't join Standard games regardless of if they had a Big or Expert to play in.
I agree a fair chunk of Expert players decline to join Standard games, but there are also a fair few who play Standard.
Not to mention Dog Eat Dog was starting to wind down when all the signups began and Big is in full swing.
At first I wasn't sure having Beginner share the same priority as Standard was the best idea, but considering it, that means anyone in Beginner would be P2 for Standard, giving players who will play better a stronger shot at getting in.
It does make things problematic when there's 2+ signups going on drawing from that priority pool and people are frantically changing priorities.
Also does 2v1 ever successfully work out without everyone screaming THIS GAME IS BROKEN THIS FACTION SUCKS WHY DID YOU PUT THIS CRAP IN THE GAME WORST HOST EVER OMFG HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO WIN?
Does 1v1 ever work out without that either??
I mean people cry "broken" in 1v2 and 1v1v1 and 5-faction, etc., but it seems like 2v1 and 1v1 are plagued by more design flaws, and more lethal ones, than other formats. Consider the first lynch scenario, giving one village/faction the upper hand based on how the neutrals vote.
Hence why SANDS broaches some new formats (cannot describe), to test if they're plausible. Depending on how the game plays out I have some ideas on how to improve upon it as it is.
tl;dr we need to restrict Standard signups to one at a time so people just sign up for one game, don't get in, sign up for the next.
also kick 1v1 to the curb, in MMBN and WWE or whatever, both times the main factions lost, once to the wolves because one faction decided to ignore the opening post stating "these neutrals are bad news", and once to some jacked up third recruiting faction.