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The Round Table

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Curious why you crossed it out lol.

I disagree. When I showed mum how to do it, it basically went in one ear and out the other... When I told mum how to do it, but refused to touch the controls, she was able to do it herself from then on.
I'm just in the habit of crossing out jokes like that

I see. I've had it go right from ear through ear regardless with any of my relatives I've tried to help, so I dunno but I'd suspect she just didn't want to bother to learn by listening
 
Curious why you crossed it out lol.

I disagree. When I showed mum how to do it, it basically went in one ear and out the other... When I told mum how to do it, but refused to touch the controls, she was able to do it herself from then on.
I can attest to this. My part-time job is basically teaching the elderly how to use modern technology like Smartphones and Computers and repair them for them. This technique has definitely shown me better results, but what is even better is when you let them write it down as notes, that wouldn't however be applicable on the forum so much.
 
The only work we've done on these guides so far is update a few parts that had become obsolete over the years. There has been some discussion on editing it in a more newbie-friendly fahsion but we dropped the idea at the time because we believed that a guide should cover the more technical and advanced aspects, besides we appreciate greatly the work of former War Room staff on this. We will bring it back in the table again since you have shown interest, though.

I think a separate newbie friendly guide would be nice to have as an introduction to Mafia. We can then link to the original guide as a more technical introduction to the game. From experience, the guide does look quite technical and sense and gives the appearance of not being newbie friendly and I think a newbie friendly guide would be a way to get more people to try out TWR.

I can attest to this. My part-time job is basically teaching the elderly how to use modern technology like Smartphones and Computers and repair them for them. This technique has definitely shown me better results, but what is even better is when you let them write it down as notes, that wouldn't however be applicable on the forum so much.

As someone who works at the help desk part time, I agree with you.
 
I think a separate newbie friendly guide would be nice to have as an introduction to Mafia. We can then link to the original guide as a more technical introduction to the game. From experience, the guide does look quite technical and sense and gives the appearance of not being newbie friendly and I think a newbie friendly guide would be a way to get more people to try out TWR..
then, since you understand the guide yet find it isn't newbie-friendly, why not rewrite it in a way you think is? take what you find too technical and/or complicated and simplify it
 
Also, could we perhaps add a short role description section? Last time I read the guide it had links to an offsite wiki, it might be nice to have descriptions of what role madness roles are common in Bulba, how they work etc.
 
Also, could we perhaps add a short role description section? Last time I read the guide it had links to an offsite wiki, it might be nice to have descriptions of what role madness roles are common in Bulba, how they work etc.
it could link to the MU database, but a list of common roles here with short descriptions would also be nice, agreed
 
I second (third?) that.

And honestly, I don't think it'd be bad if experienced players step in to write said guides for this forum. As I said a few posts ago, the more people that step in to make this a better place, the better.

What would you call an experienced host or player? How many games would they have played? I wouldnt mind helping out either to be honest. From a hosts point of view that is.
 
The Mentor Queue is now a Thing
Basic Rules of the Mentor Queue:

1. The game can be any sort of game, be it small, large, or undetermined setup.
2. The game must be involved with the mentoring program in some way, shape, or form. (Mentors can be players, mentors can guide players, the Lovers Mafia idea, etc.)
3. For the moment, student/mentor pairings will be determined after signups are complete.
4. People are allowed to signup as students or mentors for these games. They cannot sign up as both.
5. This queue is for mentoring players only. Games where the host will be mentored or mentoring are to be included in the "regular" queues.
6. In accordance with 5, all hosts who wish to host a mentor game must be experienced hosts. This ensures a stable and secure stage for students to learn.
7. Signups work just like for the "regular" queues.
 
More Mentor Program Stuff
The Mentor Program Signup and Contact List has been open for nearly two weeks now, so I figured it was time to take an inventory of our current status.
By my list, which is current as of Slife's post, we have:
8 Player Mentors and 14 Player Students.
11 Hosting Students and 9 Hosting Mentors.

As I anticipated, the mentor:student ratio is not 1:1, which, while it would have been ideal, was not realistic at this time. Nonetheless, this should not daunt us moving forward, as we will merely have to adapt.

Now then, onto more pressing matters. As you all are aware by now, the Hosting Queue has begun, and we will very shortly be inaugurating the start of this endeavor with Ice Cream Mafia hosted primarily by our very own Enzap, with myself in a secondary and mostly advisory position.
This will be the first mentor game hosted under the auspices of this initiative, and will work, essentially, as follows:
1. Players and mentors will sign up to participate in that game.
2. Once signups are closed, we will determine what the specific ratio of mentor:student is in that game.
3. From there, we will select mentor-student pairings based on both the roles that the students received and the particular or preferred skill sets of the mentors. Mentor assignments will not be randomized.

The reason that we don't want to randomize the mentor-student pairings is because, as expressed in their bios or their signup posts, certain mentors are better at playing as specific alignments. In order to benefit the students the most, we will try to have all of the mentors teach the alignment that they are most adept at. For example, I would be assigned to a mafia player, while Zexy would be assigned to a town player. This does not mean that, for example, I would never be assigned to a town player, but we would assign the town players all of the town mentors beforehand.
Now then, this does mean that mentors are, or at least can be, a decent indication of alignment. As such, the mentor-student pairings will not be made public, the students will be made aware of who their mentor is in their respective role PMs. This also does make things slightly difficult, as far as OC games are concerned, since mentors will not be addable to those conversations without potentially giving away alignments. To that end, it is highly encouraged that, should the students participate in OC, that they keep their mentors apprised of what is transpiring in said OC conversations. This encourages the students to be more "active" regarding their learning, as it is something that requires their direct involvement and communication.
Assuming there isn't a 1:1 mentor:student ratio, which is usually most likely going to be the case, we may assign multiple students to the same mentor, but never of different alignments. Naturally, so as to avoid giving away extraneous information, the mafia members will sooner share a mentor than multiple town members, to avoid as much potential game compromising as possible.
The idea, at least for the moment, is that all mentor games will work similar to this.

In addition to this, AussieEevee and I decided to make Fruit Bowl Mafia 2 into a hosting mentor game. In this instance, the game is being hosted by the mentor, namely myself, and users were allowed to sign up as hosting students. Each hosting student is then given access to all hosting conversations as well as all of the "behind the scenes" conversations that occur throughout the game, namely role PMs, host provided OCs, player OCs, and so forth.
The students are permitted to ask the host any and all questions related to the ongoing events in that game, the mentor's hosting strategies, and other relevant topics. In turn, the mentor is expected to reply to said questions, and is encouraged to explain their hosting process and any and all changes they choose to make during the setup, and anything else they feel may be useful information for their students.
In the case of host mentoring, mentor:student ratio is not as crucial, though it is still advisable that the "class" size be kept relatively small, so as not to overwhelm the host. As an aside, in case some of y'all did not already know this, there is a 20 user limit to PM conversations here on Bulba. I believe Discord also has a limit to the number of allowable users in a DM conversation, but I do not know that number off the top of my head.

If y'all have any questions regarding either of these two games, or any other input regarding the mentor program, please let me know. There are a few other ideas in the development phase right now, and I will be sure to let you all know what those entail once they've been fleshed out a bit more.
 
Public Service Announcement to all War Roommates worldwide:

It has come to our attention as War Room staff that there has been a vast increase in mafia games signups for the past few weeks. Lots of said mafia games fill up quickly and easily while others don't and need to get roles cut (good thing is, getting cancelled has become more rare). The most important side-effect, however, is that people are sometimes overwhelmed by the vast amount of ongoing games which results in increased need for subs and reduced activity, which has caused trouble for several recent games. As the summer and the change of War Room season draws closer there is an expected increase of Special Events in signups, while the launch of our mentoring program has created the need for a brand new Mentor Queue, which amounts to one more mafia game in signups at any moment.

To this end we have decided that, for the time being, the amount of Small Games simultaneously in signups should be dropped from 2 to 1, starting from the moment the next Small Game gets off signups in one way or another. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause (as it will make progress in Small Games slower), but we believe that said measure will help our other games get the activity they deserve and make TWR a better place for everyone.

Have a nice day!
 
Something I want to bring up. Yesterday Zexy informed me that VGB was nearing the end of its 20 day period. When I mentioned that was just for sign ups, he said yeah + 3 days to send the first role PM, which I mentioned that makes sense for normal games, but not for games like Bonanza style games, which Zexy admitted the staff hadn't given much thought to.

So I would like to propose that games with pre-game setup, such as Bonanza and Chaos style games, among others, get a 14 day window to create their role PMs.

I propose 14 days, two weeks, just incase real life decides to interfere.

No one wants to see the trouble we had with #Pokemon20 happen again, which was about 2 months in creation before we cancelled it, but I don't think 14 days is unreasonable.
 
Huh. TBH, I thought that this was something we had discussed before. Guess not.
I shall confer with my associates.

Also, as a bit of a teaser, be on the lookout for more information regarding the Mentor Program. I've been meaning to post it for a few weeks now, but between getting sick, moving, my trip to Washington DC, and getting promoted to Section Head, I've been a bit busy...
 
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