I feel a rant coming, so please forgive if this turns into a BMB rantTM.
I COMPLETELY disagree with abolishing the schedule. I mean really, mafia games go for about three weeks to five weeks on average. The only exceptions are when Stooben or I end up hosting a mafia game, in which it usually takes about 3 months (ah, the sad truth). People should know that if they are on the bottom of the list, it will take about 2 months to get to the top, if there are like 6-8 games in between, and none of them are a BMB/Stooben game (with us, it would be maybe 3-4 month wait). It honestly doesn't take as long as people think, and what can you be doing during that time? You can be preparing for your game and making sure everything goes right! You have plenty of time for that, and even if you are prepared, then maybe double check and make sure everything is all prepared during the game. Do not tell me that everyone everytime is completely prepared to start their game and that nothing will go wrong and that there won't be something that you forget. Heck, even if that is true, you can prepare and format all your stuff to easily be presented after the game and save a lot of time.
Sorry about this, but I'm going to be completely honest here, and I'm really sorry if I offend someone, but people are lazy. People are lazy here. You start a game, and you get it on the schedule, and then you wait for about 2-3 months to begin (on average), and then you start. What do people do during the 2-3 months? Well, let's look at the past. There are games that had to be pushed back, and make games below it have to start earlier than expected, and why was that? Roles weren't completed, locations weren't done, it started "sooner than they expected", and all this. Don't get me wrong; there are some very valid and reasonable excuses, and it's not like all games that are put off for a bit is the problem. However, there have been too many other games that have failed to start on time because people thought that "omg, I'm 8 mafia games from starting; I'll do roles a month away." I mean, I too have done it where I wasn't fully ready, mostly because I have a few things left to do before I start as I try to take my time, and usually I'm busy with other things as well like forum games and real life stuff. Plus, I believe that at least 3 times I have started a mafia game when 4 games were above me, and in just a week's time all of them were not ready to begin yet. It makes though that truly love mafia games feel a little disheartened because even though people have lives, you shouldn't just make a mafia game, let it sit for months, and then waste people's time and force people below them to scramble to get their game started by pushing it off (again, not targeted at people that have valid excuses mostly). This creates a horrible domino effect because I'm sure that many of the hosts push off all that hard work until when they are 3 or 4 away from starting, and then games cancel or push off and suddenly they have to push off as well because they came sooner than expected.
But the blame is not just at stuff like that, and the schedule does have problems as well. 3 games - changed to 4 so that more games to get moving - are going, while the rest have to wait in a order of when they were asked to be put on the list, and though it is almost chornological, it is not formatted in prepareness, and so while the game that is 8 down from starting is completley ready while the one that is 2 away hasn't even started, we have a problem. It isn't that fair, and I feel bad for people that are completely ready and have to wait on people that are taking forever to start because they aren't prepared. And the list does nothing to alert people when their game is about to start either until it is the moment that they need to start! I do feel like it's a bit of our fault (sorry guys), even though it is not really our job. I mean, it should be our job a bit. I do believe that maybe if we warned people when they are like 3 or 4 games away from starting to let them know that they could be starting between a few days to a month, and to make sure that any things that they need to do for their game is started or finalized so that they are prepared for any unexpected stuff like if a current game suddenly ends or is cancelled, so that everything stays in rather good balance. The thing is that people sometimes forget how close they are to starting and somewhat push their stuff back, and then they look at the list and they realize they are 2 games from starting and are like "oh shit, I still need to finish roles!" And though I agree that people should constantly check the list and should be consistently checking the list, I also realize that we should do a bit more with keeping hosts prepared, and that they do have lives outside the Mafia board (though it only takes 5 seconds to check).
But, I am still completely opposed on no list. There are people that can barely pay attention to the 4 games as it is. I tell you that I have so much trouble remembering which locations I visit in which game, especially if 3 or all 4 of the games have locations in them, and it's annoying. Heck, sometimes I even forget which role I have in what game, which is usually if I am not as active in mafia games. Let's just have 8 mafia games going at the same time, and see how many people forget what game is what, and let's make all of the games inactive because people have to figure out what they will and won't participate in so they know what is happening. People, do you realize how hard it is get to people to sign up because they don't want to overload themselves? Seriously, maybe if the Mafia Board had like 100 people at the same time wanting to play game then we could let this happen, but the fact of the matter is that about 35 people really play mafia games, and about 12-16 of them play in most of them. All that is going to happen is that people are going to see the chaos of what it would be like without a list, and be stuck having games being inactive messes because of it, and then we'll be having a new board of "please bring the list back!" written like 3 times. Heck, probably wouldn't be able to see it because either all the mafia games would be stickied, or they'll all be unstickied, and then we are completely confused on which games are the sign-ups and which games are actually running.
So please listen and READ this. The schedule is faulty, and it is annoying to deal with. We all deal with it, and we all wish that it was better. But would you rather get what keeps us somewhat stable to something that sounds good at first but a completely mess in the end result? I gave a perfectly reasonable idea that we could try and possibly end up being something that is a fix to the cancelled and put off games so that the list is a lot more efficient and effective, and though it won't fix all the problems about the list, it would be a major tune-up to the list and make most people content and lower the pain of the schedule. Seriously, Reversinator can back me up that in forum games that people are more prepared and more proactive with what they do if they are given reminders, and just some warning about when stuff is due, and it truly helps out a lot. I don't know why it's taking this long to bringing that concept from the forum games to the mafia board.
Please don't be like "tl;dr", because this is honestly something that should be read. I know I rant a lot, but I really do believe that this could do wonders. I know that I am not the best player, the best host, the best person, the best solution maker, but I do know that I am very dedicated to both the Mafia Board and the MHG, and that all I want to do is try to make life better for both sides, and everything.
