Also on the subject of ICs I think the quality of ICs really only started going down around BM40. I think Shakerag set a bad example by replacing out in BM39, but to be fair he have personal emergencies. In the future though ICs should probably realize that BM's take up to 1.5 months to complete and will require ~2 hours of participation a day.
Dude, what the hell. How does replacing out because my mom was dying set a bad example?
I feel like it encourages everyone's mom to start dying, and, honestly, I don't want that.
I think they're too slow, which discourages new players. Mechanically they're not interesting to many experienced players (who might otherwise not mind playing with beginners), and though the replacement system is supposed to keep games well stocked with players, it typically doesn't and there isn't a good replacement-list-solution. Delaying games for long periods while the replacement list is populated is bad because new players typically want to play now and they might not have the same inclination a month later, yet starting a BM with few replacements is a recipe for absent players in the mid to late game.
Here's the issues, as I see them:
- Nobody wants to replace into a game that's started. I understand that like no one else. It's too much work for too little reward, and then the players expect you to be up to their level with reading and suspicions and everything. You put a lot of pressure on even an experienced player when that happens, so putting that on a newbie is just asking them to leave.
- Beginner games a testing ground for if they even like the game, which means they could just go "I don't like the game" and leave. Which is exactly the point of the game, but this leads to the next problem in that this could ruin the game for everyone else, since this coincides with the above issue.
- Some beginners want to play a different game that we don't give access to. I don't believe this is unfair, mind you, but to them, they might really enjoy a Paranormal or BYOR or Kingmaker or what have you, but they just didn't have fun with BM and leave because of it. I've certainly tried to let beginners into my games, but, as fate would have it, they are the ones that end up leaving.
- Beginners think they suck at the game, when it's really inexperience that's making it difficult. There's no way to feel like you're improving without winning, and scum simply win more often. What's keeping the win rate down so much?
I have a question though: Why don't we allow PMs? I mean, I understand not sharing sensitive information like anything the mod says, but didn't the game seem more fun with PMs?