The Micro Queue, One Month Later

[GreyICE]

So, 1 month ago, Hoopla bravely volunteered to take over the new Micro queue, and moderate it. The queue was a controversial addition to the site, and its failure was predicted by many. So how is it doing?

On Tuesday, November 7th, Hoopla started taking moderator /ins. The first game, Micro Madness, modded by OhGodMyLife, filled 40 minutes later. Since that time:

24 games have launched. Of them, 9 player and 7 players have dominated, with 3 8 player and 3 5 player games launched. Overall, it's a fair spread (although no 6 player mafia setups have launched - guess 6 is just not popular). By my rough estimate, 2/3rds of the games have been open, with the remaining 1/3rd mostly Theme with a few normals thrown in (normals have started to pop up more). Normals and themes seem to be exclusively 9 player, probably because lower player counts really don't invite mislynches from the uncertainty that closed setups brings (which is probably skewing our count towards 9 player games).

In the same time, 5 Theme games, 4 Open games, and 5 normal games have launched, making the Micro Queue easily the most popular queue on the site. I don't claim it will remain at these levels, but so far I think the experiment is going practically as well as planned.

What are people's impressions?

[quadz08]

I think it is awesome. Your post pretty much covers it.

EDIT: Would also like to mention that I modded the first ever completed micro. (It ended 3 days after it started, on D1.) >_>

[Eddard Stark]

Will be able to judge it more in a couple more months I think. Certainly has an audience at the moment, it seems.

[Empking]

In the last week only two(?) set ups have been filled which I expect is probably the mature level which isn't setting the world alight but is perfectly fine I'd say.

I think the predictions of it being a new testing tground, taking over from Minis, has (with the exception of Zor's) not really come about and I don't expect it will. Although I am slightly worried that it'll just end of stealing the good Open Set Ups and becoming a new Open Queue; the recent bouts of people entering the queue professing their intention to do a UPick frees me of that worry somewhat.

On the whole I think it's working well.

[gorckat]

Is three games in sign-up too many?

How long has a setup gone with no new /ins? Should there be a point a game gets bumped down a few slots to allow games to fire?

[gorckat]

Oh- and love the queue so far.

[GreyICE]

Three seems to be working very well. Games are filling at a decent pace, without it feeling like all three games need just 2 more people to fill, and if 2 people from 1 game moved to the other, it'd fill. If you think about it, Normal/Theme queues have 26 player slots open simultaneously, while the open queue has between 21-27 at any given time. I admit 3 different 9P games can feel a little draggy when it hits the queue, while 5Ps seem to fill near instantly, but such is life. Wish we had a way to convince more moderators to run 5Ps, because the demand is clearly there. Perhaps offer some sort of benefit to mods who run non-9P setups (bump em in the queue?). This runs into the problem of Hoopla being a human being, not a mafia management robot.

One setup was terminated from the list for taking too long to fill.

[Empking]

Wish we had a way to convince more moderators to run 5Ps, because the demand is clearly there.

One awkward solution is that if Hoopla waited longer to ask people what they wanted to run and just asked when they were almost up you'd get more people just going "oh...er...vengeful".

[GreyICE]

Wish we had a way to convince more moderators to run 5Ps, because the demand is clearly there.

One awkward solution is that if Hoopla waited longer to ask people what they wanted to run and just asked when they were almost up you'd get more people just going "oh...er...vengeful".

I actually laughed

But that might actually work...

[singersigner]

SIS YOU MEAN NOVNER CUZ THAT'S THREE SMONTHS FROM NOWWWWWWWWWWW

[RedCoyote]

I'm a big fan! I think it's the greatest improvement on the website since the upgrade.

[borkjerfkin]

I like it a lot -- but I kinda think the open queue has stalled a bit; I'm thinking it's probably correlated.

[Hoopla]

Wish we had a way to convince more moderators to run 5Ps, because the demand is clearly there. Perhaps offer some sort of benefit to mods who run non-9P setups (bump em in the queue?). This runs into the problem of Hoopla being a human being, not a mafia management robot.

Demand exists for closed normals too - a couple have been run, but I'd say demand hasn't been met there either. Allowing complete freedom for mods means you'll largely get mods wanting to experiment and do their own thing, than run basic normal games or established 5-7p opens like Vengeful. For example, there have only been two Vengefuls run in a month. Maybe opportunities to jump up the queue if you run a popular/in demand setup will be enough incentive to create a balanced market.

Overall, I think the trial has been successful, even though admin wants to see what happens for another month.

[Shamrock]

What if you made it so that one of the three slots for games-in-signup was for 5-7p setups only? Would that be too troublesome logistically?

[ChannelDelibird]

I bloody love the Micro queue. It's doing everything that I wanted it to do. Shamrock's idea is tempting but I'm not sure we need it yet. Give it another month, I'd have thought, as people settle more into the types of games that they want to run and play.

[Vi]

Hold on, I think I missed something important somewhere. There's such a thing as a good 5P setup other than Vengeful?

[IceGuy]

Hold on, I think I missed something important somewhere. There's such a thing as a good 5P setup other than Vengeful?

Think (t/T)wice.

[callforjudgement]

Hold on, I think I missed something important somewhere. There's such a thing as a good 5P setup other than Vengeful?

I suggested 2 VT + town doublevoter + 2 Goon, nightless. I don't think it's as good as Vengeful, but it's still reasonably balanced and has no obvious glaring flaws, so it may do for an "alternative" 5P setup.

[petapan]

Hold on, I think I missed something important somewhere. There's such a thing as a good 5P setup other than Vengeful?

I suggested 2 VT + town doublevoter + 2 Goon, nightless. I don't think it's as good as Vengeful, but it's still reasonably balanced and has no obvious glaring flaws, so it may do for an "alternative" 5P setup.

1/3 chance of a town win does not rustle my jimmies

[Vi]

Hold on, I think I missed something important somewhere. There's such a thing as a good 5P setup other than Vengeful?

I suggested 2 VT + town doublevoter + 2 Goon, nightless. I don't think it's as good as Vengeful, but it's still reasonably balanced and has no obvious glaring flaws, so it may do for an "alternative" 5P setup.

With four votes to lynch? You may as well call it Dictator Mafia (not to be confused with DICTATOR Mafia, which has already been run).

[callforjudgement]

1/3 chance of a town win does not rustle my jimmies

EV is 1/2, basically because the setup is symmetrical.

Vi's complaint is a valid one, though.

[GreyICE]

Hold on, I think I missed something important somewhere. There's such a thing as a good 5P setup other than Vengeful?

I suggested 2 VT + town doublevoter + 2 Goon, nightless. I don't think it's as good as Vengeful, but it's still reasonably balanced and has no obvious glaring flaws, so it may do for an "alternative" 5P setup.

With four votes to lynch? You may as well call it Dictator Mafia (not to be confused with DICTATOR Mafia, which has already been run).

Or DICKtator mafia, which is a 3 person setup with Mastermind of Sin, Shea, and XRECKONERX

[Mastermind of Sin]

[Vi]

Not necessary, ICE.

TBF @cfj: I wouldn't actually object to that setup as much if you just called it as it is.

You are the Dictator. At any time before deadline you may remove a player from the game. (This will cause a new deadline to be set.) You will be modkilled if you do not remove someone before deadline.

You win if both Mafia are removed from the game before both Townies are removed from the game.

You are a Townie. This is a game of MAFIA. Are you a man or a mouse? And when you answer, squeak up!

You win if both Mafia are removed from the game before both Townies are removed from the game.

You are in the Mafia. That's an initialism for Making A Fatal Insurgence Abroad.

You win as soon as both Townies are removed from the game or if the Dictator does not make their decision before deadline.

Yes this cuts out some corner cases pertaining to the Dictator not choosing before deadline, but no big loss.

Also, "Mafia" actually

is

an initialism; just not that.

[GreyICE]

That 5P setup can only end in tears.

I think I like it.