Feedback on anonymous game

sullivlo

I'm in the process of writing a college assignment in which I have to consider constructive criticisms provided to me by my classmates and tutor, and how I can use these criticisms to change my practices and make me a better teacher.

SO! Without any further ado, do your worst! Some questions to consider:

• Did you enjoy the format of the anonymous accounts on Boards?
• Were you happy with the setup of the accounts - naming, taglines, access, ability to delete posts?
• What were the positives of the game?
• What were the negatives in the game?
• What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards?

Any any other comments you have... but please limit it to the setup of the accounts here on Boards, not the setup of the game itself or the setup of the backroom.

It was discussed elsewhere - the issue of some posters cough Pter posting through their own accounts accidentally. An obvious solution to this would be to remove access to the WW subforum to non-anon accounts. This is (relatively) easy to do for the forum mods (me), so I'm happy to arrange that in advance of the next game if requested. I can batch revoke access and then reassign access whenever a non-anon game is being run.

And I swear, this is not just procrastination :pac:

mahamageehad

Did you enjoy the format of the anonymous accounts on Boards?
I did and I didn't. While I did enjoy it in the end, I found it very difficult at the start to tell all the new usernames apart. Usually in a game there's only a handful of new people, so having to remember and form an opinion of 27 other characters was difficult. I suppose new players face that same issue but the regular accounts are more personalised so easier to tell apart. Plus people posting in their own accounts disrupted the flow a little bit at times. I enjoyed it for the game, and it's defo a nice thing to be able to do in rotation, but I wouldn't like to see every game go that way.

Were you happy with the setup of the accounts - naming, taglines, access, ability to delete posts?
During the game I stayed logged into my Fiona account. I found it grand. I actually abandoned Boards for most of the week outside of the game so I have no idea if Fiona is allowed to post in other forums. The names and taglines were grand. I liked that the ability to edit was taken away from these accounts- I know in previous games it's happened once or twice that a mod player can see an edited post that the game mods mightn't and that puts the mod players in an awkward situation.

What were the positives of the game?
The positives I guess were that it felt like playing with a new bunch of people as you had no idea what characters were capable of or likely to do. It also allowed people (Barney for example) to try a completely new style. It also gave players a chance to survive much longer than would normally have been possible in regular games (although that didn't work for some players with very distinctive styles! :pac:) The biggest benefit by far though is the ability to sub people in and out without impacting the game, or the players even noticing. I think 3 different people played Orla! :P

What were the negatives in the game?
There weren't many negatives that I haven't already mentioned. I could see that if anon accounts were used every game I could impact the community spirit we have going here, but in general once the kinks are ironed out (mixing up accounts) they're a great tool to have. I think the main negative is that it's more work for the mods - we saw voting issues on day 1 because of this.

What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards?
I think some basic personalisation needs to be added to the accounts to make them feel more different from each other. This could be something as simple as an avatar per character. I'd personally prefer face-type avatars, but that's just me I think. If it was up to me, I actually wouldn't allow users to change the avatars during the course of the game as they're the key visual reference point. I think a second game will be easier than the first one. (Side note - I'd be interested in seeing if people start to develop metas for the characters over time i.e. Mary is chatty, Nigel is wolfy etc.)

Game mods should also ensure that game relevant PMs, particularly the first one with the lynch form link and password are sent to both accounts.

Limiting access to anon players during an anon game will also be great.

How does resetting the accounts work by the way? If I ignore list someone, or change my password, or update my location/avatar, is that all changed for the next player or do the account settings reset somehow?

sullivlo

mahamageehad wrote: »

I'd personally prefer face-type avatars, but that's just me I think. If it was up to me, I actually wouldn't allow users to change the avatars during the course of the game as they're the key visual reference point. I think a second game will be easier than the first one.

Game mods should also ensure that game relevant PMs, particularly the first one with the lynch form link and password are sent to both accounts.

Limiting access to anon players during an anon game will also be great.

How does resetting the accounts work by the way? If I ignore list someone, or change my password, or update my location/avatar, is that all changed for the next player or do the account settings reset somehow?

All good points. Something else to consider for sure.

On the bolded part, that's something I'll have to check with admin. Password responsibility is ultimately a matter of trust. If passwords are changed, it is imperative that the anon account holder/game mod tells me what the end password of the account is at game-time so that I can then tell the new game mods what the password is. Not sure about the location/ignore list/avatar, but I'll flag it with admin and get back to you.

Necro

Just some general feedback rather than answering questions directly (cos I'm lazy and on the phone):

I enjoyed them but would echo mahama's sentiments that it was really difficult telling everyone apart in the beginning. Although that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The anon accounts are certainly a much welcomed addition to the group in my opinion, it allows people who would be considered the better players to not be judged on past games (Andy as SK, Raze as seer etc).

However, I do still like the idea of playing under our own names in games as well, the anon accounts could spoil the community feel of our group and one thing I'd like us not to veer into is the soulless mechanical type of games on other sites (MU for example).

We have the best of both worlds now and while they should definitely be utilised I reckon maybe only every second or third game? It's nice to change things up (plus, from a selfish point of view my own account's post count should be way higher after the last game :P)

That's all I can think of for now

Ectoplasm

My sentiments echo most of what has been said already.

I liked the anon accounts but I do think they were a bit too blandly anonymous which made them difficult to distinguish. I'd definitely be in favour of giving them distinct avatars and possibly distinct taglines (don't know if that's possible). A couple of the names were similar too which made me confused on a couple of occasions.

One thing I would suggest might be to use the anon accounts in games where the theme doesn't necessarily require character names so you don't end up with too many alter egos. I was Ecto/Phil/Aquaman/NRV. Just playing Phil the NRV might be simpler. Not sure if that makes sense.

I'd also like to see a mix of anon and personal user names type games for community jauntz reasons.

Can't think of much more that I'd change but I did enjoy being anon while still being on Boards so cheers for making that happen. :-D

Tigger

I thought it was great
I love being enormous it means I get killed by my friends instead of my enemies

I personally only really want to play annonomous games and except for like annaverserry or special games I'll only be playing in that format

It's very personal to say Tigger you are a being a dick
It's not to say Abigail you are being a dick

Turning on or off all the accounts thing is the way forward
Give me the jobs and I'll happily do it I'm very nonirrasposnsable when I'm a mod

Tigger

On the names
Andy names were better and my avatars were better we bothbputba lot of effort into them to make them distinctive and memorable and I can still remember who was who and who did what in our game but not in flushys' game

sullivlo

Tigger wrote: »

On the names
Andy names were better and my avatars were better we bothbputba lot of effort into them to make them distinctive and memorable and I can still remember who was who and who did what in our game but not in flushys' game

Hands are tied with boards admin on the names; also there was a discussion thread on the names and the storms seemed to be the most logical approach.

I'm sure we could discuss avatars if there was a desire to have unique avatars for characters.

Barney92

As others have covered, I thought it was a good game and I think the anon accounts added something to it. However, I'd rather see them used occasionally rather than as the norm. I think it might harm the community spirit built up over the past year. I understand it means that certain players won't be targeted as early as they would be should their normal accounts be used though.

The posting from normal accounts seems to have a simple enough fix, even if it is a bit of work for Sully.

On the anon accounts, I can't even remember my own name from the one that was played on change of plan games. I can remember a few of the names but not most of them. I found these names easier to remember in this game, than I did the ones in the other one. The others were certainly more creative and obviously thought went into them but they just didn't stick for some reason.

crosstownk

Overall I was well happy with the anon accounts. It worked well and levelled the playing field.

It would have helped if the Lynch Form was PM'd to the anon account to save me having to go back to my own account to find it. This may have contributed to some posters posting from their own accounts.

My own account uses the dark theme. The anon account was the default (bright) theme and I didn't change it so it remained obvious to me what account I was logged into. I mentioned as much to MrsFD in an effort to minimise players posting from the wrong account. In any event it's simple to avoid posting from the wrong account - type, check, post.

I did little with the anon account (Henry) that I was given. I didn't change password or any other settings and deleted any PMs before handing it back. I think this should be a given - like a bathroom - leave it as you would like to find it, it's not much to ask and will help Sully's head from melting.

crosstownk

Barney92 wrote: »

As others have covered, I thought it was a good game and I think the anon accounts added something to it. However, I'd rather see them used occasionally rather than as the norm. I think it might harm the community spirit built up over the past year. I understand it means that certain players won't be targeted as early as they would be should their normal accounts be used though.

I totally agree, Barney. A nice mix of the two would be perfect. Being to anonymous won't help the fantastic community spirit that is as much part of the enjoyment as the games themselves.

Tigger

sullivlo wrote: »

Hands are tied with boards admin on the names; also there was a discussion thread on the names and the storms seemed to be the most logical approach.

I'm sure we could discuss avatars if there was a desire to have unique avatars for characters.

I'm not complaining
I'm delighted with all you've done I'm only vining the feedback

Digital Solitude

I didn't like them at the start, I thought they were hard to remember and I stopped reading after the first lynch as I wasn't really following.

That was as a spectator though, as a player, I did end up picking them up sooner than I expected, and I enjoyed the animosity.

I wouldn't like every game to be played with them though, its a more serious tone compared to what we're used to, and I wouldn't like to remove that.

Overall I think I'll enjoy them more as I remember the names better, but they're definitely not hard to remembrance IMO, the names are perfect.

Tigger

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I didn't like them at the start, I thought they were hard to remember and I stopped reading after the first lynch as I wasn't really following.

That was as a spectator though, as a player, I did end up picking them up sooner than I expected, and I enjoyed the animosity.

I wouldn't like every game to be played with them though, its a more serious tone compared to what we're used to, and I wouldn't like to remove that.

Overall I think I'll enjoy them more as I remember the names better, but they're definitely not hard to remembrance IMO, the names are perfect.

yeah but dont ralk/engage to togger and then kill tigger asap is a bit of a pisser so i lilek them

but i can see why ye like to hv ethe sovial stuff

Baggly

I really enjoyed the recent game, but found it very hard to initially get into with the anon accounts - its easier to spot a few known usernames playing the usual or different styles than it is to watch 29 completely unknown people and figure out what style is which....if that makes sense.

I, very obviously, struggled with managing being logged in on 2 accounts. This wasnt on purpose, but i can understand that it annoyed some people. I use boards for a couple of other forums i am actively a part of, so i found it very hard to have to log in and out every time i wanted to check the game vs those forums.

I followed the advice of someone and logged in in cognito on chrome, but i still got carried away in the middle of posting on my other account and accdientally posted using my Pter account. Removing my posting rights would be a good solution to save me from myself on this front.

I really enjoyed the last game in terms of mechanics (as i think ive said to other players in the backroom thread) - i think the game ended up being very close and this was down to some unusual advantages (inter group comms) the wolves had, as well as some perhaps expected drawbacks (those backstabbing marvel villains). I can understand that some of the village didnt like finding out there were backroom comms, but i dont see not knowing as a negative.

I think custom avatars on the anon boards accounts would be good (this was very good on tigs backroom anon game) as it would give them all a bit of personality, instead of them being generic boards avatars.

Having 3 identities in a game was probably too much - have to agree there. Could have all been simplified to not have the roles as accounts on the backroom and let people use their boards named backroom account and then the anon account on the front thread of the game.

I enjoyed it, and think it deffo has merit, but i couldnt exclusively play anon like tiggs prefers - i think id miss some of the in jokes and personal connections that come easier using our boards account. That being said, Tiggs has a distinct posting style, so id know i was chatting to him anyway!

Triceratops Ballet

Did you enjoy the format of the anonymous accounts on Boards?

I did and i didn't, I liked it in that from a mod perspective seamless subbing is a great advantage.
I wouldn't like to play every game anon. I like playing with you guys and I like the jauntz so i feel like the anon a/c take some of that away. I felt they made us a bit serious in an MU way. I also found it hard to keep track of who said what mentally as the names were so generic. BUT I believe generic name options were the better choice. As someone who played with a fake name and and a role it was a lot to keep track of.


Were you happy with the setup of the accounts - naming, taglines, access, ability to delete posts?
this was all good, it would be useful if no two of the anon accounts had the same avatar but that's a very small thing for me. I don't think they need to be custom, having custom ones might add to the game but not having them doesn't take away from it IMO

What were the positives of the game? What were the negatives in the game?
I think I've talked enough about my perceived negatives for this game enough.

What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards?
none to report!

sKeith

Did you enjoy the format of the anonymous accounts on Boards?
Yes. I really enjoyed that there was no user history prejudicing any of the players. Everybody got their fair shot of ruining their own reputations all on their own in this game, without referencing any past actions that they had done in previous games.

Were you happy with the setup of the accounts - naming, taglines, access, ability to delete posts?
I could not add my email account to the anon account in order to receive follow emails. over on changeofplans, if I am playing fred, I can add my emails as myname+fred@gmail.com. this works great. when i tried to do same with anon account myname+vernon@gmail.com is said account was already used at boards.ie.

What were the positives of the game?
as above. no prejudices.

What were the negatives in the game?
our GameMods might have more of the negatives, can't name many myself.

What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards?
Can see were the suggestion of custom avatars may make some sense, don't like those big coloured squares myself.

beakerjoe

Did you enjoy the format of the anonymous accounts on Boards?

I loved it.

As an inexperienced player it gave me the ability to disguise that fact a bit under teh Nigel username. I did feel at times confused about who posted what with some too similar names (Riona/Fiona for example) Seinng the subbing go undetected was a nice advantage. Id think it helped me as a new player as I felt it easier to post under an alias who could have been anyone rather than just the awful newbie BJ.

Were you happy with the setup of the accounts
This was all good, I will add my voivce to the avatar ideas. It would be easier to tell people apart if no two of the anon accounts had the same avatar.


What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards?
Nothing really, I loved it.

raze_them_all_

Did you enjoy the format of the anonymous accounts on Boards?
yeah i have two different browsers, never got em mixed up


What were the positives of the game?
Trying to figure out people from a blank slate, tigger and dottie were in game and nobody had a clue.

What were the negatives in the game?
As i said i felt like the mods were too secretitive with the backroom baddie room. It meant that a few plays i relied on were completely pointless as the baddies were never going to double munch. i felt it was an unfair advantage.

What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards?
The mods have secrets rule needs to be tweeked that its only for in game saving tweeks, not a coverall.
Oh this team had this big advantage....mods have secrets just seems cheap

sullivlo

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

Did you enjoy the format of the anonymous accounts on Boards?
yeah i have two different browsers, never got em mixed up


What were the positives of the game?
Trying to figure out people from a blank slate, tigger and dottie were in game and nobody had a clue.

What were the negatives in the game?
As i said i felt like the mods were too secretitive with the backroom baddie room. It meant that a few plays i relied on were completely pointless as the baddies were never going to double munch. i felt it was an unfair advantage.

What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards?
The mods have secrets rule needs to be tweeked that its only for in game saving tweeks, not a coverall.
Oh this team had this big advantage....mods have secrets just seems cheap

Not really related to the boards aspect, they're more game mod related. Something that could be discussed in the general game thread perhaps though!

MrsFlushdraw

[*]Did you enjoy the format of the anonymous accounts on Boards?

From a modding point of view I would say the first game with a new format will always be tough. I am glad we did it and with it being a SH style game anonymous was a great format.

[*]Were you happy with the setup of the accounts - naming, taglines, access, ability to delete posts?

Loved that they couldn't delete posts. Stopped me getting heavy handed with folks

[*]What were the positives of the game?

Meta gaming aspect, you could take on a new persona

[*]What were the negatives in the game?

Time wasted on people trying to match up anon names with normal boards accounts.

[*]What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards?

Have a "No discussion on who you think is who's who on thread"


That is all I can think of for now. Maybe different as I was not using the accounts though.

MrsFlushdraw

Tigger wrote: »

On the names
Andy names were better and my avatars were better we bothbputba lot of effort into them to make them distinctive and memorable and I can still remember who was who and who did what in our game but not in flushys' game

Setting up a game with all the anon stuff is tough, then you have to remember the backroom. And you kind of need avatars to make it look right. Took blooming ages to get all the accounts avatars sorted.

Sully made the accounts except the Nick & Amanda ones.

It was easy to get avatars for my game as it was all SH's that could be found easily on google.

MrsFlushdraw

I have the spreadsheet with all the anon account details on it.

IF you changed the password, please PM ME and I will update the sheet prior to passing on the accounts info.

Then I would suggest that in the game PM it is written that the first thing you do is access the anon account, change the PW and send a PM immediately to the WWGM account and the master list can be updated ready for the next and so on..

quickbeam

I didn't change my password. Or anything else about it, except the number of posts per page upped to the maximum. That's for Eva WW.

Necro

Yep. I didn't change anything bar removing my avatar and changing profile settings to invisible (Gertie here). I don't like avatars. They make me look fat :P

Ectoplasm

I was Phil and the only changes I made were posts per page and visibility online.

The_Valeyard

I went all Ian Paisley, until my Thor reveal.

So I changes a couple of things......

Triceratops Ballet

When I was Orla all I changed was the page length, obvs digi could have changed summat too. Tho the password in the pm both of us got was incorrect so probably needs to be updated

MrsFlushdraw

Triceratops Ballet wrote: »

When I was Orla all I changed was the page length, obvs digi could have changed summat too. Tho the password in the pm both of us got was incorrect so probably needs to be updated

Can you PM me the one that worked? cheers

[*]Did you enjoy the format of the anonymous accounts on Boards?
Yup, I really enjoyed having a new account to play around with. Clodagh's a part of me now! I'f I'm a different anon a/c in a future game then I'll feel very guilty and conflicted if I have to lynch/munch/shoot her. :pac:

[*]Were you happy with the setup of the accounts - naming, taglines, access, ability to delete posts?
Yeah, can't really complain. I stayed out of my regular a/c for most of it so just stayed logged in as Clodagh. It may have been a pain if you had to regularly switch between the two but it wasn't a big deal for me anyway.

[*]What were the positives of the game?
This was my first ever Werewolf game, and before the anon a/c system I was a little worried about being the obvious newb, that this would be picked up on and my inexperience could be exploited by more senior (wolfier!) players. Having the anon a/c really helped with that, because it felt we were all on a level playing field.

[*]What were the negatives in the game?
Nothing really to add here tbh. Learning and remembering the new names was a bit of a challenge but I didn't really mind; being my first game it would have been the same for me with regular accounts anyway.

[*]What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards?
Adding a distinctive avatar to each account would be a good idea, or some other distinctive feature. There were a number of accounts that had the same avatar so it was easy to mix them up. (Just looked back over it there; Phil, Isla and Riona all had the same avatar, while Nigel and Tegan had slightly different but very similar ones, so it was almost like 5 players with the same avatar!)

One minor thing: when it comes to the lynch form, we were told to use our Werewolf account name. I think I just put my name in as Clodagh but I'm not sure if I was supposed to include the WW bit or not? Maybe it was clarified on thread and I just never spotted it, but it'd be good to know if I needed to add "Clodagh" or "Clodagh WW", or if it didn't matter either way.

Triceratops Ballet

raze_them_all_ wrote:

What improvements would you suggest for future anonymous games on Boards? The mods have secrets rule needs to be tweeked that its only for in game saving tweeks, not a coverall. Oh this team had this big advantage....mods have secrets just seems cheap

Just to address this, I wrote that rule for a game in feb and it was to cover a mechanic that had it been revealed would have been hugely disadvantageous to the village. The relevant people to whom the rule applied all had the information they need. So it's not game saving rule. I wrote it to ensure balance.

For me it was a formalisation of Sullys "all is not as it seems" from Halloween.

This isn't the thread to discuss it but the village had a counter to this in the shared back room for jess and luke, they chose to burn it though to take out a baddie. Which could be argued was unbalanced against kilgrave, while Jessica was allowed to reveal, he could never win and was always going to play 2nd fiddle to deadpool.
Shared baddie rooms are as much a curse as a blessing to baddies as it reveals your identity to the people more likely to kill you than the village.