Portalfig

I've managed to see Moana and Rogue One so far. REALLY want to see Arrival and La La Land. Where am I supposed to find the money and the time dangit

It is definitely both a LazyTown and a Steven Universe reference, all rolled together. There is no escape. Embrace the lazy town as you cannot flee. You'll be here forever.

Alright guys, here's the first one. Keep in mind that, like, all of this was written in mid-late 2014. I just went through and edited some wording a bit just now, and added the questions on the end. For a long time the BZP Mafia community has been built around a game extremely different from other sources of the same essential game. These changes are both massive and minute, and understanding the state of the BZP Mafia game will be important for the next few essays I am writing here. Basically, here I am going to compare, contrast, and dissect how I see the BZP Mafia game, in order to get a better understanding of how to approach the rest of these topics. I need to lay some groundwork. First off: What constitutes a “Mafia Game”? In this essay, it is a game played with a fairly large group of players, wherein two or more sides try to eliminate each other over multiple rounds of Day/Night cycles. The differentiations between the three different kinds are even more simple. BZP Mafia contains any mafia games played here, on BZPower. Other Internet Mafia takes place somewhere else on the internet where the community is brought together for mafia (the forum used the most in this essay is entitled MafiaScum). Real Life games are ones that take place in meatspace. Now that we have the obvious definitions out of the way, let us begin. The first bit is a comparison between the IRL games and general Internet forum games. The two are played vastly different, and can easily be considered two separate forms of the game. I’ve personally hosted a bit of both, thus can tell the differences from firsthand experiences. IRL Mafia is much less strategic than Internet Mafia, as you likely well know. IRL Mafia is a party game of facial tells, of checking for vocal inflections and listening for movement. It is much less down to a science, and it happens over a much shorter period of time. After all, everybody is just sitting in a circle, so it can’t take place over four weeks or whatever. As well, IRL Mafia almost exclusively deals with just one’s self, and how they interpret the acts committed. There are not any channels for communicating to just a single person, everything must be heard by either the whole group or not at all. As such, the Mafia is put at an even bigger disadvantage, because they cannot communicate silently, thus giving the villagers near them a much better chance of finding the Mafia. The only real way to counteract this is by only putting one Mafian in the game, so they just have to point at those they wish to kill. Of course, that is not preferable for games with more than ~7 or 8 players. Internet Mafia, on the other hand, is a totally different beast. Internet Mafia has a new level of strategy, and is overall a more actual game. Whereas the IRL Mafia is a party game, that certainly depends on the group around you, Internet Mafia is like an intellectual game, where the mechanics of it are more prevalent. The way one takes the game past this point, then, is how we get BZP Mafia and Other Internet (Or OI) Mafia. OI takes a little bit of a hardcore approach to mafia, typically. Many of the math concepts that I’ve applied to my games in the past have hinged on the probabilities of winning that I found on MafiaScum back in the day. Indeed, their wiki shows what I tend to think of when I think of Mafia in other corners of the internet: intellectual, statistic, and probability-focused. (Disclaimer, I have not played any real Mafia anywhere else so I cannot speak with real authority in this area. This is just what I’ve found in my research.) However, Mafia here on BZP tends to take a kind of approach that marries the two extremes we’ve talked about here. It is a game where the fun and community tends to be first (like the IRL Mafia), but set in a game system that is designed for more intellectual play (as it is a form of Internet Mafia). Thus, we have a weird hybrid where game balance is needed just as much as good memes and silly fun. This is what any host, in my opinion, needs to keep in mind. We don’t play anything near optimal levels of Mafia, but we don’t want to be restrained to the limitations of real-life games of Mafia. We are kind of completely weird, and it’s kinda great. What do you guys think of this definition? Should something be added? What about my analysis of other, focused internet mafia communities?

I found fragments of the particular essay I meant (About hidden information in games), but not the whole thing yet - I think I never quite finished it. I'll see about fixing it up and posting it soon. I did find two others that I did complete, though. One on design trends in the Third Age (Up to XX I believe) and another one on defining what BZP Mafia even is. I think I'll post one of each of these for the next two days (Perhaps here and in my blog? Only here? *shrug*) and try and wrangle the other one into something useful in that time. That sounds pretty fun. I will say, though, something I realized as I was doing cursory research to find the information I was using for the secrets essay: Once Iborw's current game finishes, we will have officially passed the first age in number of main series games, although probably not side games. That's pretty nutso, guys. We've come so far. *tear*

Princely Affair is good. You should do that, because I want some mafia and i miss you guys. =P @Taka on hidden info: I think I have an essay soemwhere about my views on hidden twists in games. I might try and find it. I wrote 3-4 essays about Mafia game design a couple of years ago that I think I never posted anywhere, lol basic gist is that twists are okay if they are telegraphed and within design space. saying that something will change the game is good. Something changing the rules out of nowhere is bad.

"If we think we can stop you then we need to think again..." "'cause YOU ARE NUMBER ONE"

Filler day... That's a name I've not heard in a long time...

What if the screw-neck was also a rocket ship Then space would be full of heads Space-heads

Honestly I still think of you as iborw. Not ibrow - iborw. Probably with Voltex as a last name but *shurg* I've tried to make sure to call you voltex most of the time, but Idk haha

Aw, man! So close! *shakes fist* Someday we'll meet IRL and have an epic dance party, Taka. That'd be so neat.

(Don't count me in (for obvious reasons) but have you heard the Hadestown EP? One of my newest favorites, and I am eagerly awaiting the full cast album release this upcoming year.) (I assume this would be something you'd like with a question like that) (Also because Wait For Me has been my jam the last couple of months. The other one being Dancing Through Life from Wicked.) (Alright I'm done haha)

Yo, TMD! How've you been? How has the progress on your next film been going? I believe, last I heard, you had just found a place to film?

Happy birthday, Blade! Keep being super cool, yo. B)

I am just really terrible at blogging. Geez. Study Abroad almost over, only a month left. Currently in Stuttgart for the end of fall break. It's wet and cold and really cool. Hope you all are doing well. Hopefully I'll be able to actually be a thing again during Christmas Break. <3

Is it broken? I just started a new game and it's working okay for me so far. Easily one of my favorites. It was when I last checked, but now that I think about it that might have been with my old phone... Now I've got to check. *crosses fingers*

TWEWY <3 I totally bought the iPhone port of it on your recommendation years ago and man It's the best I hate that it is no longer supported and, like, doesn't work. Because my gosh. I have an intense desire to replay that game like every day

BIRD MOMMMM

It's the best and I love it so much uhhhhgggg

oh my goodness hey! The Insurgent was like the best thing back in the day. I think I played through one of the versions... 10 or 11 times? I just really enjoyed it. Welcome back!

you know I watched twelve episodes of galidor during winter break while I was working on my project to make it good I saw some potential (eventually) but it burned my soul

Seamus Heaney's translation is also so good, really sticks the original form of the poem and really translates it into English well in my opinion(as one who is not super familiar with original Anglo-Saxon verse yet). Also, his use of alliteration throughout is so great. The passage you quoted goes as follows in his translation: I haven't read Tolkien's version yet, unfortunately. I hope to soon, though.

Not saying these aren't strange and not well explained, but I can help with that! The paw prints system is more a "hot/cold" system than anything else, with three being furthest and zero being the closest. As such, you use the number of paw prints to get a general estimate, and then walk around to see if you get closer to it and the number decreases. The leaves are similar, in that the number of leaves in an area depicts how likely that there are Pokemon in that area, not necessarily where within that area they are! Really kinda silly, but the guesswork of it all kinda makes it more adventure-y, which is pretty fun in my opinion. I just wish it was all better explained in app. xD

When somebody answers a question with a follow up "don't you remember me telling you?" Don't you remember me telling you?

Take care of yourself, Wind! Thanks for being so fantastic to all of us in G&T for so long, and for being our Patron Saint! We'll miss you so much - thanks for all the time you gave us!