¡EBOLA! Warz Game Summary and Write-Up

[MRandall25]

Thank you to everyone who participated in the first of what PFIDC and I hope to be many Infection-style Warz games. We understand that there are a few things we could do differently, and they will be addressed at the end. Right now, here's how the game worked:

Patient Zero: redwill

Congrats, you are PATIENT ZERO.

You are the first person infected with the virus, so you get some special privileges.

- Each night, you are allowed to infect one (1) person. Choose wisely, as these people may help you spread the infection, but only for a short period of time, as an infection starts the death clock (1-5 phases, a day phase and a night phase are considered 2 (1 day, 1 night)). If they are voted for quarantine, they cannot help you spread the infection.
- If you are vaccinated by the angel, your infection will not have an effect for that night phase. Hut, you still maintain your status and can infect someone the next night phase.
- Be careful. If you become quarantined, you lose your status as Patient Zero and are put on the death clock, and your recruit assumes your status.

I think I have just about everything covered (that is relevant to you). Let me know if you have any questions

The CDC: Slappybrown

You are The CDC

- Each night phase, you will have one (1) vaccination to use on any player in the game. The vaccine will prevent infection, but only for a short amount of time (1-5 phases, a day phase and a night phase = 2 phases (1 day, 1 night)).

- If the vaccine lasts more than 2 phases, you will be allowed to vaccinate another person after 2 phases have passed (so, pretty much, vaccinate Night 1 for 5 phases, you will be allowed to vaccinate again on Night 2 (I will PM you for a vaccination)).

- Vaccinating players who are infected may or may not cure them. It will go to a random.org which will determine if the vaccine has full effect (cured, disabled infection), partial effect (not cured, but not able to infect others), or no effect (still infected and able to infect others).

Here was the PM sent to players that became infected:

You have been infected by ______.

You have phases to live, starting with this _____ phase, (so you are scheduled to die during _____, as each day and night phase count as separate phases).

During your time as an infected player, you have a role. At the end of each day phase for which you are alive and infected, your final vote during the phase will infect another player. A player voted for quarantine may still become infected. Choose wisely. If Patient Zero becomes quarantined and you are still alive, you may be selected to replace them.

Your goal is to help spread the infection.

So now you guys can sort of see how the game mechanism worked. Here's how the game itself played out:

Spoiler:

NIGHT 1

Slappy vaccinated himself for 4 phases (ended at the end of Day 2)
redwill infected CBear for 4 phases (CBear died during Night 3)

DAY 1

Slappybrown quarantined for 2 phases (released Night 3)
CBear voted for and infected EPP/columbia for 2 phases (columbia died at the end of Day 2)

NIGHT 2

redwill infected Willie Kool for 5 phases (WK died at the end of Day 4)
Slappybrown was quarantined and unable to vaccinate anyone

DAY 2

relantel was quarantined for 3 phases (released Night 4)
WK voted for and infected Doc for 2 phases (Doc died at the end of Day 3)
columbia voted for and infected obhave for 1 phase (obhave died during Night 3)
CBear voted for and infected rel for 4 phases (rel died at the end of Day 4)

NIGHT 3

Slappy was released from quarantine and protected himself for 2 phases (ended at the end of Day 3)
redwill infected shad for 5 phases (shad was supposed to die at the end of Day 5)
obhave and CBear died

DAY 3

dodint was quarantined for 3 phases (would have been released Night 5)
WK voted for and infected dodint for 4 phases (dodint was supposed to die at the end of Day 5)
shad voted for and infected Crank for 2 phases (Crank died at the end of Day 4)
Doc voted for and infected tfrizz for 5 phases (tfrizz was supposed to die on Night 6)
Doc died

NIGHT 4

Slappy protected himself for 3 phases (would have ended at the end of Day 5)
redwill infected SDD for 3 phases (SDD was supposed to die at the end of Day 5)
relantel was released from quarantine

DAY 4

Slappy was quarantined for 5 phases (would have ended Night 7)
relantel voted for and infected Gaucho for 2 phases (Gaucho was supposed to die at the end of Day 5)

NIGHT 5

redwill infected MIMH for 1 phase (MIMH was supposed to die at the end of Day 5)

I believe that is everything. In the end, it was more of a survival game than your typical Warz game.

TL;DR: There was no seer. Just an angel (slappy) and a Patient Zero (redwill). People became infected either through night action or votes from an infected player during the day phases.

Something we will probably do for the next game is have more than 1 angel. I thought slappy may have been able to do it if he got lucky with long vaccinations for himself and finding people before they got infected, but the village really screwed themselves over by quarantining him when there were only 2 infected players. Had slappy been able to use a vaccine on Night 2, the game may have been able to be extended (depending on who he would have chosen). He never had a chance to attempt to cure someone because he missed out on that Night 2 vaccine, and he got unlucky with a short one on Night 3. I think having 2 angels would've made the job easier. May also make it so the angels have to try to vaccinate people other than themselves.

Probably a few more tweaks for next time, but overall I was pleased with how the game played out, even though you guys didn't really know what was going on. Hopefully we can get a few more people to play next time, as I think that'll help the game last a little longer.

If anyone has any other changes or tweaks they see could fit, or any questions they have about the game, we'd be more than happy to listen and answer.

Thanks again everyone. Sorry this was a new thing that wasn't inherently easy to figure out until you became a part of it.

[Gaucho]

MRandall, son, have I ever told you the story about the chess board and the grains of rice?

[Gaucho]

I like the basic idea, though.

[MRandall25]

I like the basic idea, though.

We really like it, too (obviously). That's why we want some suggestions to make it slightly better the next time we run one of these.

And I kind of get the chess/rice grains reference. I'm assuming it applies to how we set the game up with infections?

[Gaucho]

Yeah, I think the danger is it will always spread too fast.

[redwill]

It was a form of a geometric series, but muted, since some of the infections were very short-lived.

obhave, for example, did not survive long enough to vote in a single day phase. columbia, Doc, relantel (because of quarantine) and Crankshaft were also only one day phase.

CBear, WK, and shaf were my saviors. tfrizz woulda been, too, if the game had gone on. Multiple votes.

[slappybrown]

You should have revealed a lot of this structure beforehand, because it was clear that people stopped paying attention or caring pretty quickly as it was largely incomprehensible.

[columbia]

You should have revealed a lot of this structure beforehand, because it was clear that people stopped paying attention or caring pretty quickly as it was largely incomprehensible.

You can't keep up with tOSU grads.

[MRandall25]

That's why you're supposed to just play the game and figure it out, rather than quit when it isn't immediately clear to you.

Revealing the structure behind it would've ruined some of the mystery behind the game.

[slappybrown]

That's why you're supposed to just play the game and figure it out, rather than quit when it isn't immediately clear to you.

Revealing the structure behind it would've ruined some of the mystery behind the game.

I Hear you, but the alternative was what you got; a ten page wars game with half the posts being you and pfidc counting votes. No one was doing anything.

[MRandall25]

At least, I was hoping people would've tried to figure it out and play through it, like tfrizz did (and obhave was before she was infected and died).

Like I said, I think having 2 angels and forcing them to not save themselves every chance they get can solve some of the fast spreading issues (also, quarantining infected players would've helped too).

[redwill]

I loved this game. I had a blast. But, as I told the mods, I may have been the only one. Haha.

I had all the action.

I spent hours organizing and coordinating the votes, sending PMs, and watching the happenings.

One thing that is important that MRandall didn't mention is that the individual infectees could not know who the other infectees were. Some may have figured it out, especially this last day when we jumped on slappybrown, but I had to PM the infectees separately with voting suggestions. I sent ~50 PMs this game, to the mods and other players.

[MRandall25]

That's why you're supposed to just play the game and figure it out, rather than quit when it isn't immediately clear to you.

Revealing the structure behind it would've ruined some of the mystery behind the game.

I Hear you, but the alternative was what you got; a ten page wars game with half the posts being you and pfidc counting votes. No one was doing anything.

And that's why we're making tweaks for the next time we do this, starting with getting a couple more (read: hopefully 10) participants.

[slappybrown]

At least, I was hoping people would've tried to figure it out and play through it, like tfrizz did (and obhave was before she was infected and died).

Like I said, I think having 2 angels and forcing them to not save themselves every chance they get can solve some of the fast spreading issues (also, quarantining infected players would've helped too).

Agree. You considered giving me that at the beginning but toned it down.

[MRandall25]

I loved this game. I had a blast. But, as I told the mods, I may have been the only one. Haha.

I had all the action.

I spent hours organizing and coordinating the votes, sending PMs, and watching the happenings.

One thing that is important that MRandall didn't mention is that the individual infectees could not know who the other infectees were. Some may have figured it out, especially this last day when we jumped on slappybrown, but I had to PM the infectees separately with voting suggestions. I sent ~50 PMs this game, to the mods and other players.

Yes, that was one thing I left out of the write-up.

I couldn't take the chance of having slappy fully cure someone who was infected, and have them come in and rat out the rest of the infected players. Wouldn't have really made a good game, even with people not really participating.

[tfrizz]

I like the basic idea, though.

I do too. Like I said in the game thread, it would've worked better if the rate of propagation/infection was lower so that the villagers had more time to get things figured out. As constructed, it was a slam dunk for the infected to win.

[Willie Kool]

Yeah, I think the danger is it will always spread too fast.

I think it could be slowed down by not letting the infected know that they are infected.

[columbia]

Yeah, I think the danger is it will always spread too fast.

I think it could be slowed down by not letting the infected know that they are infected.

Not really, as I would have died after one day, eitger way....per the game setup.

[PensFanInDC]

The game needs 20+ players. There is so much that I want to do next game. This was a good trial and error.

[MRandall25]

@WK

But then the infected would still vote and pass it on...?

Or are you saying don't put the infected in contact with the PZ to coordinate voting during the phase?

[Willie Kool]

Yeah, they would still pass it the same way. IMO, the PM's from PZ give far too much of an advantage.

[MRandall25]

Fair point. So do you think we should just have whoever PZ infects be able to be in contact, or don't let PZ have any contact whatsoever?

Also juggling the idea of letting the PZ only have 2 or 3 infections before they can't infect people anymore. Not sure if that's too drastic or not.

[Willie Kool]

No contact. They don't even know they are infected until they die. I'd think we would have had more infected people ending up in quarantine and the votes certainly wouldn't have been as spread out - for maximum exposure - towards the end.

[columbia]

If Doc had been modding the game, the PMs would have read, "Congratulations, you've been infected! "

[redwill]

No contact. They don't even know they are infected until they die. I'd think we would have had more infected people ending up in quarantine and the votes certainly wouldn't have been as spread out - for maximum exposure - towards the end.

Well it would certainly slow things down, but that would be an entirely different game, since they wouldn't be able to communicate with Patient Zero and would therefore simply die without helping to spread the virus.

It would be like a Werewolf game but with randomly-delayed killings.