Serial Killer Round 43 - Welcome to the Killtona 500 (Finish Line Reached! Race is Over!)
- Thread starter NeoAC
- Start date
@JIB: A lot of you are dead and not voting. It's making my job more difficult.
Anyway...
Anyway...
[HEADING=1]THE EXECUTION HAS BEEN DECIDED![/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]I managed to cobble together enough votes to have to extract another in a tiebreaker situation, but we have someone to lynch. Who will it be?[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]I managed to cobble together enough votes to have to extract another in a tiebreaker situation, but we have someone to lynch. Who will it be?[/HEADING]
@Neo: But why would they be disappearing? I suppose I can think of at least three main reasons.
1. There's absolutely no conversation, nothing to discuss. The game comes across as a stark and boring thread that nobody seems to be involved in. There have been times when I try to jump into conversation just to be flat out ignored. The only people I can sort of count on responding to me are Link and RaN.
2. The first few games can always be a bit rough while players are learning the rules, but they can also be incredibly dull if you're just part of the mob. I was fortunate enough to get a role my first game (unfortunately it was important), and I'm fairly certain that I would have left the game far earlier if I had not. We could probably fix this with several methods, like adding more player slots or more roles. These come with drawbacks though, like overtaxing the GM.
3. There's a conflict between the people who want to play the game and those who want to write a death. I, including others, enjoy both yet I can't help but feel increasingly apathetic towards my writing when it doesn't seem like others care. Sure, that's selfish. But I'm not writing for my own entertainment. Even if it isn't Nobel Laureate material, I can at least hope that somebody somewhere will enjoy reading it. Look at this round. We've had about 8 written death posts (none of which were linked in the first post) out of 17 deaths. That's under 50% participation. A lot, if not all, of those players who didn't write a death are on the Regulars list. Too many players don't care about this game.
Apologies if I'm coming across as ranty, but I'm tired of watching this game flounder its potential away.
It could be really fun and entertaining.
1. There's absolutely no conversation, nothing to discuss. The game comes across as a stark and boring thread that nobody seems to be involved in. There have been times when I try to jump into conversation just to be flat out ignored. The only people I can sort of count on responding to me are Link and RaN.
2. The first few games can always be a bit rough while players are learning the rules, but they can also be incredibly dull if you're just part of the mob. I was fortunate enough to get a role my first game (unfortunately it was important), and I'm fairly certain that I would have left the game far earlier if I had not. We could probably fix this with several methods, like adding more player slots or more roles. These come with drawbacks though, like overtaxing the GM.
3. There's a conflict between the people who want to play the game and those who want to write a death. I, including others, enjoy both yet I can't help but feel increasingly apathetic towards my writing when it doesn't seem like others care. Sure, that's selfish. But I'm not writing for my own entertainment. Even if it isn't Nobel Laureate material, I can at least hope that somebody somewhere will enjoy reading it. Look at this round. We've had about 8 written death posts (none of which were linked in the first post) out of 17 deaths. That's under 50% participation. A lot, if not all, of those players who didn't write a death are on the Regulars list. Too many players don't care about this game.
Apologies if I'm coming across as ranty, but I'm tired of watching this game flounder its potential away.
It could be really fun and entertaining.
@Zero: I'm going to try and answer as many questions or points as I can, based on my experiences over the years playing this game.
1. You can't have too much conversation because then the death posts get lost and people get frustrated that they can't figure out who's dead and what's going on. Back in Round 10, we had a little game amongst us participants that I helped propogate by keeping score where people would try and claim the top post on a page. It was serious business and it resulted in SK's first lifetime ban when a newcomer who didn't take too kindly to being executed first in his previous time out decided to wreck an agreement amongst the participants and spitefully claim the page for himself (We dare not speak his derogatory name in these parts). The game resulted in the longest SK thread to date, with almost 100 pages of posts, but people complained that they didn't want to have to read through 5 pages of posts to find out who died that round. So such a game was discontinued, and we relied on general chatter to keep things going.
Now I know this round has been lacking in the chatter, but I've noticed this for the entire month on this section of the site (certainly in my RPs), and that can be attributed to a couple things. One would be RL stuff, with people having to go back to school and trying to get routines down (probably killing mine staying up to type this). The other would be the advent of social media. When Round 10 was underway, this thread was the way we would keep in touch with other users. Now many of us who have lived in this game have other avenues, such as Twitter and Skype. Most of the users I grew in this game with, as well as others who have bowed out of the game, are contacts of mine on Skype, and I talk with them there, so there is no need to do it here, and hence less posts.
2. I can argue against both propositions you're putting forward because I've seen them in practice and they don't work.
More roles: I had two of the three roles that I eliminated in this round and I saw no point to them. The Double Voter/Celebrity is arguably the one that I found most effective, certainly would be in this round since they would be basically deciding the majority of executions, but in other cases it's not necessary with the Spy doing their work early and getting the names out. In this new world order, it might be necessary to bring that one back. However, the Priest, without any knowledge of who they are bringing back is a shell game, and usually the killer will just murder the revivee on the next opportunity, which makes it ineffective, and the Entwined just annoyed the hell out of me. It was aesthetically displeasing (resulting in an odd number of contestants), served no real purpose in the game, and just was difficult to figure into the equation. That's why I chopped it down to the four roles we have now.
More people: Well you're seeing first hand why this is proving fatal to the thread. Too many people means it's an absolute slog to get through now. This thread has been going for over two months, and we're just now getting past the halfway point. This problem has been obscured in the past by the effectiveness of the spy, but it's showing since he got executed first. More people would make it drag on and on, and then you'll really be seeing some atrophy. Hell, that's why I reduced the number of participants in this round, to try and make it a quicker game. Obviously it hasn't worked out like that, but you can see how adding more people would not alleviate the problem.
3. Hell I'm not going to argue that. I'm just as guilty. Time constraints, constant writing of university papers/tests and a general malaise have put a damper on my death writings in recent threads (when you write one almost every round, you start to run out of ideas). I mean I went into haiku for one of them, and I really only exerted my efforts last round because I was the Killer and I felt I had to make it good. Whether or not it was noticed, I don't know.
But I see the point on the Regulars list. Granted it was started with the best of intentions. It was started after Round 14 when a newbie GM had a rush start to the round and many regulars missed out, including Sky14kemea (the only round out of 43 she's not been a part of). But at this point in time, it does almost feel like lip service, and I know at least one Regular is dropping out due to computer issues. Maybe their needs to be another one time fire sale, to get some fresh blood in and see just who is actively paying attention. It's something to consider for the next round.
Personally, I'll take most of the blame by putting in a racing theme. I think some people are trying to work within the constraints of that, when that was not my intention. It was just something to frame the opening post, and with your point on 42 last time, I went with that. Clearly bringing something sports related, especially a regional sport like stock car racing, is not the best idea for a gaming site, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was partly responsible for the slow down. Now I know for the future. However, I'm chalking this round's short post count to that poorly-chosen theme, the time of year, and the dragging on of this process to find the killer due to the early spy death.
And for the record, don't try to outrant an East Coast Canadian. We're masters of the craft. Youtube Rick Mercer to see what I mean.
1. You can't have too much conversation because then the death posts get lost and people get frustrated that they can't figure out who's dead and what's going on. Back in Round 10, we had a little game amongst us participants that I helped propogate by keeping score where people would try and claim the top post on a page. It was serious business and it resulted in SK's first lifetime ban when a newcomer who didn't take too kindly to being executed first in his previous time out decided to wreck an agreement amongst the participants and spitefully claim the page for himself (We dare not speak his derogatory name in these parts). The game resulted in the longest SK thread to date, with almost 100 pages of posts, but people complained that they didn't want to have to read through 5 pages of posts to find out who died that round. So such a game was discontinued, and we relied on general chatter to keep things going.
Now I know this round has been lacking in the chatter, but I've noticed this for the entire month on this section of the site (certainly in my RPs), and that can be attributed to a couple things. One would be RL stuff, with people having to go back to school and trying to get routines down (probably killing mine staying up to type this). The other would be the advent of social media. When Round 10 was underway, this thread was the way we would keep in touch with other users. Now many of us who have lived in this game have other avenues, such as Twitter and Skype. Most of the users I grew in this game with, as well as others who have bowed out of the game, are contacts of mine on Skype, and I talk with them there, so there is no need to do it here, and hence less posts.
2. I can argue against both propositions you're putting forward because I've seen them in practice and they don't work.
More roles: I had two of the three roles that I eliminated in this round and I saw no point to them. The Double Voter/Celebrity is arguably the one that I found most effective, certainly would be in this round since they would be basically deciding the majority of executions, but in other cases it's not necessary with the Spy doing their work early and getting the names out. In this new world order, it might be necessary to bring that one back. However, the Priest, without any knowledge of who they are bringing back is a shell game, and usually the killer will just murder the revivee on the next opportunity, which makes it ineffective, and the Entwined just annoyed the hell out of me. It was aesthetically displeasing (resulting in an odd number of contestants), served no real purpose in the game, and just was difficult to figure into the equation. That's why I chopped it down to the four roles we have now.
More people: Well you're seeing first hand why this is proving fatal to the thread. Too many people means it's an absolute slog to get through now. This thread has been going for over two months, and we're just now getting past the halfway point. This problem has been obscured in the past by the effectiveness of the spy, but it's showing since he got executed first. More people would make it drag on and on, and then you'll really be seeing some atrophy. Hell, that's why I reduced the number of participants in this round, to try and make it a quicker game. Obviously it hasn't worked out like that, but you can see how adding more people would not alleviate the problem.
3. Hell I'm not going to argue that. I'm just as guilty. Time constraints, constant writing of university papers/tests and a general malaise have put a damper on my death writings in recent threads (when you write one almost every round, you start to run out of ideas). I mean I went into haiku for one of them, and I really only exerted my efforts last round because I was the Killer and I felt I had to make it good. Whether or not it was noticed, I don't know.
But I see the point on the Regulars list. Granted it was started with the best of intentions. It was started after Round 14 when a newbie GM had a rush start to the round and many regulars missed out, including Sky14kemea (the only round out of 43 she's not been a part of). But at this point in time, it does almost feel like lip service, and I know at least one Regular is dropping out due to computer issues. Maybe their needs to be another one time fire sale, to get some fresh blood in and see just who is actively paying attention. It's something to consider for the next round.
Personally, I'll take most of the blame by putting in a racing theme. I think some people are trying to work within the constraints of that, when that was not my intention. It was just something to frame the opening post, and with your point on 42 last time, I went with that. Clearly bringing something sports related, especially a regional sport like stock car racing, is not the best idea for a gaming site, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was partly responsible for the slow down. Now I know for the future. However, I'm chalking this round's short post count to that poorly-chosen theme, the time of year, and the dragging on of this process to find the killer due to the early spy death.
And for the record, don't try to outrant an East Coast Canadian. We're masters of the craft. Youtube Rick Mercer to see what I mean.
49 Hours, 38 minutes and 27 seconds. That is how long I have been running for. I had been preparing to leave ever since our numbers reached below fifteen. When it was my face they were nailing on the board, I began my departure from Killtona 500. The first 24 hours were the worst; everyone was looking for me. They came to my house first, seconds after the poster was up. They were armed with everything from your usual pitchforks to a sledgehammer. They hadn't planned to use the sledgehammer to knock my door down, they had home-made explosives that. I didn't want to know what they were going to do with me. I would never know anyway for I had left thirty-five minutes before they came. I was safe on the opposite block, looking into my apartment. After the ammunition started to go off, I had set the oven to thirty-five minutes, I left the roof and made my way towards the town exit.
It had been a difficult journey to say the least. Even though there were only nine of them looking, they had made it hell to try and escape. They weren't taking any risks, I could tell when they turned on every light in the town and even then were attaching flashlights to their arms and head. Speed and stealth had been the key to escape; without speed I wouldn?t have been able to reach the town edge in two days, and without stealth I would have been caught by the townsfolk and met a grizzly end.
At the start of the second day, Killtona turned into a ghost town. No one was out in the streets looking anymore, they had all disappeared. I even looked inside a few buildings to check for other residents but found no one. The sudden emptiness was scarier than the prospect of my flesh and bone meeting their steel and rage. It was far more comfortable knowing where they were, and I felt more confident one step-ahead. I went through a thousand theories as to what had happened. The crazier ones involved a Langolier type scenario where I was trapped in the past. Regardless of why they were gone, I vowed not to let it hinder my escape. People or no people, I was going to escape.
And now I was here, at the edge of Killtona staring at the bridge that would get me out of this place, this dystopia. I wondered why I had chosen to come here, what kind of thrill-seeking mood I was in that would convince me to come to the town with the world's highest mortality rate. I was a fool, I accepted that but I was rectifying my mistake and learning from it. The moral of the story is, don't go to the town with the world's highest mortality rate.
I checked both sides of the street. For a road only five metres long, it felt like miles. This final walk would ensure my escape, yet why was I hesistating? It had been too easy after the first day, far too easy. I felt like I was going from one hell to a bigger one. I would be paranoid after I leave, suspicious of everyone I meet. I wouldn't be able to go back to society, not in my crazed state. Maybe that was what they were trying to achieve, execution by self. Clever bastards, clever indeed. If that was their objective, leaving would be pointless. In fact, going back to the town and making them execute me would foil their plan. Or maybe that was their plan. Maybe they were trying to stall me, and if they were that had meant they had already won. I wouldn't give up as long as I was still breathing. And so, with stealth and speed in mind, I ran like hell across. I reached the bridge and kept running, running as if there was no tomorrow. I turned my head and gave Killtona one last look.
"I'm free baby! I'm fr-"
"He's reached the bridge,"
"I can see that,"
"Aren't you going to stop him?"
"Don't worry, he won't make it out,"
"How can you be so sure?"
"Just watch,"
"Aaaaah I see. That's one hell of a risk though"
"Got to keep the theme,"
"Fair enough,"
"Thirty-five is the magic number my friend, thirty-five."
It had been a difficult journey to say the least. Even though there were only nine of them looking, they had made it hell to try and escape. They weren't taking any risks, I could tell when they turned on every light in the town and even then were attaching flashlights to their arms and head. Speed and stealth had been the key to escape; without speed I wouldn?t have been able to reach the town edge in two days, and without stealth I would have been caught by the townsfolk and met a grizzly end.
At the start of the second day, Killtona turned into a ghost town. No one was out in the streets looking anymore, they had all disappeared. I even looked inside a few buildings to check for other residents but found no one. The sudden emptiness was scarier than the prospect of my flesh and bone meeting their steel and rage. It was far more comfortable knowing where they were, and I felt more confident one step-ahead. I went through a thousand theories as to what had happened. The crazier ones involved a Langolier type scenario where I was trapped in the past. Regardless of why they were gone, I vowed not to let it hinder my escape. People or no people, I was going to escape.
And now I was here, at the edge of Killtona staring at the bridge that would get me out of this place, this dystopia. I wondered why I had chosen to come here, what kind of thrill-seeking mood I was in that would convince me to come to the town with the world's highest mortality rate. I was a fool, I accepted that but I was rectifying my mistake and learning from it. The moral of the story is, don't go to the town with the world's highest mortality rate.
I checked both sides of the street. For a road only five metres long, it felt like miles. This final walk would ensure my escape, yet why was I hesistating? It had been too easy after the first day, far too easy. I felt like I was going from one hell to a bigger one. I would be paranoid after I leave, suspicious of everyone I meet. I wouldn't be able to go back to society, not in my crazed state. Maybe that was what they were trying to achieve, execution by self. Clever bastards, clever indeed. If that was their objective, leaving would be pointless. In fact, going back to the town and making them execute me would foil their plan. Or maybe that was their plan. Maybe they were trying to stall me, and if they were that had meant they had already won. I wouldn't give up as long as I was still breathing. And so, with stealth and speed in mind, I ran like hell across. I reached the bridge and kept running, running as if there was no tomorrow. I turned my head and gave Killtona one last look.
"I'm free baby! I'm fr-"
***
"He's reached the bridge,"
"I can see that,"
"Aren't you going to stop him?"
"Don't worry, he won't make it out,"
"How can you be so sure?"
"Just watch,"
"Aaaaah I see. That's one hell of a risk though"
"Got to keep the theme,"
"Fair enough,"
"Thirty-five is the magic number my friend, thirty-five."
@Nouw: Not a joke. Chicago has the highest murder rate of any city in the world.
If that's the case, Serial Killer takes place in the greater Chicago area. Probably River Forest since that township has the lowest population. It fits the bill for that picturesque town you always see in slasher films.
I hear it's lovely this time of year.
If that's the case, Serial Killer takes place in the greater Chicago area. Probably River Forest since that township has the lowest population. It fits the bill for that picturesque town you always see in slasher films.
I hear it's lovely this time of year.