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13:12, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

Posted by GreenTongue
GreenTongue
member, 864 posts
Game Archaeologist
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 00:18
  • msg #1

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

Interested in seeing just how thinly the players have spread themselves.

Is it common to be in multiple games at the same time?

How about running games?  Is it common to run multiple at the same time?
praguepride
member, 1470 posts
"Hugs for the Hugs God!"
- Warhammer Fluffy-K
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 00:38
  • msg #2

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

No, there is no way to see game counts for other players. You can ask but that is as far as it goes.

In my experience most people play in several games if they are active on rPoL because play by post tends to go slow. Many GMs also run several games for the same reason.
borderline_dnd
member, 390 posts
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 00:39
  • msg #3

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to praguepride (msg # 2):

You can view how many games a GM runs by looking them up in [Browse / Search Games] link
donsr
member, 1660 posts
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 00:40
  • msg #4

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

if you  click on " start your  own game' is the  upper  left hand  side  of the main screen.. it  will show you stats...if you wanted to create  a game.... it  tell you how many games you have running, and how many  games  you may run... the numbe changes  depending on your activity.. # of posts in games, and you   length of  service  on the site.

  I don't know   if there is a cap on how many games  you  may join?

 personally  if  a player  is spread too thin, and goes  dark a lot in my games.. I will   release them.

 for my self?.. I will play games I like, but I am sorta  picky when it  comes  to games (  hate   pure  free form... hate   games that have  rules that take onger to read, then it  does  to get a character in the game...  )
bigbadron
moderator, 15768 posts
He's big, he's bad,
but mostly he's Ron.
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 03:31

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

The only way to tell how many games a player is in is for them to tell you - as far as RPoL is concerned, how many games somebody is playing in is nobody's business but theirs.

With GMs, the Main Menu search will find all of a GM's games, and if they post an ad, their other games will be listed there also.

And yes, it is common for players to participate in (and for GMs to run) multiple games.
icosahedron152
member, 974 posts
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 03:47
  • msg #6

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

There's no way to see how many games another person is playing in, but as described above, you can see how many they are running.

However, to a large extent, such information is irrelevant, anyway.

Some people have more free time than others, some are more adept at juggling than others. A simple count of how many games they have alongside their name won't tell you how well they are coping with that number, and their ability to cope may change from day to day.

As an example, I'm currently running 3 active games, playing in 3 active games and lurking in 3 active games. (Active by my definition, not Rpol's).

Some days I find that easy, I'm drumming my fingers waiting for someone to post, but other days, I'm swamped and I can't find time to contribute. Sometimes one particular game can be a bear. You have to self-regulate - resist the urge to add another game on a slack day.

But yeah, a Game count won't tell you how stretched a person is. That can change with the wind. I know a guy who is running upward of twenty games. He admits he's a little stretched on occasion. I'd be stringing myself up...
GreenTongue
member, 865 posts
Game Archaeologist
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 16:37
  • msg #7

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

I realize that the nature of the format is slow paced and was wondering if there was a way to see if a game was "In Rotation".
locojedi
member, 176 posts
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 17:04
  • msg #8

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

It seems to me as if sometimes a GM gets the itch to run something and so they'll post several new games in a relatively short time period, there's a flurry of activity and then they get overwhelmed by the amount of work. I experienced this myself when I took over a couple of games from GMs that had to bail.

The other thing I see is for players who want to play, who have time or are bored when their current games slow down, throw out a ton of RTJ's and then get too many games to keep up in.

Both those are understandable to me, but I often wonder why a GM or Player would go through all the effort of creating a game or a character and then bail after a few dozen posts.

One question GMs should ask in their RTJ's is if the potential player is currently involved in other games and if they can commit the time for another game. Real Life is always going to bite all of us, my own games I run are currently on Hiatus, and several games I play in have slowed to a crawl, but I think there's a certain amount of courtesy in sharing this information with those you play with instead of just dropping off the site entirely.

I'm glad RPOL doesn't post what games people play in, that should be private info. I also think it's a good thing to show current and deleted games GMs have so that patterns can be seen for those who start games and dump them. However, it would be good to have some incentive for players to behave as well. A reputation system perhaps? I've always disliked those on most forums, just a popularity contest, but maybe it would be beneficial in a situation like this?
GreenTongue
member, 866 posts
Game Archaeologist
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 17:16
  • msg #9

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

As with most things, I'm sure there is a way it could be abused.

I do like the Character Logon Information under The Cast.
Would be nice if there was an additional column for Last Site Login like there is for Last Game Login.

That would at least give a feel for if the players are still alive. ;)
bigbadron
moderator, 15769 posts
He's big, he's bad,
but mostly he's Ron.
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 17:51

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to GreenTongue (msg # 9):

Nope, sorry, not going to happen.  As a GM you can see if players have logged in to your game, what else they do on the site is their business.
Hunter
member, 1517 posts
Captain Oblivious!
Lurker
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 17:56
  • msg #11

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to GreenTongue (msg # 9):

I have to echo bigbadron on "nope".   As has already been mentioned, different people can handle different amounts of games; and as soon as something like this would be implemented, it'd become another sore point with the player base.
GreenTongue
member, 867 posts
Game Archaeologist
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 18:15
  • msg #12

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

Yeah, I can see that.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
pdboddy
supporter, 701 posts
EST/EDT [GMT-5/GMT-4]
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 18:46
  • msg #13

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

Yeah, also keep in mind the reverse: players can see when you've last logged into your game.  Who watches the watchmen? :P

The best way to gauge activity in your game is to talk to your players. :)
GreenTongue
member, 868 posts
Game Archaeologist
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 19:13
  • msg #14

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to pdboddy (msg # 13):

If they are updating regularly, in effect, you already are.
Unless you mean rmail and I gather that should be used with caution.
bigbadron
moderator, 15770 posts
He's big, he's bad,
but mostly he's Ron.
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 19:20

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to pdboddy (msg # 13):

Although for players they can only see the day anybody else last logged in to the game, not the time, and even that limited information is not necessarily accurate, since RPoL fudges the information shown to players slightly (to make it more difficult for them to know whether a particular player character is actually being secretly run by the GM).
tibiotarsus
member, 58 posts
Hopepunk with a shovel
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 19:52
  • msg #16

Re: Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

bigbadron:
In reply to GreenTongue (msg # 9):

Nope, sorry, not going to happen.  As a GM you can see if players have logged in to your game, what else they do on the site is their business.


Thank you so much for this, by the way. Nothing makes me inclined to bail from a forum or platform faster than mods suddenly deciding it'd be cute to broadcast your personal login times to all the randoms on a forum.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 96 posts
Wed 24 Jul 2019
at 21:19
  • msg #17

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to bigbadron (msg # 15):

Speaking of that fudging, BBR, is there a way to make it so that posting a PM with a character automatically updates that fudged login time?

While I really appreciate the fudging (for the precise reason that it helps obfuscate GM-run PCs), it also automatically gives away the GM-run PC if said PC participates in a PM (because their fudged login times then don't match their participation.)
Brianna
member, 2189 posts
Thu 25 Jul 2019
at 01:23
  • msg #18

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

Numbers don't tell the whole story anyway.  If someone is GMing a lot of games, it's very possible, but not certain, they are spreading themselves thin.  It probably won't take much of a RL issue to mess it all up.  How many someone is playing in is more problematic though.  How active are the games?  Do they involve short, basic posts, or require long, well thought out roleplaying posts?  Does the player know the rules, whatever they are, well for all the games s/he's in, or have to keep looking things up?  Is the person currently working/studying long hours, and how likely is that to change?  I don't play much now that my health affects my ability to keep up, to learn new systems, and remember old ones, but what I used to do was add one game at a time, play it for at least a couple of weeks (especially if it was a new game, I find many of those have a big burst of posts at first, and then slows to a more sustainable rate), decide if I had time for another, rinse, repeat...
bigbadron
moderator, 15771 posts
He's big, he's bad,
but mostly he's Ron.
Thu 25 Jul 2019
at 03:26

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 17):

Players can't see log in times, only log in dates, and the fudging is never as much as a whole day.  The only time it makes a difference is around midnight, when all of the GM-PCs don't have a last log in that switches from, for example,  "today" to "yesterday" at the same instant.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 97 posts
Thu 25 Jul 2019
at 03:57
  • msg #20

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to bigbadron (msg # 19):

Right, I know players can only see dates, but sometimes the GM-operated PCs' dates don't update. It's not just around midnight - right now I'm looking at one in one of my games that hasn't logged in for four days, where another logged in yesterday and yet another still logged in today.

Neither here nor there, though. My question was more whether or not there was a way to make posting a PM with a GM-PC automatically trip their last login to "Today"? Posting a regular post with them does that (and seems to be the only way to force-update their last login, since the fudging does appear to be truly random), but posting a PM with them does not, which makes it hard to obfuscate a GM-run PC when other players are like 'Yo, how did this guy PM me without logging in?'

(Weirdly, the random fudging seems to apply to NPCs, also - as long as they're assigned to and played by the GM. Which also looks super-weird, but that's really just /weird/, not potentially outing a GM-run character, obviously, since they're all NPCs anyway...)
This message was last edited by the user at 04:00, Thu 25 July 2019.
bigbadron
moderator, 15772 posts
He's big, he's bad,
but mostly he's Ron.
Thu 25 Jul 2019
at 04:31

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 20):

Oh, I see what you mean.  Hadn't noticed that before.  I'd suggest posting a request for a change in the RPoL Development forum ( link to another game ) where jase is more likely to see it.
Hunter
member, 1518 posts
Captain Oblivious!
Lurker
Thu 25 Jul 2019
at 16:58
  • msg #22

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 20):

Players can tell the day that anyone last logged in; only the GM can see what time.  So I don't really see the need for a change.
facemaker329
member, 7106 posts
Gaming for over 30
years, and counting!
Thu 25 Jul 2019
at 17:42
  • msg #23

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

I get what he's talking about...it's not changing what the players see, it's changing what triggers an updated login entry for NPC characters.  If a GMNPC posts in the game, their login gets updated.  If, however, the NPC only responds to a PM, there's no login update (where there would be for a regular PC, if I'm following correctly)...so if the GM is running that NPC incognito, suddenly there's a telltale indicator...this character somehow responded to a PM more recently than its last login, which means it must be a character the GM is running, not another PC.

Granted, in the games I'm in, that's not a big deal...the GM in each of those games is pretty forthcoming about the fact that they have characters and which ones they are...but I can see where a GM would like to keep that quiet.  Doesn't matter much to me, one way or the other...there's only one game I'm in where I check login times on the cast list, and that's because I'm nursing the increasingly futile hope that the original GM will come back, because I don't really enjoy GM duty (but I like this game enough to suck it up and keep things moving, anyway, especially since he asked me to not let it die when he made me co-GM...but he did that because he was facing some health issues.  The fact that he hasn't logged in for five years and change doesn't leave me optimistic about how those issues turned out...)
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 99 posts
Thu 25 Jul 2019
at 18:07
  • msg #24

Is there a way to determine how many games a person is in?

In reply to facemaker329 (msg # 23):

quote:
I get what he's talking about...it's not changing what the players see, it's changing what triggers an updated login entry for NPC characters.  If a GMNPC posts in the game, their login gets updated.  If, however, the NPC only responds to a PM, there's no login update (where there would be for a regular PC, if I'm following correctly)...so if the GM is running that NPC incognito, suddenly there's a telltale indicator...this character somehow responded to a PM more recently than its last login, which means it must be a character the GM is running, not another PC.

Correct, Facemaker.

It's complicated more by the fact that the GM can't actually tell what the players are seeing for those GM-run PCs, since all the GM can see on the Last Login list is /their/ last login time, /not/ what the fudged Last Logins are that the players see.* So if they need to send a PM with a GM-run PC, they're either playing Russian Roulette with being outed (because maybe that character already shows a "Today" login) or they have to do a complicated round of hokey-pokey like assign that GM-PC temporarily to a group that isn't in use, post in a hidden thread to update the Last Login to "Today", and then go respond to their PM... and even that is risky, because then it shows the GM-PC as having made a post that no one can see anywhere.

Either way, per BBR's suggestion, I went and put it up in the Development thread so maybe it can be fixed. Thanks, Ron. :)

* - Which really isn't a very well-kept secret, since the Last Logins for NPCs under GM control are /also/ fudged all over the place (I have a game currently where the NPCs that belong to the GM have Last Logins that run from 5 years ago to "Today" to "Never" without rhyme or reason), so anyone with two synapses to rub together could probably figure out that any character assigned to the GM gets skewed Last Login times.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:10, Thu 25 July 2019.
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