Me and My Posse: Moving as a Group

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Moving as a Group

So, in recent memory the whole idea of moving as a group has really really exploded in terms people wanting to do it. For those who are unsure of what I mean, when I say  "Moving as a Group" I mean that 2 or more players group up and have a single player post movement for them. This is done by replacing the standard movement "." with a "With Jim and Bob." In this manner, one player can drag others around the map even if they aren't available to perform the movement posts themselves. Since this has become so prevalent, I feel that a need to discuss how to control this so its fair for everyone has arisen. Lets discuss some Pros and Cons of this system real quick


ADVANTAGES

• If a player is afk during most sessions, being carried around by another player can help them stay in the game even when they can only be actively involved some of the time.
• No issues of teammates moving to different locations by accident. As a result, no really strange and random warps around the map to fix accidental split ups.
• Easier to track as the host. Fewer movement posts to watch.

DISADVANTAGES

• Leaders of groups can abuse the system to essentially get free inventory space, actions, and the like. The group becomes less a group, more a super powerful individual.
• The motive for grouping up is almost never "hey let me help my friend with plot." Its "You have lightning powers which I need and you aren't playing, let me have them."
• It is a major hindrance to murder. Normally AFK players are assumed asleep and can thus be worked around by murderers. Now active players who lead groups get a supply of essentially security cameras to capture murder as witnesses and ruin murderers.
• Why ever stop? Most people who group up, do so the ENTIRE game. I had two players who literally just applied together, and one of them played the entire game carrying the other with them the entire time. Never got a single pm from the other.
• It discourages players from, you know, playing. Its great that AFK people can stay up to date, but seeing them get all the plot, all the items, and never pm me more than once to say they are ok to be dragged around? People who don't have time to play should still get the experience of playing, they should not be basically winning for free.
• Management is awkward in a group. Usually there ends up being a group chat with all members. Sometimes they send examinations and actions there, sometimes its outside of the group chat in private. Sometimes they are just pming in the group for show and dont want you to respond there, other times they do. Its just an awkward mix up if you get it wrong and the player wanted it to be secret or not.

Now, as you probably notice, some of those disadvantages are technically advantages for the group leader. The group mechanic, like Alliances of old, tend to drastically affect the power curve in a game. ESPECIALLY in a game like this one where the people who are essentially having to fight groups are having to cloak and dagger it. Harder to do with witnesses, afk moving mules for carrying weapons, armor, and assorted items. People might say, well why not just join the group and stab them there? The problem is you cannot just walk up and  "Join" the group. The leader has to approve it which usually ends up with murderous individuals out in the cold and having to chase people manually, again, kind of obvious to the people you are following. To give an example of some of the more awkward abuse, one player basically just rode on top of the other, didn't really ever post movement. All they did was send examination pms and let their partner do all the movement. Not to be a downer here, but I tend to think MOVING is one of the least fun parts of MMG. The mover in this case pmed me almost never.

So, the situation boils down to grouping up can help less active players reach a level of activity that is reasonable to enjoy the game, but when used with very active players they can abuse the power of having 2, 3, or 4 sets of hands at any given time. Problem is, can we actually help control this system so it isn't abused but is still a helpful alternative for our less active players?

My honest thought is no not really. I personally feel the system should mostly be removed since I see way more abuse cases than I do stories of how it helped the AFK. I see more AFK people who are just like, sure why not, and don't even care. They are more of "I wasn't going to play anyway, so screw it have my stuff." But, there is more to the story than me. I would like to hear some opinions on the topic. Should be remove the system, just straight up forbid it? Or perhaps we keep it and try to make it work with the system.

As a note, a suggestion C made while I was discussing with him was to impose a Movement Speed Penalty on players moving in groups. Essentially based on the number of people in the group, the time you had to wait before moving would increase from one minute up to 5 minutes. Ideally this slows them down enough for murderers to catch up and execute plans and makes their rate of progress much slower. Thoughts?

[Monika]

Honestly, the first advantage is really offset by all those other disadvantages, so it's really not even an advantage.

I haven't been playing, but this sounds like an awful system lmao.

I say remove it. If you're AFK, then it's just something you as a player need to deal with. There's no use to complaining too if you die anyways since there will always be more games to play after.