LogFAQs > #908631351

If you know what this is about, welcome back again to the show that never ends. I missed you guys. If you don't know what this topic's for, don't worry, you will soon enough. It's been a couple years since the internet's longest, weirdest, stupidest, most fun game ended. I think it's about time work started on a new version of it, eh? So let's make it official:

I am looking for hardworking people to help co-author, prepare, organize and administrate a new round of the game of Mercenaries. This isn't a promise of an impending release, as much work still remains to be done, but I'm officially ready to get things underway.

Admining Mercs is hard, thankless work, and I'm sure more than a few readers have already broken into a cold sweat at the prospect of running such a mammoth project, even as part of a team, especially with a goof like me at the helm. To assuage concerns as much as possible for both potential players and prospective admins alike, the following is my mission statement:

I want to grow the playerbase

Mercenaries is flawed, frustrating and overly fiddly, but it's also by far the best game I've ever played. I want people to experience it, participate, and enjoy all the excitement it creates. But our beloved Board 8 is shrinking, slowly but surely, and I think not even a new contest will be enough to reverse the trend. For this reason, I want to expand Mercenaries, taking this game to other GameFAQS boards, or potentially other sites instead (but without abandoning the Board 8 kru, obviously. I'm not forsaking the core playerbase!). My #1 goal, above all else, is to get more people invested in this crazy game - if I can achieve this and grow our roster of stable players and voters, then I will call this new iteration of Mercenaries a wild success.

I want to make this game easier to play

Mercenaries is a very long, involved game, and more than that, it's a very draining one. Leaders oft feel confused, tired and powerless. While to some degree this is unavoidable, as it stems from the social component of the game, this doesn't mean we can't minimize it as much as possible. Additionally, Mercs is a really hard game to learn. I think all the new players would agree that they didn't really grasp the gameplay until they were a good 15 weeks into their tenure or longer, and some might even say they never did. I want to create a friendly atmosphere for voting and playing, one that is less punishing to newbies and helps with becoming at least proficient at this game. If we can make it so new players don't pratfall into large losing streaks right out the gate simply because they have less experience with getting their fingers on the voters' pulse (like thinking you can win against Agent 47 and Ridley with Little Mac and Bowser), it will go a long way towards making this game less burnout inducing.

I want to give players reasons to fight.

Part of the appeal of Mercs is its nature as a spectator sport. You could go through whole barrels of popcorn by listening to all the backstabbing, petty politicking, celebratory gloating and incoherent rage this game creates, and debating the ridiculous scenarios we set up is a blast. But as the rules are right now, players are encouraged to avoid engaging in battle topics, because they're uncertain, complicated and failprone - and worse, the best players know this and play accordingly, while only the less experienced or savvy players fight each other, making themselves into easy pickings for the veterans. Giving incentive to the wilier players to get their hands dirty will drive them to fight and expose them to getting knocked down a peg or two - which will help new players learn quicker, level the game out naturally, and give us more interesting fights.
---

Shine on, you crazy diamond.