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Power Structure Ultimately Fails
The structure of power is wonky. Currently, if you have a large number of twitter followers and you join, you are likely to be way ahead of someone who has been playing the game for weeks but has few followers. This replicates the power hierarchy of twitter rather than creating a new hierarchy of power in the game. If a celebrity joins the game, that person is automatically in the top ranks. If this continues, only famous people will be in the 10 ten player stack and common players will find it worthless--because you will never be able to excel passed the level that your twitter follower count allows. There's a massive problem with a user coming in and playing for a while, building up strength and a network within the game while a new user can pop in and automatically start out with 10 times the power and be unstoppable. Additionally, this gives power to large companies and twitter spam users that have gobs of followers who don't really care to follow them as much as other users. Perhaps the game needs a way to affiliate with a particular person as your spy handler rather than a 1 to many setup that creates too much power all around.
I’m frustrated
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The best point from everyone
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I find it very odd though that I'm at level 17, my attack/defense is a measly 408/112 (even though I've purchased more than enough equipment) and I have a "High" risk of assassinating a level 1 player (who has over 1000 attack/defense simply because he has a lot of twitter followers who play the game) -- BTW, I only have 10 spymasters. The limiting factor for me is that I don't want to go out and follow a bunch of strangers who play the game, in hopes that they will follow me and boost my spymaster count... it just doesn't make sense.
However, if players could create their own spy factions and join other people's factions (but you can only be in 1 faction at a time)--then your spymaster number would be the number of people in your spy faction (literal spyring). This would improve the game a million-fold. As it is, I'm facing a situation where I'm running out of tasks because I don't have enough twitter follows who play the game to allow me to continue--and I can't assassinate anyone without major risk of defeat. I love this game and the idea but there appears no way for me to progress at this point.
I’m frustrated
12 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?the algorithm needs balanced for sure... but if we take into consideration other game dynamics that may be possible, with multiple attacks by individuals from the same ring within a period of time, then it may be possible to assassinate a famous person :) which would be kind of fun...
but i agree, as it stands...
I’m hopeful
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Inappropriate?It scary imagining @BarackObama playing spymaster *shudders* He would kick some major ass!
I’m terrified!!!
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no, the scary part is that a majority of players would want to assassinate that character just because of the name and then we'd have some retarded political/Secret Service/RaceBaiting thing going on. For Gods Sake (whatever God you believe in....), lets keep political douchebags out of this to avoid contaminating the gene pool. -
Inappropriate?I agree about the ability to specifically affiliate with a single "spy master" - thus creating your own spy ring that isn't just "anybody whom you happen to follow".
But I still think it should default to working the way it does now.
Disclaimer: I have a lot of followers (-;
I’m amused
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Inappropriate?I actually stopped playing with my real twitter account because the people I'm interested in following (and actually reading) aren't playing, and if anything are getting annoyed by the noise. The new account I created to play with (and build massive amounts of followers I don't care about) is doing great! So the path to achieving spymaster greatness is obviously to be the spammiest.
I’m unsure about the game, but still addicted.
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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This is one of the best points
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Turn off your notifications. I haven't had mine on since day one and haven't done any cheating to get to my level.
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Inappropriate?Understandable to everyone above and def something that we will be taking into consideration as the game progresses. You also have to take into consideration that the number of followers does not factor into the game as much as your number spymasters.
Will look into making equal playing ground, thank you for your feed back. -
Inappropriate?While it may appear that way, people that are much smaller but have solidly-equipped spymasters stand a very good chance of beating celebrities if they have a lot of spymasters. Spies are currently heavily discounted in game, and I currently see no reason for that to change. A Level 5 person with 20 spymasters and no other spies that are reasonably well-equipped should stand a fighting chance against a Level 1 with well over 3,500 followers or so. The other day I had about 100 spymasters and 900 spies and was paired off with people that had 800,00+ followers by the Worthy Adversaries system. I even beat quite a few handily.4 Comments Add a comment
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But odds are that the ratio of followers that don't play spymaster to followers that do are pretty much the same - so the more followers, the more spymasters in those, assuming you get wide reach with your game. I'd suggest perhaps adding a reputation statistic, so that active and longtime playing spymasters have an advantage. For example, with similar stats in other things, two people, one who just joined spymaster and the other who's been playing for a month, the one playing for a month would have a greater advantage. This is done somewhat with the experience system, but that only counts how long you've been playing, not really how actively.
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Yeah, agreed Morgan, it's like right now, your level doesn't mean anything in terms of your strength, defense or risk. It's all about what tasks you are allowed to do and what items you are allowed to buy. That seems wrong.
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Yep, Morgan gets it right. I'm quite sure if you plotted the strongest players (by whatever your internal logic for that is) against the number of spies (not spymasters) for active users, you'd find a pretty statistically significant result. People with more followers are much more likely to have a lot more spymasters in their ring.
Being that you guys know the internal logic of the game as well as having all the user data, you shouldn't need to rely on anecdotes such as "The other day I was playing and such and such happened..." -
The problem for me is that my Twitter updates are protected, which makes it impossible for me to gain additional followers. I'm level 10, and I won't be going anywhere any time soon without unprotecting my twitter account and letting random people follow me. That means I'm pretty much done with Spymaster. Thanks for a fun week of play guys!
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Inappropriate?I find it very odd though that I'm at level 17, my attack/defense is a measly 408/112 (even though I've purchased more than enough equipment) and I have a "High" risk of assassinating a level 1 player (who has over 1000 attack/defense simply because he has a lot of twitter followers who play the game) -- BTW, I only have 10 spymasters. The limiting factor for me is that I don't want to go out and follow a bunch of strangers who play the game, in hopes that they will follow me and boost my spymaster count... it just doesn't make sense.
However, if players could create their own spy factions and join other people's factions (but you can only be in 1 faction at a time)--then your spymaster number would be the number of people in your spy faction (literal spyring). This would improve the game a million-fold. As it is, I'm facing a situation where I'm running out of tasks because I don't have enough twitter follows who play the game to allow me to continue--and I can't assassinate anyone without major risk of defeat. I love this game and the idea but there appears no way for me to progress at this point.
I’m frustrated
12 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?This thread has hit the problem on the head. Playing any game shouldn't have much (if anything) to do with who you're connected to in the real world. I could imagine a small bonus for being well connected to strong player, but the entire game hinges on having the most spymasters in your ring, which is a pretty critical flaw in my opinion.
This game should be a way to escape for 5 minutes while at work, not require you to spend a ton of time recruiting real life people to join just so you can become better.
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I'm not even opposed to recruiting people--but I agree that it shouldn't be related to twitter followers. I have a ton of spymasters but I barely know any of them--they are just people who follow me in Twitter and they follow other people so they belong to a bunch of spyrings and that doens't make any sense. I like the idea of creating groups in the game and belonging to a particular group.
If that feature gets added, I am the Ninja clan. That would be a lot more fun. All ninja spies are welcome :)
I’m excited
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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I agree that networking INSIDE spymaster is a killer feature. The way I see it some guy kid in North Dakota who has 5 people as followers shouldn't start in at a disadvantage to some TwitterCeleb who has millions of followers.
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Inappropriate?OK, now I'm at level 21 but I can't play my task because I only have 11 spymasters and it requires 12. So now I'm begging fellow players to follow me on twitter just so I can play this task. That's broken.
Please follow me: http://twitter.com/antic
I’m amused
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This is one of the best points
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Followed.
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thnx. now I can train revolutionaries \m/
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Followed too
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Inappropriate?I don't agree... I have met some new people who I wouldn't have met on twitter if I had not been playing the game. In fact Spymaster makes twitter more fun for me. I think recruiting should be part of the game. I chat it up with people about who to kill all the time. It's fun.
I’m thankful
1 person thinks
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I think we have the same views with different perspectives. Nothing is going to change the fact that spymaster pulls users from twitter--and that is cool :) but the problem is in the way users are granted power. I think you and I would have much more fun if our spymasters weren't just there because they follow us on twitter but because they want to be part of our factions. There's a big difference there.
If, for instance, I follow you, but I also follow a hundred other people in spymaster, you get me on your team, but so do a hundred other people. But what if I just want to form a team with you? Wouldn't that be cooler? Then you could win over more twitter users to join your spymaster faction--rather than just belonging to you like they belong to everyone else. There are a lot of ways to look at and think about this issue but I'm really rooting for the ability to create groups/teams/factions/organizations (whatever you want to call them).
Additionally, the problem remains that if a twitter user like @cnnbrk decides to join spymaster, I'll be their spymaster, as will whatever fraction of their 1.67 million twitter users who play the game. That's freaking crazy. I don't want to be on the @cnnbrk team. I want my own team with my friends and people who want to support my faction :) -
Inappropriate?I agree with this. But I think this is unlikely to change...given that, ultimately, this is a networking game developed to increase ordinary Twitter user's incentive to follow other ordinary users, increase traffic and user base...and hence stickiness of Twitter (i.e., how likely a user is going to continue using Twitter).
Reducing the relevance of spy ring size in attack strength will lower the incentive for spymaster players to seek out and follow other players, thus undermining the purpose to develop this game in the first place.
I do feel very annoyed that the incentive structure for this game is engineered in such a way that compel players to follow ordinary Twitter users who serve little personal importance to them. If this conflict of interest remain unsolved, it will surely backfire.
I’m not happy
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Inappropriate?Attack and Defense should be capped based on your level. Level 1? Max attack power should be 10. Only at L30 should you have something like 1000 attack.1 Comment Add a comment
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I'm level 22 or something, and I've got several thousand attack. It should be capped, but capped on a logarithmic scale.
i.e. the caps should become less and less restrictive as you gain level: a level 1 with 100 followers should be a pretty even match with a level 1 with 10,000 followers. However, a level 30 with 100 followers should be lightyears out of the league of a level 30 with 10,000 followers. -
Inappropriate?I agree as well. Twitter is, and should remain a forum where you gain followers because you have people who want to get humor/information/whatever from your tweets, and you should follow them because you want this likewise from those you follow. Spymaster should break away from Twitter and do internal networking so as to maintain the integrity of both Twitter and Spymaster.
On a related note, I am in a similar situation as many other people: I am capped in what I can accomplish in my tasks simply because I only have 7 spymasters--this game empowers the popular people and punishes those who don't have many followers. Anyone wanna give me a pity follow at @ljarmin?
I’m frustrated
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This is one of the best points
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Now stalking you on twitter :D
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Inappropriate?Well, now they've suspended my account for 'sabotage'. That's an ultimate fail.
I’m frustrated
