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I've been off and on Mafia for longer than 10 years now (i think if not longer?!!!)

I 100% agree with OP. I believe we actually have a problem.

There are some things I want to talk about first.

Firstly, the size of community.
The number of concurrent players are shockingly small compared to other games. Over the years, I've observed and experienced smaller and smaller lobbies created. You could argue that is a good thing, but at the same time, people wait 30-40 min for a lobby to fill up and it can be one of the reasons people just quit. After all, we are all busy people, who has time to wait when you can play other games? So how do we get more players? Do we want more players? Of course. We want to maintain net positives. So what can we do to make Mafia more appealing for those sitting in Arcade?

Problem with new players.
The obvious con here is that the general quality of the games will be worse. The number of new players will positively correlate with the number of rule breachers. While Mafia can be quite toxic, it's generally newer players who are like this. More trolls, more role quitters, more choo chooers, more toxic language.. BUT. There are legitimately nice new players who simply want to try Mafia. However, newer players who do not have the knowledge of in game mechanics can infuriate many experienced players because, well, they will see certain decisions made by them as trolling or game throwing. I am guilty of that myself. More reports will be generated, harsher language will be used, and as a consequence, they quit.

Racism
I don't think there is anyone here that would argue real life racism is good. If there is a person in the community who actually believes racism is good, historically, we are quite quick to figure out who. So why is there still racism in game? Because most of experienced players are tired of reporting for their use of racist language. We learnt to tolerate it. Some people can see racism as banter and just move on. Personally, I hate racism. I hate the idea, I hate the fact it makes other players uncomfortable, I hate the fact it just degrades the quality of games. But over time, I too got tired of telling people not to be racists, and learnt to tolerate it. I learnt to accept that new players will try the game then never come back. New players (nice ones) who are trying it out get offended, get sick of it and never play this game mode again. You all experienced this, but most of new players who stick around, they become a major part of the problem, some until they are experienced themselves,. We simply keep attracting more racism into the game by ignoring the problem and it is just a vicious cycle.

So how do we limit racism while growing as a community? We should be more proactive. Existing players should strive to become a better community. We have to behave ourselves and stop using racist languages altogether. Lead by example. Generate more reports so people learn racism isn't tolerated here. Make rules more strict so names perceived as racist name is punishable. Be more patient with new players until they played enough to learn the mechanics and skills.

I've been guilty of many things I accuse other people of myself and I realised it too late. I'm ashamed of it. All I can do now, is try to become a better member of the community and be more proactive both in the game and in the forum, for the betterment of SC2Mafia.

I've been off and on Mafia for longer than 10 years now (i think if not longer?!!!)

I 100% agree with OP. I believe we actually have a problem.

There are some things I want to talk about first.

Firstly, the size of community.
The number of concurrent players are shockingly small compared to other games. Over the years, I've observed and experienced smaller and smaller lobbies created. You could argue that is a good thing, but at the same time, people wait 30-40 min for a lobby to fill up and it can be one of the reasons people just quit. After all, we are all busy people, who has time to wait when you can play other games? So how do we get more players? Do we want more players? Of course. We want to maintain net positives. So what can we do to make Mafia more appealing for those sitting in Arcade?

Problem with new players.
The obvious con here is that the general quality of the games will be worse. The number of new players will positively correlate with the number of rule breachers. While Mafia can be quite toxic, it's generally newer players who are like this. More trolls, more role quitters, more choo chooers, more toxic language.. BUT. There are legitimately nice new players who simply want to try Mafia. However, newer players who do not have the knowledge of in game mechanics can infuriate many experienced players because, well, they will see certain decisions made by them as trolling or game throwing. I am guilty of that myself. More reports will be generated, harsher language will be used, and as a consequence, they quit.

Racism
I don't think there is anyone here that would argue real life racism is good. If there is a person in the community who actually believes racism is good, historically, we are quite quick to figure out who. So why is there still racism in game? Because most of experienced players are tired of reporting for their use of racist language. We learnt to tolerate it. Some people can see racism as banter and just move on. Personally, I hate racism. I hate the idea, I hate the fact it makes other players uncomfortable, I hate the fact it just degrades the quality of games. But over time, I too got tired of telling people not to be racists, and learnt to tolerate it. I learnt to accept that new players will try the game then never come back. New players (nice ones) who are trying it out get offended, get sick of it and never play this game mode again. You all experienced this, but most of new players who stick around, they become a major part of the problem, some until they are experienced themselves,. We simply keep attracting more racism into the game by ignoring the problem and it is just a vicious cycle.

So how do we limit racism while growing as a community? We should be more proactive. Existing players should strive to become a better community. We have to behave ourselves and stop using racist languages altogether. Lead by example. Generate more reports so people learn racism isn't tolerated here. Make rules more strict so names perceived as racist name is punishable. Be more patient with new players until they played enough to learn the mechanics and skills.

I've been guilty of many things I accuse other people of myself and I realised it too late. I'm ashamed of it. All I can do now, is try to become a better member of the community and be more proactive both in the game and in the forum, for the betterment of SC2Mafia.