When Smurfs Attack

[Excist]

Hi, I'm wondering how often something like this happens around here.

For my 2nd online multiplayer game I joined a game with this description:

"
The Art of War - EA Vanilla Newbs Game

Figured I'd start up a newb game here. I've played a few
(3) games myself and would like to keep this game to
those who have only played a few themselves (let's say 4
or 5 maximum).
"

and somebody by the name Thanatus del Dragos joined this 4-5 game maximum newbie game with a history like this:

1 The Art of War - EA Vanilla Newbs Game 8/8
2 Holy Nooby Rage!
3 Nooblies - EA [9/8] players
4 NewPlayersRumble - (Late Era)
5 Doomsday 4
6 Scourge of Nations 2
7 Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope
8 NewbsWithLowSelfEsteem - Year 7: A Feast for Crows
9 Small Noob game Relic Death Match
10 Vanilla_Strawberry
11 MA Mod Nation Combined Game - Testing Grounds
12 SeaOfInnocence - All ages newb game
13 NewbsGoneWild: Uninhibited amateur action!
14 Newb All Age game - Nicer Shade of Green -

About 3 times the maximum number of players in the instructions.

Do people that have been playing this game since it came out routinely try to sneak into newbie games and/or make new forum logins to look less experienced than they are?

I used to play another strategy game called Kohan which had a small community problem where people would create new handles to try to 'Smurf' onto and stack teams by looking less experienced than they are. Is this a similar problem here?

Or is this just an isolated instance of poor math and/or reading skills?

[Foodstamp]

There are almost no newbies due to the game being old, and nearly all the games listed in the MP forum are for newbies. You figure out the rest .

This is the way it is with every game, not just Dominions.

[Squirrelloid]

That's because 90% of the non-n00b games are on dom3mods...

Coincidentally, the only game i'm in on this forum is the sole one which was advertised as being for veteran players. (Ok, I also subbed into Bear Trap to run a last stand, but I don't really consider that a game *I* joined)

Anyway, OP is justified in poking some fun at Thanatus. Hopefully he'll stop joining n00b games. Most people here are not so disingenious - in part because playing against n00bs isn't much fun if you're looking for a challenge (and you know what you're doing).

[Finalgenesis]

Depends how you interpret games under your belt, I treat it as games completed, did he finish all of those games?

[Excist]

I don't know for sure how many of the 14 games listed he finished, but when I compiled the list I saw some quotes from him, like where he introduced himself 2 years ago as somebody that has had the game since it was first released.

Of the ones I remember, he had a post in one where he went AI when he was giving up for his race - not sure if you call that completed or not -, several looked like a winner had been declared and some of the ones that started in the last 4-5 months look like they might still be running, but I definitely had the impression that he had finished a good bit more than 4-5.

[llamabeast]

I have not come across many people doing this - it's not a common problem.

And, there are new players, quite a lot of them in fact. It's not a new game, but new people find it all the time. I think people stay as "noobs" longer than they might with other games, because dom3 is quite complicated and people don't tend to feel confident that quickly!

As Squirrelloid says, many of the games for more experienced players are organised on the dom3mods forum.

[Gandalf Parker]

www,Dom3Minions.com hosts 100 games at a time. And they come from a dozen different forums. On some of those the games can take a month to fill up, and others cant keep enough games available with every game filling up on the same day.

Each seems to have a different balance between newbies and veterans. I think its because of the format. Some are general gaming forums where a thread is done to generate interest in the game (usually called an LP for something like Lets Play Dominions 3). Those tend to get new people interested and generate more new people games of people who have just bought it and often have not played it at all (tutorial or solo). This forum tends to gather more people who have had the game for awhile even if they arent experienced multiplayers so the knowledge level of even the newbies here seems abit higher.

I havent found much instance of "I think he slipped into a newbie game". I have been asked to look into it a few times but I dont remember finding it to be true.

Now what I do think is kindof likely (not in this case but in general) is the idea put out half-jokingly in the Dom3 songs thread with the parody song "What if xxxxxxx was one of us". The list for xxxxx included the developers, Shrapnel staff, beta testers, moderators, and even some of the legendary bans. Anyone who might want to play anonymously to avoid reputations good or bad.

[Slobby]

While the game count is quite a bit higher, there's no telling on how well he did.

Look at Kohan there are/were players that even with 500+ games that still were 'green/noob'.

If the player in question was rushed and taken out within the first 20 turns of a game, does that really count as a game? What if that happened to the player in 50 games straight?

Number of games doesn't necessarily imply level of experience.

Also with Than having the game since release, he really only started playing MP games within the last little bit if I recall. He put some mods out first, and one can only assume played SP. Like Kohan, SP does not equal MP.

But then again he could also be looking for a win and is intentionally sniping noob games. It does happen.

[brxbrx]

technically, I'm a newb, though I've been playing for years. There are still a lot of things I don't know and I've never played an MP game.

Strategy wise, I prefer to be thematic and even to roleplay so I don't think I'd last very long against people that prefer to win.

[Makinus]

I consider myself a newbie, even if i play sice Dominions 2, mainly because i only play singleplayer, and the couple of multiplayer games i did i was one of the first players eliminated... and i like to do last stands...

I think the term "newbie"is extremely relative...