Not only was the Werewolf event in ATITD eventually successful, apparently it also led Teppy to think along some new lines about how A Tale In the Desert is played. First, his comments on how the previously discussed Werewolf event went:

“Although over 400 people participated in the event (an ATITD record), only the minority designated as Werewolves and Seers reported that the event was fun. Most normal Villagers said that the event was boring because they had nothing to do. At least a dozen people told me that ‘all you can do is hope that a seer contacts you.’  I re-ran the event a few days later … with largely the same result …  So I decided that I would run the event one final time … Before this final run I conducted a chat in the ENN channel talking about the need to take risks playing this event. I restructured the prize pool to further encourage that, making it so that Villagers needed to participate in Werewolf lynchings to win prizes. While waiting around as a Villager, hoping a Seer makes contact may seem like a safe strategy, a careful analysis indicates that it may not be any safer than initiating contact with random people. And, I proposed, it’s not nearly as much fun. I spent about 5 hours playing Werewolf as a Villager, taking risks at every turn. It was great! I felt like a contestant on Survivor! My full account can be found in the ENN logs, but the quick summary was that this “risky” play style was a blast.”

He then goes on to say that, essentially, the event made him realize that a lack of communication may be part of the problem new players have with ATITD’s play-style.

So I’ve been thinking, how does this apply to ATITD as a whole? So many people have told me that ATITD itself is among their greatest game experiences. Yet we’re still a very small community. But, I have the same intuition about ATITD as I did the Werewolf event within ATITD: If only we (you guys, and me!) can communicate *how* to approach ATITD, we would see our ranks grow.

Now, I love rotting flax as much as the next guy, but I’m not sure this is entirely the issue that ATITD faces when trying to attract new players. Lots of MMOGers still have to spend a long time getting over the “…wait, you don’t kill anything?” part of the equation. Just the same, interesting to see how it all turned out.

For the record though, give Damion a point.