Your Attention Level During Online Games?

[djotaku]

I've noticed that happening when the game flow is off. If the GM understands the tech and is prepared the pace is enough where the players dont stray. Although, I also noticed this with phones and other widgets at the table when the GM wasnt prepared, understood the mechanics, and the pace was bad.

I was going to comment something like this. I read on various fora about how to keep your players from their phones when in person. However, in fairness to the person complaining about online play, I think there's a hierarchy of norms violations and perceived rudeness.

In person I think we, as a culture, find it quite rude for someone to scroll or do non-game things while at the table. It's more flaunting it because we're in person.

Then I think next place where you'll get more "rude" behavior, but not too much is online play with cameras on.

I think the most "rude" behavior is with cameras off since no one knows what you're doing as long as they don't have to feel lke they're always grabbing back your attention when it's your turn.

 

[Vael]

So ... tonight's session was about 3-3.5 hours, and all we managed to do was 5 full rounds of combat. Now, to be fair, we were back after a month, it was a complicated boss battle (kinda two), and the game ground to a halt at least a few times for rules discussion and looking up conditions. But still ... how does this stand as a session?

 

[Golden Bee]

Did you have fun?

In my Fate game, a good conflict runs 20-40 minutes but we can have an intense one in around 6 minutes (1v1 is extremely fast and dangerous). But that conflict can be a Pier 6 brawl, a rocket-powered car chase, a tense sneak through an enemy base, or a social combat in a ballroom. Some characters just aren't built for fighting (like our smuggler) and some absolutely are (like the wuxia expert). So if you have characters who aren't good at the thing that takes the longest, you're going to have bored players.

 

[Thomas Shey]

So ... tonight's session was about 3-3.5 hours, and all we managed to do was 5 full rounds of combat. Now, to be fair, we were back after a month, it was a complicated boss battle (kinda two), and the game ground to a halt at least a few times for rules discussion and looking up conditions. But still ... how does this stand as a session?

Its hard for me to assess becaue that feels like a ridiculously short play time to me (I know it doesn't to other people, but I'm used to what I'm used to).

 

[Thomas Shey]

Did you have fun?

In my Fate game, a good conflict runs 20-40 minutes but we can have an intense one in around 6 minutes (1v1 is extremely fast and dangerous). But that conflict can be a Pier 6 brawl, a rocket-powered car chase, a tense sneak through an enemy base, or a social combat in a ballroom. Some characters just aren't built for fighting (like our smuggler) and some absolutely are (like the wuxia expert). So if you have characters who aren't good at the thing that takes the longest, you're going to have bored players.

It doesn't even have to be the longest; just long enough. And what that means tends to vary from player to player.

 

[abazaba]

So ... tonight's session was about 3-3.5 hours, and all we managed to do was 5 full rounds of combat. Now, to be fair, we were back after a month, it was a complicated boss battle (kinda two), and the game ground to a halt at least a few times for rules discussion and looking up conditions. But still ... how does this stand as a session?

Its hard for me to assess becaue that feels like a ridiculously short play time to me (I know it doesn't to other people, but I'm used to what I'm used to).

I personally prefer sessions of about 2 hours, because that is about how long I can keep focused and concentrated and keep attention to any particular thing in general, gaming session included.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I personally prefer sessions of about 2 hours, because that is about how long I can keep focused and concentrated and keep attention to any particular thing in general, gaming session included.

Whereas I don't feel like we can get anything done in less than about 6 hours in any system I find worth playing. So there we are.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

So ... tonight's session was about 3-3.5 hours, and all we managed to do was 5 full rounds of combat. Now, to be fair, we were back after a month, it was a complicated boss battle (kinda two), and the game ground to a halt at least a few times for rules discussion and looking up conditions. But still ... how does this stand as a session?

If you're playing D&D or a similar system, 3.5 hours to do just 5 rounds of combat is painfully slow. A long, dragged out combat for me would be two hours, doubling that just gets a 'wow' from me.

 

[Thomas Shey]

If you're playing D&D or a similar system, 3.5 hours to do just 5 rounds of combat is painfully slow. A long, dragged out combat for me would be two hours, doubling that just gets a 'wow' from me.

Sometimes things can happen when you have PCs and NPCs with widely varied abilities and a lot of charactrs on both sides, but honestly, I didn't see combats routinely run that long back when I was using the Hero System a lot, and that could have a lot of variation there.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

"Things can happen", but that's close to twice the length of time I've spent on a final fight of a level 20 D&D game at a six player table where there were plenty of weird effects and varied abilities. IIRC Hero System can be a lot fiddlier than D&D in some ways, but it's been 30 years since I played anything in it so I can't do more than vague guesses.