User blog:AimeePlaysMSM/Lighting Torches in the Carousel era

Lighting Friends' Torches has always been an optional and voluntary component of My Singing Monsters. Like more modern gaming titles where people in a Clan/Tribe/Group can ask for help, and the other people in the same group can then tap to help them, it's a mechanic that often doesn't result in a direct reward or achievement for doing so; there is no Torch-related Goal, let alone one for lighting those of Friends.

Instead, players largely treat it as an honor system. You scratch my back, I scratch yours; even though realistically, it is difficult to keep track of who lit your torches and deciding whether or not to light theirs on a continual basis. Instead, people often just light as many as they can from the list of Friends, and whoever they didn't get to - too bad. ( Some players may go through their Friends lists once in a while to remove those who haven't lit 'enough' Torches. )

Contrast this with the modern titles where a 'help all' is often present, making it much easier... everybody gets help, regardless of whether they helped you. But this is also less engaging - if implemented in MSM, you wouldn't get to see their Island, vote for them, etc. As useful as it might be if you have page after page of Friends to go through, I think it would be to the detriment of the game.

However, this engagement also takes time: 1. Tap the Friends button, 2. Tap the Visit button, 3. Tap the Island, 4. Visit the Island. 5. Tap the Torch. GO TO 1.  Which is a process where the introduction of the Carousel-style Map has made a major change, specifically at step 3. You can no longer just tap on an Island to select it. Though it was discussed in one of the My Singing Monsters Live shows as something that they would like to address, at the time of this writing this is still the case. ( This post isn't an indictment of that, nor is it meant to discourage the Carousel being improved and switching back to the old Map style; I like the new style, but it has issues. ) Instead, Islands must be scrolled through to get to the Island of desire. Worse still, if there are Torches to be lit on a Mirror Island - and there are also Torches on a regular Island - it's impossible to tell without first switching to the Mirror Island Carousel.

If you were the type of player who would go out of their way to select an Island that is most beneficial to the player - e.g. it's close to Valentine's Day, Schmoochle is available, and the user has Torches available on Mirror Air Island, so you'd light a Torch there OR the user put "Cold plz" in their user name so you pick Cold Island if available - this change impacted you the most. It just adds a lot of overhead to the entire process.

Instead, and I find myself making this decision as well, in the Carousel era, whichever Island is closest gets the Torch lit. You want Schmoochle, but you have Torches on Plant Island? Expect Plant to be lit. You have "lit M Earth" in your username, but Water Island has a Torch available? Water it is.

In a Reddit post I already made the case against a user who was quite disturbed that people would light a Torch on an Island other than the one they put in their user name, which I'll put below.  "* While changing name is great as an indication, some people have lots of 'friends' and paying attention to those, well, it can slip the mind.
 * If the desired islands are fully lit up, you now present a dilemma: light a different island and get fussed at for lighting the wrong island, or skip that friend and they'll see that you didn't light any torches that day.
 * It's a free torch lighting - what's there to complain about?
 * Can't get the wrong torches lit if you don't have the wrong torches; sell them off (especially on the default Plant Island, forcing them to at least pick a different Island and maybe increase the odds of them reading your name, but ideally on any island you don't want lit), or light them permanently."

I made these points prior to the Carousel being implemented. The first three points stand, but the fourth point rings even more true now; If players believe the Carousel to be cumbersome and just pick the closest Island available, then the only way to get Torches lit by them on the Island desired is to have Torches on that Island exclusively. It forces those players to pick that Island, or skip you entirely. If the alternative was that they lit Torches on an Island that you didn't care about, the net effect would be the same. It also ensures that you get as many Torches lit on that Island as can be, increasing odds on that Island instead of risking it being spread out, and it makes other players' lives easier because once all Torches on that Island are lit, you will not appear in their Friends/Torches list at all, potentially wasting their time lighting Torches you really don't care about.

At 10,000 to buy and 7,500  to sell, anyone who has accumulated enough Torches where this would be an issue can easily afford to sell off any Torches they don't care about, buy them for the Island(s) they do care about, and be set with minimal effort.

Ultimately, for me, the decisions are simple:
 * Torch_lighting_closest_wins.png When lighting, I will light the nearest Island. If you didn't want me lighting those (event, user name, etc.), I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have had them there.
 * Torch_lighting_closest_wins-good.png When wanting Torches lit on (a) particular Island(s), I will only have them on that/those Island(s) and remove them from others; if I don't care (and I don't), I will just leave them wherever - with the understanding that I don't get to complain that, say, it's Easter, Blabbit is available, but nobody's lighting my Water Islands, or that people can't be bothered to Carousel all the way to Shugabush Island if that's the only Island I have Torches on. That's on me, not on the people lighting the Torches.

Having your Torches lit is a favor, not a right. It's something people largely do out of the kindness of their hearts - even if there is an understanding that they would like for you to light their Torches back - not to be dictated. That was true before the Carousel, but the Carousel should really hammer this point home for everyone.