High-context vs Low-Context culture in mafia communication

[pablito]

Hall's iconic distinction between communication as being high-context vs. low-context

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-_and_ ... t_cultures

I was thinking about this earlier about how specific cultures may rely on the listener to pick up on cues vs. needing the speaker to explicate their message. Ultimately, it means that in transactional communication, the onus falls on someone to interpret the message, whether on the speaker or listener. Because mafia forum play is much different, in a non-verbal context where we read text more than cues, this could make a big difference for those whose first language is not English. My English ability is not as precise as it was when I was first on the site, ergo I came back to see if I could pick up on specific communication skills in my return. However, I'd be interested to hear more about any specific themes that may have come up in games - especially if you've been expected to communication using a different level of context than your culture demands.

Nonetheless, I didn't find much in this forum about culture or foreign language, so I wanted to bring up the topic.

Therefore, would this put specific English-speakers at a disadvantage naturally in mafia? Do we traditionally find ourselves in mafia using high-context or low-context cultural communication?

[mastin2]

No fair.

I

was gonna make a theory discussion about high-context versus low-context! (It just got pushed way back in my to-do list. Was part of my Interpersonal Communications class. But basically, my conclusion was as such: High-context posters basically are people like CrashTextDummie, who would prefer to keep the more vulgar aspects of mafia out of the game; low-context posters are people like zMuffinman, who believe that insulting someone subtly is worse than just coming out and insulting them in essence. So for me, high vs. low was mostly about how they perceive the game. Incidentally, for the most part, high-context is the "old" style, circa 2008-and-older; low-context is the "new" style, circa 2011-and-newer. This is far from universal, of course, but the style of posting fits. There was a culture back in the day of being for lack of a better word, "polite": formal, logical engagements; now people have multiple times noted a far more abrasive culture.)

[Titus]

Mastina, which would you place me as? I tend to favor logic over emotion but I favor a certain bluntness as well.

[Majiffy]

hurr hurr i wonder where majiffy falls

[Ankamius]

I am definitely high-context.

[p2]

I was gonna make a theory discussion about high-context versus low-context!

woah me too

but in the end,
i don't know if there's much to say about it

[pablito]

I think there's a big argument in here about the older games being heavily high-context in discussion. I was gone for quite a few years and the level of communication here has been starkly distinct. I feel like a lot of my previous games were about picking up on those nuances in context, and these days it's not there as much.

[MonkeyMan576]

I think there has been a large influx of players from different sites, which has changed the culture somewhat. In my humble opinion, the discussion was TOO high context before, to the point where if someone didn't post 1000 words at a time they were considered scum. There is definately a middle ground.

[chamber]

I might be stupid/not formally educated on the differences in context but I'd have personally described the reverse. That is to say, I think older games tended to be lower context than current games.

[BlueMoonRising]

High context = mafia theory/vca/town behavior vs. scum behavior/direct questioning

Low context = name calling, sheeping, no reason voting, lurking

[p2]

It's really hard for me to tell if you guys are claiming one thing or another because you could just be misunderstanding what high- and low-context means here.

For example, monkey complains that once people were forced to post 1000 words to avoid appearing as scum and characterizes this as a high-context culture thing. But in a high-context culture, many things are left unsaid and messages tend to be a lot shorter. So I think Monkeyman has the two ideas mixed up. And I can't tell if this has happened repeatedly throughout this page alone.

[chamber]

It's really hard for me to tell if you guys are claiming one thing or another because you could just be misunderstanding what high- and low-context means here.

For example, monkey complains that once people were forced to post 1000 words to avoid appearing as scum and characterizes this as a high-context culture thing. But in a high-context culture, many things are left unsaid and messages tend to be a lot shorter. So I think Monkeyman has the two ideas mixed up. And I can't tell if this has happened repeatedly throughout this page alone.

Right, basically I agree with p2 here. You all seem to be mixing things up. Voting without a stated reason would be the ultimate in high-context, not an example of low-context.

[MonkeyMan576]

Then maybe I'm misunderstanding the terms.

[chamber]

Then maybe I'm misunderstanding the terms.

Imagine that you isolate a random post from a random game? How well can you understand that post? If you can understand it, then it's low context, if you can't understand it, it's high context. (this is a simplification but~)

[Majiffy]

High context = mafia theory/vca/town behavior vs. scum behavior/direct questioning

Low context = name calling, sheeping, no reason voting, lurking

Woah woah woah now.

Some of us like to use all the name calling to get behavioral/emotional tells, and endorsing sheeping/wagons to VCA.

Actin like we don't do work and

sheeeit

.

[killerjester]

Highly-contextual implies you need large context (of the site, of the player, of the culture) to interpret the meaning of a particular post. Low-context implies that a post doesn't require context and can be, for the most part, interpreted based on what the user has explicitly said.

I definitely feel our site has some high-context aspects (RVS, gut reads, site terminology, etc..) and it's in part facilitated by the wiki availability to explain what is left unsaid. However, I've also found a good tendency for low-context posts if prompted. Not sure how consistently this carries to our foreign users, but my experience has always been if something is unclear just ask more questions.

[Flubbernugget]

High context = mafia theory/vca/town behavior vs. scum behavior/direct questioning

Low context = name calling, sheeping, no reason voting, lurking

I think this is backwards??

[pablito]

I think mafia (the game) inherently lies within high-context culture. There may be some gradients within this culture in which communication differs through the ages, but because communication is fairly nuanced and meta-gaming is often utilized, I think it is always high-context, right?

That being said, I notice that my old style was to pick up on all context, and write it out explictly so that little context was needed later.

[p2]

newbie games are pretty decisively low-context