Mafia As A Social Game: An Argument About Charisma

[Aj The Epic]

I've always believed mafia to be a game of connections. I've believe that there are many ways to find connections, but rarely is what a player saying actually indicative to alignment.

Patterns are one of the main part of mafia theory. We all look for them, and in a game, we have 'standards' we expect players to fill. They should allot an amount of posts for x,y,z and explain themselves to a certain and specified extent when asked about specific subjects. All these formalities are expected patterns, whether based on metagame knowledge or just psychology (guilty spend more time defending, while innocent will state their mind, etc.). But, I firmly believe the quickest way to catch scum is to watch a person's voting patterns and judge by their words how much belief they have that a specific person is scum. If this belief does not hold true like it should, then haven't you found a flaw in the logic of what a townie would do? By science, we formulate a hypothesis, test, and conclude from results gathered. Votes are the most solid ways to experiment with and therefore the best for science. Words are the supporting information, denoting a player's true strength of read.

While charisma is good, it will not win an argument of facts. It WILL, however, allow you to survive as mafia. Understanding the people you play with and against and hence becoming someone who can play their strengths is all apart of charisma, but this only seems beneficial as scum. Why dictate players, disguise yourself, or even win arguments by charisma and not facts?

The fact is that someone who understands sociology and psychology to it's fullest potential will most likely win every game. But at sociology's core is interaction, and I personally believe that all scum find the most major flaw in their interaction. Why does an SK have a shot at winning? Because he/she can convince him/herself mentally that they are a vig, and they are working independent of everyone else. Their interactions are not going to trip them up so much as scum, which is all that makes SK winnable at all.

However, even for being charismatic, as mafia, you have to disobey a lot of the rules you've put down, mainly 'tell the truth'. I'm not a particularly honest person in game. It helps me to be able to lie constantly so as to lie comfortably. Mafia has literally made me a worse person in real life because I have become a better liar for it. Also, I find it incredibly helpful to ignore the 'talk to players, not at' to the ones I find scummy, town or scum. The reactions vary drastically and, as scum, I have a very frustrated townie not knowing how he needs to address me back.

But the end-all rule for scum is to keep consistent reads and take on strong opponents. TvT is a very real belief and it hurts town when it is TvS.

[Aj The Epic]

A mafia-bot designed game. Random role game I played in had two.