Mafia was originally designed as a face-to-face game, having evolved from other similar games like murder and witch-hunt. IRL (in real life), the equivalent of a lurker is someone who sits and watches the game, not contributing to the flow of ideas. Now, from my experience, players can get away with this for a day or two, until someone points out that they haven't been saying much. This is usually a kiss of death. Think about it: you know some of your friends are scum, and one of them is just sitting there, watching you as you plot to kill them all. The rest of them are talking it up, arguing, making fools of themselves. You naturally associate the minority: those not talking, with the minority you are seeking: the mafia.
Unfortunately, you lose that visibility online. You never can see the big picture, the circle of all the people playing, because only a few posts fit on your screen at once. You know you are seeking mafia but because you have less information online, you look for guilty parties where it is most obvious: those that have recently posted. Someone who posts a lot finds him/herself a target more and more often as their name keeps coming up in discussion and in the bar on the left. You naturally associate the minority: those talking a lot, with the minority you are seeking: the mafia.
Entrie articles could be written about the differences between the two games, but the important part of this argument is answering the first two parts of Bobacino's question.
Part 1: Will the game be raped of its strategy? I believe the answer is an emphatic 'no'. The goal of changing the philosophy of the game would be to move the online game back towards the IRL game. Give the players more information, not less. Obvioulsy drivel and blather will not help the game move along, but IRL my friends would point out the silliest little things as possible mafia behaviour. There isn't enough of that, as not everyone notices everything. More people commenting means more ideas come to surface. Increase the strategy in the game by promoting more conversation, more arguments, and more mafia slips. I have made a few references to mistakes I have made that could have gotten me lynched. I'm sure these happen all the time. The more someone posts, the more likely they will forget they can't say something they want to say. More people talking means more oportunities to catch these slips. Stupid and pointless day 1? At the peak of this type of game, it doesn't exist. Perhaps the accusation have less substance, but accusations and voting history have a way of actually being relevant. We can all become super-sleuths as we try and find the little details that will raise the level of the game. Random bandwagons will be all but eliminated as things like logic, text analysis, and intelligent banter take over. Every game will be like its own mini-mystery. The game will be reborn.
Part 2: Will the mafia be able to hide amid the chaos? They already do, my friend, they already do. As noted above, by forcing everone to talk, the number of mafia posts will increase, and the number of potential slips as well. If players attack each other with little arguments, little defenses will have to be constructed. Reactions can reveal entire roles if read into properly. The game will become more interesting, and more playable. Can they actually hide? If the mafia are posting, they can be caught. It's that simple.
At this point I should point out that many people have discusses their distress over long posts. However, the only complaint I have heard about the quantity of posts is too little! I believe, as a rule, that interest in the games will become contagious. Just look at IR and discworld. Interesting games with many posters that just take off on their own accord.
Part 3 and 4: If by wonderful game, you mean the upcoming INTRIGUE MAFIA, you have every right to be anxious. The only thing I am waiting for now is the conclusion of one of the normal games. Only 3 normal games at a time, not inclduing the free pass games. If I were to start signups now... Wait... I could start signups now. It will probably take a week or two to collect them. By then... game 6 should be over...
Forcing people to talk has failed in the past. See: Verbose mafia, Realtime mafia. It just gets people dead or replaced, not really verbal. Or they abuse the posting rules.
Antrax
yeah, i thought verbose was nice. the deadlines and such, though a bit much, really kept the game game going. but playing in such a game must have been very time consuming- wasn't it about 30 pages by the end? (I spent about 3 days reading the whole thing- long but oh so cool)
-SK
[color=blue]Hug a snowman, It's a cold world out there![/color]
IIRC in Verbose people just stuck to the letter of the rules, and it didn't quite work the way it was supposed to. Then again, I can't remember all 50+ games by heart, so
Antrax
If people just post more often because it's in the rules, then nothing will change. If people are posting because it will make the game more fun and will help them to play Mafia in a different and more exciting way, then surely there is nothing to lose.
Part of the problem comes from the forum being used. People expect to be able to leave message boards for a few days here or there. I know I do. In fact, I've been silent in most of my games for the last 3-4 days because I've been slammed with other duties.
Part of the problem comes from the fact that people who talk a lot with no real information to back it up get lynched.
Part of the problem comes from people prioritizing RL responsibilities over their responsibility to the game.
Naturally. The question is always how to motivate people. If you can figure that out, all the better. But so far, adding a rule to force people to post hasn't really work towards that end.
Antrax
I doubt that anybody questions the priority of RL duties over MafiaScum. However, I beleive that a game could and should be made to cater for those with extra time, or at least manageable duties. If there exists a minority of players who strive for and desire a game that rewards their prolific style of posting, why not grant those players that genre of game? MafiaScum is, to me, about providing an eclectic mix of online strangers with the resources needed to have fun utilising the rule structure of the RL Mafia game. It is not, to me, about enforcing strictures of previous Mafia enterprises.
If somebody wants to try to help existing players who are not wholely satisfied with the current state of affairs, then why oppose their grand gesture? More power to them, I say. Let the alterations commence, and may their effects be analysed with fair council and criticism.
I've noticed that, in a few of the game threads I've been reading while waiting for my games to start, there have been numerous mentions of the theory of how much a player should talk. It usually goes something like this:
> If you talk too much, you're trying to BS or mislead people and therefore are scum.
> If you don't talk enough, you're trying to fly under the town's radar and therefore are scum.
[rant]Although I do understand the logic behind both of the above arguments, I don't see how accepting that logic (or even propagating it via repetition) can do anything but hurt the game. Mafia does not function as a game without people talking, period. I, for one, will continue to post as often as I feel I have something valuable to say... and if I end up getting lynched repeatedly for attempting to contribute, then perhaps the problem's not with me. [/rant]
Now, having gotten that off of my chest, as a newbie I guess I have to ask this so I can play the game properly by mafiascum.net standards: when it comes to posting, how often is too often? And, inversely, how often is not often enough? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
[size=75]The point of the journey is not to arrive...[/size]
Dourgrim, you forgot to mention that if you post an average number of times in a game, you're trying to blend in and
must
be mafia...
It's a game of suspicion. No matter what you do, people will want to pin blame on someone who isn't them! I do think, however, that the frequent posters are often the ones formulating the theories that make the mafia sweat. But if all players would adopt Cuban Smoker's philosophies (which goes something like "POST AWAY!!"), we'd be playing the game in the best/most fun way.
Remember...It's not a lie if you believe it. -- G. Costanza
Will the Mafia game be raped of its strategyif everyone is talking all the time?
