Charisma and Mafia

[Ranmaru]

Neutral. I don't really get any negative or positive from it. Although it's not that interesting either, since it's just a little box. Sometimes it makes me wish you actually used a different avatar, but it's better than Zakk.

[Gamma Emerald]

I think Cerberusv666 is worse with the lack of avatar

[Lycanfire]

Cerb no avatar is super scummy

Probably a factor in how I perceived Reasonably Rational as superscum in SU2. That and the high percentage of cerb setup spec v. number of posts between day 0-day 2.

[Ranmaru]

Name dropping here: I find Titus's avatar very cute and positive for a town leader kind of thing.

[Vijarada]

i actually think worse of people with cute anime avatars i'm pretty sure. i think they're like faker in games. although tbh the reason i have been having cute person avatars recently is for positive perception.

[MattP]

Good, but not as good as Mattp's tie avatar. I think I would lean neutral-town for you. I think it's missing the human filling the shirt. That might help it.

Ya my avatar is ace af

[Aeronaut]

I legitimately believe that 50% of getting people to listen to you lies with your avatar

that's why I'm this cute cuddly stud of a pikachu

[Ranmaru]

i actually think worse of people with cute anime avatars i'm pretty sure. i think they're like faker in games. although tbh the reason i have been having cute person avatars recently is for positive perception.

I find it natural since I watch anime and am already accustomed to it. What I find fake is the people who pretend to get in character as them sometimes. Otherwise, it's easy to imagine people as those characters because imagination and all.

[Ranmaru]

--

Back on topic, does anyone have examples for each point Firebringer listed? That would be interesting.

[LicketyQuickety]

How do people read my avatar?

Honestly? It looks like its the smaller brother of part of a non-verbal IQ test.

[Oversoul]

--

Back on topic, does anyone have examples for each point Firebringer listed? That would be interesting.

Confidence vs Arrogance would be hard to discern I think.

[camn]

This topic interests me.
I feel like I ONLY use charisma to win games

Scumhunting? meh.
Logic? Not in this life.
Reading? sometimes/usually not.

But Charm? ALWAYS!


...plus a great avatar.

[LicketyQuickety]

--

Back on topic, does anyone have examples for each point Firebringer listed? That would be interesting.

Confidence vs Arrogance would be hard to discern I think.

The difference (as I would describe it) is that confidence is strong while arrogance is cocky.

[Ranmaru]

I mean in-game examples, which would be easier to emulate/copy. What would be hard for me is affirmation. I want to improve on that.

[Firebringer]

I mean in-game examples, which would be easier to emulate/copy. What would be hard for me is affirmation. I want to improve on that.

I'd love to do some good examples for everything for this, right now laziness is only thing stopping me.

The best way to affirm others is just to look for things that you like about the persons posts. Don't agree with them on any given point? Maybe you like their effort and spirit, tell them that! Say "I really like the effort your giving here, but I think your missing/overlooking X"

You want to build up a dialogue with person first not based on what you disagree on, but what you do agree on and then go from there to show them your point of view. If you start of with agreeing with someone even if it isn't on the meat of what is talked about, they are far more likely to be convinced by any arguments you make. This is because people get in pattern of saying "well we seem to really understand each other" and then even for things they may not agree with, they will at least think they understand on some level your viewpoint.

If you look at only what you disagree with someone, it's easy to come to conclusions, wow we just can't see eye to eye or are too different to see things same way. That kills ability for you to work with others.

[Firebringer]

There's probably more on charisma that I can go on about:
>keys to be likeable
>word choice and how it affects people
>building a rapport with someone
>walls vs short posts

[camn]

>paying attention to people, cuz people like attention?

[Firebringer]

Hey camn, how's it going camn? What you been up to camn?

[Lil Uzi Vert]

Do what KainTepes would do!

[Ranmaru]

[Firebringer]

Wall Posts vs Short Posts

Spoiler: Wall

Anyone who has played with me, or knows my style, knows that I dislike people who only post walls. Truth be told I also don't like when people ONLY post short posts too. Their is a time and place though for both of these post types in a mafia game and theirs a reason why I prefer to do shorter posts versus longer posts. I will go into basics of why you would make each post and how they should be formatted, then I will try laying out the advantages and disadvantages of each and when and where you should do them.

Lets start with Walls. Wall posts are great! That is, if

you are trying to make a specific point

and want people to agree with that point. A wall you can think of as a speech. When you write out or make a speech to someone you want to ensure first of all that

YOU KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

. That means first and foremost, this is a game that people play for entertainment, there are people who enjoy reading games but most people are playing for amusement,

KEEP YOUR WALLS TO A REASONABLE LENGTH

, for mafia game Id say 3-5 paragraphs of about 5 sentences each. The longer a wall is, the more likely it will be skipped. Especially if you don't follow the second rule of speech making: capturing and maintaining your audience. So many people will make out a beautiful wall with so much information, but they fail at the first thing that you need to captivate the audience and hold their attention. You can do this a number of ways, but i will save that for another topic. The third thing you need to do is make sure your wall has a flow to it and isn't disorganized. One of the saddest things to see is someone who makes a wall that could have been great if they just properly put everything in the right place and it didn't go into twenty different directions, if you have a lot to say try to connect everything together in a condensed fashion and if you think something doesn't serve a greater purpose, cut it out of the wall! Fourth and final big thing for a wall is you should address any counter arguments preemptively, you will make yourself more persuasive if you engage this conversation now before someone has a chance to dismiss your argument. With that said, sometimes making points can be done in a shorter style so lets move to short posts.

Short posts are the best. Say what you want in

a short precise manner

without over-explaining and boring your audience to death. A short post is usually a paragraph at most, maybe two if you want to stretch definition. That was complicated!

Since I am bad at flow, lets jump into advantages/disadvantages of walling/short.

Walls Pro:

1) They are generally more persuasive than short posts.
2) Contain lots of thoughts/ideas and information.
3) Posts are often seen as professional and authoritative

Walls Con:

1) They are less engaging than short posts.
2) If done improperly can lead to information overload.
3) Impersonal and robotic if you don't add a proper voice.
4) Short attention spans means you have to really grab your audience attention to ensure the post is read.

Short Pro:

1) They are generally more personal than wall posts.
2) Feels more like a proper conversation between two or more people.
3) Can be used to build a good rapport with a person.

Short Con:

1) Can lead to miscommunication when you keep the message too short.
2) If done too much can be viewed as a person being unprofessional/lazy/etc.
3) Spam can create too much noise that drowns out the game that can also make it so your posts AND others get ignored.

So when would you use either? As said earlier, a wall you want to use for when you are making a specific point. This should be done when their is really stuff you have to say, and you are trying to convince people you are right. You shouldn't write this post out with the expectation that someone gives a rebuttal, thats not the purpose. You write out a wall to make your points to convince others. A short post is what you should use for 90% of the time you are playing mafia. This is what you do to interact with others in a group setting or even when you try to talk to someone on a one on one setting. You just talk to them and ask them questions, building a rapport and having a dialogue that builds off one another. This is where you are trying to understand each other on a basic level when you don't already have that. If you are wall posting, you already should know who you can trust or not trust and are trying to convince whoever your audience is to vote for the people you aren't trusting. With a short post, you just want to see if you can trust them.

In the most basic way possible to sum it up this point.
When you are wall posting, you are talking AT SOMEONE.
When you are short posting, you are talking WITH SOMEONE.

[Firebringer]

I may try to make this a weekly topic discussion.

[Grendel]

I like Hoopla's method of making short succinct posts until she's gathered enough information to make a strong wall post.

The break from short posting with periodical walls makes most posts more engaging then if a player were to use just one or the other. Though, I feel that this isn't much of a addition to what you just said. More of an "I agree" then anything lol. I think that most players seem to only post in one way or the other.

Many players don't post with the intention of making an easier reading experience, they mainly communicate info in a way they'd like to hear it. Which often makes otherwise great players, difficult to play with. You know?

Are you going to talk more about contrasting posting styles and how they affect the game state?

I'm interested in your perception of joke posting, and how that helps you develop reads vs serous posting.

[Ranmaru]

I agree. Say what you want in as few words as possible. I feel there needs to be a balance between the two. I like using both at the same time, and using concise posts a majority of the time. Make it easy to read for your audience.

[Lycanfire]

Make every post have meaning. It doesn't matter if it's a wall or not.

The shittiest appearing posts I've made is when I posted pictures of cars back and forth with Grey. I was questioning his motives and by reciprocating I asked if he was in the backseat (related to my argument against him) and he reinforced this by sheeping me on scum.

Meanwhile the first content post I made as scum in Darkest Dungeon was an absolute crap wall. It had the obvious flaw 90% of the wall was pointless when I had been establishing Keyser Soze was shitvoting, yet it wasn't a definitive fact that he was until his Frozen Angel head appeared, and then after had Keyser vote change. I acknowledged this but I had detailed so many instances of my invented problem that I made it seem like the hydra was being nefarious with their vote. (I do feel like there was a small misplay from town!keyser but that didn't compare to not calling me out on it-pride is a funny thing.)