Anonymous Mafia

[Tchill13]

What? Can you reword that lol.

[Tchill13]

@fonz

[Tchill13]

a mechanic punishing town in particular for meta slips is maybe the closest anyone can actually get to eliminating reducing the role of meta in dayplay

Eventually though games played in this queue would work its way to the desired destination.

Once again, behaviors such as lynch all liars would more than likely form regarding meta slip ups or meta hunting.

Because players playing in this queue would be looking for the experience it was designed to provide.

This isn't a queue you play to meta hunt in or you play and rely on your own meta.

It's specifically to get away from that stuff.

Ppl would still do it but I don't believe they'd do it to the extent you're anticipating.

[Psyche]

woah its fonz
he's in all the old threads

[Nancy Drew 39]

does it really remove meta from the game, though? people will try to match players to accounts. some will straight up claim their accounts in order to substantiate their claims - indeed, town might try to force a mass nameclaim on D1 and scum will have only weak incentives to lie. you end up with a game that's far from anonymous. you can try to ban these behaviors - identity fishing and claiming, but when it comes to softer forms of these behaviors (eg breadcrumbing your identity or voting based on secret hunches about a player's true identity), both mods and players are left in a fog when it comes to what kind of behavior is okay that leaves town playing disingenuously and the game feeling less enjoyable. meta is inescapable.

In the anonymous game I played on MU, that was disallowed, so were other players hinting at or trying to guess other players’ identities. If you neglect that stipulation, it defeats the entire purpose of making the game anonymous in the first place.

[Nancy Drew 39]

Well the idea is for all slots in all games to be anonymous. Eventually you'd get players claiming to be someone else if it were advantageous. The name claim wouldn't matter.

It specifically puts more weight on the actual game play of that game in particular. I personally feel like that's how mafia is supposed to be played. A clean slate every game.

Hypothetically if name claiming wasn't even a thing it'd be very interesting to see how a handful of these games played out compared to normal games.

I’d prefer it but it’s extra work for the mod, since they’re the one who needs to create all of the anonymous alt accounts.

[Nancy Drew 39]

It's impossible to enforce usefully. People will

still

try to make and use guesses about who's in a given slot to guide their decision-making and people will

still

try to breadcrumb or otherwise make obvious their true identities.

In turn, you'll have a hell of a time reliably distinguishing these activities from permitted behaviors. Furthermore, players will be forced to hide thought processes underlying their decision-making ("I can't say that I think mastina is this person and would never do this as town!") AND alter their own play to avoid mod suspicion that they're trying to out their main accounts.

Not true. The mod explicitly states this in the rules and will take appropriate means to rail in any offenders. That really isn’t all that hard. Yes, you wouldn’t be allowed to either rely on your own meta, or utilize meta in making reads, which would help you to become a better player in the long run.

[Nancy Drew 39]

Anonymous games seem scary at first but I really enjoyed not knowing who was who att. Anonymous games would be especially great for someone like RC, who gets NK’d early almost every damn game, as town.

[Tchill13]

Exactly. It'd be a welcome addition to the game types for a plethora of reasons.

Anything from ppl who are always night killed early to not allowing crazy gambits just because player is "so and so" or "well so and so lurks it's just what he does". Several reasons for this.

[Nancy Drew 39]

I would also really enjoy having my actual gameplay scrutinized over my meta. As town, I tend to over rely on my meta and it trips me up as scum. If you’ve ever rolled scum with people who know your scumgame, it kind of sucks.

[Tchill13]

Well the beauty of it is every game is unique. Every game is its own and the only thing that will be judged that game is the play of that game.

I think that's the way it was meant to be played.

I believe you'd grow more as a player exponentially.

It'd be very enjoyable to see what practice were formed and which ones were shut down.

[Nancy Drew 39]

100% agree, that’s why I wish there would be more anonymous games on here. Some game, even require anonymity and can’t be played otherwise. The Ditto comes to mind, because one of it’s unique mechanics involves shapeshifting into another player and effectively taking over their slot.

[Tchill13]

I didn't even know if the way I wanted to implement it wast possible.

Basically you sign up. When you sign up it's like you have a blinder over your information though.

Player 1 has signed in
Player 2 has signed in
Player 3

So on, and so forth.

Then when the game starts each player is given a random name. Let's say player one is "Ashley" ever time. Player 2 is "John" every time... So on and so forth.

At the end of the game the blinders are removed and you can view the game just as you're viewing this thread now. Only in POST GAME and THE DEAD THREAD will you be able to view games like that though.

Blinders are on at all times otherwise.

Now the dead thread is more of a place to congregate. It's the only area in the entire que you can actually talk about these anonymous players while you still have no clue who they are. You also "meet" who you've been playing with in the dead thread.

I'm not tech savvy so Idk if sites would support a feature like the "blinders" I'm speaking of.

[Nancy Drew 39]

Of course it is, you just pm the game mod who creates anonymous accounts. They wouldn’t even need to post anything more than the current # of players who were signed up.

[kuribo]

some of us have very specific verbal tics that make playing anonymously nearly impossible

[kuribo]

woah its fonz
he's in all the old threads

He's been posting here and there in MD for the past at least month


I haven't played with Fonz in probably a decade

[Tchill13]

some of us have very specific verbal tics that make playing anonymously nearly impossible

That's understandable but I think the pkayerbase this que would attract wouldn't be caught up in meta hunting.

Players are playing here for the anonymity. They're not going to want to ruin that. If SOME do have other ideas I'm wondering how the player base would react to them on a consistent basis. Would they insta lynch those prioritizing meta? It'd be interesting.

[kuribo]

Have you ever played mafia on this site?

People will absolutely play the meta game and out alts if they think it gives them even a slight advantage.

[Tchill13]

So what happens when it disrupts the games and ppl start to get their guesses wrong on a consistent basis?

That type of play would not be met well by others trying to escape that experience specifically.

[Nancy Drew 39]

Have you ever played mafia on this site?

People will absolutely play the meta game and out alts if they think it gives them even a slight advantage.

Not if the mod expressly states, that’s against the rules and they should also probably mention that in the sign up thread as well - that if you violate this rule, you may be force replaced.

[Psyche]

but again, the rule is impossible to enforce adequately and requires doublethink for players to follow

[Nancy Drew 39]

but again, the rule is impossible to enforce adequately and requires doublethink for players to follow

I’ve played anonymous mafia, where that rule was

strictly

enforced and no one violated it, since no one wanted to be kicked out of the damn game. People WILL follow the mod’s rules, so long as they’re explicitly and clearly stated.

[Tchill13]

but again, the rule is impossible to enforce adequately and requires doublethink for players to follow

are you of the mind the game is impossible to implement the way i'd like to from the start or do you believe there might be a way to fix that?

[Psyche]

i think it makes for a worse game

[kuribo]

Not if the mod expressly states, that’s against the rules and they should also probably mention that in the sign up thread as well - that if you violate this rule, you may be force replaced.

If you have to have a mod rule that actively punishes claiming or things of that nature, you're probably running a flawed mechanic