Journal Week 8 – Mafia
September 17th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
The key dynamics in mafia depend on restricting the availability of information.
Each player has a little piece of the picture and must speculate on what the rest of the picture is like based on what is revealed by the other players. The interesting part is the variety of ways information can be conveyed between players.
Any player can convey the truth or a lie. They can do this explicity and directly or use reverse psychology. Much of the communication is also non-verbal. Facial expressions and personal idiosyncrasies can significantly alter the outcome of a game. Hence, there is plenty of opportunity for misinterperetation and the resulting uncertainty is a great contributor to the drama aesthetic that is so central to the game.
The role playing factor also adds an enjoyable fantasy element to the game. Being a social deviant is not usually something one can get away too frequently in daily life. Here they get a chance to go all out and play the part.
Strategy
The disparate roles of citizen, mafia, policeman, etc. allow certain assumptions to be made about their expected behaviour. After that it’s usually a matter of figuring out how many layers of false clues a player has put into their behaviour. Obviously this is no easy task, but it would presumably be less difficult when you’re playing with people you know well.
Mafia online
The lack of non-verbal cues may be a problem. It makes it quite hard to be subtle. Also the delayed timing allows one more time to decide on how to present onerself. This can make deceiving others much easier (maybe this will upset the balance). Another problem is that online group conversations are difficult to monitor and can get very confusing.
Perhaps to make it easier to follow an online group discussion you could have an avatar for each of the players and underneath each avatar is a conversation area. You accuse/interrogate other people in each of their conversation areas and defend yourself in your own.
