The game of mafia through the ages

[Accent]

helloooo it is me sharing an interesting link again :)

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/03/features/werewolf?page=all
Wired has this piece on the origins of the game Werewolves, which is known in this land as Mafia. It is great!

Also there's a link in the article to a list of more advanced roles and rules, but I will copy it here as well for your convenience: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/03/werewolf/werewolf-extra-materials

Of course it is mostly about the live-action game and doesn't say anything about the extremely fascinating and deeply evolved metagame that has been developed here on Smogon, but oh well, still a good read.

Bye bye

 

[Crux]

Accent is alive?????????

 

[Layell]

I've played mafia in drama classes and at a youth event with a group of people I knew. The best part was when I got to start running my own little game of mafia. I kept it simple with one inspector and doctor, but I found that there can be a lot of talking and yelling going on. Adding a silencer to the village was probably the best addition, luckily nobody tried any fuck tigers or something dumb like that they were relatively good with that. IRL mafia is also fabulous because there is acting involved, which is something I've tried to bring into smogon mafia before. Excuses like "I heard the guy next to me get up when they called mafia" are things you never hear on the internet and become quite fun to watch.

The best irl moment would probably be the first game I ran with the silencer. He silenced the inspector and then started a lynch on her. The poor inspector just had her hand on her mouth and was wide eyed the whole time having just found a mafia.

 

[Exarius]

Accent is alive?????????

 

[LightWolf]

I myself started playing mafia on smogon exactly because of IRL mafia. We played it few time in classes, and I enjoyed them a lot, seeing the evolved version on smogon made me want to join the second.

I myself like smogon mafia more, exactly the reasonings like the one Layell mentioned were my problem, people cheating, or working together for no reason. Cheating is just too easy, and it can't be proven.

 

[jumpluff]

@Exarius: You're one to talk! :(

Interesting article, I thought this was about the evolution of Smogon mafia at first though.

 

[Andy Snype]

Excuses like "I heard the guy next to me get up when they called mafia" are things you never hear on the internet and become quite fun to watch.

Those are very interesting to hear. There was this one obnoxious guy who just shouted that. "When he said, 'mafia wake up,' something shook against my ass."

The first time I played mafia IRL was over the summer with mainly people who hadn't played mafia (1v1 w/ wolf) before. The first couple of days were pretty bad. Cardflip was off for kills but on for lynch. One of the twins (by twin I mean if one twin died, the other would die too) claimed to be inspector and got a village lynched. :|

That obnoxious player did tick most of the people off though. I recall a game with him in which as mafia, I killed the smart villagers and just left the obnoxious dude and a first-time player alive. Even though he tried to bribe the first-timer $20 to vote me, the annoying guy pissed off the first timer and he got lynched. Sucks that the game was ruined, but the annoying guy's reaction was well worth it.

Over the next couple of weeks though, the games did improve in quality, but we were friends and we just played casually. Playing IRL is more fun for the one trick ponies and the experience of actually being involved in the game rather than sitting behind a monitor, but I'd rather play on Smogon for more serious games since the playerbase here is more dedicated and experienced.

 

[Layell]

Bribing is a new thing, I doubt I'd get the chance to do that though with my irl friends who play it. Last time we played was around the campfire in Northern Ontario, it was such a blast.

One of the other disadvantages is of course not being able to night talk. Mafia has to argue with pointing unless you designate a leader, and the inspector can really only communicate if he finds the doctor then signals him at some point in the day (which I have seen done as host, but very difficult).

 

[Accent]

The Wired article even talks about the initial variation in which the mafia is not allowed to "argue with pointing" - they have to subtly decide on a target during the day vote. I'm probably going to try that next time I host IRL.

 

[Exarius]

@Exarius: You're one to talk! :(

Ey, I check Smogon daily!

...Although I might or might not be too lazy to log onto IRC >_>

 

[Gmax]

Ey, I check Smogon daily!

...Although I might or might not be too lazy to log onto IRC >_>

Terrible