Mafia

Describe the social interactions which you observed during play. In what way did these interactions emerge from within the formal elements of the game?

Overall, the mafias did a great job in protecting themselves; by simply exploiting the voting mechanism of the game. The dynamics of voting is what makes this game engaging and fun, in which case people will actually put out a case of who the mafias are.

The opinion leaders usually get accused first as the mafia, since there is an assumed motivation to avoid accusations by accusing others. Villagers were careful to voice out their case, ensuring a safe level of mutual agreement on credible claims such as hearing voices coming from certain directions during the night killing spree. Certain externally derived social cues were also visible, for instance, at one stage people found it difficult to accuse someone whom everyone else thought would be harmless, especially some of the people in the group whom are thought to be quiet and shy.

Using Sutton-Smith's categorization of social play roles, discuss how the players' roles changed during the course of the game.

The flow was more or less as follows: Everyone Searches for some cues (usually sounds produced by the gestures during the night killing spree, assuming they were not cheating by peeping) to filter out the possible candidates, then everyone will evaluate the likelihood of themselves being accused as the killer. Players then seduce each other to accuse a candidate while protecting themselves, usually by teasing or harass others in order to ignite everyone, getting everyone agitated. Players can also play the role of savior by not voting those whom they think have been wrongly accused.

Suggest a modification to the game which will alter the social dynamics that emerge during play.

Perhaps a new rule could be implemented: what if the mafia doesn’t know each other? Then this may add another element of mechanics: which out of the two mafias survives and emerges as the winner. Each turn the game master may specify which mafia to wake up and kill villagers/ the other mafia. If one mafia has been eliminated, then the surviving mafia must kill everyone until left only two remaining villagers. This will change the social dynamics of the game a bit by introducing an element of competition between the mafias, by making them hunt each other.