You're very generous, but I do think that there are some different skills involved being mafia. If you happen to be a person who posts 8-10 times a game, doesn't talk much, but signs up a lot, you will never give away any scumtells, and people are used to your quietness, and as a result, you attract very little attention. Then you survive longer as mafia, which helps contribute to your ability to win. And, that doesn't really require skill so much as consistency in behavior and a style which doesn't attract controversy. Maybe it's intentional, and then it could be considered skillful. As townie, however, such a style makes it difficult to influence others or make convincing cases or adequately pressure/interrogate someone, which makes it easier for the mafia to avoid you without consequence. What's good for one side isn't necessarily as good for the other, even though there's a lot of overlap in the skill categories.
I even feel that winning as mafia is almost totally out of your control. You're greatly outnumbered and you cannot forcibly stop any bandwagon on you; it's pure luck if you survive long enough to have a shot at tricking people into choosing the wrong target in the final rounds. You can't stop a detective from investigating you right away/roleblocker from blocking you unless you get extremely lucky with your murders. My view on being mafia is to cross your fingers and hope the town keeps making mistakes, and try to make the game as challenging and entertaining as possible. If I could compare it to like a Mario video game, being mafia is being a koopa troopa. You lack the power and ability to truly defeat Mario, unless Mario makes mistakes. If Mario is good, you don't stand a chance, you're doomed. But if Mario can't jump to save his life, then you land on his head, boom you got lucky, you won. If you don't do anything to contribute to your victory, then it's unlikely to happen. So, you still have to keep moving, to present some kind of threat. But ultimately you can't control the outcome; the game is the town's game to lose, not the mafia's game to win.
Similarly, I feel that if you do choose the correct candidate as mafia, early enough, you can increase pressure on that candidate until it reaches a breaking point and you can declare "it's them, or me. Choose!". As townie, your team can generally win without you, but the mafia need every single soul alive that they can get, and those sorts of trades are always disadvantageous to the scums. It's like trading a pawn for a queen in chess. The mafia are always attempting to avoid those sorts of confrontations, because persistence will force a decision, and the townie can generally afford to die first as long as their target also dies. Being found dead and innocent generally increases the credibility of the accusations (right or wrong) against the intended target. If I died on round one in a game, and I narrowed it down to one main suspect and wouldn't shut up about said suspect, it's very difficult for that one to survive. This is true even for players who don't usually go on the offensive. I've seen plenty of games where someone died and suspected someone, and if they get vocal about it, their suspect's days are numbered. Making a strong case can also win votes from undecided people or busy people. Simply showing initiative on the correct suspect can win games. You lose that advantage as the game drags on, and there are fewer townies alive, and your continued and failed attempts to catch scum will make you look guilty. But at the beginning and middle, almost anyone is fair game and can be lynched easily with effort and persistence.
Your efforts to win the lynch of an innocent townie will cost you your head as mafia, and unless you bus your partner, you will keep lynching innocent people. Then when you bus your partner, you lose your partner, and it still doesn't win you freedom from suspicion, only a small window of the benefit of the doubt. Then people wonder why, if you're so townie, you haven't been murdered yet, and curiosity gets the better of them. And if you bussed your partner, now you're down two members in exchange for not much compensation.... you might have been better off with both your teammates alive and voting. I think I may have lost my train of thought, but from my view, all you can do is show up and keep playing, and hope that division and confusion works to your advantage. No matter your tactics, debating skills, or personal charisma, nothing can really stop a town determined to lynch you. They either decide to, or they don't. That's why the game is always in their hands. You can play flawlessly and still fail.
I don't know about the others, but whenever I am mafia I generally feel powerless and vulnerable. When I'm a townie I feel powerful and invincible, and very aggressive when I have that kind of energy. I think that would change dramatically if alignment was not revealed upon death, and as such, I might be removing that aspect from future games of mine to make it more difficult for the townies.
Re: Gameroom statistics (revisited)
Originally Posted by Beskar
Thanks Pizza.
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