Social Games: Mafia

I shall use Mafia as my working example for the blog assignment on Social Games...

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

Umm... There was quite a bit of social interactions going on when we played Mafia, much more than that of Little Max, I would say :) One of the most prominent was of couse, there were people accusing others as the mafia and hence, they were in turn accused back by the people that they've "accused". There were also others who tried to create diversions by explicitly claiming that they are the mafia... Then, there were also these voting sessions when people had to decide who they thought the mafia were (which by the way, it reminded me a lot like "tribal council" in Survivor). On the other hand, there were also people who were keeping peace with themselves but nonetheless either got "killed" by the mafia at night or were "torn apart" by the angry crowd during the day *Ouch* (Personally, I think that's the worse way to die of the two :p) Most importantly, there was also a great deal of laughter (even from the "graves" like yours truly :p eh, I had a difficult time in trying to remain completely silent).

Much of these interactions arose from the need to accuse someone of being the mafia but since noone really know who it was, thereby giving rise to funny comments like, "You look like the mafia...", "Why are you laughing like that? You must be the mafia!" or "You keep accusing other people so you are the mafia, right?", etc throughout the game. In addition, the laughter and giggling probably arose from the fact that those who are "dead" were supposed to remain silent but they were also the ones who knew who the real mafia were (sort of like I know but I can't tell you :p).

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

The players' roles and their changes during the course of the game Mafia could be categorized under two main motives of play, namely that of Search and Seduction.

Under the motive Search, there were people who accused others of being the mafia when there was really no evidence/proof to justify their accusations (i.e to find by chance) and those who were accused, would retaliate by accusing the former back or "feigning innocence" (i.e. to mislead or cover and to feign respectively).

As for the motive Seduction, there were numerous times when some of the players would try to influence others' decisions (i.e. to tempt?) and the others would have to decide whether to conform or keep to their stands (i.e. to resist?).

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

I can't think of any at the moment :p so I shall write about my afterthoughts of a modification that we managed to try out during the tutorial class :) It was the additional role of a detective (random) and the rule which stated if the mafia accidentally kills the detective, then they would lose the game.

This modification seemed to be an integration of the afore-mentioned motives of play - Search and Seduction in that the player (who was playing the detective) would be required to pinpoint who the real mafia were (i.e. to find by clue) and to try and influence others into making a 'right' decision (i.e. to tempt?). At the same, such modification could also serve as a check on the powers of the mafia in a way such that they couldn't afford to be reckless in picking out their victims.

Despite this, the game seemed to have a high level of negative feedback for the villagers, especially when the detective gets wrongly accused and killed by the former in the process for there would be noone left to check the powers of the mafia.