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My brother has created an online Mafia game (informed minority vs uninformed majority).
So, I'm just relaying his message...
The rest of the text assumes basic knowledge of this classic game but should be fairly understandable to anyone. Since I see an active Mafia community on this forum, we don't have a problem,
What makes this game different than Epicmafia, Town of Salem or any other online Mafia games?
My site is not a forum or a chat lobby like Epicmafia. A world doesn't need yet another messaging app.
Nor does it have cute drawings and animations like Town of Salem. Kids love that, but my game is not for kids.
But it enables you and your friends to play Mafia in a very competitive way. And this one thing... it does very well.
Every other site or a forum where you can play Mafia is the same in the following way... they all have rules.
Namely:
"You shouldn't speak to other players using external messanging applications"
"You shouldn't publicly reveal your communication with the moderator"
"You shouldn't take a screenshot of the game and share it with other players"
"You shouldn't invite another player to actually see the screen of your computer while playing"
"You shouldn't interfere with the game after you have been killed in the game"
...
Any of these is considered cheating.
In a game where you MUST lie, cheat and deceive other players in order to win... you are prohibited from cheating... Why doesn't anyone else has a problem with this obvious contradiction?
Above everything else, all of the stated rules cannot be enforced.
While playing, you are expected to behave like a good sport. You should also expect that all other players will be fair and play nice.
After all, it is not about winning... It's about having fun. Right?
Wrong!
Or at least my idea of fun is a bit different.
My game has no rules. The site is designed in a way that, with just a couple of mouse clicks, any player's UI can appear to show any kind of game information a user wants.
User can appear to be a Detective, or a Citizen or a Doctor with one click of a mouse.
The site has a sophisticated algorithm for handling both:
- actions user conducted with his authentic role
- actions user conducted with one of the fake roles.
If someone will be interested, I'd be more than happy to go into more detail about the mechanisms that allow total deniability.
You can check out the game here:
http://bit.ly/mafiafer2
The game is not intended to be played between strangers that have no other way of communication.
Ideal candidates are the people who see each other on a daily basis. This means - students, coworkers or even people from the neighbourhood.
Luckily, you don't have to talk your friends into creating accounts on the site and wait for them to do so. You can just create the game and invite anyone by their email and immediately start the game. For every invited player an account is automatically created and an email is sent to them with their credentials and a link to the game.
The game is intended for those who perceive Mafia as a game of chess rather than a game of make-believe. It's this kind of people I am trying to connect with and get as much feedback from. Basically, the idea was to create the classic Mafia game but without all of the unnecessary regulations and prohibitions. So that players can focus mainly on the game and not whether they are breaking any rules by doing or saying something.
The game is free and I don't plan to charge unless it comes to the point that I cannot afford hosting anymore.
I am working on it as a hobby in my spare time.
The site is not verifying the email on registration so it is possible to create multiple accounts if you want to test everything out.
Thank you,
Andrija Cajic
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As the author of the game, I must say I am intrigued by the fact that there are 0 responses to this post (~90 views).
So... as a "market research", I would like to add a poll...
Poll: My attitude towards the presented online Mafia game is:I don't see the benefit compared to playing Mafia on a forum. (7) 47% I am currently not in the mood to try out new things. (3) 20% Other (3) 20% I don't see any pros/benefits compared the other existing online Mafia games. (1) 7% I like it (1) 7% I haven't read the entire opening post. I'm not *that* interested. (0) 0% I have read the opening post but I don't understand it. (0) 0% I don't know how to use the site or the site is buggy. (0) 0% I think the opening post advertises something that the game doesn't actually offer. (0) 0% There are not enough game roles. (0) 0% I would like to try, but there are not enough users yet. (0) 0% 15 total votes Your vote: My attitude towards the presented online Mafia game is: (Vote): I haven't read the entire opening post. I'm not *that* interested.
(Vote): I have read the opening post but I don't understand it.
(Vote): I don't see the benefit compared to playing Mafia on a forum.
(Vote): I don't see any pros/benefits compared the other existing online Mafia games.
(Vote): I don't know how to use the site or the site is buggy.
(Vote): I think the opening post advertises something that the game doesn't actually offer.
(Vote): There are not enough game roles.
(Vote): I would like to try, but there are not enough users yet.
(Vote): I like it
(Vote): I am currently not in the mood to try out new things.
(Vote): Other
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Looks cool and I would use it.... Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems I can foresee, at least in my group, is that while I can invite everyone over and we can play a couple games at my house in an evening, not everyone is as close with everyone else. In face to face, or in a forum, you don't need to be good friends with everyone else you're playing with. If you're trying to use text messages as the medium of communication, you create barriers between certain people.
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The rules we have aren't there to ruin it for everybody, they're not so much irrational commands as "guidelines for optimizing fun". Generally we just think it's more fun to do logic and behavior analysis than to post screenshots.
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lol unfortunately i think the only thing that would keep this from being little more than a guessing game is if everyone playing knew each other really well, which by definition means you couldn't get a large player-base
it's a cool idea?
you may get some interest on forum mafia sites, but you also need to consider your audience i think. people playing on forums probably do so for the variety of personalities and specifically to be good at the game, not to be able to read a particular handful of people well enough to tell when they're pulling your leg or not 
good luck!
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@Snarfs, I know what you're saying. And yes, the game was not originally intended to be played between strangers that hook up randomly over internet. The original post was not (mainly) for gathering new users... It's just discussing the concept behind the game. Reading posts exactly like the one you wrote.
As far as I see, it would be ideal if it's played on universities, classrooms or workplaces with >10 people. All places where people see and communicate with each other on a daily basis. So, you come to work one morning and see that you are dead. You look at all of them sitting by their computers acting innocent...
People can log in and log out directly on the spot because they are safe they won't be exposed. This leads to some pretty interesting mind games.
One more thing. I haven't played on this forum but I think that playing on a forum is not exactly noob friendly. Maybe I'm wrong. I think it has steep learning curve in the beginning. On my site, users are practically registered by someone else so they don't even have to do that. They just log in... and when they log in, they have 2 or 3 buttons to choose from.
@prplhz, I understand what you mean. However, having played a certain amount of Mafia games, I can tell that the players who get the basic roles lose incentive to play. The players can leave in the middle of the game. When a player dies, he loses interest in how the game will finish. There are a lot of things I didn't like, and they were all caused by the same thing: the game was not competitive. I can use a comparison with Poker. Have you ever played poker for money vs. poker for free? When you play poker for free, it's a different game. People do random stuff, they don't care. Skill doesn't help you win if you play against a non-rational player. Again, the game is not competitive and that's why it sucks.
If you were truly competitive then you want to win. And when you want to win, you do anything that you can get away with in order to do it.
On the final table of a $1 million poker tournament, a player accidentaly turns his cards and the other player sees them. Nobody noticed that this happened. Will the player who saw the cards say: "Stop! Repeat the hand. I saw this man's cards." ?
Even, if he does that, why would anyone believe him? Maybe he just got a bad hand and wants a new one.
Of course, if he can guess the other player's hand than he proves that he saw his cards. But what if he doesn't guess correctly? This means that he was lying about seeing opponent's cards... What then?
The thing with sending screenshots... It goes like this. In the first couple of games ppl might think they can accomplish something by doing that. Once everyone sees how easily it can be done, taking screenshots cannot convince anyone into anything. So the main benefit from this feature is that you are certain that noone else is cheating and noone can even consider cheating.
Regarding playing on a forum... I guess everything is fine while playing among people on distant places around the globe. I mean, you'd have to go through great lengths in order to cheat your way through the game. But, if played with people you meet every day, it's easy to accidentally show something to someone and you break the game even if you didn't mean to.
@rsoultin. Yes, the forum players may not be the primary target audience. And the goal is not to acquire a huge player base that then create games with each other. The way I see it, the player-base is supposed to consist of many small clusters of 10-50 players. These clusters are independent of each other and a player from one cluster rarely plays in the same game with a player from another cluster. Each cluster can be a single university, a school, a company or just a semi-interconnected group of acquaintances.
On top of it all, I believe that introducing a simple and clean chat lobby and messaging capabilities to the site would compensate for any deficiencies compared to any Mafia forum.
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Of course, all votes to "Other"... I would appreciate a short explanatory post if you can. 
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I don't think a lot of the complaints you have about typical forum mafia really apply here. Generally from the games I've played here which are starting to get quite large people don't quit or get disinterested on a whole when they get VT. This is the most competitive site I've ever played on and we don't really allow pms or anything like that generally.
I think that PMs and the like actually degrade the game it keeps information out of the thread and becomes a game about who can fake things better rather than an actual logical or behavioral breakdown. Honestly it becomes less and less about mafia and more about screen shots especially with so many of us playing on phones meh.
You can honestly win and have an amazing record on mafia with just reading and analyzing without bending the rules or toeing the line or having no rules.
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United Kingdom30775 Posts
I mean it sounds good in theory and stuff but i feel forum is much more controversial and skill based than a quick game of online mafia would ever be. Sure, using the client to increase your lying potential is satisfying but it's just more satisfying imo to fool everyone by outsmarting them with purely words.
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hey where is the option for illiterate people? i am unsure how to vote represetativly
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lol i was one of the "other" ppl
i still think it's a good idea for ppl who are just interested in playing with a core group, or want to try some cool features, but forums in general are probably not a good target audience for your idea. ours in particular isn't. don't take it personal that it didn't receive much feedback from us initially!
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On April 03 2015 22:16 Damdred wrote:
I don't think a lot of the complaints you have about typical forum mafia really apply here. Generally from the games I've played here which are starting to get quite large people don't quit or get disinterested on a whole when they get VT. This is the most competitive site I've ever played on and we don't really allow pms or anything like that generally.
I think that PMs and the like actually degrade the game it keeps information out of the thread and becomes a game about who can fake things better rather than an actual logical or behavioral breakdown. Honestly it becomes less and less about mafia and more about screen shots especially with so many of us playing on phones meh.
You can honestly win and have an amazing record on mafia with just reading and analyzing without bending the rules or toeing the line or having no rules.
I agree completely with this post. VT is the most awesome role there is btw.
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On April 04 2015 01:43 rsoultin wrote:
lol i was one of the "other" ppl
i still think it's a good idea for ppl who are just interested in playing with a core group, or want to try some cool features, but forums in general are probably not a good target audience for your idea. ours in particular isn't. don't take it personal that it didn't receive much feedback from us initially!
i agree that we're probably not the people you're targetting with this product. i think how you don't have to make an account to play is a really good thing though, making it super easy to just get started is great. i hate asking my friends to sign up for accounts for whatever.
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I am never clicking on that link.
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My best town play is when I'm VT.
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On April 04 2015 02:26 ObiWanShinobi wrote:
I am never clicking on that link.
This
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@Damdred
Since I've started with the Poker comparison, I might as well continue. I am not saying that playing poker for free is bad.
If you have a group of people that genuinely like playing poker just for the sake of the game, that's great. I suspect there are groups playing poker for fun very studiously, debating probabilities after each hand and determining who played better and who just got lucky. They are trying their best to win and to improve their skill.
But such special poker group will have strict rules not to include certain people in the game. For example, the people who are going all-in on practically every other hand. If they lose, they go home and they don't care. If they win, they are happy (and the player who was playing 'for real' is now kicked out of the game). I simply don't see how you can allow all type of players while keeping the game to be free to join.
Playing Mafia on a forum is kind of like playing free poker.
As I explained, free poker has a fairly limited player base - so does the forum Mafia attract only a specific profile of people.
(btw, I often considered what it would be like to play Mafia as a wager match. For money or some other prize. Winning team takes all. Etiher mobsters or the innocents.)
I guess you can imagine a response from an average person if you try to make them interested in the forum Mafia game.
But if you tell them there is a prize to be won if they discover who the bad guy is in their own classroom/workplace, then you have wild dogs of the chain. They are not instructed what they should say or do or type and that they should use this strategy or that strategy...
(There is a group of students in my university playing this game from time to time. They played IRC mafia before, but now they only play this. I told them that... until this game causes a fistfight, I will not be satisfied :D)
Basically, I think the game of Mafia has a potential to reach much wider audience than it has currently.
It is also legitimate to say: "I like it that this is an 'exclusive club'. I like it that this game is not so common. I like it that it's not for everyone."
@Holyflare
"A quick game of mafia" - This is not a site where you play a game of mafia within an hour. You play the day and night phases in the game as the days and nights go by in real life. That is the recommended setup, anyway.
@rsoultin. Well, I like the feedback I'm receiving now.
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United Kingdom30775 Posts
this forum is nothing like free to play poker though, we're pretty hardcore 
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EPT
