Week 6 - Deduct what?

“...in social deduction games, there is some information to make some deductions, but not enough information to make game-winning deductions with certainty…” (Buddhiraju 1).

Social Deduction games are multiplayer games that can range from being in a large group in person to a few people online. These types of games rely heavily on the social aspect where you try and figure out who may be lying. That is where the deduction comes into play. If a player is really good at lying then it may become difficult to deduct whether or not they are the one to go after. There are many different social deduction games, but typically the ones that are lying are the ones that players are trying to get out. “Mafia” is a popular one where individuals are the mafia members which are “killing” other players and those who are neutral have to figure out who did it.

“Two teams: the Honest and the Mafia will compete against each other. For the Honest team players, the task is to stop Mafia before it eliminates them” (McAwesome).

Davidoff's Mafia version is most popular and is played in a room with at least six individuals with the possibility of the number to be higher. This is one of those games that is likely for many people to have played if you have ever been in a situation with groups playing games for a large get together. The game goes through a few phases some of which players must close their eyes and not know what is going on. Most of these phases are played silently besides the gathering and deduction time. The honest win when all of the mafia members are removed from the group. The mafia win when the honest are all eliminated.

“We identify the six basic elements of play design: actions, goals, rules, objects, playspace, and players” (Macklin and Sharp 1).

Social deduction games take advantage of all of the elements as discussed by Macklin and Sharp. The actions take up most of the part of the game where the majority have no idea that they are even happening. The goals can include surviving and killing depending on the game. Rules hold the game together, if you are not a “killer” it would break the game for you to act as one. The objects are often the playing cards for the different characters. Playspace depends on the game. Some social deduction games are online in a virtual playspace while some are in a classroom. These games consist of multiple players to keep the games more interesting.