The game I played was Fakin It, a game created by Jackbox Games. It’s intended for people of all ages, and is suitable to social group play. It’s available on The Jackbox Party Pack 3 which is available on a number of different platforms (PC/Mac/Linux, XBox, Playstation, etc.)
In my game playing experience, I’ve always known deep down that I dislike games where I have to fake or bluff. I feel like I’m just really bad at it, and I feel stressed that I have to lie. This was highlighted when I played Fakin’ It, but since it’s more luck rather than skill, I still enjoyed Fakin it’ a lot!!
In Fakin it, if you are the “faker”, then you have to randomly choose a response to some unknown prompt (a number, a facial expression, a person to point at, etc.) with no context. After answering, there is a discussion period where you have to lie and bluff your way out of suspicion. I am really bad at this bluffing part, or at least I hate having to do it. I think that this discussion period really pushes me out of my comfort zone and makes me feel antsy and even a bit anxious at times. I feel like this highlights my role within groups. When I am comfortable, I feel like I like to be honest and upfront. So when I’m not the imposter, I am active in discussion. When I’m less comfortable, I tend to be a bit more quiet, like when I am the imposter.
In the MDA framework, the mechanic that everyone (faker and non-fakers) has to do their action simultaneously creates a dynamic that makes it more difficult for the faker to pick up on other player’s responses to pick their own, but also for players to pick out the faker. These are obstacles that make the game more stimulating. Another mechanic is that there is a big of randomness and luck in the game. For example, there was an instance where the question was “how many disney movies have you watched in the last month” and the imposter got the question “how many pairs of shoes do you own”. I would fail with this question immediately as the imposter simply because I own way more shoes than the number of disney movies I’ve watched, and both are common knowledge. This is an instance where luck makes it really hard to be the faker.
I think this makes the resulting aesthetic about the sensation and challenge. There is a lot of suspense that builds up with the “The imposter is still at large” graphic and music, and the imposter getting away with things makes me want to continue tricking people. It feels really good to not get caught.
It’s also important to consider the ethics of such a game. Since the whole point of this game is to lie and trick the other players, I don’t think this is an ethical concern. When the players agree to come together to play Fakin’ It, there is a clear norm set that one person will be the imposter. In fact, lying is quite literally the name of the game. The description on the website says “discover how bad your friends are at lying, without any relationship-ending arguments!” In this context, lying is not high stakes. The lie is completely contained within the scope of the game. Games allow us to lie to our friends because sometimes that is what makes the games fun. The lie is an obstacle, and makes the game more fun for us to play. Plus, the lies are very quickly debunked at the end of each round.
That being said, I definitely do think that there are games where lying to our friends can be wrong actions. Games solely about getting to know each other, or games that are used to make decisions in the real world can really be affected by lies. Those games have higher stakes, and lying can impact trust and outcomes. Luckily, this game is not one of these!
