The game I played was Among Us, which is an online multiplayer bluffing game created by Innersloth. Among Us can be played on a mobile device (iOS, Android) or on a PC, and you can cross-play among devices. While the intended audience is ages 10+, the game has gained immense popularity across a wide range of ages.
The premise of Among Us is similar to your standard Mafia game. Players are randomly assigned to be a crewmate, whose job is to try and survive and finish all of their tasks around the map, or an impostor, whose job is to kill and sabotage the crewmates without getting voted out. When playing, I noticed that the high stakes structure and multiple obstacles led to different behaviors in myself, depending on my role in a given round.
My first round, I was selected to be an impostor, along with 2 other players. As an impostor, there were several mechanics involved. I had a kill button, which allowed me to kill crewmates that were within a close range after a 30 second cooldown. I also had a sabotage button, which opened up a map with buttons in the various rooms that I could sabotage. After a player is killed, anyone (including an impostor) can report the body and send everyone into a meeting to discuss. The group then has a set amount of time to either vote someone out or skip the vote. Whoever is voted out has their role revealed immediately.
While playing the game, I noticed several aspects of my behavior. In terms of communication style, I found myself to generally be a passive, more careful player. I didn’t usually make claims very early on, because selecting the wrong player could make me a more likely target. When I am an impostor, I play especially passively. Usually I wouldn’t say much in the chat, and would just try to fly under everyone’s radar. This worked better in larger groups, when it was easier to blend in. When I played in a smaller group though, they thought that I was suspiciously quiet. When I am an innocent crewmate, I play with much more logic. This gives me a more assertive communication style. I make more logical deductions and share them with the group, but when an impostor I keep my interactions generally short and simple.
I noticed that communication style very easily influenced people’s roles within the group. The game is quite fast paced, with only a limited amount of time to discuss and vote. This pressure can add to the uncertainty among players, meaning that if one player decides to speak up and make a claim, the group often just followed along. The structure of the game brought out this group dynamic, with such a limited amount of time for both teams to win. The impostor team was on a time crunch because they had to kill everyone before the crewmates finished their tasks. The crewmates needed to work quickly in order to finish their tasks/find the impostors before they were all killed. This differs from Mafia, where the Mafia’s only goal is to not get voted out, no time constraint considered. By giving both teams a time limitation, Among Us is able to successfully apply pressure to the entire group.
I also noticed that I was much more intentional with decision-making as an impostor. When I was a crewmate, I would just do my tasks with no plan in mind. However, as an impostor, I was very careful in my movements, making sure I was taking believable paths and quickly escaping after I killed a crewmate. I think this comes down to the fact that as a crewmate, there are two possible objectives that allow you to win the game, but impostors only have one objective. As a crewmate, I know that I need to either outwit the impostors and find them out, or complete all of my tasks, each with a different objective.
Overall, the mechanics and structure of Among Us taught me that when trying to deceive others, I tend to act rather passively, but when trying to find someone out, I am much more active and assertive, taking on more of a leader role in the group.
Ethics:
In real life, the general consensus is that lying is wrong. However, I think that as part of a game, this isn’t the case. One formal element of a game is the boundary. By entering the “magic circle” or the boundaries of the game, players are in agreement that the game is temporary and that the game takes place in an alternate reality. Thus, our actions as players do not necessarily reflect our own character and morals. As long as the lying and deception stay within this magic circle, I don’t think that it is wrong.
When playing a zero-sum game such as Among Us, both teams have a common understanding that they each want to win and want to make the other team lose. This also makes lying an expected part of the game. Consider the crewmate team. If a crewmate sees an impostor kill someone, they understand that the impostor wants to win, since that is their desired outcome of the game. Therefore, they will expect the impostor to lie that they killed that person. By having a common understanding of the rules, boundaries, strategy, and structure of the game, players will generally agree that lying as part of a game is not wrong.
