Among Us
Among Us was developed by InnerSloth LCC and PlayEveryWare, and is a multiplayer game designed for people ages 9 and up. It is offered on mobile and PC. When I played Among Us, the mechanics of discussion revealed that I am not a good liar as an imposter. Whenever I was the imposter I would get annoyed and felt like giving up because lying is difficult for me. But not from a moral standpoint, but rather objectively convincing people that I am not the imposter was difficult. For example, my friend said “David you’re such a bad imposter,” and he’s right, but it’s because I find myself always being too silent or laughing because winning a game is not a strong enough incentive for me to lie. But that brings me to improving among us for quieter people playing among us. I think that one way the game can be more inclusive to these quieter people maybe could be to let the imposters be able to chat to strategize better. In regards to quiet people playing as crewmates, I think that during discussion everyone can have a set time to speak and it moves on to the next person. This could be a mode or controlled in settings. In regards to decision making, among us revealed that I have strong intuition. For example, my moments of success that made the game fun for me, were when I guessed who was the imposter. The mechanics of the game that influenced this were watching imposters vent. Additionally, I felt more vocal as a crewmate. I believe the fun that I experienced when playing Among us was challenge and fellowship. The act of playing with friends made this game fun in the end for me despite hating being an imposter.
Moving forward, compared to other games in this genre, Among us offers various forms of communication because you can use discord, play in person, or just use the chat feature. I’ve never played the other games listed except Spyfall, but Among Us seems to offer a creative way of this genre through the mechanics of killing crewmates, venting, and actually doing actions in a game setting. Also perhaps small, but the act of characterizing your character allows for some sort of self expression that allows you to enter another world. As we’ve discussed in class, self expression can really personalize among us in a way that the other games don’t.
Lastly, referring to the ethical question, lying in this game does not constitute a wrong action. I believe that in games we are constantly doing things that we wouldn’t necessarily do in real life. I believe games that require you to do wrong things like lying are not necessarily bad. For example, taking Among us as an example, everyone has agreed that lying is ok and I think if everyone agrees that it isn’t bad then it’s ok. But of course this form of logic is only applicable to games, and not necessarily other things. Games are different because they are not real worlds. Games are an escape. In Among Us these lies are not hurting anyone, making them harmless. My rule of thumb is that unless you are hurting another player through words or another way then it’s ok.
