The game I chose for the critical play is Among Us. My experience playing highlighted a lot about my communication, decision making, and role within a group. I learned that my behavior and role within a group depend mainly on whether or not I am an impostor. When I am a crewmate, I tend to be more active in the group and more vocal about who I think the impostor is. I am more likely to voice my opinion and I tend to call emergency meetings quite often. When I am an impostor, I tend to stay more quiet and try to blend in with the crewmates during voting. I try to participate in the chat just enough to avoid suspicion.
The mechanics of the game strongly encourage players to be very vocal crewmates and sneaky impostors. Among Us operates similarly to Mafia: players find out if they are regular crewmates or impostors when the game begins. Crewmates must complete tasks around the map and vote on who they believe the impostor is if an emergency meeting is called. The impostor has the ability to kill crewmates, sabotage, and use vents, but they cannot complete tasks. They can, however, fake tasks by standing next to them to mimic the time needed to complete it. All players can report dead bodies and call emergency meetings. Due to the nature of the game, crewmates are immediately forced to be suspicious of everyone else. The mechanics lead to a lot of “he said, she said” debates when voting.
The threat of being killed by an impostor incentivizes crewmates to call meetings quickly and remain on high alert. It also leads to crewmates not wanting to be alone or in an area with just one other person, since impostors are much less likely to kill if there are any witnesses present. Impostors must be careful when faking tasks because crewmates will notice if they leave before the task bar increments or if they fake a task with a visual completion cue. Being able to kill others and vent motivates impostors to target lone crewmates. If there is a witness to a killing, an impostor can try to frame them by calling an emergency meeting before the witness.
Ethics Questions:
Lying does not constitute a wrong action in Among Us. The game wouldn’t work if everyone were to tell the truth, since the whole point is that the impostor wants to remain undetected. Games aren’t reality; the players are all agreeing to play by the rules of a make-believe world. Therefore, typical societal rules and norms don’t apply. Outside of games, we should not lie to our friends because they have not agreed to be deceived. When playing Among Us, we are permitted to lie to our friends because everyone playing is already aware of the deceptive nature of the game.
The same applies for games such as Mafia, Impostor, and Spyfall. Players understand the temporary nature of the game. When the round ends, the lying ends too. We knowingly adopt transient roles for the sake of contributing to a fictional world. Lying is what makes the game fun.
