This week I played the most traditional version of Werewolf online. The setup of the game included one Seer, one Witch, one Hunter, three Villagers, and three Werewolves. The platform of the game is a App called Werewolves and the target audience is anyone who can clearly state their logic. After comparing it with our team’s game, I realized that what makes a social deduction game interesting is not simply hidden identities, but the way information is revealed and how players are allowed to communicate.
I got the role of the Seer in this game. Since the Seer is one of the few players who can obtain confirmed information, I felt nervous from the very beginning because every decision I made could influence the whole team. During the game, I collected information from players’ speeches and voting behavior. Although the werewolves could lie about their identities, I found that their voting patterns were sometimes more convincing than their words. There was one player whose speech did not sound suspicious at all, but he was the only person who consistently voted together with the fake Seer. Since I could not completely prove that anyone was a werewolf, I decided to convince other people who believe in me to vote him out first. It turned out that he was indeed one of the hidden werewolves.
This experience made me think about the MDA framework. The mechanic of giving only one player reliable information about the actual identity of players creates a dynamic where everyone has to judge whether that player is trustworthy instead of simply believing the information itself. As a result, players constantly question each other’s intentions, which creates tension and uncertainty throughout the game. I think this is one of the reasons why Werewolf is still attractive after so many years. Players are not only solving a logical puzzle, but also trying to understand the people sitting around them.
One of the biggest differences between Werewolf and our game is the social experience they create. In the game I played, the interaction almost completely stayed inside the game. Players only cared about finding the werewolves and winning the match. After the game ended, everyone simply left the room. In our game, however, players have the opportunity to reveal some of their personal characteristic cards in the revive period. These cards are designed to help players learn something about each other and could be helpful if they want to start conversations after the game. I think this extends the social experience beyond the game itself. Instead of ending when someone wins, the interaction can continue afterwards. From the perspective of the Magic Circle, our design intentionally makes the boundary between the game and real social life a little less strict. The game becomes not only a competition, but also a way to help strangers know each other.
Another difference is how information is distributed among the werewolves / bad guys team. In traditional Werewolf, every werewolf knows who their teammates are from the beginning. This allows them to cooperate very efficiently. In our design, however, the Assassins do not know who the Prince YU is. They have to infer this information while pretending to be good players at the same time. I like this design because it means that hidden information exists on both sides instead of only among the good team. Even the werewolves have to observe speeches and voting carefully before making decisions. This creates more uncertainty and also more interesting situations during the game because neither side has complete information.
The communication rules are also very different. In the online version, players can type messages at any time, so important information can always be repeated or summarized in the chat. Because of this, the speaking order is not very important. In our game, players are only allowed to communicate during their own speaking time. This makes every speech much more valuable because players have limited opportunities to influence others. It also makes the Sheriff more important since controlling the speaking order becomes part of the strategy. I think communication rules are actually a mechanic that many players overlook, but they strongly affect how players interact with each other and how information spreads during the game.
Overall, playing traditional Werewolf helped me understand our own game much better. Before this week, I mostly compared games by looking at their roles or rules. Now I pay more attention to how those mechanics influence player behavior and social interaction. A small change in information sharing or communication rules can completely change the dynamics of the game and the experience players finally have. As a designer, I think these systems are much more important than simply adding more complicated roles. They are what make players keep talking, doubting, cooperating, and wanting to play another round.
