I know I know, the title screams for landfill BUT I'm actually talking about a game called 'Werewolves of Miller's Hollow' .. didn't make it better right? Ok then let me jump into the thoughts I want to share with you.
Of course I'm not creating this thread to talk about a game, I'm doing it because of the psychological insights I gained in a few game evenings with friends. My landfill screaming title should just be a catchy one to make you click, what you eventually did.
I have no idea how known this game is, so let's put a description of it in here.
Description:
Each player gets one card. He takes a look (and remembers) the symbol and thus his role in the game, and then hides the card. Each player represents a citizen of a village; most of whom are normal "citizen", some have a special role ("seer", "witch", "Cupid", "huntsman", etc.), and a few are werewolves. All roles are "good" (supporting the citizen), only the werewolves are villain.
One referee moderates the game - he cannot take part in the game, as he knows many of the secrets of the village. Two phases alternate, the phases of night and day. During night, all players have their eyes closed - except those "woken up" by the referee. It is important that nobody cheats during the night! During day, all players have their eyes open and try to identify the werewolves.
The basic routine is the following:
During night, the werewolves are woken up by the referee. They decide on a victim (e.g., by pointing at him/her). The referee remembers the victim, the werewolves go to sleep again.
Several other roles might be active at some point during the night.
During the day, first, the referee tells who got killed at night (and what his role was). Then, the surviving citizen (of course, including all special roles and werewolves) discuss whom could have committed this crime at night, who is a werewolf. They decide upon one person, who is lynched; of course, the role of this person is unveiled, too.
The two opposing groups - "good" citizen including special roles, versus werewolves - try to kill the other group. The werewolves are much less in number, but have the advantage of one kill each night and they know each other, while the citizen superior in number can't be sure who is good and who is villain, and have to find out in discussions, with the help of some of the special roles. The surviving group wins the game.
A Game Evening
No matter when and with whom you play that game, there will always be 3 types of people in it: The Leader, The Follower and The Weirdo.
Now put yourself in my position: it's a warm summer evening, you and your friends just finished barbecue and you decided to play 'Werewolves of Miller's Hollow'. You sit there with 11 friends, receiving your card. You look around, watch your friends' reactions to their cards, most of them played it a few times already so they don't show any emotions while receiving their cards. One little smile could put the attention on you. So you raise your card carefully, look at it and damn.. Just a boring citizen without any special powers. You put your card down and look around again, no idea what cards the others received. You know that this round of the game will be kinda boring without you being able to open your eyes at night and apply your special power, like the seer does for example. He can point at one player per night and receives a thumb up from the moderator if the one pointed at is a werewolf, or a thumb down if he is not.
The moderator disrupts your thought process as he tells the group to close their eyes, as he proceeds with the game: first one to open their eyes are the werewolves, then the seer, then two other special characters. You sit there comfortably with your eyes closed waiting until the moderator tells everyone to open their eyes again. He finally does. You were lucky that night, another player got killed by the werewolves, she reveals her card and... damn the seer is gone, bad for the good guys. Now comes the part where you finally can do something: it's time to find the bad guys!
Now comes the part that I'm aiming for (in case your mouse is already hovering above the report button...)
It's discussing time. As a good citizen it is now time to find the werewolves (most of the time 3), and as a werewolf you need to protect yourself and the other werewolves without acting suspicious.
Let's get back to our 3 types of people:
The Leader
the leader(s) are usually guys that are more the leader type in real life. So no matter that you are just playing a game, those guys have a little advantage since their opinions are easily perceived as the right ones. The leaders are the ones who can steer a discussion in the direction they want, they can influence the others to act like they want them to act. And often the others are following their direction.
The Follower
the followers are easy to influence and manipulate. As soon as someone, perceived as a leader by them, goes at a specific player, they are easy to follow his advice. And even worse, if they don't follow the advice of a leader, they follow the mass. If 4 people are pointing at one player the followers will most likely point their finger at them too.
The Weirdo
the weirdo(s) is or are the minority. Sometimes there are 2-3 and sometimes there is only one. The weirdo usually thinks for himself, he doesn't change his direction just because the majority follows a specific direction. Unfortunately but most of the time the followers will rather follow a leader and/or the mass instead of listening to the weirdo(s). So as the weirdo, no matter how many evidence you have that the girl to your left and not the guy pointed at by the majority is the werewolf, you will most likely get ignored.
With that in mind, back to the game, it's the 2nd day already and the seer, 1 werewolf and 1 citizen are already gone. Enough time for some signs or patterns to see in the behaviour of the others.
One of your friends randomly points a finger at another friend and says "I heard something last night, I think he made some movements while the werewolves were awake.." before the poor guy pointed at can say a word another player yells "yeah he is always a werewolf, let's lynch him!" another one says "ok let's lynch him!" time for you to bring up your doubts, you tell the others "I think he isn't a werewolf," pointing at the girl to your left "didn't you notice that she was the only one protecting the werewolf we killed the last day?" the guy pointed at by the majority responds "wtf I just scratched my fn nose!" but it is too late. The moderator wants everyone to raise their hand to vote for the one they want lynched. When the poor guy's name is said 4 out of the remaining 9 raise their hand. When the others see that, 2 more raise their hand, one saying "F*ck it, ok". He gets lynched and reveals his card: just a boring citizen.
Night again, time to close your eyes. That was your last night in the game, you get killed by the werewolves. Game over for you. Now that you can keep your eyes open for the rest of the game you look around at night to see who the werewolves are. You look to the left and see the girl sitting there, smiling at you with her eyes open.
Followers And Weirdos
yeah that's just a game. But for me the behaviour of the people playing that game mirrors today's society. You got the majority following the leaders and the mass. And you got the minority, the ones resisting to follow the mass, thinking outside the box and not accepting society's standard ways of thinking, often perceived as the weirdos by the mass.
Of course I'm not creating this thread to talk about a game, I'm doing it because of the psychological insights I gained in a few game evenings with friends. My landfill screaming title should just be a catchy one to make you click, what you eventually did.
I have no idea how known this game is, so let's put a description of it in here.
Description:
Each player gets one card. He takes a look (and remembers) the symbol and thus his role in the game, and then hides the card. Each player represents a citizen of a village; most of whom are normal "citizen", some have a special role ("seer", "witch", "Cupid", "huntsman", etc.), and a few are werewolves. All roles are "good" (supporting the citizen), only the werewolves are villain.
One referee moderates the game - he cannot take part in the game, as he knows many of the secrets of the village. Two phases alternate, the phases of night and day. During night, all players have their eyes closed - except those "woken up" by the referee. It is important that nobody cheats during the night! During day, all players have their eyes open and try to identify the werewolves.
The basic routine is the following:
During night, the werewolves are woken up by the referee. They decide on a victim (e.g., by pointing at him/her). The referee remembers the victim, the werewolves go to sleep again.
Several other roles might be active at some point during the night.
During the day, first, the referee tells who got killed at night (and what his role was). Then, the surviving citizen (of course, including all special roles and werewolves) discuss whom could have committed this crime at night, who is a werewolf. They decide upon one person, who is lynched; of course, the role of this person is unveiled, too.
The two opposing groups - "good" citizen including special roles, versus werewolves - try to kill the other group. The werewolves are much less in number, but have the advantage of one kill each night and they know each other, while the citizen superior in number can't be sure who is good and who is villain, and have to find out in discussions, with the help of some of the special roles. The surviving group wins the game.
A Game Evening
No matter when and with whom you play that game, there will always be 3 types of people in it: The Leader, The Follower and The Weirdo.
Now put yourself in my position: it's a warm summer evening, you and your friends just finished barbecue and you decided to play 'Werewolves of Miller's Hollow'. You sit there with 11 friends, receiving your card. You look around, watch your friends' reactions to their cards, most of them played it a few times already so they don't show any emotions while receiving their cards. One little smile could put the attention on you. So you raise your card carefully, look at it and damn.. Just a boring citizen without any special powers. You put your card down and look around again, no idea what cards the others received. You know that this round of the game will be kinda boring without you being able to open your eyes at night and apply your special power, like the seer does for example. He can point at one player per night and receives a thumb up from the moderator if the one pointed at is a werewolf, or a thumb down if he is not.
The moderator disrupts your thought process as he tells the group to close their eyes, as he proceeds with the game: first one to open their eyes are the werewolves, then the seer, then two other special characters. You sit there comfortably with your eyes closed waiting until the moderator tells everyone to open their eyes again. He finally does. You were lucky that night, another player got killed by the werewolves, she reveals her card and... damn the seer is gone, bad for the good guys. Now comes the part where you finally can do something: it's time to find the bad guys!
Now comes the part that I'm aiming for (in case your mouse is already hovering above the report button...)
It's discussing time. As a good citizen it is now time to find the werewolves (most of the time 3), and as a werewolf you need to protect yourself and the other werewolves without acting suspicious.
Let's get back to our 3 types of people:
The Leader
the leader(s) are usually guys that are more the leader type in real life. So no matter that you are just playing a game, those guys have a little advantage since their opinions are easily perceived as the right ones. The leaders are the ones who can steer a discussion in the direction they want, they can influence the others to act like they want them to act. And often the others are following their direction.
The Follower
the followers are easy to influence and manipulate. As soon as someone, perceived as a leader by them, goes at a specific player, they are easy to follow his advice. And even worse, if they don't follow the advice of a leader, they follow the mass. If 4 people are pointing at one player the followers will most likely point their finger at them too.
The Weirdo
the weirdo(s) is or are the minority. Sometimes there are 2-3 and sometimes there is only one. The weirdo usually thinks for himself, he doesn't change his direction just because the majority follows a specific direction. Unfortunately but most of the time the followers will rather follow a leader and/or the mass instead of listening to the weirdo(s). So as the weirdo, no matter how many evidence you have that the girl to your left and not the guy pointed at by the majority is the werewolf, you will most likely get ignored.
With that in mind, back to the game, it's the 2nd day already and the seer, 1 werewolf and 1 citizen are already gone. Enough time for some signs or patterns to see in the behaviour of the others.
One of your friends randomly points a finger at another friend and says "I heard something last night, I think he made some movements while the werewolves were awake.." before the poor guy pointed at can say a word another player yells "yeah he is always a werewolf, let's lynch him!" another one says "ok let's lynch him!" time for you to bring up your doubts, you tell the others "I think he isn't a werewolf," pointing at the girl to your left "didn't you notice that she was the only one protecting the werewolf we killed the last day?" the guy pointed at by the majority responds "wtf I just scratched my fn nose!" but it is too late. The moderator wants everyone to raise their hand to vote for the one they want lynched. When the poor guy's name is said 4 out of the remaining 9 raise their hand. When the others see that, 2 more raise their hand, one saying "F*ck it, ok". He gets lynched and reveals his card: just a boring citizen.
Night again, time to close your eyes. That was your last night in the game, you get killed by the werewolves. Game over for you. Now that you can keep your eyes open for the rest of the game you look around at night to see who the werewolves are. You look to the left and see the girl sitting there, smiling at you with her eyes open.
Followers And Weirdos
yeah that's just a game. But for me the behaviour of the people playing that game mirrors today's society. You got the majority following the leaders and the mass. And you got the minority, the ones resisting to follow the mass, thinking outside the box and not accepting society's standard ways of thinking, often perceived as the weirdos by the mass.
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