Hi everyone! Over the past few months we’ve noticed an increase in the frequency and severity of ATE (appeals to emotions) in games. We have some concerns about this, so we’re modifying our rules to address this.
Why is this a problem?
While not every form of emotional expression in games is inherently problematic, the use of extreme or excessive ATE can cause numerous problems. A few of the ones we’ve noticed:
- Many players find it very unenjoyable to play in games that have significant amounts of ATE.
- ATE can often become toxic, and even when it doesn’t, game threads with large amounts of ATE can lead to increased toxicity.
- Excessive ATE can create game integrity issues. A sentiment we’ve seen repeatedly, in various forms, is ‘[Player] is town because they ATE’d so much, a wolf would never do that unless they were a terrible person.’ When there’s a discrepancy between what’s considered acceptable for wolves and for villagers, that’s a problem.
- The possibility of ATE can warp the gamestate. If players are refraining from pushing specific players because they don’t want those players to blow up at them emotionally, that’s a problem.
- If some players are ATEing, it can create incentives for other players to ATE as well, which leads to a vicious cycle where everyone feels like they have to ATE if they don’t want to be miseliminated.
Rules changes
Effective immediately, we are adding the following rule to the Forum Game rules.
- Refrain from excessive use of appeals to emotion (ATE).
There are three main things we mean by this:
- Refrain from statements that directly say or imply that something in the game is having a negative impact on someone’s out of game relationships or well-being. (Credit to Mafia451/Nanook)
- This includes posts that imply the game is negatively affecting your performance at school or work, mental health, etc.
- Posts that imply that your out-of-game well-being is being harmed by the game force other players to decide between pursuing their win condition and preserving your out-of-game well-being.
- If your mental health or life circumstances mean that mafia games consistently harm your well-being, it may be a good idea to refrain from signing up for games.
- Do not try to make other players feel guilty about their gameplay.
- Criticizing other players’ play is still allowed, provided that you are not toxic.
- However, trying to guilt-trip other players (e.g. to get them to stop pushing you) is not allowed.
- Do not argue or imply that you should be townread for ATEing.
- If some form of ATE is so serious that you would be unwilling to fake it as scum, you shouldn’t be doing it as town.
- In some cases, this can create a “trust tell,” which is considered a form of cheating.
Examples
The following are examples of posts that are ALLOWED:
Hey everyone, I know we’re all a little dejected about being in LyLo without killing a single wolf, but think how great it’ll feel if we can pull off a reverse sweep! Don’t give up!
I think that, given that we’re a day before LyLo and I have hard defended both flipped wolves, it is strategically optimal to execute me today so that wolves can’t push to misexecute me in LyLo. I am willing to self-vote if necessary to make that happen.
So far this game, you’ve deathtunnelled katze, Marl, and me for posting the joycat emoji. It’s a little frustrating that even after katze and Marl flipped town, you continued to insist that “joycat means lockscum.” I think you are a villager, but you should reconsider how you go about solving the game.
I’m feeling a little stressed, so I’m going to take a break from the game for the next few hours. I’ll be back this evening.
Sorry that I haven’t been as active lately, after the player I’d been tunnelling all game flipped town I got a little dejected and I haven’t had as much motivation for solving the game.
Look, I’m just saying, katze has made 30 posts all game and half of them have been joycats. If you don’t vote her, you’re going to feel pretty silly in postgame. There isn’t even a real reason to suspect me compared to her.
The following posts are NOT allowed:
yeah well thanks to your all’s shitty-ass pushes on me I’ve barely even been able to focus on my job. hope you’re happy, maybe think next time before you shade me.
your push on me literally made me cry irl
the fun part of playing mafia for me is vibing with my friends in the towncore, when y’all push me for no reason it’s really hard for me to have fun :/ I play this game for fun, not to be randomly accused for no reason. I just wish you would think before ruining the game for someone.
WHY IS EVERYONE JUST BLINDLY SHEEPING KATZE’S CASE ON ME, NO ONE IS LISTENING TO ANYTHING I’M SAYING YOU’RE JUST ALL SPAMMING “ARETE SUS” AND YOU CAN FUCK OFF WITH THAT TOXIC BULLSHIT. THIS IS THE WORST TOWN I’VE PLAYED WITH IN MY ENTIRE TIME PLAYING FM. I HATE ALL OF YOU.
it’s pretty ridiculous that you’re still suspecting me after how emotional I got on day 4 … I would never fake an outburst like that as mafia and I think anyone who would fake something like that is a horrible person.
Things to do instead
We want to make it clear that we are not saying that it’s not okay to get emotional. Many of us put a lot into the game, and it can be frustrating when things don’t go our way. We’re just restricting what you can say about that in the thread. With that being said, here are some things you can consider doing, if the game is frustrating you:
- If the reason you’re upset is because another player is breaking the rules (e.g. by being toxic), you can report them to the hosts or mods. We try to watch games, but sometimes we don’t see things right away (or at all), and reporting them when they happen is the best way to make sure they get taken care of.
- If you’re feeling frustrated, it’s okay to take a break from the game until you’re calmer. There’s nothing wrong with just stepping away for a bit.
- If you need someone to talk to, you can vent in your rolecard about your frustrations, or message a moderator (as long as they are not a player or replacement).
- If you’re noticing that mafia games regularly have a negative effect on your mental health, it may be a good idea to stop joining games for a little while. When you sign up for a game, you are implicitly accepting that other players in the game might scumread you (even if you or they are town), that people might ignore your reads even when those reads are correct, and that you might be misexecuted. It’s okay to be frustrated by those things, but if you aren’t willing to accept those possibilities and refrain from excessive ATE, you should consider taking a break from mafia until you’re in a better mental position.