Why we should all actively discourage lurking
Jul 9, 2019 4:11:48 GMT
Snaq ◢ ◤, ZestOfLife, and 2 more like this
Post by qtball on Jul 9, 2019 4:11:48 GMT
LURKING
verb (used without object)
to lie or wait in concealment, as a person in ambush; remain in or around a place secretly or furtively.
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Lurking is an infamous strategy in the game of mafia where players intentionally refrain from posting in the thread and / or chat for a multitude of reasons. As town, lurking can be utilized to read previous days for info, avoid attention whilst being a strong power role, or simply seeing who attempts interact with you. As scum, it obviously keeps you out of the spotlight and "absolves" one of needing to contribute. Popular opinion as it seems is that lurking is negative for both factions, yet it is still a prevalent part of today's meta and likely will remain that way. However, the goal of this thread is not to just rehash old arguments but incite change.
Lurking as town is harmful for obvious reasons. For one, it makes it much more difficult for players to read; some people try to meta people who "lurk as town" or "lurk as scum" but not everyone buys into metas and quite honestly they are quite unreliable (an aside, no scumtell or towntell is confirmed, even my own as I could accidentally pick scum in idea :^). An argument I often see is that as town Power Roles players lurk to avoid suspicion from scum. Not only does this create a meta of "town Power Roles lurk," but not contributing to town can lead to a lynch from players which in turn outs the power role. I am always an advocate of contributing especially on Day 1, but being a power role doesn't absolve you of the responsibilities of a good town member; you should still give reads, push them, and be overall proactive.
Lurking as scum is more harmful than immediately obvious. Typically multiple town members in large games will also lurk, making it somewhat safe to stay hidden among quiet players. However, you will never know when you might be that player who gets policy lynched for lurking. You are also setting yourself up for doom the later the game goes on; it can be very difficult to win as scum if you don't establish yourself as a town read early. That being said lurking as scum obviously can have its benefits, but it is never a safe or reliable option and you should always assume the worst.
This isn't a point I see brought up often, but in my opinion lurking defeats the purpose of mafia as a whole. The game of mafia is laid quite simply; an uninformed majority, typically the town, has to rid themselves of an informed minority, typically the mafia. While town lurking effectively subtracts from that majority. As scum, you are wasting your information by not trying to sabotage the town. (it could theoretically still be achieved by lurking but to less effect). I see so many players join games only to lurk, and quite frankly it makes me question why people join in the first place (I certainly wouldn't enjoy joining a game just to go recline and let everyone have all the fun, which is playing well as my respective faction). This could be a good opportunity to explain why I prefer vanilla and why the idea of Power Roles is so harmful to how people play the game, but I will save that for another time
Now that we have established why lurking is so abominable (although I cannot wait to see what opposition there is to my argument) how can we effectively counteract it? As mentioned prior its commonly agreed that lurking is extremely harmful, yet hardly anything is done to stop it other than the occasional "policy lurkers" strategy. I'll start with a method I use to great success while hosting; force sub lurkers. Typically I declare at the start of my hosts that players who lurk longer than an entire day phase will be forcibly subbed without warning, no exceptions. No exceptions is an important aspect of this policy as the fear of being subbed is what discourages lurking in the first place. For some reason I've seen typically poor players actually be decent contributors when they "actually play the game" (thank you for the phrase, Schiavetto). While all that is fine and dandy, the host is only one person and backup measures need be there. An important part of countering lurking as a player is to constantly prod people who don't speak. It isn't necessary to policy every lurker; you just need to make sure that you can establish some kind of read on the player. Through these methods it is highly possible that we can eliminate lurking nearly entirely.
Before I get people running to my DMs crying about how anti-lurking I am, let me make myself clear. You can go a minute or two without speaking and not be considered a lurker. It is when you aren't a thought in my mind for more than day in game that it bothers me because you got away with not having to say anything while I am a) trying to find scum to the best of my ability or b) trying to mislynch town while using reasoning.
As a final call to action, I hope that everyone will resolve to end the plague that is lurking in the mafia room. Also, show this thread some love and feedback please <3 (and expect more threads like this from me).
verb (used without object)
to lie or wait in concealment, as a person in ambush; remain in or around a place secretly or furtively.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lurking is an infamous strategy in the game of mafia where players intentionally refrain from posting in the thread and / or chat for a multitude of reasons. As town, lurking can be utilized to read previous days for info, avoid attention whilst being a strong power role, or simply seeing who attempts interact with you. As scum, it obviously keeps you out of the spotlight and "absolves" one of needing to contribute. Popular opinion as it seems is that lurking is negative for both factions, yet it is still a prevalent part of today's meta and likely will remain that way. However, the goal of this thread is not to just rehash old arguments but incite change.
Lurking as town is harmful for obvious reasons. For one, it makes it much more difficult for players to read; some people try to meta people who "lurk as town" or "lurk as scum" but not everyone buys into metas and quite honestly they are quite unreliable (an aside, no scumtell or towntell is confirmed, even my own as I could accidentally pick scum in idea :^). An argument I often see is that as town Power Roles players lurk to avoid suspicion from scum. Not only does this create a meta of "town Power Roles lurk," but not contributing to town can lead to a lynch from players which in turn outs the power role. I am always an advocate of contributing especially on Day 1, but being a power role doesn't absolve you of the responsibilities of a good town member; you should still give reads, push them, and be overall proactive.
Lurking as scum is more harmful than immediately obvious. Typically multiple town members in large games will also lurk, making it somewhat safe to stay hidden among quiet players. However, you will never know when you might be that player who gets policy lynched for lurking. You are also setting yourself up for doom the later the game goes on; it can be very difficult to win as scum if you don't establish yourself as a town read early. That being said lurking as scum obviously can have its benefits, but it is never a safe or reliable option and you should always assume the worst.
This isn't a point I see brought up often, but in my opinion lurking defeats the purpose of mafia as a whole. The game of mafia is laid quite simply; an uninformed majority, typically the town, has to rid themselves of an informed minority, typically the mafia. While town lurking effectively subtracts from that majority. As scum, you are wasting your information by not trying to sabotage the town. (it could theoretically still be achieved by lurking but to less effect). I see so many players join games only to lurk, and quite frankly it makes me question why people join in the first place (I certainly wouldn't enjoy joining a game just to go recline and let everyone have all the fun, which is playing well as my respective faction). This could be a good opportunity to explain why I prefer vanilla and why the idea of Power Roles is so harmful to how people play the game, but I will save that for another time
Now that we have established why lurking is so abominable (although I cannot wait to see what opposition there is to my argument) how can we effectively counteract it? As mentioned prior its commonly agreed that lurking is extremely harmful, yet hardly anything is done to stop it other than the occasional "policy lurkers" strategy. I'll start with a method I use to great success while hosting; force sub lurkers. Typically I declare at the start of my hosts that players who lurk longer than an entire day phase will be forcibly subbed without warning, no exceptions. No exceptions is an important aspect of this policy as the fear of being subbed is what discourages lurking in the first place. For some reason I've seen typically poor players actually be decent contributors when they "actually play the game" (thank you for the phrase, Schiavetto). While all that is fine and dandy, the host is only one person and backup measures need be there. An important part of countering lurking as a player is to constantly prod people who don't speak. It isn't necessary to policy every lurker; you just need to make sure that you can establish some kind of read on the player. Through these methods it is highly possible that we can eliminate lurking nearly entirely.
Before I get people running to my DMs crying about how anti-lurking I am, let me make myself clear. You can go a minute or two without speaking and not be considered a lurker. It is when you aren't a thought in my mind for more than day in game that it bothers me because you got away with not having to say anything while I am a) trying to find scum to the best of my ability or b) trying to mislynch town while using reasoning.
As a final call to action, I hope that everyone will resolve to end the plague that is lurking in the mafia room. Also, show this thread some love and feedback please <3 (and expect more threads like this from me).
