(September) Interviews: Spiderz & ForgotToFlush
Oct 4, 2023 3:43:50 GMT
spiderz and Schiavetto ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ like this
Post by ForgotToFlush on Oct 4, 2023 3:43:50 GMT
Would you like to introduce yourself?
I'm FTF! I'm currently an Approval Team member and Queue Manager for the forums. I've represented PS a couple of times at Mafia Universe's Mafia Championships. I'm also probably the least publicly seen among current auth members. I started hanging out in the room in 2017 but nowadays most of my involvement is with the forums, and I'm always happy to answer any related enquiries.
Aside from that, I'm a 23 year old university student and aspiring social worker. I'm from the Caribbean but I currently live and attend school in Canada.
Hey, I’m Spiderz I’m one of the current RO’s of mafia. Im 19 and a pre med bioscience major and started playing mafia in this room in 2017, Ever since then I’ve been in love with the game and the room and especially the community.
How did you discover the PS! Mafia room?
I think I was randomly scrolling through the roomlist and I stumbled upon it. I did a lot of pokemon battles with my friends back then so I guess it probably happened in between a session. I randomly joined a game, got hooked, and then the rest is history.
So my middle school gave us all ipads for us to use in class so the first thing we did was try to find stuff for us to do, in class, this was litterally the start of 7th grade for me, also I wasnt even into pokemon heavily back then but anyways I went on PS, I think I saw someone else playing it and I remembered I had made an account on the website so I decided to use it. When I logged in,I saw the news anouncement for UGO. The game rooms listed were trivia, scavengers, survivor, and mafia and I swear to you it was like mafia was GLOWING at me because I was like wtf?? Mafia??? why is there a mafia room??? so I was like lost because I’ve never heard of the game till then, I joined the room and I got so confused at the rules so I left and actually joined trivia for like 2 days. Unfornatley trivia sucked and I kept thinking about mafia like 2 days later so I gave it another chance and the rest is history… My first real game was a fish modexe that was super intense and I lasted till volo and was able to convince the person who shot that I was town I think, my memomory is a bit hazy but yeah ever since then i’ve been hooked
Was it the first time you tried Mafia?
Absolute first time trying anything of the sort. I don't think I've even heard of the game before that point. Looking back it's crazy to think about how invested I got right at the beginning.
What was PS! Mafia like when you joined?
Man it was kinda like the wild west. Rules were weird and inconsistent and people kinda just did whatever (myself included). I'd had definitely made an ass out of myself numerous times in the room back then.
But there were certain elements of it that are nostalgic. Things like Mafia Room Bot being the weird bot that it was and randomly breaking or over-moderating definitely made memories all on its own.
MRB would auto-mute you for the weirdest things because of its tolerance thresholds or whatever, I remember putting an example in the most recent newsletter piece:
[22:08:25] Thunder~BALLZ: Yay my mute expired
[22:08:25] Thunder~BALLZ was muted by Mafia Room Bot for 7 minutes. (Automated moderation: Talking while not in the current game)
There's a billion similar examples in Mafia Room Quotes, and you'd have players getting muted in game and then auth has to get bugged to unmute them.
All the standout moments are when it triggered on generally innocuous things, like typing a single word in caps or adding too many consonants to a word.
Hmm well, that’s a good question. I don’t remember at what point I took the game so seriously but I think the gameplay was hella different, you had a lot of turboing and wagoning, discussion wasn’t taken seriously, only a few “good” players that completley controlled the tempo of each and every game because everyone would just follow them brainlessly, community wise there was a pretty big barrier between staff and regs I feel early on which resulted in a lot of Me vs Them mentallity from regs. Gameplay was abhorrent though for sure and looking back at it a lot of the people we considered good back then were mostly just loud and confident which made them look good but wasn’t a real testament to their skill imo. It’s harder to judge them as players because I wasn’t capable of truly analyzing mafia play back then. But it was also very toxic and every postfish was a shitfest as well. Don’t even get me started on the #rant channel asw. I think it was a lot of clashing egos and not a lot of actual gameplay, but the community itself was still fine for the most part, a lot of cool individuals, back then the appeal for me was the community less then the game but it’s defo a 50/50 nowadays
#rant was a pool of clc and mmm’s tears tbh, on a more serious note it was a channel people went into to just rant about stuff but 99% of the time it was postfish salt by clc or mmm sometimes hawkie irrc. It got so toxic it was just deleted lmao, I bet we could bring it back tbh considering the room is substantially less toxic
What are some of your favorite themes?
Near Vanilla, easily, both to host and to play. Low PR numbers and pretty standard ratios so that there's low variation. I tend to not like themes with overly complex mechanics, too distracting from gameplay for my tastes.
(Of course the most famous games I've hosted are all super complex)
modexe, vanilla, near vanilla. I honestly don’t mind most themes but my thing is I love the core idea of mafia so I like to play that not role madness etc. Like I don’t mind PR’s and I think they add a degree of complexity that allows for fun gameplay but theres a point where I think it completley takes away from the game, fortunetley this is less of a problem with ps mafia setups. But yeah my maing thing is I think inspective roles are really dumb and cheap in general, town should always rely on their own reads etc I think inspective roles are just a cop out LOL (but it is sooo annoying when ppl SPAM idea)
How would you describe your playstyle (in those themes)?
I think my playstyle can be described as aggressive, overbearing and thorough, and I think anyone who has played with me before can attest to that. In terms of power roles I have no real preference, but I love to be that active townleading voice as either town or scum. I'm also a big fan of putting everything into a push that I really believe in, even to my own detriment.
I think I showcased my playstyle that one game in PSMPL where I was scum with quax in modexe.
I completely scumslipped but we still won through sheer willpower.
If you go here and put Game 8 in I think that brings it up: duskt.github.io/
It's a great example of how much can be done by simply wanting it more
Well first of all the biggest tip for anyone playing vanilla is everyone needs to force themself out of their comfort zone and make reads and this is an issue that a lot of ps mafia players don’t do, they just dont really make reads? I mean some will post 1 or 2 but thats it. This is exactly the number 1 issue of the room, we are too PR reliant to solve games which is bad we should have the ability to figure out who is scum and who isn’t without PRs but people dont understand that change comes from our reg base LOL, just posting reads and interacting with people about your reads, asking people hey what to you think about this reads or what do you think about this post can naturally develop your sense, we have to not be afraid to be wrong, we have to learn, I put a huge emphasis on making sure you are productive with every game we play
Do you have any idea on how to develop your reads?
People need to understand that the ability to form reads is a built up process of trial and error and recognizing thinking patterns of scum and town. You aren’t ever going to improve if you don’t put yourself into this mindset and force yourself to make reads.
The issue with alot of people when making reads is that they tend to look at exclusivley the actions of players to read them or they tend to only use a scale of agressivness and passivness OR a scale of active and nonactivity exclusivley and don’t look at anything else. It is the equivalent of becoming a detective and only relying on fingerprints and exclusivley fingerprints to find the suspect. And if you can’t find those finger prints you becom a sitting duck. This is why we see a lot of players who are just lost on what to actually do. What I mentioned are all parts of an overarching read on the alignment, those are only the fingerprints!!
One good excercise you can do in games to start building up, and I like to refer to it as a mental book of behaviors, this trial and error process is just looking at posts and try to force yourself to understand how the post comes from town and THEN force yourself to understand how it comes from scum.
You need to be able to relate it to your own experiences as scum, changing your scumplay to immitate your townplay as much as posisble and then trying to understand the difference between your scum play and town play is how you start to grasp those patterns as well for specifically scum.
The issue is everyone knows the definition of reads but no one knows the definition reading, reading is the process of understanding the mindset behind someones posts not reading their posts
Let me give an example to both of the things I mentioned, a lot of players will read a player as agressive or passive but both can be breaken down further, if I see two seperate players, one is being hyper agressive and another is being passive and lurky
we want to understand their behavior not just acknowlede it!!!
Aggressive player: Ok I ask myself, hey is this player agressive because they are very motivated to hunt scum and solve the game or is this player agressive because they want to see heads roll or more importantly is their aim of being aggressive to make preformative push on a player (in order to look town). You can see that those two behaviors are motivated by VERY different concepts so this is the distinction you want to make when reading an agressive slot and you can go even further etc this is just one small example
Passive player: I ask myself ok is this player passive because they are struggling to enter the game or unable to produce content (which would be nai, which is important to acknowledge if you don’t want to accidently scumread something thats NAI) or are they trying to avoid attention and be lowkey because they are wolf? And fillering here still counts, some people filler because they don’t know how to post productivley and it’s your job to distinguish th diference.
Reading laziness is an important concept aswell becuase understanding stuff that’s nai means that it’s a mindset that can come from both town and scum, and isn’t nessecarily or really heavily tied to a partic alignment. If someone low efforts because they aren’t very motivated to play, is that really an excuse for scum to not play or is it something that can happen to both scum and town? it’s important to just constantly ask yourselves theese questions because normally you will have an answer for yourself, improve your read process requires introspection and forcing yourself to make uncomfortable reads and it’s something I commonly tell people I’ve tutored
What are some of the favorite things you've done in PS! Mafia?
Man where do I start
Being part of Mafia Community Day is definitely up there
Then making it to the semifinals of the Mafia Championships on my first go-around and getting to represent the room at such a high level
There's the Summer Circuit, and I've been involved with almost all of them as a host.
Then being able to develop and host something like Twenty Year Time Heist, something that feels like my creative peak in the room and I don't really know if I can ever really trump it (there's also a newsletter piece about that game worth reading ps-mafia.proboards.com/thread/1167/january-deep-dive-year-heist)
And alongside TYTH, hosting a handful of the most active games ever on the site, including a couple of the Countdown games.
Then recently, playing in PSMPL and getting to feel less washed than I thought I was
And all the way to now, getting to contribute regularly with the Newsletter!
I'm sure there are some other things I'm forgetting but those are definitely the ones that stand out to me
1. Tutoring, this made me realize my love for the game even more haha, helping others improve to be legitmite strong players was some of the best experiences of my life, it’s something I stuck too in all cases a well, not only did it help create some legitmite A Tier players but it helped me improve a ton by understanding their mindsets and their roadblocks to understanding the game and everytime was a crazy fun experience everytime, esp my news/articoo/wallape group, all 3 turned into geniunley wonderful players and I really hope that I played a big part in that. I always loved to see them be enthusiastic to learn and I hope I motivated them to improve a ton asw. In general, I just always like helping players with potential improve as much as I can. Also shoutouts to Terri/Jfox/Wallape/News/Articoo/Lind for all dealing with my insane mafia obsession
2. PSMPL, mannnn was psmpl crazy… first let me take you back 3 years ago when covid hit and there was a second wave ps mafia resurgence, we would have fishes with me/scept/litt/moto/schia/alex/quax/flood/blurb/articoo/wallape/abdel/news/azu etc there were too many exciting players at this time to list LMAO, it was like fishes were stacked with players who had unique playstyles, clashing personalities, crazy deepwolves, and so much fucking game content every fish. That intensity and competetiveness is what I longed for and doing a teamdraft competition is a concept I’ve always played around with in my head for years now like since 2018. Issue is I’ve always thought it was impossible due to the subjectivity of evaluating someones play and conflict of interest that would occur from having players in the same team but somehow… we made it work? The gameplay beyond exceeded my expectations, like I don’t know think I can drive that point home hard enough. Those 8 games were for sure all in top 10 in terms of quality, the level of excitement and stress and pressure everyone had to preform well was so apparently and it bred some of the highest gameplay we’ve ever seen. It also feels ironic and a testemant to how insane this rooms lore is that Zorquax got so many more points then everyone else solidifying his place a top 10 player in this room oat which is super crazy considering his history. But yes I loved loved loved this event it was so fun.
What goes into moderating the forums?
Feels like expertise is a big thing that gets called on a lot. I wouldn't be able to do it without a lot of the playing/hosting experience I've had. I've played Mafia all over the place, probably in a dozen or so different communities, and being able to use that to inform decisions is important.
Like, if someone proposes a mechanic for a game and I'm able to provide a comparison, and then break down the differences and see what goes into making it work and what makes it not work before improving upon it, I feel like that allows PS to have its own unique identity in terms of putting out polished games.
For something like TYTH, I got to borrow roles and ideas from all these different communities, and even have prominent names from those communities weigh in and provide input on why things are the way they are. It's the kind of thing that saves time because I get to skip the trial and error portion of the process.
Otherwise a lot of times, I have experienced the trial and error portion myself. Like if someone proposes something that I've seen before, I get to offer firsthand experience as to why it might not work, or what small change is needed to make it work a lot better.
Are there any aspects the average user does not see?
Sometimes it feels like my job is to fill in the gaps that the average user doesn't see. The basic stuff is easy, like deadlines and rulesets.
But when we dive in deep in terms of setup details, really I'm trying to future proof for the hosts themselves so it doesn't turn into an issue later on.
A big one is role conflicts, if someone proposes a setup with a conflict (jk and rb targeting each other for example), then I gotta point that out and try and help them figure out a solution before the game ever hits the queue. In this particular example there's a ton of things to be done, whether it be establishing a resolution plan that can be referred to later, or just by removing one of the roles altogether and replacing it with something that wont cause conflicts, or anything in between.
There's also things like, established conventions and why they exist. Sometimes things like 48/24 deadlines feel arbitrary, but if someone wants to stray from them then it's my job to explain why it's so popular to begin with. I wouldn't prevent someone from hosting something different, but I always want to give prospective hosts as much information as possible before they commit to something.
A big part of why I'm currently writing my Forum Hosting Guide is that I hope it'll make these things more clear to the average user.
Are there any upcoming plans for the forum that you're excited about?
By the time this has been published, Countdown 5 is probably underway so instead I'll say that I have a new OC setup that I'm working on that I hope to host soon. Nordkapp was super successful so I'm looking into getting more OC games year round.
Aside from that, the last Ex-Staff Invitational was very fun so hopefully I can put together another one of those soon.
And I'm always looking forward to putting out more newsletter content. After my piece for this edition there are only a handful left!
What would be your dream vision for the forums?
In an ideal world I am fully retired and someone else has taken the reins from me. Maybe the newsletter is being done on a permanent basis as well with more regular contributors. I think we're currently at a good stage activity wise with a good user group, so maintaining and growing that would be great. And I'd definitely love to see more game variety, with more people pushing the envelope and trying new things out.
What future do you envision for tutoring?
It’s actually pretty simple, we’d go into gcs and essentially I’d talk about random topics pertaining to their struggles, we’d switch to general concepts to hyperspecfic game reviews, essentially I had a general idea of the mental blocks a lot of the ppl I tutored had so I’d delve into that and try to help them overcome them.
The system has always depended on userbase potential and actual interest, a lot of tutors don’t want to waste their time but as of now, a lot of people are always free to message me, everyone knows how freely I give advice and analysis on the game, if there was genuine potential I’d love to kickstart it back up again
Interest and potential go hand in hand I feel, anyone can get good at something if they put in effort but you must have real interest in improving and improving isn’t the most fun process, you have to directly confront your weaknesses as a player.
I think a lot of players can benefit from trying to change their mindset, I think I’ve touched upon some really important concepts wrt improving how you play the game already.
There is always potentially but it’s about the mindset behind that potential that gauges wether or not if someone is worth tutoring
What are your responsibilities as a Room Owner?
I think my main responsibilities are planning events, promotions, and moderation as staff. The way I look at it is that im just a reg with an extra responsibility to run the room. I’d still have the same passion + enthusiasm for mafia and the psmafia room regardless of me being staff or not. The way this room has impacted me positively, the people i’ve met through this room, and how much it’s helped me grown can not be understated and I’ll never forget so I’m happy to take on the difficult responsibility of being ro and moderating the room if it means it can thrive.
Moderation isn’t fun, usually I have to punish my friends in the room, who I always try to be friendly with and treat with respect regardless of rank, but it’s nesscary to run a room.
The privilege of making sure fun events will go through (even if im not hosting them) is one thing that I am happy about, like designing the psmpl event is something im still proud of
What are some memories you cherish from Mafia?
Those late nights of MCD stand out for sure. I'd book all the blocks at the end of the line and host BoardGameOnline (the absolute worst board game ever made) and we'd play for hours. MCD in general was super fun in being able to enjoy time within the community without the competitive tension of Mafia. There were a couple of them where I'd try to stay on for as much of the day as possible, and participate in as many events as I could.
This is also recency bias speaking but PSMPL was great, shoutout the Bewears for being a great team to play with, we absolutely killed it.
This is hard but probably if one important moment that I won’t forget, even though it isn’t PSmafia is me scum casing litteleven in a modexe forum game after 1 page of the game. The post was ridic log but it was such a mindset clock after only a slew of posts and I was so elaborate aswell, one of my best scumcases of all time for sure (https://www.mafiauniverse.com/forums/threads/32265-Modified-Execution?p=5227105&viewfull=1#post5227105)
It’s modexe on forum so that also counts as ps mafia
How has Mafia impacted you?
For one thing, it feels like I've made genuinely great friends through it. There are definitely some people in the room that have helped me when I needed it, big or small, and I love the connections I've made through the room.
It feels like it was also important for my personal development, going from being really toxic and angry all the time to finding my place within the community and trying to contribute positively. I don't think I'll ever consider that job finished but I'm happy to keep working towards it.
Playing mafia from a young age has definitely helped my logic, by like a lot, and understand social things. I think I try to read the intent behind peoples words more often then I read their words much too often and it’s made me approach social situations as “solvable” problems.
Mafia was also just a very good hobby that I had, other people played sports, others learned to draw, but I focused on mafia and I don’t regret it at all
Are there any users you'd like to give a shoutout?
oh boy here we go
Definitely people like you (snaq), fenrir and schia for being regular collaborators and helping me do things that I don't know if i'd be able to otherwise
People like FJP, RAD and Midwife for helping me keep my head on straight
And then people like spiderz, sparkli, xnad, prodigu, scorch, quax and so many more for being cool people and friends otherwise
And then all the other people i've enjoyed playing with outside of PS, whether it be MU or SDN or who knows where else, at this point there are too many names for me to list here
If I miss anyone I'm sorry but I'm old and my memory is fading
MANNNNNN so many people that I can’t even BEGIN to shout out the amount of people that have impacted me, if I don’t shout you out please do not take personally there are so many great people I’ve met so let me focus instead on the 5 people who have impacted me the most in this community
Schia, I don’t think I have to tell you how much you’ve changed my life and outlook on life. Before I met you, I was snot nosed edgy brat on the internet who just liked mafia and was friends with the community because of mafia. I think our first 2 games with eachother we butt heads pretty hard and I got annoyed, unsure if you remember. As you quickly became staff though, I quickly began to understand that you were exactly what the room needed. But beyond that how you reached out to the community and especially me and gave me a chance to be a better person. You taught me empathy at another level and how important it was to care for people as people. You lead the way to educate me on the world and to care about what’s happening instead of sitting there as a bystander to the world. You were undoubtedly my role model for a long period of time and you continue to do so, I know you know this already but I definitely need to get it off my chest. Past that you are also one of the best mafia players I know and no one understands my wavelength more then you esp wrt theory and game mentality. I’ll forever be grateful to you and how you’ve changed my life schia, thank you.
OM, we didn’t actually get close until the [Redacted] Situation despite us being acquainted with each-other beforehand, I don’t remember at what point I started having a real positive impression on you but I remember distinctly talking to chap about letting old stuff go and just inviting you, and it was like you brought up the energy of the server right away. You are like a big brother to me, you always did the right thing, you always knew how to treat people, you always knew how to carry the energy and I looked up to you. You are so thoughtful when people message you with their issues hearing them out, genuinely trying to help them at all times. You know me incredibly well and you have so many interests in media that it makes it incredibly easy to talk to you, Love you forever dude.
Kaif, you know when you first invited me to kaif’s lair I didn’t have a strong impression of you but slowly getting closer to you through there and getting to know you, you were one of the funniest people I had met from a young age. You always were hella competitive and good at mons but what made me really feel like you were a brother for life is how we matured and grew as people side by side. I’ll never forget that talk we had and I’ll never forget you telling me that that impacted you positively. You are funny as fuck and you don’t like holding back. You are the one person who’s mad similar in age so we can relate to a lot more things with eachother. You have so many common interest with me which is probably why we have an insane amount of mutuals. we’ve stood together for so long like brothers despite me not being active in 1v1, despite you being blacklisted into banned from smogon and ps, we still stuck through and that’s a testament of how great friends we are
Litt, me and you met much later then when I first met other people on this list but that didn’t matter in our relationship considering how fast you integrated yourself into the community and then one of my best friends on this site. I remember back when you first came and started playing mafia I was trying to determine if you had any actual talent or if you were just one of those people who abused buzzword’s or an “in theory” player (I love u sfl I promise). One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was asking you to hydra with me for the hydra event on MU, our legacy as barbatos, and how much we improved together as players together has been a crazy journey. Our hydra performances together have been lead into our legacy of our crazy strong towncore with each-other, our solving processes despite being variating and having different processes are just completely in sync and you know how much I love playing with you. Beyond all that you are one of the most intelligent people I know. You will always prioritize the right thing and then your own people, and you’ve never been afraid to speak your mind or being influenced by peer pressure etc. I don’t need to explain how close I feel to you and kaif and the amount of trust I have in you two and just how much you both mean to me, love u both
And finally, Zorquax. I don’t feel to elaborate heavily on this because I know how you are quax. You are my closest friend ever for life over anyone else. Nothing will ever change that. I have no shame admitting that over a friend I met over the internet but that doesn’t matter to me at all. I could not imagine my life without you by my side from the start who stood by me in every facet and every regard. I have a lot more I would want to say about you and about your positive traits but I’ll leave at this. You are the kindest person I’ve ever met. Thank you for being my friend.
Do you have any final words?
I hope everyone keeps on keeping on. The room's in a great place and is being run by great people. Once that continues, I'm sure it'll keep being a cool place. PS Maf is something special.
Thank you so much for an opportunity to show my gratitude towards the community. I want to thank the community for having me as their RO and I hope we can continue to grow, and thank you snaq for interviewing me
I'm FTF! I'm currently an Approval Team member and Queue Manager for the forums. I've represented PS a couple of times at Mafia Universe's Mafia Championships. I'm also probably the least publicly seen among current auth members. I started hanging out in the room in 2017 but nowadays most of my involvement is with the forums, and I'm always happy to answer any related enquiries.
Aside from that, I'm a 23 year old university student and aspiring social worker. I'm from the Caribbean but I currently live and attend school in Canada.
Hey, I’m Spiderz I’m one of the current RO’s of mafia. Im 19 and a pre med bioscience major and started playing mafia in this room in 2017, Ever since then I’ve been in love with the game and the room and especially the community.
How did you discover the PS! Mafia room?
I think I was randomly scrolling through the roomlist and I stumbled upon it. I did a lot of pokemon battles with my friends back then so I guess it probably happened in between a session. I randomly joined a game, got hooked, and then the rest is history.
So my middle school gave us all ipads for us to use in class so the first thing we did was try to find stuff for us to do, in class, this was litterally the start of 7th grade for me, also I wasnt even into pokemon heavily back then but anyways I went on PS, I think I saw someone else playing it and I remembered I had made an account on the website so I decided to use it. When I logged in,I saw the news anouncement for UGO. The game rooms listed were trivia, scavengers, survivor, and mafia and I swear to you it was like mafia was GLOWING at me because I was like wtf?? Mafia??? why is there a mafia room??? so I was like lost because I’ve never heard of the game till then, I joined the room and I got so confused at the rules so I left and actually joined trivia for like 2 days. Unfornatley trivia sucked and I kept thinking about mafia like 2 days later so I gave it another chance and the rest is history… My first real game was a fish modexe that was super intense and I lasted till volo and was able to convince the person who shot that I was town I think, my memomory is a bit hazy but yeah ever since then i’ve been hooked
Was it the first time you tried Mafia?
Absolute first time trying anything of the sort. I don't think I've even heard of the game before that point. Looking back it's crazy to think about how invested I got right at the beginning.
What was PS! Mafia like when you joined?
Man it was kinda like the wild west. Rules were weird and inconsistent and people kinda just did whatever (myself included). I'd had definitely made an ass out of myself numerous times in the room back then.
But there were certain elements of it that are nostalgic. Things like Mafia Room Bot being the weird bot that it was and randomly breaking or over-moderating definitely made memories all on its own.
MRB would auto-mute you for the weirdest things because of its tolerance thresholds or whatever, I remember putting an example in the most recent newsletter piece:
[22:08:25] Thunder~BALLZ: Yay my mute expired
[22:08:25] Thunder~BALLZ was muted by Mafia Room Bot for 7 minutes. (Automated moderation: Talking while not in the current game)
There's a billion similar examples in Mafia Room Quotes, and you'd have players getting muted in game and then auth has to get bugged to unmute them.
All the standout moments are when it triggered on generally innocuous things, like typing a single word in caps or adding too many consonants to a word.
Hmm well, that’s a good question. I don’t remember at what point I took the game so seriously but I think the gameplay was hella different, you had a lot of turboing and wagoning, discussion wasn’t taken seriously, only a few “good” players that completley controlled the tempo of each and every game because everyone would just follow them brainlessly, community wise there was a pretty big barrier between staff and regs I feel early on which resulted in a lot of Me vs Them mentallity from regs. Gameplay was abhorrent though for sure and looking back at it a lot of the people we considered good back then were mostly just loud and confident which made them look good but wasn’t a real testament to their skill imo. It’s harder to judge them as players because I wasn’t capable of truly analyzing mafia play back then. But it was also very toxic and every postfish was a shitfest as well. Don’t even get me started on the #rant channel asw. I think it was a lot of clashing egos and not a lot of actual gameplay, but the community itself was still fine for the most part, a lot of cool individuals, back then the appeal for me was the community less then the game but it’s defo a 50/50 nowadays
#rant was a pool of clc and mmm’s tears tbh, on a more serious note it was a channel people went into to just rant about stuff but 99% of the time it was postfish salt by clc or mmm sometimes hawkie irrc. It got so toxic it was just deleted lmao, I bet we could bring it back tbh considering the room is substantially less toxic
What are some of your favorite themes?
Near Vanilla, easily, both to host and to play. Low PR numbers and pretty standard ratios so that there's low variation. I tend to not like themes with overly complex mechanics, too distracting from gameplay for my tastes.
(Of course the most famous games I've hosted are all super complex)
modexe, vanilla, near vanilla. I honestly don’t mind most themes but my thing is I love the core idea of mafia so I like to play that not role madness etc. Like I don’t mind PR’s and I think they add a degree of complexity that allows for fun gameplay but theres a point where I think it completley takes away from the game, fortunetley this is less of a problem with ps mafia setups. But yeah my maing thing is I think inspective roles are really dumb and cheap in general, town should always rely on their own reads etc I think inspective roles are just a cop out LOL (but it is sooo annoying when ppl SPAM idea)
How would you describe your playstyle (in those themes)?
I think my playstyle can be described as aggressive, overbearing and thorough, and I think anyone who has played with me before can attest to that. In terms of power roles I have no real preference, but I love to be that active townleading voice as either town or scum. I'm also a big fan of putting everything into a push that I really believe in, even to my own detriment.
I think I showcased my playstyle that one game in PSMPL where I was scum with quax in modexe.
I completely scumslipped but we still won through sheer willpower.
If you go here and put Game 8 in I think that brings it up: duskt.github.io/
It's a great example of how much can be done by simply wanting it more
Well first of all the biggest tip for anyone playing vanilla is everyone needs to force themself out of their comfort zone and make reads and this is an issue that a lot of ps mafia players don’t do, they just dont really make reads? I mean some will post 1 or 2 but thats it. This is exactly the number 1 issue of the room, we are too PR reliant to solve games which is bad we should have the ability to figure out who is scum and who isn’t without PRs but people dont understand that change comes from our reg base LOL, just posting reads and interacting with people about your reads, asking people hey what to you think about this reads or what do you think about this post can naturally develop your sense, we have to not be afraid to be wrong, we have to learn, I put a huge emphasis on making sure you are productive with every game we play
Do you have any idea on how to develop your reads?
People need to understand that the ability to form reads is a built up process of trial and error and recognizing thinking patterns of scum and town. You aren’t ever going to improve if you don’t put yourself into this mindset and force yourself to make reads.
The issue with alot of people when making reads is that they tend to look at exclusivley the actions of players to read them or they tend to only use a scale of agressivness and passivness OR a scale of active and nonactivity exclusivley and don’t look at anything else. It is the equivalent of becoming a detective and only relying on fingerprints and exclusivley fingerprints to find the suspect. And if you can’t find those finger prints you becom a sitting duck. This is why we see a lot of players who are just lost on what to actually do. What I mentioned are all parts of an overarching read on the alignment, those are only the fingerprints!!
One good excercise you can do in games to start building up, and I like to refer to it as a mental book of behaviors, this trial and error process is just looking at posts and try to force yourself to understand how the post comes from town and THEN force yourself to understand how it comes from scum.
You need to be able to relate it to your own experiences as scum, changing your scumplay to immitate your townplay as much as posisble and then trying to understand the difference between your scum play and town play is how you start to grasp those patterns as well for specifically scum.
The issue is everyone knows the definition of reads but no one knows the definition reading, reading is the process of understanding the mindset behind someones posts not reading their posts
Let me give an example to both of the things I mentioned, a lot of players will read a player as agressive or passive but both can be breaken down further, if I see two seperate players, one is being hyper agressive and another is being passive and lurky
we want to understand their behavior not just acknowlede it!!!
Aggressive player: Ok I ask myself, hey is this player agressive because they are very motivated to hunt scum and solve the game or is this player agressive because they want to see heads roll or more importantly is their aim of being aggressive to make preformative push on a player (in order to look town). You can see that those two behaviors are motivated by VERY different concepts so this is the distinction you want to make when reading an agressive slot and you can go even further etc this is just one small example
Passive player: I ask myself ok is this player passive because they are struggling to enter the game or unable to produce content (which would be nai, which is important to acknowledge if you don’t want to accidently scumread something thats NAI) or are they trying to avoid attention and be lowkey because they are wolf? And fillering here still counts, some people filler because they don’t know how to post productivley and it’s your job to distinguish th diference.
Reading laziness is an important concept aswell becuase understanding stuff that’s nai means that it’s a mindset that can come from both town and scum, and isn’t nessecarily or really heavily tied to a partic alignment. If someone low efforts because they aren’t very motivated to play, is that really an excuse for scum to not play or is it something that can happen to both scum and town? it’s important to just constantly ask yourselves theese questions because normally you will have an answer for yourself, improve your read process requires introspection and forcing yourself to make uncomfortable reads and it’s something I commonly tell people I’ve tutored
What are some of the favorite things you've done in PS! Mafia?
Man where do I start
Being part of Mafia Community Day is definitely up there
Then making it to the semifinals of the Mafia Championships on my first go-around and getting to represent the room at such a high level
There's the Summer Circuit, and I've been involved with almost all of them as a host.
Then being able to develop and host something like Twenty Year Time Heist, something that feels like my creative peak in the room and I don't really know if I can ever really trump it (there's also a newsletter piece about that game worth reading ps-mafia.proboards.com/thread/1167/january-deep-dive-year-heist)
And alongside TYTH, hosting a handful of the most active games ever on the site, including a couple of the Countdown games.
Then recently, playing in PSMPL and getting to feel less washed than I thought I was
And all the way to now, getting to contribute regularly with the Newsletter!
I'm sure there are some other things I'm forgetting but those are definitely the ones that stand out to me
1. Tutoring, this made me realize my love for the game even more haha, helping others improve to be legitmite strong players was some of the best experiences of my life, it’s something I stuck too in all cases a well, not only did it help create some legitmite A Tier players but it helped me improve a ton by understanding their mindsets and their roadblocks to understanding the game and everytime was a crazy fun experience everytime, esp my news/articoo/wallape group, all 3 turned into geniunley wonderful players and I really hope that I played a big part in that. I always loved to see them be enthusiastic to learn and I hope I motivated them to improve a ton asw. In general, I just always like helping players with potential improve as much as I can. Also shoutouts to Terri/Jfox/Wallape/News/Articoo/Lind for all dealing with my insane mafia obsession
2. PSMPL, mannnn was psmpl crazy… first let me take you back 3 years ago when covid hit and there was a second wave ps mafia resurgence, we would have fishes with me/scept/litt/moto/schia/alex/quax/flood/blurb/articoo/wallape/abdel/news/azu etc there were too many exciting players at this time to list LMAO, it was like fishes were stacked with players who had unique playstyles, clashing personalities, crazy deepwolves, and so much fucking game content every fish. That intensity and competetiveness is what I longed for and doing a teamdraft competition is a concept I’ve always played around with in my head for years now like since 2018. Issue is I’ve always thought it was impossible due to the subjectivity of evaluating someones play and conflict of interest that would occur from having players in the same team but somehow… we made it work? The gameplay beyond exceeded my expectations, like I don’t know think I can drive that point home hard enough. Those 8 games were for sure all in top 10 in terms of quality, the level of excitement and stress and pressure everyone had to preform well was so apparently and it bred some of the highest gameplay we’ve ever seen. It also feels ironic and a testemant to how insane this rooms lore is that Zorquax got so many more points then everyone else solidifying his place a top 10 player in this room oat which is super crazy considering his history. But yes I loved loved loved this event it was so fun.
What goes into moderating the forums?
Feels like expertise is a big thing that gets called on a lot. I wouldn't be able to do it without a lot of the playing/hosting experience I've had. I've played Mafia all over the place, probably in a dozen or so different communities, and being able to use that to inform decisions is important.
Like, if someone proposes a mechanic for a game and I'm able to provide a comparison, and then break down the differences and see what goes into making it work and what makes it not work before improving upon it, I feel like that allows PS to have its own unique identity in terms of putting out polished games.
For something like TYTH, I got to borrow roles and ideas from all these different communities, and even have prominent names from those communities weigh in and provide input on why things are the way they are. It's the kind of thing that saves time because I get to skip the trial and error portion of the process.
Otherwise a lot of times, I have experienced the trial and error portion myself. Like if someone proposes something that I've seen before, I get to offer firsthand experience as to why it might not work, or what small change is needed to make it work a lot better.
Are there any aspects the average user does not see?
Sometimes it feels like my job is to fill in the gaps that the average user doesn't see. The basic stuff is easy, like deadlines and rulesets.
But when we dive in deep in terms of setup details, really I'm trying to future proof for the hosts themselves so it doesn't turn into an issue later on.
A big one is role conflicts, if someone proposes a setup with a conflict (jk and rb targeting each other for example), then I gotta point that out and try and help them figure out a solution before the game ever hits the queue. In this particular example there's a ton of things to be done, whether it be establishing a resolution plan that can be referred to later, or just by removing one of the roles altogether and replacing it with something that wont cause conflicts, or anything in between.
There's also things like, established conventions and why they exist. Sometimes things like 48/24 deadlines feel arbitrary, but if someone wants to stray from them then it's my job to explain why it's so popular to begin with. I wouldn't prevent someone from hosting something different, but I always want to give prospective hosts as much information as possible before they commit to something.
A big part of why I'm currently writing my Forum Hosting Guide is that I hope it'll make these things more clear to the average user.
Are there any upcoming plans for the forum that you're excited about?
By the time this has been published, Countdown 5 is probably underway so instead I'll say that I have a new OC setup that I'm working on that I hope to host soon. Nordkapp was super successful so I'm looking into getting more OC games year round.
Aside from that, the last Ex-Staff Invitational was very fun so hopefully I can put together another one of those soon.
And I'm always looking forward to putting out more newsletter content. After my piece for this edition there are only a handful left!
What would be your dream vision for the forums?
In an ideal world I am fully retired and someone else has taken the reins from me. Maybe the newsletter is being done on a permanent basis as well with more regular contributors. I think we're currently at a good stage activity wise with a good user group, so maintaining and growing that would be great. And I'd definitely love to see more game variety, with more people pushing the envelope and trying new things out.
What future do you envision for tutoring?
It’s actually pretty simple, we’d go into gcs and essentially I’d talk about random topics pertaining to their struggles, we’d switch to general concepts to hyperspecfic game reviews, essentially I had a general idea of the mental blocks a lot of the ppl I tutored had so I’d delve into that and try to help them overcome them.
The system has always depended on userbase potential and actual interest, a lot of tutors don’t want to waste their time but as of now, a lot of people are always free to message me, everyone knows how freely I give advice and analysis on the game, if there was genuine potential I’d love to kickstart it back up again
Interest and potential go hand in hand I feel, anyone can get good at something if they put in effort but you must have real interest in improving and improving isn’t the most fun process, you have to directly confront your weaknesses as a player.
I think a lot of players can benefit from trying to change their mindset, I think I’ve touched upon some really important concepts wrt improving how you play the game already.
There is always potentially but it’s about the mindset behind that potential that gauges wether or not if someone is worth tutoring
What are your responsibilities as a Room Owner?
I think my main responsibilities are planning events, promotions, and moderation as staff. The way I look at it is that im just a reg with an extra responsibility to run the room. I’d still have the same passion + enthusiasm for mafia and the psmafia room regardless of me being staff or not. The way this room has impacted me positively, the people i’ve met through this room, and how much it’s helped me grown can not be understated and I’ll never forget so I’m happy to take on the difficult responsibility of being ro and moderating the room if it means it can thrive.
Moderation isn’t fun, usually I have to punish my friends in the room, who I always try to be friendly with and treat with respect regardless of rank, but it’s nesscary to run a room.
The privilege of making sure fun events will go through (even if im not hosting them) is one thing that I am happy about, like designing the psmpl event is something im still proud of
What are some memories you cherish from Mafia?
Those late nights of MCD stand out for sure. I'd book all the blocks at the end of the line and host BoardGameOnline (the absolute worst board game ever made) and we'd play for hours. MCD in general was super fun in being able to enjoy time within the community without the competitive tension of Mafia. There were a couple of them where I'd try to stay on for as much of the day as possible, and participate in as many events as I could.
This is also recency bias speaking but PSMPL was great, shoutout the Bewears for being a great team to play with, we absolutely killed it.
This is hard but probably if one important moment that I won’t forget, even though it isn’t PSmafia is me scum casing litteleven in a modexe forum game after 1 page of the game. The post was ridic log but it was such a mindset clock after only a slew of posts and I was so elaborate aswell, one of my best scumcases of all time for sure (https://www.mafiauniverse.com/forums/threads/32265-Modified-Execution?p=5227105&viewfull=1#post5227105)
It’s modexe on forum so that also counts as ps mafia
How has Mafia impacted you?
For one thing, it feels like I've made genuinely great friends through it. There are definitely some people in the room that have helped me when I needed it, big or small, and I love the connections I've made through the room.
It feels like it was also important for my personal development, going from being really toxic and angry all the time to finding my place within the community and trying to contribute positively. I don't think I'll ever consider that job finished but I'm happy to keep working towards it.
Playing mafia from a young age has definitely helped my logic, by like a lot, and understand social things. I think I try to read the intent behind peoples words more often then I read their words much too often and it’s made me approach social situations as “solvable” problems.
Mafia was also just a very good hobby that I had, other people played sports, others learned to draw, but I focused on mafia and I don’t regret it at all
Are there any users you'd like to give a shoutout?
oh boy here we go
Definitely people like you (snaq), fenrir and schia for being regular collaborators and helping me do things that I don't know if i'd be able to otherwise
People like FJP, RAD and Midwife for helping me keep my head on straight
And then people like spiderz, sparkli, xnad, prodigu, scorch, quax and so many more for being cool people and friends otherwise
And then all the other people i've enjoyed playing with outside of PS, whether it be MU or SDN or who knows where else, at this point there are too many names for me to list here
If I miss anyone I'm sorry but I'm old and my memory is fading
MANNNNNN so many people that I can’t even BEGIN to shout out the amount of people that have impacted me, if I don’t shout you out please do not take personally there are so many great people I’ve met so let me focus instead on the 5 people who have impacted me the most in this community
Schia, I don’t think I have to tell you how much you’ve changed my life and outlook on life. Before I met you, I was snot nosed edgy brat on the internet who just liked mafia and was friends with the community because of mafia. I think our first 2 games with eachother we butt heads pretty hard and I got annoyed, unsure if you remember. As you quickly became staff though, I quickly began to understand that you were exactly what the room needed. But beyond that how you reached out to the community and especially me and gave me a chance to be a better person. You taught me empathy at another level and how important it was to care for people as people. You lead the way to educate me on the world and to care about what’s happening instead of sitting there as a bystander to the world. You were undoubtedly my role model for a long period of time and you continue to do so, I know you know this already but I definitely need to get it off my chest. Past that you are also one of the best mafia players I know and no one understands my wavelength more then you esp wrt theory and game mentality. I’ll forever be grateful to you and how you’ve changed my life schia, thank you.
OM, we didn’t actually get close until the [Redacted] Situation despite us being acquainted with each-other beforehand, I don’t remember at what point I started having a real positive impression on you but I remember distinctly talking to chap about letting old stuff go and just inviting you, and it was like you brought up the energy of the server right away. You are like a big brother to me, you always did the right thing, you always knew how to treat people, you always knew how to carry the energy and I looked up to you. You are so thoughtful when people message you with their issues hearing them out, genuinely trying to help them at all times. You know me incredibly well and you have so many interests in media that it makes it incredibly easy to talk to you, Love you forever dude.
Kaif, you know when you first invited me to kaif’s lair I didn’t have a strong impression of you but slowly getting closer to you through there and getting to know you, you were one of the funniest people I had met from a young age. You always were hella competitive and good at mons but what made me really feel like you were a brother for life is how we matured and grew as people side by side. I’ll never forget that talk we had and I’ll never forget you telling me that that impacted you positively. You are funny as fuck and you don’t like holding back. You are the one person who’s mad similar in age so we can relate to a lot more things with eachother. You have so many common interest with me which is probably why we have an insane amount of mutuals. we’ve stood together for so long like brothers despite me not being active in 1v1, despite you being blacklisted into banned from smogon and ps, we still stuck through and that’s a testament of how great friends we are
Litt, me and you met much later then when I first met other people on this list but that didn’t matter in our relationship considering how fast you integrated yourself into the community and then one of my best friends on this site. I remember back when you first came and started playing mafia I was trying to determine if you had any actual talent or if you were just one of those people who abused buzzword’s or an “in theory” player (I love u sfl I promise). One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was asking you to hydra with me for the hydra event on MU, our legacy as barbatos, and how much we improved together as players together has been a crazy journey. Our hydra performances together have been lead into our legacy of our crazy strong towncore with each-other, our solving processes despite being variating and having different processes are just completely in sync and you know how much I love playing with you. Beyond all that you are one of the most intelligent people I know. You will always prioritize the right thing and then your own people, and you’ve never been afraid to speak your mind or being influenced by peer pressure etc. I don’t need to explain how close I feel to you and kaif and the amount of trust I have in you two and just how much you both mean to me, love u both
And finally, Zorquax. I don’t feel to elaborate heavily on this because I know how you are quax. You are my closest friend ever for life over anyone else. Nothing will ever change that. I have no shame admitting that over a friend I met over the internet but that doesn’t matter to me at all. I could not imagine my life without you by my side from the start who stood by me in every facet and every regard. I have a lot more I would want to say about you and about your positive traits but I’ll leave at this. You are the kindest person I’ve ever met. Thank you for being my friend.
Do you have any final words?
I hope everyone keeps on keeping on. The room's in a great place and is being run by great people. Once that continues, I'm sure it'll keep being a cool place. PS Maf is something special.
Thank you so much for an opportunity to show my gratitude towards the community. I want to thank the community for having me as their RO and I hope we can continue to grow, and thank you snaq for interviewing me