Mafiascum.net

try as I might, using all my noob powers, this is the one acronym I have failed to work out.

Google is telling me it is the Office of Military Government United States but I fail to see the relevance of this in Mafia.

I know its going to be obvious, but please put me out of my misery and have a laugh at my expense at this public display of ignorance

oh my god. you suck.

edit: So an OMGUS vote is a vote cast for someone just because they voted/suspected you.

Look here: Commonly used abbreviations.

but (when) is it a valid scum tell?

I don't think it can be scummy unless the voter doesn't appear to admit that their vote (etc.) is OMGUS. That can look insincere.

It just depends on the specifics of the situation really. In a vacuum I couldn't say whether OMGUS is scummy or not.

Patrick wrote:It just depends on the specifics of the situation really. In a vacuum I couldn't say whether OMGUS is scummy or not.

Basically that.

Most of the time when I see OMGUS as a scumtell, it is if the user:
A) Admits that they are using OMGUS as their main/only reasoning, but maintains that it is legitimate/correct in its use and application; or
B) Refuses to admit that they are being OMGUSy.

Still, neither of these conditions are absolute. OMGUS is one of the trickiest concepts to work out, because of a variety of factors.

Adel wrote:but (when) is it a valid scum tell?

Eh...early on day 1, when there's nothing to go on, OMGUS votes aren't bad. However, later in the game, I tend to consider OMGUS votes scummy. If you vote someone because they voted you and don't have a good reason for it, it means you're either reacting emotioanlly, or else you're trying to use your vote as a means of self-defense rather then using your vote to find/lynch scum. So, I do consider a pure OMGUS vote to be scummy at any time past day 1, yeah.

It is a mistake townies make sometimes, though, especally newbie town, so while it's a scumtell, it's not always the most reliable one.

In my experience, and OMGUS later in the game is more likely to come from an emotional/inexperienced townie. A Scumbag trying to defend himself will know that simply voting for the other guy won't help.

Mr Stoofer wrote:In my experience, and OMGUS later in the game is more likely to come from an emotional/inexperienced townie. A Scumbag trying to defend himself will know that simply voting for the other guy won't help.

IMO, there's another layer to that. An experienced scum is less likely to be thought to be pure omgussing, yet the person who's your strongest accuser is the townie least likely ever to support you. By attacking that player, you limit the number of pro-towners you alienate, so keep as many potential votes on-side as possible.

A bit of mafia history trivia: it was Purgation versus mole on a GL game who introduced this (be it in the full version, rather than the acronym).

Cool. Link Please?

Do you know the origin of the WIFOM meme in a mafia context?

Adel wrote:Cool. Link Please?

It is sad enough that i actually remember something unimportant like this - don't expect me to have the game link available as wel...

Do you remember what the name was for the game, or how many players it had, or what year it was in? Someone should wikify this stuff before it is totally forgotten. Mafia is a pretty dynamic game, and I could see it evolve for years until it emerges in a form that captures the global public's attention like chess or poker. Could you imagine if there were hundreds of thousands of players playing in tournaments around the world? OMGUS and WIFOM would probably still be terms in use, and some nerd like me might want to trace every step in the evolution of the idea of the OMGUS vote for the newsletter or specialty magazine.

Mafia could never go competitive, not in this form anyway, because of the trust element, and without competition there's nothing to drive mass popularity like chess or poker or even stuff like Counterstrike.

It took some time, but here it is:
http://www.mafiascum.net/theory/Old%20G ... 458-4.html

Ryoushi is an alias for mole, reply 141 in GL mafia 29 is where it happened.

EDIT: to see the rest of the game, you will have to click page by page from here:
http://www.greylabyrinth.com/discussion ... php?t=8208


and I have updated the OMGUS wiki - someone who knows more about wiki's can tidy it up a bit.

The poker sites had way of keeping players from cheating too badly. Beyond randomizing the player names and assignment to games, a chat variant could move too quickly, or there could just be an effective gentleman's code, with money games being played either face to face or at one geographical location on a closed LAN.

People use bots on counterstrike, and chess computers for online chess games. Cheating happens in poker. Cheating sucks, but it happens in any competitive game. Even if you never cheated at Monopoly when you were younger, I bet you knew someone that did. Monopoly is a competitive sport on ESPN-8 at 4am on Tuesdays. Look, MTG was televised, Mafia could possibly be one day as well.

Didn't they try to mainstream Mafia with that Cry Wolf movie? It didn't catch on. Of course, maybe they should have made a better movie.

The problem with Mafia going mainstream is, from a Media perspective, they like promoting champions. In every game of Mafia, a whole team of people wins. Also, you can play very well and still not win. I mean, I'm not ever sure how you would structure a Mafia world championship.

Mafia's future in the mainstream is as a social party game, rather than a competitive tournament game. I could see it one day being like charades.

OMGUS votes aren't remotely helpful for the town, but it's impossible to say if the voter is scum. Whether the vote is OMGUS or not is not a reliable scum tell.

It is a dangerous and, sadly, common assumption that because you find someone suspicious, and they happen to be voting you, it's OMGUS.

With me, it happens a lot of time that someone will vote me, I'll say "Huh?" and go back and look at there posts. Their vote is a prompt for an OMGUS investigation, but results in a very non-OMGUS conclusion, for me at least, if I actually suspect that person.

Rishi wrote:I mean, I'm not ever sure how you would structure a Mafia world championship.

A team wins X points, and all players are randomized and play a large number of face-to-face-games.

Ex.
Win as town = 1 Point
Survival = 1 Point
Win as scum = 1 Point
Win as Serial Killer = 3 Points

That way the individual who makes his/her team win most consistently would win.

Wouldn't giving points out for surviving make people want to lynch whomever's in the lead so that they can prevent them getting the extra point?

Rishi wrote:Mafia's future in the mainstream is as a social party game, rather than a competitive tournament game. I could see it one day being like charades.

Uhhh, its is as a social party game, too, of course. Between "Are You a Werewolf?" by Looney Labs and "Bang!" by Mayfair, it's getting its fair share of play. Dragon*Con has 24-hour (near enough) continuous games of AYAW? in or near the gaming hall for three days straight... and then there's all the people who take it to summer camps, sleepovers, etc.

Orbiting and I keep trying to sort out how to get people locally to play face-to-face, but we've always got better/quicker/more interesting games to play...

Mr. Flay wrote:

Rishi wrote:Mafia's future in the mainstream is as a social party game, rather than a competitive tournament game. I could see it one day being like charades.

Uhhh, its

origin

is as a social party game, too, of course. Between "Are You a Werewolf?" by Looney Labs and "Bang!" by Mayfair, it's getting its fair share of play. Dragon*Con has 24-hour (near enough) continuous games of AYAW? in or near the gaming hall for three days straight... and then there's all the people who take it to summer camps, sleepovers, etc.

Orbiting and I keep trying to sort out how to get people locally to play face-to-face, but we've always got better/quicker/more interesting games to play...

What I meant was its future in the mainstream. I consider it more of a social gamer's game rather than a social party game, since I rarely hear about non-gamers playing it. That's why I made the comparison to charades. I think Mafia has the potential to get there.

Maz Medias - That is a good starting point for a structure for a championship, but that's not really something that would work in a televised atmosphere. I can kind of picture a game of Mafia being televised, with heavy editing and a narrator explaining what is going on. Also, do you give the audience complete or incomplete information? (i.e. Should the audience know the roles?) I don't know if it is feasible to show complete games in real time, too.

Wow, I have gone way off the original topic of the thread. Sorry.

The games could be held in scumchat, with the actions of the game acted out by cartoons based on the players various avatars. Auto deadline the days to keep the game within 3.5 hours in length.