The Syndicate

Only one I think.

I was getting the impression civilians were on a tear in recent memory, but not really.

Since April, 2017:

Jobs:
Civilian wins: 0
Mafia wins: 1
Joint indy wins: 1
Team indy wins: 1

Side Missions:
Civilian wins: 3
Mafia wins: 3
Team indy wins: 1

Heists:
Civilian wins: 3
Mafia wins: 5
Team indy wins: 1


Burglaries:
Civilian wins: 3
Mafia wins: 2
Joint indy wins: 2

There were no solo indy wins in any format.

Overall:

Civilian wins: 6 (9 with burglaries)
Mafia wins: 9 (11 with burglaries)
Joint indy wins: 1 (3 with burglaries)
Team indy wins: 3

I was curious to see how this trend has developed or changed if at all since I originally posted this thread. I counted the wins per faction since May 2016:

Jobs:
~ Civilians - 4 wins
~ Mafia - 2 wins
~ 3 shared indy wins

Speed games:
~ Civilians - 3 wins
~ Mafia - 3 wins
~ 2 solo indy wins
~ 1 shared indy win

Heists:
~ Civilians - 3 wins
~ Mafia - 8 wins
~ 1 solo indy win

Special games:
~ Civilians - 1 win
~ 1 shared indy win

Burglaries:
~ Civilians - 1 win
~ Mafia - 2 wins
~ 1 solo indy win

Total (without burglaries): 11 civilian wins, 13 mafia wins, 6 shared indy wins, and 3 solo indy wins.

Total (with burglaries): 12 civilian wins, 15 mafia wins, 6 shared indy wins, and 4 solo indy wins.

The Mafia still have a slight edge, mostly on the strength of a really rough run for civilians in recent heist games. Generally though I think this is about as balanced as any site could hope to be over the stretch of nearly a year. I'd say the old trend of civilians barely ever winning has officially been curbed. Cool beans.

rabbit8 wrote:I like multiple game strategy. If you're only playing to win the current game, you're not playing mafia well. In my opinion.

This is something I strongly disagree with (respectfully). I have found in my experience that if I play as hard as I can given whatever circumstances to win the game at hand, then it makes me a better player when I have to live up to that in future games. I used to play in such a way that I thought would benefit me regardless of the alignment I draw, but at some point I abandoned that mindset. I have designed everything I do around trying to win games with the town faction because that is the faction I will be playing for in most games. And when I'm not town, I have to play up to that standard, and the challenge of that drives me to improve my game.

Of course I don't suggest everyone should do what I do. But that's my philosophy.

I think a no info-dumping rule is a necessity in open setup games with a large number of special roles, especially when everyone has a special role. I don't think there's any way to arrange a game like that with roleclaiming and info-dumping without it being broken. That's a unique appeal to this culture because open setup role madness genuinely isn't even a thing in many other places.

I don't think it's a necessity in a closed setup or in a vanilla-heavy open setup. It can still be employed though under certain circumstances. Any host who embraces that philosophy is fine by me. I do think that it might mean certain other tweaks will be needed though elsewhere in the rules or design to rebalance the game -- perhaps one less mafia member, or stronger town roles; the possibilities are endless.

I think it's largely a philosophical discussion. I would assert that if someone gets ID'd as a baddie by an alignment checker, then they couldn't have played a flawless game by default. I understand the other side though, and I do think that some vanilla+ games have the tendency to turn into mechanical boredom and lose some of the sleuthing that makes Mafia fun.

I think it's pretty well-known around here that the town/civilian faction doesn't win terribly often in full and speed games. I'd like to have a dialogue with anyone interested about this trend to see how everyone feels about it and what everyone thinks ars be the most likely cause(s).

I've included a poll for everyone to select the reason(s) they think are most significant in causing the disparity in win rate between civilians and non-civilians on The Syndicate.*

Some reassurances: I don't start this thread now with my mind on any specific single game -- this isn't meant to be a passive aggressive shot at any host or players or anything like that. I've wanted to start this thread for a while but kept forgetting. Also, I don't mean to imply that The Syndicate is in some way dampened as a Mafia community in light of this trend. I came from RYM, where at one time town lost 22 out of 25 games. We collectively tried to figure out what was going on there too and it led to some interesting cultural shifts.

*If you select "player performance", please do not call anyone out. That applies to every option where a "call out" is possible. This is meant to be a productive and civil conversation.