The Mafia-The Villagers Vs The Wolves

Over the weekend I was invited to participate in a group game called Mafia, and when the game involved my favorite cricket star-Ashwin, I had no two thoughts about it.  Initially I was quite apprehensive to participate in the game given that it was a group environment and I did not quite like the idea of making a fool out of myself, which I quite naturally did. Understandable that you are new to gamification, for me however these are the failed experiments that leave lasting impressions on the mind and most importantly the lessons learnt from them.

About the Game Called Mafia: 
In a gamified scenario, there are the Villagers, The Wolves, The Policeman and The Doctor, and of course the moderator

Aim of the Game: The Villagers, The Doctors and The Policeman are the good set of people, the upholders of Dharma, the torchbearers of the world. The Wolves on the other side are all evil, on the lookout for the good people to do away with them. The Objectives are pretty much simple, The individuals assigned specific roles get to either eliminate them through a democratic voting process, through justification as to why they are being eliminated or why they should be saved.

The Villagers: They are simple hard working people who mean peace, simpletons who do have much powers of influencing. However there can be the intelligent villagers who have the natural flair, and ability to convince people backed by the gift of the gab. Beware and watch out there can be Wolves in Villagers clothing. The Villagers are slightly disadvantaged with their eyes closed during critical times of the game, while the moderator oversees the game.
Strategy for a Villager: There is nothing much you can do, other than garnering support for yourselves. Convince people that you are a villager. Try and identify the wolves. Be confident as a villager. If you build trust, you can get the Doctor and Policeman on your side. You dont gain much by lying as a villager

The Wolves: They are the cunning people, bad in every sense, They want to win the game at any cost through fair means or foul. Being Fewer in number its very tough to identify them in a crowd. They can easily pass of as villagers with a deceptive innocent look and a solid theory to back themselves up.
Strategy for a Wolf: You do have an advantage as a wolf. The moderator gives you chances to identify the others in confidentiality. Make best use to identify the other wolves. Combining with your partner wolves you can target the others. You can also choose to kill the other wolf, to take the suspicion away from you. Done Pose as a Doctor or a Policeman if the group is limited to 7 members, The real Doctor/Policeman can identify you

The Doctor: In the process of a democratic vote the Doctor has some great powers, He can save the villagers from getting eliminated or if he is not able to identify the villagers, he can save himself. He is definitely on the good side.
Strategy for a Doctor: The trump card that the moderator gives you is the ability to save someone. If for example you are sure that a wolf is going to kill a villager or a Policeman, you can save that person. If you are not sure, you can choose to save yourself.

The Policeman: He is the upholder of law and justice and is on the side of the villagers. Now there are are certain powers that the Policeman and the Doctor has in a game limited to 7 members- 3 Villagers, Two Wolves, One Doctor and One Policeman. In such a case if a wolf makes a claim that he is a Policeman or a Doctor, he can be easily shot down by the Policeman or the Doctor. However all these theories can easily be debunked when there are more policemen and doctors.
Strategy for a Policeman: The Moderator gives the Policeman one option of identifying a person of your choice. Use this chance to identify the person who you think is a wolf. Use this chance wisely. At some point of time you might want to reveal yourself as a Policeman, build trust among the group.

Golden Rule especially for the Goodies: You dont score brownie points by remaining silent. In fact you are a sitting duck. Present your points well articulated and in a precise manner, you will win support. Things like "I am guessing" "I think so" dont really work out. No wild guesses. No assumptions. Remember that assumptions will only make an ass out of you and me. You would do much better by talking about yourself.

The Moderator: He is the custodian of the game, The moderator initiates the game by assigning roles to each of the participants in secrecy. He asks the Doctor in confidentiality as to who he would like to save, The Doctor can either save one of the participants or himself based on his own thoughts and conclusions. The Moderator also asks the Policeman, whose identity he wants to be revealed, thus he gets to know identity of one of  the participants. There begins the game, with a round of discussions as to who he really is. A round of intense discussions follow, with each participant presenting his case and viewpoints, followed by a round of voting, each one trying to eliminate the other. Only two results being possible: The Wolves stand eliminated, The Villagers win or The Wolves emerge victorious and The Villagers get killed. In between the Wolves get a chance at knowing who the other wolves in the group are and the moderator gives them a chance to eliminate who they wish to, all this being done in secrecy without the knowledge of the other participants.

However The game motors along, strategies,mind games, eyes that reveal a lot, twitching, nervous body language can reveal a lot. I had a lot of  key take-aways from this wonderful game.  Being a part of the corporate world I could easily relate to this game. In any organization you will find the same set of people, albeit different designations. The Villagers are usually the entry level executives and the do gooder Experienced, Hardworking managers. They go up the ranks in the organization through sheer hard work, sincerity and dedication. They will not play politics and believe in a professional way of operating. The Wolves are smart, they usually know how to please the boss, climbing up the corporate ladder on the shoulders of others. How many times would you have come across this statement: "I did all the hard work but my Manager took all the Credit" That for sure is a Wolf. The Policeman is the HR of the organization, insists in fairplay, wants to typically identify the performers and the non performers, to reward/penalize accordingly. The Doctor according to me is the Top Management, the visionary leadership of the organization, understands the pulse of the organizations, treats employees as per merit, has no partisan view. He motivates,inspires, cures, saves, differentiates between the good apples and the bad ones. Now would you not say that we are indeed playing Mafia on a daily basis.

I am glad I did play the game and initially I Asssshed it up.I have no qualms in accepting that I messed it up in the first few games. Ashwin will know how :) but now getting to understand it much better, and in a few more games, a seasoned pro. Thats a valuable bit of advice: In life you have to be a fast learner, you have to be a street smart villager, else the wolves will devour you all up. Hope to get there soon.