Entry 06

The genre of social deduction games is not an easy thing to put into words. From what we played in class, as well as the readings and videos, I would say that social deduction games are things where you try to uncover truths or gain valuable information that will lead to your success. You use your role in order to gain information that allows you to determine who you can trust, who you cant, and who to be suspicious of. My goals during the game consisted of gaining as much information as possible, as fast as possible to get the best chance of winning each game we played. If I was to put the genre into a few words, I would use mysterious, intense and entertaining. The games make you work and think quickly to outsmart or outplay the other teams. If you don't get the necessary information in a round or two, the whole game (Two Rooms and a Boom) could move out of your favor due to how fast things change.

In different ways, social deduction games use all elements of game design. Sharp highlights goals as being an important element of design. The games that we have discussed or played have goals (the main one being winning, but our extreme werewolf variant also had goals for certain roles). Another element was the action or playspace, which could be anywhere where the game can be changed to fit the space. Other elements, such as choices, rules, challenges and feedback can all be included in the social aspect of deduction games. You have opportunities to make choices and face challenges during the game in order to push toward your goals. 

Playing these games in class were very entertaining. As Ankit writes in his "On Games, Part 2: Social Deduction Games",  the games make social interaction and deduction extremely critical to playing and winning the game. During our games on Thursday (Two Rooms and a Boom), my role as the agent allowed me to figure out who to trust and who I knew to keep in and out of the room. Gathering all the information quickly allowed us to win the game without the opposing team being suspicious. I did not get the opportunity to play a spy or the president / bomber but I can imagine that sharing your cards within those roles would be much more intense since you have to believe that whoever you're showing doesn't give the information away to someone else.