<Inaba_Tewi> Bard where's that case you were supposed to post :V
I'm going to make the case here that people who repeatedly have a negative effect on the Mafia environment should be carded, if not entirely barred from participation, duration of said barring to be determined by figures other than me. I will detail what I understand to be negative effects, the Mafia environment and why this is a good idea.
First of all, let's handle what I consider Mafia environment. This is rather important, as it extends to more than just the game state when it is under way. The Mafia Environment is the entire process of sign-ups, gameplay, Graveyard and post-game. I will consider any or all of these processes to be "the Mafia Environment", and souring any one of these or more is grounds to declare that someone has "a negative effect" on "the Mafia Environment".
Sign-Ups, Graveyard and Post-Game are, I believe, important parts as well, as anyone dicking around in Sign-Ups may discourage people from Signing-Up, whereas Graveyard attitudes are often insulting and Post-Game can be rife with negative attitudes, sore loser-ism and other such things that are just not encouraging sportsmanship and positive play.
What I consider a negative effect is rather broad, but nonetheless important: Any deliberate and continued/repeated action(s) which discourages players from participating in the game or discourages players from interacting with the source of said action, or any deliberate and continued/repeated action(s) which give unequivocal insult to players participating in the game[/i]. Put simply, this means emotional abuse and cyber-bullying. When I say 'deliberate', I mean that accidents can and will happen which may inadvertently create a negative effect on the game state.
Lurking due to extenuating circumstances has a negative effect on the game, as does lynching a newbie you honestly think is Scum, but neither are deliberate. Deliberate actions include treating people without any respect, (excessive) name-calling, calling into question one's rational abilities, attributing failure to one's echelon or implying problems in another's parentage/heritage. There are of course many other things, but these are rather prevalent, both in the game itself and in the Graveyard.
Yes, calling Townies a mass of idiots is a deliberate action which gives unequivocal insult to players participating in the game. One may not feel insulted but it is an action designed to do thus or to otherwise assert intellectual superiority to others, which is being a petty jerk and exhibits social inferiority. Yes, claiming you have extenuating family circumstances while no such thing is real also counts.
To put it in plain terms: anyone who is an untoward and deliberate dick ruins the game or upsets players, and we should want to discourage this.
Why? Because, frankly, it is a cancer on MoTK Mafia here. Mafia is a game of social intrigue where an uninformed minority faces off against an informed majority. The purposes of each Townie are to come to an understanding of who are against the Town and then make others come to the same understanding so as to effect a lynch on that person.
For Scum, the goal is to confuse Town and manipulate their actions onto other members of the Town or otherwise throw into disarray Town's attempts to unmask the Scum.
It's a battle of wits.
Sadly, some people feel that emotional manipulation/abuse, bullying and other such underhanded trickery is entirely acceptable. It should not be. Above everything else Mafia is a Party Game, which means you play it with a group of people. You play with a Group of People. No one plays the game solo (unless you're a Third Party, but even then others play with you) and no one person is ever accountable for the failure of either side of the competition. At the end of the Day, everyone should conclude Mafia with the joy of having played a game and to have bested maybe person X in a battle of wit.
It is impossible for everyone to experience such feelings if one or more people insist on souring the game "by any means possible" in order to stroke their own egos or assert their own (intellectual) superiority over others. If you want to feel better about yourself, Mafia should not be the venue for that.
Eliminating this style of play should decrease the need for a "time-out" to let "heated emotions" die down, or otherwise "recover" from a Mafia game over much. It will also lead to less animosity in the game, meaning that the state of gameplay will not be soured by the egocentric actions of few, which surely ruins it for a majority. Saying "no" to these players, or this type of play, together will ensure that no one should feel singled out for feeling their gameplay ruined. Assertions such as "I refuse to play with Person X" or "I would rather not join a game X is in" means that person has a negative effect on the Sign-Up process, but a mod should not be forced to "be the bad guy" and choose one over the other.
So. tl;dr, we should card or ban people who are excessive dicks by default instead of relying on the judgement of game mods. ##VOTE: Yes to agree to this proposal and to say "NO" to all this cocking around by jerks. :3
