Comments on: Why do young techies want to be werewolves?

For a generation of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, a party game called Werewolf encapsulates both the mental challenge and occasionally treacherous behavior of the industry.

[jbaisden]

Not to be negative, but I fail to see how this game differs even slightly with Mofia. In fact, it seems that mofia has more factors involved that would make it a more fun game, such as the addition of the police officer whom can pick a person each round to find out whether or not their the werewolf. The presumption is that there is a single person that moderates the game and adds story to it depending on what happens. It can become quite hilarious.

[OttoDyeDacked]

Werewolf has dozens of roles like that, too. The Seer is the role in Werewolf that is similar to the Police Officer. The games are nearly identical, just with different themes.

[jkohut]

"The way that the werewolves win is that one, they know what's going on so they have more information, and two, they are able to convince the townspeople who don't have info to basically forget about everything they've heard," Ventilla explained. "When you vote with your gut you're extremely swayed by the person sitting next to you. Each werewolf is trying to convince the villager to their right or left that the two of them are in it against everybody else."

This almost sounds like you are talking about politics(I am going to go out on a limb and suggest Rpublican politics ala Carl Rove), not a gaming scenario. Luckily enough, the most recent election allows "the villagers" to have a pencil and paper (the internet) and to get up and "walk around" (the internet) and think for themselves. Maybe playing "Werewolves" will continue to make people thing for themselves.

[Len Bullard]

There is a level of ignorance to this kind of game behavior that speaks to what is wrong in the Internet markets and in the Internet development community. O'Reilly should be ashamed. "this quality of emergent behavior and elegant systems, that unfolds into all kinds of complicated behavior from a very simple set of rules" is a way of saying, "if we put three child predators in a school system, they can use their simple positions and basic goals to damage lives in very complex ways that won't be undone".

IOW, it's BS talk from amateurs on topics of which they know so little as to be laughable but the press takes such talks seriously because they know so little as to be incompetent.

My advice: if the guy in the cube next to you is playing "werewolf", at the next full moon beat his computer into small pieces with a silver handled stick. Let him keep score with a pencil and paper. If someone in your business circle believes this is the kind of experience they need to do business with you, dump their products, dump the relationship, and be sure to inform the Better Business Bureau.

[viper396]

Wow, you are a complete @ss. People are just blow off steam and having a little social fun and all you can do is act like some arrogant prick who's better then everyone else. Must be lonely being you.

[Len Bullard]

It's creepy. If that's fun, that's creepy too.

[mrorie]

Overreact much? I'm sure you're a pleasure to do business with yourself...

[danielbrashler]

I've assisted an internet-based game company called Looney Labs with demonstrating this game at conventions for several years. It is very popular with "geek" crowds, because it's socially interactive within an artificial structure. The company has tons of other excellent games, but this is the one that 14-18 yr olds play literally through the night. It presents social interactions as a puzzle to be solved, and for techies -- if it's a puzzle, they're in, and for adolescents, anything that puts a clear but frangible set of rules onto social interactions is also a hit. http://wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Werewolf/

[ebrandel]

One thing I'm missing: how does the werewolf kill someone during the night mode without moving or alerting the people around him that he's the werewolf? If you close your eyes, you can still hear the movement of people around you.

[ralfthedog]

Just a guess, I think the wolf points to the person who they want to kill and the game master tells that person they are dead.

[ctbcctbc]

@ebrandel usually there's a moderator who's "awake" at night as well. At night the werewolf (or mafia man, as I've learned it) points to a victim. During the day, the moderator announces who died.

I've played mafia for years, since I was a kid. The Wikipedia article for mafia shows some interesting variations that you may want to play as an adult (or kid, for that matter).

[knowles2]

Sound like good fun game to play at end of the day at conferences and let your hair down after a hard day of interrogating fellow players and cooperate espionage and learning new skills and coming up with new ideas.

I remember playing something similar when I went on a camping trip while at school once, cannot remember exactly what we played but I remember it was incredible fun to play and got me talking to the other kids from all the other schools there, which is unusal considering how shy I am normally.

These types of games are just perfect for breaking down barriers an getting people talking to each other and trading ideas and secretes.

I wonder if players traded company secrets in return for a name of a werewolf or the villagers.

[Mergatroid Mania]

Wow. I can really think of about a billion things I'd rather do than play a game like this (like getting a tooth pulled).

These people really don't have anything better to do?

[viper396]

Funny how you took time out from your assumedly busy life doing a "billion things" to posts rhetorical and meaningless comments here. {thumbs up}, you're a winner.

[LuvThatCO2]

So... they're playing Vampire the Masquarade at corporate conferences now?

I'll stick to dungeon crawling, thanks.

[Vurk]

Actually, no. Werewolf is a social party game that predates Vampire, Werewolf and all of White Wolf's "World of Darkness" games.
It requires very little to play; one set of rules(on one sheet of paper), some cards and thats about it.

Do *you* play Dungeons and Dragons at *your* corporate conferences?
(If so, which edition? 1st, 1st and a half, 2nd, 2nd a half, 3rd, 3.5 or 4th?)

[TheStairMaster]

I agree with some of the people up top, this game is pretty much a simplified Mafia.

Leave it to tech engineers to tweak something so that they can call it theirs...

[fidomccokefiend]

"a club that counts Digg founder Kevin Rose, Facebook evangelist Dave Morin, and ubiquitous wine guru Gary Vaynerchuk as devoted members"

Wow, it MUST be cool then. What a bunch of self important D Bags. Can I tweet during gameplay?

[gsigas]

It sounds like an interesting game. And as a villager you would be learning useful skills in persuading others not to kill you and in detecting betrayers/liars but as a werewolf you are learning how to be a better liar and betrayer. So if you are really good at being a villager that is great, but if you are really good at being a werewolf that is disturbing.

[cvaldes1831]

After seeing Kate Beckinsale in a leather catsuit in "Underworld" I decided that I'd rather be a vampire.

But that's just me...

[Henzapper]

Wait, so is this basically Mafia without the police (or in some cases, the doctor)? Well, still sounds like fun, though I've never heard of a game going beyond a few hours. These must be giant crowds.

[Floydian68]

I play at werewolflive.com and find it to be different from mafia only in the flavoring. It does actually FEEL different though when I play there as opposed to other mafia sites.

[yt9ikh]

I don't think of the people involved in MySpace, Rails, or Facebook as "high tech entrepeneurs"; while popular, those applications are about marketing and fashion, not technology.

[JacobDavenport]

Soon they will all be playing on the iPhone version of Werewolf. (http://www.koryheath.com/werewolf)

And I disagree that this game is about salesmanship and persuasion. The game is about lying and detecting lying. I've been playing since 1997, when the game was renamed from Mafia, and my group has become very good at detecting liars, and at lying.

[srblack1167]

Okay,

Maffia and Werewolf play by the same rules set. 3 character types: Killers, Mob, & Informed person. Rule: Killers kill in secret, Mob kills a suspect, Informed person secretly gets a clue each turn.

The theme is changed to a Science Fiction theme that catches the attention of "geekdom" that playing cops'n'murderes doesn't. There is a "Seer" that has a "vision" every night - instead of a Cop/Doctor/Detective that uncovers clues. And you've already been introduced to the Werewolves and Villigers above.

Due to theme differences, the varriants to the Wereolf and Maffia games don't always transpose so nicely, though.

Now, for those that play both games there is an element of social dynamics that change when playing personas. First, the player-type that would be attracted to the Werewolf theme would be more of the Science Fiction "geek" than the spy-fan "geek". These differing archetypes of players bring different skill-sets to the game. Then, there is the "role" that one is put into. It gives players a persona to portray for the 20-200 min that the game lasts where they are someone else. Because of these differences, the games end up having a different feel, flavor, and end-product that may have different appeals.

[srblack1167]

I'm a gamer geek. I'll play just about any game at least once. I'm also a Techie, if that matters any.

Werewolf is one that struck my fancy and I became an instant fand. However, I only play it at conventions. I don't have the sheer number of people in my social circle at home to run this game (8-15 ppl for the Looney Labs version).

Every night when the games start I'm there, and I become so emmersed that 5+ hours go by without even thinking about what time it is.

I'm not a good liar. Frankly I suck at it outside of this game. However, I am a good actor. When I get the Werewolf card it takes me about the first 'day' to build up the resolve to lie regarding the question "are you a Werewolf?" After that first round, the rest of the game - for me - is played much like any other game (I look for information). However, instead of looking for the Werewolf, I'm trying to spy out who the Seer is. I have a smaller set of allies, and even smaller set of prey. I am also seeking to limit public information, because the more the village knows about eachother the more likely I'm a target. My night-kills are focused at the villagers that have too much information and share too much with the other people. So, as a werewolf, I seek to limit information while I gather as much as possible.

This game allows geeks to be able to practice social interactions on a small-scale and with no real or lasting outcomes. This also means that they can take risks that they don't allow for themselves otherwise, and stretch their social skills to the limits because it's just a game.

[Scott Gardener]

Dang it, I thought this would be an article about therianthropy or transhumanist genetic modification. Instead, it's just that fraking game. Bite me.