Mafia works great because it is fun for people to interact with one another, while trying to figure out who is the mafia. The limited amount of information also contributes to the game’s fun aspect, as it is fun to try to make out clues, and deduct something out of it.
The most exciting part of the game, I think, is the deduction part. When someone guesses, and they get it right, they will feel satisfied, I think it makes someone feel smarter, and makes them want to play the game again.
When someone guesses it wrong, however, he/she will feel curious and will want to keep playing the game again.
There is no particular strategy in the game really, but I found that when we are a mafia, playing with different style will help in confusing the other players. It takes some time though to left an impression about how we play. Playing in different style means changing from silent type, to normal, to very talkative, or something of the sort.
When the people already have an impression already on us, and they guess wrongly, it would put a slight confusion in their minds. Making them think twice before judging us again.
For making an online game out of this, I think it will be a lot harder, since we can’t see the expression on people’s face. This could be changed by creating this game using a video messenger. The game will make a room with limited people online, they then started assigned roles randomly. They will be given some time to start persuading each other just like the game. During the night part, the mafia will need to click on the person he/she wanted to kill. The killed person will then will have his/her voice muted, until the round restart again.
It should work better then a text based mafia where you need to type to talk.
