This question was sparked by a friend I have invited to play, and who said he did not like Mafia because he "doesn't like not knowing things". He then said he would also prefer RTS games without fog of war, since "not knowing things is very annoying". I then told him he must find life very annoying, since there are so many things one does not and cannot know, to which he replied "no, because I find out the things that I need to know", giving practical examples such as "where have I put my phone" or "what were our sales figures last month". Any questions of a more... existential nature did not seem to interest him - and this is not because he is not clever! He just doesn't care, and that seems to be specifically because he dislikes the state of simple ignorance, understood as the state of awareness of one's lack of knowledge on a specific matter. This exact distaste also was the cause of his distaste for Mafia (and Among Us, etc.).

Therefore, considering there is a common cause for disinterest in what I will broadly call "philosophy" and in Mafia, I wonder how much this filters who comes to play Mafia - and especially Forum Mafia, since it is the deepest and most accomplished form of the game - and stays to enjoy it. My hypothesis is that it does quite a lot. I also notice that most players on many sites seem to have at least some form of intellectual background (often associated with social class), moreso than your average person you would meet on the street, which could indicate that there is an significant filtering process going on.

Furthermore, and although I am aware this stretches beyond the range of my initial reasoning, could playing Mafia - and, again, especially FM - foster intellectual curiosity by forcing its practice?