FM cheating situation.

Mafia, as we think of it, is a game of lies. The entire point of the game, the thing that makes it interesting, is the fact you can lie. You lie about your role, your identity, your night actions. But underneath all this lying, one thing underpins every game.

Trust.

Trust is at the core of any mafia signup. You are trusting that the game is fair. That it will be played with honor. That when the game is over, things will go back to normal. That the host will not pick a side. It holds the whole community together. After all, if you can’t trust that the game WILL be fair to the best of the setup ability, what point is there to play?

Recent actions have threatened this trust. And with it, the very integrity of the game and the community.

Both Mesk and PTB are accusing the other of ‘starting it’. I find this to be largely irrelevant; out of game communication does not take place in a vacuum. All players doing it are complicit in the crime. Neither disputes that they were cheating in the games.

While there was honesty involved in this, and that is going to be considered, there still must be punishment. If there is not a line drawn here, the community will rightly question whether games are fair, and soon there will be no community. We do not offer something that cannot be gotten elsewhere.

I like Mesk as a friend, and her contributions in reports section have been invaluable to me and the other staff; a large number of our current in-game staff cut their teeth under her training.

PTB has also done time in the in-game trenches and is a longterm member of the community himself, and I don’t want to understate his help to the community either.

But that can’t matter here. I need my staff to be held to the same, if not a higher, standard than the regular players.

Effective immediately, Mesk is removed from in-game staff. She’s also opted to resign as head of FM. What this means for the future of Forum Mafia, we’re still figuring out. What it means for in-game, is that Mesk is only a player now. The same goes for PTB.

Additionally, there will be ban time served by both Mesk and PTB, they are not allowed to join an FM game together, and any FM host can decline their signups for any reason including none. These conditions will persist for six months, after which we will re-evaluate the situation.

I know this is going to be a touchy subject, and is a black mark on the history of SC2Mafia. But I hope we can pull together and get past this.

Arrow

PS: This all being said, while I understand emotions will be high after this incident, please remain civil in regards to what is said. All discussion and courtesy rules are still in effect.