Recently, the popularity of "AmongUs" has once again pushed the popularity of "werewolf games" to a high point. This kind of deceitful and deceitful, testing people's reasoning, analysis and acting skills, has always had many fans since it was introduced into our country. The wonderful psychological game in the game and the trance when uncovering the truth are often addictive.
The gameplay of the "werewolf game" itself is not a product of recent years, and like tabletop games such as TRPGs, it has evolved over the course of several decades before it develops into the form we know today, as well as various variations of rules and the original fast-paced gameplay for video games.
So let's take a look back at the past and present lives of the "werewolf game" and see how such a board game has become the most popular entertainment among young people.
The origins of the "werewolf game" gameplay can be traced back to the "mafia" invented by Dmitry Davidoff, a professor of psychology at Moscow State University, in 1986.
Dmitry invented the game to get more young people interested in psychology. The rules are also relatively simple - only killers (werewolves) and civilians, no more complex characters, a few playing cards or a note for the lottery can be played.
The game first became popular in Russia and was subsequently taken around the world by international students. At that time, creative social and reasoning gameplay made the "killing game" a wave of popularity everywhere it went. It was also during this time that the rules of the game were expanded and refined, resulting in a variety of more complex and entertaining variants that simulated real social environments.
For example, the introduction of the identity of the "police detective" can help the civilian camp to find out the identity of the character, while the "godfather (or boss, senior killer)" can restrain the detective and hide his identity; the "doctor" can protect civilians from being killed, and the "forensic doctor" can know who the murderer is; there are also such as "killer lover", which will try to mislead the civilian camp to protect the two-sided role of the killer, so that the game has more variables.
The "killing game" was also introduced to China around 1998, and it has a more familiar name - "close your eyes when it's dark". I believe that many friends have been more or less in contact with each other in childhood, but because there has been no unified rule with a high degree of dissemination in China, "please close your eyes when it is dark" seems to have always been a kind of small-scale game that everyone can only see in extracurricular activities, and there will be some discrepancies in the rules adopted between different groups, such as some requiring players to take turns to speak, and some encouraging everyone to discuss freely.
Until the emergence of "Werewolf Killing", a publication derived from the "killing game", it provided a unified and complete basic rule for domestic players, and also pushed the enthusiasm of domestic players for "killing game" to a new high point.
Why did the "werewolf" replace the "killer" as the more popular villain? In fact, "Werewolf Kill" is not the pioneer of this setting - as early as the popularity of "killing games", people have been trying to play with a variety of different themes, such as aliens, spies or werewolves. It's just that the "killing game" at this time is only a kind of game rule that has been circulated in the folk, not a commercial publication like "Werewolf Killing".
Until 2001, the Frenchman Philippe created a game called "Miller Valley Werewolf" based on the rules of the "Killing Game", marking the binding of the "Killing Game" rules to the "Werewolf" setting, and was also used for commercial publication for the first time.
There are many reasons why the "werewolf game" has become popular. From the perspective of playing, players need to use words to prove or conceal their identity, which not only tests people's logical reasoning ability, but also needs to use their own speech and emotional expression to make other players believe in you as much as possible - in layman's terms, it is to fight for acting. Players who have been exposed to tabletop role-playing games should have a feeling that they can devote themselves to their roles, and the feeling of pretending to be true, and even to the end, even believing in themselves, is quite a sense of accomplishment.
From a strategic point of view, players with different identities also need to focus on listening to other people's speeches, looking for loopholes and analyzing and inferring from them; while the "werewolf" side must hide their identities as much as possible while eliminating the good guy camp one by one, even selling their teammates. This atmosphere full of fraud and suspicion also adds a lot of unique fun to the "werewolf game".
With the trend of "werewolf games" becoming more popular, artists in the field of video games are not far behind. For example, "Winter Project", "AmongUs" and other works provide players with different styles of stage, with video games to play more rhythmically, allowing players to experience the fun of collaboration, subliminalism, and mutual deception and murder.
In the continuous iteration and development, this enduring unique game has gradually extended various variants that emphasize interactive and social elements, such as "cat and mouse killing". The so-called "cat and mouse killing" refers to the updated "who is alien" mode in the recent "Tom and Jerry" mobile game. The addition of additional gameplay to this game is a typical example of traditional ideas being mutated and optimized under new platforms and formats.
In the setting of the game, the trouble-making aliens arrive at Tom and Jerry's home, where their mission is to catch the alien and drive them out of the house. But the cunning alien can change into Tom and Jerry to confuse the public, so the two sides begin a scheming duel.
At present, players can only play this mode with the rat character, completing the task within a limited time or voting to eliminate all aliens to win; aliens need to stun all rats to ensure that the number of surviving rats is less than the number of aliens.
From the overall logic point of view, this "cat and mouse killing" gameplay is closer to the "werewolf game" routine, but under the background of the comedy theme of "Tom and Jerry", the overall atmosphere is more relaxed and witty than the "werewolf game" we usually see, which is very suitable for partying and playing with family and friends.
On the other hand, due to the low threshold for getting started in the game itself, even players who have not experienced the "werewolf game" can easily learn and devote themselves to this cat and mouse drama that is both true and false.
When you notice danger or detect a rat that is not quite right, you can immediately call an emergency meeting and tell everyone what you think. Mobile-based games are also very convenient for communication, players can open the microphone with one click, unfold their own long and calm reasoning, or directly type to explain the point of view; this is also a key moment to test the "acting skills" of aliens.
<h1>epilogue:</h1>
The reason why "werewolf games" have been popular all over the world for decades is because it provides a wonderful stage for players to feel the tension caused by mutual suspicion, suspicion and even murder; it also tests the logic and skills of players, so that players who are good at playing can get a full sense of achievement.
From the traditional "killing game" to today's "cat and mouse killing", they provide us with a platform to feel the brains and social fun in ordinary daily life. Or as long as our brains are active, this unique pattern and fun will never go away.