MVP

MVP Award Ribbon

MVP (Most Valuable Player) = an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests. MVP is awarded by a Mafia Host, after a game is finished.

The award is typically bestowed to one player only, although there are also hosts who have elected not to give an MVP award (Movie Mafia) if they feel there are multiple players (usually an entire Faction) deserving this or 2 MVP awards (Amber Mafia) if they feel the game is sufficiently complex to give out 2 MVP awards.

Story

The story behind the MVP Award is that people were mad that all players were getting rep points for winning games and that some didn't do anything to deserve them. E.g. if a Goodie dies N1 they would get the same rep points as that Goodie who led the lynches and won the game. Sometime during Era 5 it was decided to start asking hosts to give MVP Awards. So in a sense the rep points were promoting activity and not how good a player was and this was our way of fixing it.

Controversy

Hosts are free to select and declare a person MVP if they feel that person has contributed decisively to own faction win, or has influenced the game by a clever move or a series of well-thought moves or whomever they feel is "most valuable". The definition varies from host to host. Of course, subjectivity means some players may disagree.

• Hosts seem to be biased towards players that are there in the end to ensure the final victory i.e. alive players.
• Some hosts may think that MVP requires you to have been on the wining side and survived till the end of the game. This type of bias may have precluded recognition of some good game playing in the past.
• There is also a Newbie-Move Bias. As a host you see a new player, you see a nice move or steady on his feet the whole game, you feel almost "obliged" to give him the MVP award. Newer players catch a host's attention.
• Another bias exhibited is towards the Indy MVP - Many times, after an Indy win, hosts will choose the Indy. It's almost natural. Being the sole-winner seems like it should automatically award you an MVP. This is natural if the win comes from Mafia skills, but if one wins solely due to a combinations of accidents or straightforward blunders from the other factions this should not qualify as an automatic MVP award.

The MVP award is not supposed to reflect a person's overall experience of playing. It is supposed to represent who did the best in that game. Sure it is luck, yes, it is subjective to the host's point of view and of course there is that whole thing where people get killed N1/N2. The point is to award people for being the most valuable to their faction with rep points. Your own personal reputation is something different that is unique to you and can't be judged

By GMaster479

Links

• See discussion here [1].