On balance, Mafia is a waste of time

Thanks, Bluesteel.P1: What can Mafia do for you?Mafia involves making strategic forum posts at regular to infrequent intervals, depending on the player and state of the game. This is a way to socially interact, but there is no physical presence. It is a way to learn about human behaviour, but there are alternatives. It is a way to relax, but there are alternatives. P2: Your life is limitedIf you were born in 2009, the worldwide expected a lifespan was 70.7 years [1]. The limited lifespan of humans is important to note because it renders our choices as to how we spend our time important, due to not having an unlimited amount of time. Add to the physical constraints (e.gs. gravity, other people, social expectations, the country’s law), and it quickly becomes apparent that you cannot do everything in life. In other words, if we choose to do x, we might not be able to do y. So, because of the limitations on life, humans often need to choose which of the better options they will take.A1: You are wasting your time if you play Mafia instead of pursuing achievable alternativesWhat can be done with a life? More importantly, what can you do with your life right now? There are arguably more efficient/productive/pleasurable etc. activities that you could be doing. In this sense, your time is sub-optimally spent. Even as individuals vary in tastes, there are still different, better things individuals can be doing for their unique lives.Sub-point: Better short-term things to doFor example, you could work out at home. The benefits of exercise is widely documented and accepted, but since I have the burden of proof, so let me show you the benefits:1) Physical benefits (including managing of weight, reducing risk of heart attack, more energy etc.) [3]2) Healthier state of mind (lower chance of depression, improved sleeping patterns etc.) [3]For exercises, you do not need a gym. Easy home workouts could involve crunches (video linked for those who do not know this exercise) [5], running and push-ups (all of which involve no cost or equipment).You could read a book. Reading a book can do a number of positives for you, including:1) Stimulate you mentally (e.g. challenge your beliefs)2) Reduce stress (e.g. you can, temporarily, escape from your problems into a book)3) Increase your knowledge, even if only incrementally4) Increase your vocabulary5) Improve your memory (every new memory, involving things like setting, characters etc.-, strengthens existing ones [6])I think you will find whatever positives are found within Mafia are outweighed by these.You could learn about sub-communication (e.g. detect lies, body language etc.). A common argument I heard was that Mafia offers a great opportunity to learn how to sub-communication. Whilst it is a way, I think a much better way would be studying human physical interacting and body language as well as communication in the real world, as opposed to the virtual one. Key differences are:1) Tone is not always there in text, whilst always there in voice. That is why like things like sarcasm are difficult to detect on the internet in plain text, yet far easier to detect with tone2) Body language does not exist one the internet3) There is a delay in conversation online, meaning that true intentions can easily be masked. There is no such delay in real life, allowing for the detection of micro-expressions4) Reading about sub-communication can be translated to reading text, but reading text cannot be translated into reading body languageHere is a resource that can help you learn body-language [4]. Now you have no excuse to be playing Mafia to learn sub-communication.You could also sleep. Many people argue that they play Mafia because they are too tired to do anything. If you are too tired to do anything, then you should be asleep. If you are not tired, then you should be doing something better than Mafia.You should sleep over being tired and playing Mafia for the following reasons:1) It will be easier to maintain your weight2) Your concentration will be improved3) Your mood will be improved4) You’ll look more attractive5) Your internal organs will be healthierEtcetera [7] [8].Sub-point: work towards your dreamsWhilst you may not be able to adopt every homeless child in the world right now, playing Mafia will not (seriously) help you reach that goal. Big dreams usually take small, incremental steps. For example, writing 80, 000 words for a novel will not be done in a day. First, it requires learning how to write. This could require reading articles, books and the like, which could total a week, yet you still would not be at your goal. Investing small increments into these big dreams can greatly reward you in the end. Mafia only distracts from your dreams.A2: It is a time-sinkI crunched the numbers on 20 of DDO’s Mafia games. Taken from the first 10 and the last 10 of Mafia games in DDO’s Mafia Game archive (the average differences between the two subsets was surprisingly little), I found that the average total number of posts in a Mafia game (on average being 6.6 rounds) to be 1261.6 posts [2]. If you consider that there are usually from 10-15 players, you will post an average of 126.16-84.11 times in an average space of 18.05 days [2]. If you consider all the time it takes to compose a post (let us say it takes you 3 minutes to analyse the situation and type a post, but it could easily be more), 3x84 = 252 minutes (over 4 hours). You also have sign-up time, which takes anywhere from 1 day to 3 weeks [9]. Whilst you are not necessarily required to do much whilst waiting, being ready to play Mafia when the sheet fills up is a bit of a burden in that you have to be ready to play when the sheet fills (which is not the time in which you notify of your willingness to play).Also, there is nothing of real value produced by participating/finishing a Mafia game. The results are ultimately pointless, and all the work done in between amounts to nothing more than text.Finally, the knowledge of how a Mafia game operates does not translate significantly into any other aspect of life. What use is knowing what a ‘town’ is in your actual life? C1: Context renders Mafia a waste of timeIn conclusion, considering that Mafia prevents you from making achievable, better use of your time, it is a waste of time. The time that you spend on Mafia is a waste because it does not exist in a vacuum, instead it exists under context (Mafia’s definition: “popular forum game that is found on DDO” is subject to the constraints of existence).Seeing that Mafia does not provide the qualities and/or amount of those qualities other actions provide (P1) (A1), and because time is a limited resource (P2), and due to the amount of time being invested (A2), Mafia is “an action or use that results in the unnecessary loss of something valuable” (waste) of “the measured or measureable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues” (time). Due to the unalienable context, Mafia is rendered a waste of time. Next round, I will elaborate on the important details of this argument, and in doing so, reveal the crux of why Mafia is a waste of time.References[1] https://www.cia.gov... [2] http://www.debate.org... [3] http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au... [4] http://westsidetoastmasters.com...[5] [6] http://psychology.about.com... [7] http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au... [8] http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov... [9] http://www.debate.org...