On balance, Mafia is a waste of time

The crux of my argument: In the previous round, I argued a lot of comparatives. In this round, I will turn those comparatives into objective facts that are true (on balance) for most people. Mafia generates positives. However, due to the unalienable context, these positives are outweighed by the negatives that are innate within Mafia. Therefore, Mafia is a waste of time. A3: Fatigue As you can see here, the fatigue (i.e. figure out who is Mafia etc.) is largely a result of thinking that you are fatigued [1]. So whilst playing, even though you only fatigue slightly more than natural, to play because you think you are fatigued is probably wrong: 1) If you came home from a long day of work, you would be too fatigued to play the game properly, and hence this would detract from the learning about sub-communication and increase general regret as you play the game poorly. So, in this scenario, the actual fatigue experienced renders Mafia’s positives significantly less; Mafia essentially becomes a poor way for the brain to rest. Depending on the amount of fatigue, watching documentaries on Youtube (i.e. less involved with useful information retention) or sleeping would be better. 2) If you were not actually in a state of fatigue yet thought you were, then not only would you have the negative of thinking you are fatigued, but you would also have the negative of being very inefficient with your time because you choose less involving activities. As I showed, there are better alternatives when you are not fatigued. A4: Regret Regret is a “negative emotion” because the results of regret are, “decreased activity in the ventral striatum, an area associated with processing rewards. There was [from the study] also increased activity in the amygdala, part of the brain’s limbic system that generates immediate emotional response to threat” [3]. Regret here is generated by playing Mafia and: 1) Having better things to do short-term 2) Not working towards your dreams There will come a sense of regret if you decide to play Mafia, in the short-term stage when you play Mafia and recognise that if you had an effort (remember, fatigue is largely due to what we think [1]), you could have done better, short-term, productive and/or rewarding activities. Long-term regret is also a problem. A nurse revealed the top 5 regrets that people have on their deathbed. Included was “the so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content” [2]. It is easy, familiar and non-threatening to play a game of Mafia in the forums, and this is contributes to why it is a waste of time. It is plainly obvious that Mafia is not the best thing that you could be doing with your time, nor even a better option than most things. Succumbing to the ease of a Mafia game will give you feelings of regret. A5: Unnecessary stress Mafia is a game which involves plentiful lying (i.e. if the Mafia told the truth, they would quickly be exposed). Lying is actually quite damaging to your health: “Lies, just like many other things, cause stress and anxiety” [6]. This is especially true when you have to lie numerous times to cover your tracks, which is what Mafia often has you do [6]. To add to this, generally hiding things from people creates further anxiety within people because they fear about being ‘caught out’ (a similar reason as to why lying causes stress and anxiety). A6: Small gains; larger losses I wish to rehash the values argue are involved in playing Mafia. 1) It is not “downtime” or “restful”. If it were restful, there would be no difference between watching television (something which burns 33 calories in 30 mins for the average 185 lbs person) and what could be compared to ‘computer work’ or ‘light office work’ (61-67 calories) [5]. If you also take into consideration the stress, my opponent’s counter-argument is nonsense. This is large negative. 2) It is a relatively poor form of social interaction, which can become damaging as it lacks the physical presence. “All of our Internet interactions aren’t helping [our loneliness] and may be making loneliness worse” [4]. This is a minor negative/neutral/minor positive, as it only may be contributing to loneliness, but the social interaction is still there (albeit relatively unfulfilling). 3) It is a really poor way of learning about human behaviour (for example, sarcasm is notoriously hard to detect on the internet. Comparatively, reading about body language gives you a very effective way of learning about humans and subcommunication). Furthermore, just because you are playing Mafia, that does not necessarily mean that you are developing your understanding of human nature, especially due to communication being through text (scum-tell, due to the text environment, often amounts to guessing). This is a very minor positive. 4) On average, you are actively involved with a Mafia game for 4 hours, and since your life is limited, the value in playing has to outweigh the opportunity cost, or else this is an overall negative investment (waste of time). Hence, since the difference between positives is often larger than the positives of Mafia, this is a moderate to large negative. 5) You could be engaged in more beneficial activities involving short-term and long-term goals. This is a negative but does not make Mafia a waste of time. To give you a rough idea of the values, here are some visuals. Above: Values involved with playing Mafia Above: A comparative Mafia example in figure Above: Opportunity cost explained From these points, it is clear that whilst Mafia does bring positives to the lives of people playing, that there are larger negatives involved. Thus, Mafia is a waste of time. This largely counter-acts my opponent’s arguments found under ‘subjective’ and ‘infinite regression’ headings, because (on balance) Mafia itself is an objective source of negativity for most people (i.e. You will regret playing it. Lying is going to cause anxiety etc.). CA1: None of her examples are mutually exclusive with playing mafia My opponent creates a false dichotomy here, in that the examples I gave are just examples, not the definitive answers. Further examples include (***but are not limited to***: 1) Watching documentaries on Youtube (educational benefit; can do when tired) 2) Socialising with friends/family/ at a party etc. (social skills increase marginally; generally, fun, warm and perhaps educational to be around, depending on the conversation; combats loneliness) 3) Checking finances (can save or generate money) 4) Look for business opportunities (chance to earn money; exciting) 5) Learn a new cooking recipe (exciting; new skills; exploration) 6) Can go on a date (stimulating) 7) Can clean up your living areas (keeps things in order; prevents decay and stinks) 8) Furthering education related to your field, such as attending university, reading further material etc. (creates a sense of fulfilment; practical; employers will take notice) Due to the overall negative state of playing Mafia, the list could extend for quite a length. Brief conclusion Mafia is not just comparatively a waste of time. Mafia is, in itself, on balance, a waste of time. This round should have made the affirmation case clear and free of most of his counter-arguments. For now, the resolution is affirmed. References [1] http://www.scientificamerican.com... [2] http://topinfopost.com... [3] http://www.psychologytoday.com... [4] http://www.slate.com... [5] http://www.health.harvard.edu... [6] http://www.psychologytoday.com...