June 2, 2009: Werewolves Of Silicon Valley

It seems the classic party game of Werewolf (also known as Mafia and published as Are You a Werewolf? and Do You Worship Cthulhu?, among many others) has hit the middle management kids in the tech industry. They seem attracted to because "it generates a lot of interesting behavior with very simple rules." It is also lauded as a training tool for young entrepreneurs, honing their persuasion skills to a fine edge.

And yes, the game is fun. But "fun" doesn't make the accountants happy when you enter it onto an expense report, so these games get compliments like "emergent behavior" and "elegant systems."

-- Paul Chapman