Believe it or not, I've been around the block a lot longer than most people care to admit. And I don't mean in life in general, I mean in Mafia. I've seen more than my fair share of rage quits over other player's behavior. Harsh as it sounds, in most of these cases it's because the offended player got too invested in what might just be scum baiting town for a mislynch, or to say a town aligned player got too invested in their line of logic and notion. Never once have I seen scum rage quit because town riled them up. I have seen players, scum and town alike, quit because somebody took offense to something they said and fired back ten fold, making the player feel unwelcome.

Mafia is not a game to be played with kid gloves on. It is literally a game of deception and betrayal. And it's easy to get your feelings mixed up in there. But all parties need to remember that it's just a game. If you feel yourself getting heated, take a day, go do something else, and come back and respond with a cooler head. If you feel somebody you are disagree with is getting heated, do the same. Take a day, go do something else, give them time to cool off, then come back and try to re-explain your stance in a different way. If they still get heated, don't push just state your piece and leave it at that. As a GO, you have the right to step into your game and exercise the same thing. Tell the parties to take a corner and force a breather.

As for the Code of Conduct, here's the section on behavior for NGA:



At best the only thing you can fling at somebody is harassing (bullying is umbrella'd here) and being disrespectful. Both of which are extremely blurred lines. For example, continually pointing out a mistake another player made could be construed as harassing, but reviewing history is an integral part of the game. Disrespectful is a handful onto itself. This one is based majorly in opinion when other factors aren't involved (by which I mean flaming and the like). The other things (trolling/baiting) are common place in mafia because half the game is aimed at being disruptive and, in the context of the game, it's not actually disruptive to the thread so it wouldn't be a violation of the CoC. While Flaming could apply, KoD pretty much nailed that distinction on the head in his last post. About the only other way you can claim somebody could violate the CoC is if somebody accuses the GO of back seat moderating. :\

My secret is to design games where hatred as a built-in mechanic.