Among Us: Should your playgroup adopt anonymous voting?
The beta patch for Among Us is currently available for the PC version of the game, and features a few changes that are undergoing testing. One of those is the ability to anonymize voting in Among Us, something that most players either do or don’t want to play with. So should your playgroup adopt anonymous voting?
Whether or not to use anonymous voting in Among Us
Many players will already have a strong, immediate opinion about anonymous voting in Among Us right from the start, but regardless of how you feel now there are certain things you should think about before committing to one way or the other. These include who does anonymous voting benefit, who does it restrict, what strategies will it diminish, how do you want your playgroup to play, and does it solve any problems currently experienced in your playgroup.
Who benefits/doesn’t benefit from anonymous voting in Among Us?
It’s quite easy to see how anonymous voting shifts the balance of power in meetings in Among Us. Without the ability to see who voted for whom, it becomes much harder for players to identify which players voted with the group’s opinion, and which players voted against it.
On the one hand, this strongly benefits impostors who no longer need to worry about whether or not they might accidentally give off too much information in the way that they voted. The crew, on the other hand, will have a much harder time forcing a strict organization, as players can simply say they voted with the majority while really voting in their own interest.
What strategies does anonymous voting diminish in Among Us?
Of course, it’s not a strict benefit for impostors. One difficult strategy for impostors to pull off has been to take control over the pace of the meetings by directing the crew one way or another. A skilled impostor can use their charisma to get the group to vote out another member of the crew, or call out a crew member who doesn’t follow them.
If your playgroup has a player who commonly takes over the discussion then it can seem like business as usual when they do so as impostor. However, with voters being unidentified it can be much more difficult for them to organize the crew against themselves as well.
But mostly it harms crew players who like to gather information and attempt to discover the impostors through detective work. While plenty of crew members will still be able to “play detective,” impostors will be able to go against the group without simply outing themselves in the process. This effectively removes one source of clues from the game.
Of course, anonymous voting doesn’t only restrict Among Us, it also opens up new avenues to play. One new strategy to employ might be to vote for yourself when playing lead detective, thus giving you a reason to play a more “paranoid” playstyle. If the crew believes someone is after you then they might be more inclined to listen to you.
Problematic developments in prolonged Among Us playgroups?
If you play with a consistent playgroup, it can be worrying to see how the group’s strategies develop, especially when it becomes obvious that the newer strategies can make the game much less fun for everyone to play. The game is only fun if both sides have a chance of winning, and if a strategy is too strong then it can make the game much less fun.
More advanced strategies in Among Us, like stacking, task watching, and vote brigading can make the game much less enjoyable, whether you’re playing crew or impostor. If your group can identify all the imposters within the first minutes of the game then it may be time to talk about how you want your playgroup to play.
Anonymous voting can help make your games fresh again, in part by reintroducing uncertainty to a game may be leaning towards certainty.