There is one

who was the impostor?

Released by Innersloth in 2018, an old, yet new game has risen up the ranks in the gaming world, reaching people from social media and streaming services. Although video game developer, Innersloth, came out with the game two years ago, “Among Us” only recently became popular. Esports sponsor Neal Doolin said he heard about the game in March, during the start of lockdown.

Doolin said he thinks the game became popular when a streamer on Twitch, a live video streaming service, found the game and started playing it. Many gamers use Twitch to watch and support their favorite streamers.

“My understanding is that basically some really popular Twitch streamer found it, thought it looked fun, played it with some of his friends on stream to thousands or tens of thousands of viewers,” Doolin said.

Senior Eric Faltermeier, Esports club leadership member, heard about the game around late summer through Twitch, as well as YouTube. He said streamers such as Sykkuno, Pokimane and Ludwig started playing the game which introduced “Among Us” to their viewers and fans.

“All the mainstream streamers ... started playing it on stream,” Faltermeier said. “I just watched it and thought it’s a good time to play as well.”

During their September meeting, the Esports club played “Among Us,” but Faltermeier has also found a way to play the game with his friends completely virtually. Faltermeier said he preferred playing on his computer so he can talk to his friends at the same.

“We have this thing called Discord,” Faltermeier said. “We all sit in there and we will just talk in there. Then every time we’realive, we just mute our mics and deafen and when the meetings get called, we unmute and talk and see what happens.”

Discord, a messaging platform where users can communicate using voice calls, is used by students like Faltermeier who often play video games with friends.

Freshman Niki Ahmadian, who heard about the game from her brother, also plays other video games on Xbox but said that “Among Us” was easier to use because of how simple it is to play with friends.

“It’s more easier and straightforward to give out a code, and all your friends can join it rather than like hoping to get us in.” Ahmadian said. “I usually play it when I’m with my friends.”

“For Xbox, you have to, make sure everyone’s on at the same time. Hopefully, you get in the same game,” Ahmadian said. “But for ‘Among Us,’ I feel like it’s easier and [more] straightforward to give out a code, and all your friends can join it, rather than hoping to get us in.”

Ahmadian said the goal of the game was to finish tasks on a ship before the impostor(s) kill everyone. Although players can’t choose to be Impostor or Crewmate, Ahmadian said she prefers being impostor, especially when playing with friends.

“[I] definitely [like being] impostor more because if you’re playing with your friends and like you know

students express their views on a popular online video game

you’re the impostor, you can follow your friends around and kill them,” Ahmadian said. “It’s more fun and you have a mission.”

Faltermeier had the same preference as Ahmadian, but Doolin said that having a mix of being both impostor and crewmate is good.

“I think everyone’s going to tell you they prefer to be the impostor,” Doolin said. “But at some point you can only be the impostor so often when there’s one or two [impostors] ... I would never want to be all one or all the other.”

After his friend mentioned the game to him in March during quarantine, Doolin also started playing the game with friends.

“I like mafia-style games,” Doolin said. “I think that style games are really fun. You know, deception, trying to outsmart other people, trying to act innocent.”

Mafia-based games are turn-based, whereas “Among Us” happens in real time. “Mafia,” a social deduction game often played in parties, is similar to “Among Us,” except it happens during daytime and nighttime with pauses in between. “Among Us” happens in real time, which means there aren’t breaks except for emergency meetings which are held when a “body” is reported or a player pushes the button.

“If the crewmates see a ‘dead body,’ and they can report it, there’s a whole meeting where they talk about, you know, wherever it was near trying to figure out who killed them,” Faltermeier said.

Playing other games such as “League of Legends” and “Rocket League,” Faltermeier said what differentiates “Among Us” from other games is its simplicity and ease. Its easily adaptive features allow a user to learn the rules quickly. “It’s a very simple game, but its simplicity is where it shines because it doesn’t take a whole lot to play and you can just vibe out with your friends,” Faltermeier said.

There are also no “levels” or upgrades that can be bought that could let one player have an advantage over another.

In efforts to encourage people to vote in the 2020 election, Democratic congresswomen Alexandria OcasioCorez and Ilhan Omar played “Among Us” live on Twitch to some 400,000 viewers according to bbc.com.

Whether or not “Among Us” will stay popular for long is up in the air but Ahmadian said she thinks the game will die out by the new year.

“I think it’s going to get really hyped up for a few more months and slowly starting to die out again,” Ahmadian said. “This last month … I was really hyped up and now by 2021 I feel like barely anyone’s going to start playing it.”

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