One particularly annoyed Among Us player cooked up and served to Reddit a meme that pretty accurately sums up the Among Us experience in public games with friends versus private lobbies with randoms. Among Us may still be the darling of the internet in a mid-pandemic world, but that doesn't mean the game isn't without its foibles.
Among Us, the now-infamous social deduction game, came onto the scene in 2018, but the game didn't really take off until July of this year when it was featured on a number of prominent Twitch streams. Since then, the game's player base has exploded, making it one of the year's most popular titles. Players join up in either private or public lobbies of up to ten players, during which time one or more players will be secretly assigned as an Imposter while others serve as Crewmates. Crewmates are tasked with completing small jobs around their level, while the Imposter clandestinely sabotages the level and kills Crewmates when they can. If Crewmates finish their tasks or vote off the Imposter, they win the game, whereas Imposters can win by staying on the ship and picking off as many Crewmates as possible.
The mechanics are simple, but depending on the lobby, the experience can vastly differ. Players who jump into lobbies with their friends on private servers tend to take it more logically, and debate more in depth, whereas in public lobbies, it's rather a different and far more frustrating story. Redditor orangesheepdog isn't the first fan to poke fun at the game's social constructs, but they sum up the lobby dichotomy fairly succinctly in a meme posted on the Among Us subreddit.
The meme is a pretty accurate representation of the private/public lobby experience, which isn't particularly encouraging for players who are looking to jump into public lobbies. Although playing solo is definitely still a possibility, playing with a group is where most of the game's appeal really lies. Private games are often a better experience, but harder to coordinate when players have "lives" and "jobs." Of course, that isn't to suggest that players in public lobbies can't still have a positive experience - it's more that perhaps they should go in with lower expectations.
After all, with more maps and quests and tasks coming out, players itching to jump into the game, but don't have the numbers to round out an entire lobby, will have to depend more on public lobbies to get their fill of new content. So players may not be trying to self-report, but "sus" is probably going to be thrown around a lot less discriminately.
Among Us is available on PC, iOS, and Android.
Source: orangesheepdog