Suggestion for Mafia games - Anonymity

[Loyal]

Had this bouncing around in my head for a couple days, so here goes:

One problem with Mafia games is metagaming, in which players will make judgments and decisions against other players based not on what the other player has said or done this game, but by what the other player is likely to do based on what they've said or done in past games, or even outside of the game altogether. This leads to such things as voting to lynch a particular player because they're smart enough or unpredictable enough that one doesn't want to take the risk that the other player is on the other team and capable of doing serious damage.

I feel this isn't very fair for the victim, and runs counter to what Mafia is about.

So, my suggestion? Remove everybody's identity. How do we do this?

• Create a dozen or so throwaway accounts, however many we need. Name them things like Mr. Smith or Frank Greenwood. Include one Game Master account. Have a notepad list handy with the (preferably random) passwords of each, to be held by the acting GM. The player accounts will be assigned randomly to players as they sign up. They'll use these accounts until the end of the game, at which point they'll return control of the account to the GM, who will PM the list, and the GM account, to the next GM. The new GM changes the passwords on each account and repeats the process for the players in their game. This helps ensure we don't have to create a ton of new accounts with every game.
• Players are not allowed to declare their actual forum identity. Along the same token, players are not allowed to guess at or declare the real identity of other players. Naturally the no-outside-communication rule applies here.
• To ensure that players don't accidentally post in the Mafia game with their real accounts, or use their Mafia identity to post in the forum proper, Mafia threads are placed in their own subforum (discussion of the game can take place in signup threads, which will remain in this subforum). Only Mafia accounts (including the GM account) are allowed to post in this subforum, and they cannot post anywhere else.

So, what do you guys think?