This is, of course, very problematic, because people search for the "Town of Salem" tag and join games they find in order to cheat using what they see on the stream.
To deal with this I automated some censorship images that hide things, but this is very problematic, it only worked up to a certain degree and it couldn't hide everything (it can hide the will and all the usual revealing info on the screen, but it can't censor revealing messages in the chat log, for example).
This is a real shame, as I'm sure it prevents people from streaming the game, which would increase its visibility and bring more potential players to the game.
The best solution for this would be support from the game itself.
I've seen someone suggest something similar (https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=91511), but that was just about bunching some info together, and still wouldn't be an actual solution.
So I'd like to suggest something else: a "Streaming View" window.
This would be an additional window that the game opens, which shows the game just the same, only without all the sensitive information (or perhaps the game can run a local server you can connect to with a browser which shows this view, in order to avoid have multiple windows open).
Then a streamer can play the game on the main window and stream the Streaming View window/page, thus sharing the game without revealing anything onscreen.
Things that should be different in the Streaming View window:
- The entire role selection process should not be shown, naturally.
- Your own will, death note and notes when you open them should not show. The "death note" button should never be there as well.
- No night activity should be displayed at all other than dying, including the chat.
- Evil team members shown in the town list (e.g. "Mafioso" or "Vampire") should not be shown. Neither should your own role, but roles made "public" (e.g. a revealed Mayor) should still be there.
- In the chat log, messages that relate to your role should be absent (e.g. previous night activity results, or other people's whispers).
- Possibly your own whispers as well.
- Role-specific day actions.
- Your cursor should be hidden, otherwise people can see you click where the Death Note button would be, for example. This might need to be done on the streaming software though, I'm not sure.
- I'm sure I missed some, but anything that can reveal information about your role or your teammates, really.
Using all these differences, the Streaming View window should mirror the main window - e.g. when you click the "Chat Log" button, it should open the chat log on both windows.
I know this sounds like a lot of work, but I think it would be worth it to bring more people into the game and to be able to share the gameplay without people exploiting it and ruining it for others.
As it stands, almost everyone who streams it right now just encourages cheating, which I think is detrimental to the game. This idea would make streaming a safe and positive thing.
