I've managed to avoid becoming emotionally invested in these games... except for one game: the infamous Pokemafia. And not for the usual reasons, like Dash are cheaters
or whatever, but because of the townie alliance.
Khush kinda set up me and Ceric in a fledgling townie alliance, and as the game went on, we were PMing back and forth constantly, sharing strategies and commiserating about the poor townies' bad luck. It was annoying because we knew who we had to vote out, but we just couldn't do it. Anyways, the thought occurred to me towards the end, if Ceric were "playing" me or whatever and wasn't really a townie, I would've felt pretty upset from the utter betrayal, as I genuinely trusted him. Eventually he and I were alone again in the alliance (our "recruits" having been killed off after bolstering our number to maybe 5 or 6), and I got killed, and then he died, and it was revealed that we
were both townies. Needless to say, I was thoroughly relieved that, although we lost, we had both been telling each other the truth at least.
After that, I decided not to get too emotionally involved. Mafia's exciting and all, with the scheming and strategizing and intrigue, but it's really just a game in the end.