Sorry for lurky-lurky the past bit. Suck network access + busy days = killmenow.... figuratively.
Also, Adventures in Playstyle
(tm) success!
Extend, though I suspect it'll be the only vote for it.
MOWE:
SBC: I find your theory...different. From what you've been arguing thus far, it seems like you're main thing is those uo look the most innocent are probably the guilty ones. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I see. That is sort of my way of thinking as well. I'm somewhat suspicious of you, but I don't think you're scum. Yet.
If this is what SBC's arguing, I'd definitely agree with him, sometimes. The goal of scum is to stay unnoticed and seem innocent. This doesn't always work.
I'll add that very active Town will often look not innocent, because scum-hunting isn't a "nice" activity. Your goal in scum-hunting is to catch inconsistencies, and the easiest way to do that is to rile someone up, and force them to make a mistake. Another way to do that is to give the Scum a good target to go after, with the attendant risks.
Scum rarely give themselves away easily.
Makeinu: Town hunting? No sir. Scum hunt town (in a way) and town hunt scum, finding town in the process. This stinks of scum.
Hunting someone and deciding their town is a perfectly legitimate strategy.
It's often a very effective strategy as well, as you can see who else piles on your target. Scum, obviously, knows who Town are, but they're hunting as well, because they want to find the power roles. See, bandwagoning and sheeping don't come just on the vote records, they also come from attacks and defends.
So, if you're hunting someone, trying to figure out their alignment, focusing
only on the scum can lead to dangerous levels of Confirmation Bias, where everything you see that says "I'm right! He's [blah]" gets noticed, and contrary arguments get ignored. Scum-hunting is
as much about clearing people as it is about finding scum.
Mastahcheese: All you've done is hunt and push. You seem like the perfect townie. I've found no fault in your reasoning thus far. I'd say town.
I'd agree with you that Mastahcheese seems to be good town. But keep in the back of you mind the possibility that he could be very good scum.
There's another factor: even moderately good scum, and sometimes bad scum, can
look good and Town in comparison to a very scummy-looking player.
That said, I'm pretty convinced mastahcheese is Town, and I'm the bad example he's being examined in light of.
Sinlessmoon: lurker. But not scummy. You seem to have a valid excuse. Fear is a powerful thing.
Indeed, just because I happen to not be active in the thread, doesn't mean I'm not watching the thread intently. People like to believe that just because If I'm inactive, I am scum; In truth though, I could very well be not scum. Someone who is scum is more likely to be active, trying to throw blame on someone in order to get them lynched. Eh Makeinu?
Fear of what? Losing? It's not like we cut fingers off if you don't win. Get in there and play, dammit!
While it's true that scum tend to be fairly active (I'm more interested and invested in a game when I'm scum, for example), scum's goal is often not to get noticed. Sometimes this means lurking. Lurkers are also annoying to have around as lack of activity can kill a game or make a scum win easier. It also causes town to have less information about that player.
Anyway, if you had to vote this second, who would it be on?
While true, it would be much more likely (in my opinion) that scum would be really active. Lurking on the other hand seems counter-intuitive to the scums goal which would be to get other players lynched. Although this comes from a guy who's only real forum mafia game is this one... Well, lets just say that take it with a large helping of salt.
Also, to who I would vote on? Makeinu would be that person, he seems overly suspicious and seems to be very pro-lynch towards everyone. I just don't trust him.
Also, if you're going to try deflection like that *points at bolded section* at least back it up with an actual vote. FoS just looks weak, if you don't trust me that much.
Btw, multiple town-claiming, I speak from experience,
normally is looked upon as scummy.
So far, the two players on my watch list are Makeinu, and Superblackcat. Both seem equally suspicious in the way they seem to be incredibly pro-lynch.
Pro-lynch. SBC really did make a great case for why it's the best idea, but I'll also refer you back to this from the OP:
I'm not an IC, but I once wrote a rant about nolynches on Day One that I think would be beneficial for this audience, so I quote it below. In brief, you can (i.e., it's a valid vote, and if it has majority no lynch will happen) but you shouldn't unless you have a very very good reason. Actual ICs will, of course, chime in with their own thoughts, and there are different considerations to be had in subsequent days; the below applies only for D1.
Even in a game like this, or a role-heavy game like a BYOR, paranormal, or bastard, without a D1 lynch people will lack context for the conversation during the day, which is the very point of the day game. The information lost is not just the flip of a person, but who voted them, with what arguments, and forms the very foundation of how the town power roles will choose their night actions. Information is key, and timely information moreso. People flipping at the start of D2 is not nearly as useful, and a nolynch will result in people using their powers on whoever they were voting (if block/investigate) or a crapshoot for protections and the like, due to lack of context and closure.
A D1 no-lynch pretty much wastes all of D1 content, and gives scum a chance to NK/convert/whatever while town has to shoot in the dark. The amount of information lost is not small, but most importantly, you lose the opportunity to use it. N1 will never come again. Even if you learn the information later, you'll never get that night back, which scum got for free. Not good for town at all.
Also considering the fact that the D1 lynchee is almost always town (when was the last time anyone saw a scum hang D1?),
Not that rare. The very last game I played (Cybrid Mafia 3) we lynched scum D1. A couple games before that (Politibastard) as well, though that was a... different sort of game. I'm sure there are several others.
So sure, it doesn't happen that often, but it certainly does happen. Plus the possibility of a mislynch is built into the balance of the game. If there is going to be one, it's best for town that it happens sooner rather than later, so maximum information is provided early. It's never good, but a D1 no-lynch is worse.
Please disabuse yourself of the notion that a D1 no-lynch is good for town ever. Except in very narrow types of games where constant (not just D1) no-lynch can be used to break the setup (which is not the case here), whenever you think a D1 no-lynch is good because it's cautious, it's misapplied caution, and will hurt town much more than a possible mislynch would.
Persus: My experience of scum here is horrid
Fake claiming as a third party, and then getting killed for claiming as that third party. Because it's dangerous.
That was a bad situation to replace into, no arguing that.