**OK, here it is. Feel free to double check, folks, but I’ve followed every vote and every vote change. I’m 99% sure it’s right.
As of 8:28 PM Tuesday, the vote count is:
Vote Count:
Imaginary Fiend(4): Tom Scud, Telcontar, Nanook, Pedescribe
Ichini(3): Chronos, Zeriel, AllWalker
Pedescribe(2) : Jimmy, CardinalFang
Tom Scud(2): Ichini, Imaginary Fiend
Telcontar(1): ShadowFacts
BillMC(1): Meeko
Meeko(1): BillMC
**
OK, I probably will not get an opportunity to vote tomorrow morning, and my current tentative #1 just voted for my #2, which I can’t reconcile with pedescribe being scum at the moment (because of how the other votes shake out), and if one of them is scum and the other isn’t, all in all, I’m most convinced by the Fiend contingent. IF’s most recent post(s, really) struck me as too concerned with what the rest of us thought about him/her.
So,
**unvote pedescribe
vote Imaginary Fiend**
I am checking in and up-to-date. I agree with most that the cases to be made are still not very strong, but that is to be expected for Day 1.
Since the name-claim spun up and fizzled out with Mahaloth’s divine intervention, the thrust of many cases are based on prior support for this tactic. The general consensus has been (moving towards, at least) that this gambit as a pro-town move, and I am willing to accept that this logic, while perhaps not clear-cut, has enough merit to swing my vote at this point. As I mentioned, the case against pedescribe was not great, and now we have better.
**unvote pedescribe
**So, on to my thoughts:
Ichini: I read AllWalker’s comments, but I place less weight on the fact that he did not correlate name/role early on. We never really settled that we were all going to, and Mahaloth preempted the need by basically telling us that this was indeed the case.
I believe the stronger case is due to the storyteller flip-flop, and the continuing assertion that a mass name claim is a Bad Idea. FInally, his case against Tom Scud seems very weak to me. In particular:
Huh? How is this contradictory? This consistent with his general pro-claim opinion, and that it’s getting late in the Day for the mechanics to work.
Fiend: The case’s main point is Fiend’s very strong, colourful, rejection of the claim theory, to the point of caricature (in fact, some have argued that this may point to his innocence). Fiend’s defense is that no one could have now how good a tactic this was until after Mahaloth’s wrench derailed the possibility, but there was plenty of evidence that it could be a good idea – at least worth discussing – much earlier (cite, cite, cite), especially since Mahaloth confirmed the alignment. Which brings us to this:
The problem here is that Fiend posted this after Mahaloth confirmed the names were not randomized.
Sorry, Fiend, that swings it for me.
vote Imaginary Fiend
Well, I am playing, and I would like to mention a couple of things:
[ul]
[li]Whatever my post count, I am following along and am fully engaged.[/li][li]I am a n00b. OK, that will only buy me so much, maybe nothing, but it’s taken me a couple of days to get the hang of things and into the flow. Consider my n00b chip cashed.[/li][li]For discussion like today’s – back and forth with short posts and banter for a few hours in the middle of the day – there is no way I am gong to be able to play that way. In general, during working hours (7-7 or so CDT, US), I am not on the SDMB. I’ll try to check in once or twice going forward, but it won’t be an all-day thing (things seem quieter in the evenings, for some reason – only four posts outside of mine in the last couple hours).[/li][/ul]
I’ll try to get a little more interactive during the day, but I will never be Meeko.
I think, Frankly, I need to be more cardinal_fang.
Checking in once a day or so works perfectly fine. Personally, i should check in less than i do, work is being neglected some what. And it is common for noobs to be quieter than others. Besides, quantity does not equal quality, it’s more important to be thoughtful than loud.
To begin with, I hate self-pitying “bah, I told you so” posts, and much more so when they’re my own. I’ve actually been considering whether or not to post this to the game for a couple of hours now. However, even despite my extreme misgivings, it seems I can’t help but make that melodramatic last gasp. I feel bad for being voted off the island on Day One, especially for the reasons that I see presented, but I think I’d feel worse if I didn’t speak my mind. I guess I’m just not one for “Aw, shucks. Better luck next game.”
So, a caveat: The following is equal parts sarcasm and vitriol with some sprinkles of self-pity to boot, so don’t expect anything too profound. You’re probably better off skipping it.
Anyway, I find it deeply ironic that Meeko, who strikes me as the type of player who the scum would gladly use as a screaming meat shield, will live to see another Day and I’m getting frog-marched to the gallows. I guess it’s all in how you present yourself, isn’t it?
Well, to take a page from his playbook, behold:
I suppose it’s bad form to post that, but I’m sort of beyond caring. At this point I’m just putting this out as an “I told you so” and hopefully as an object lesson that some of us aren’t acting suspicious or scummy on purpose, but because we’re trying to get a handle on the game.
And, you know, it even occurred to me that I’m damned for doing this now because everyone already knows that the scum have back-up fakie PM information, which must make me both pathetic and a liar, right? My god, I must be the worst scum player ever! Or is that the best? Or is that the worse town player?!
You know, I’m not even going to argue it.
I will have to say that I’m very disappointed that the continued fixation on the character of my initial statement, and also the pseudointellectual garbage that, when you get right down to it, boils down to the idea that since the supporters of name claiming were “right” (which I guess they must’ve been since Mahaloth changed the rules), those who disagreed must somehow have had bad intentions. I, for one, simply didn’t know any better. I thought I was doing the Town a favor by raising an alarm. Damn, I’m sorry I did that. I could have lurked or argued over some previous slight in another game and I’d apparently have been far more likely to have made it to endgame.
What actually disgusts me the most about the whole thing is how emotionally charged I let a bunch of arguments scrawled in a message board make me. I haven’t had much experience with this game, but this was a learning experience in the negative sense, and one that I truly never wish to repeat.
To sum up, I really regret how I played this game, both by being too vociferous when I shouldn’t have been and too quiet when I shouldn’t have, and it pisses me off that the one idea I decide to counter-champion among many ideas that were thrown around turns out to be the potential exploit that Mahaloth didn’t see coming.
We now return you to your paranoid obsessing, minus one Imaginary Fiend.
Unfortunately for Fiend, that claim tells us nothing. If it came prior to Mahaloth’s fix, there would be the chance for a counter name claim. If the description were anything but Vanilla Town, that would allow the possibility of a counter role claim. If IF really is VT, that is just bad luck on that front.
At this stage I am unsure who is more Scummy out of Ichini and IF. My vote is unlikely to alter the outcome at this stage, so I will leave it where it is and look back over the cases later. Either way, I stand by my vote.
Fiend: Even though I do the “grumpy last post” myself when I’m voted off, mislynches happen, especially for stupid reasons (that are only obviously stupid to you, since the rest of us don’t know your alignment) on day one.
It could be worse–I once (as Town Roleblocker/Vigilante, who’d nailed a scum no less!) got speedlynched in the last few hours of a Day because I brainfarted and accidentally voted for a confirmed mason, which for some reason made the town decide to last-minute railroad me while the scum stood by and laughed.
You know what, though? I’m convinced. Or, at least, convinced enough to meet the low bar required at this point to change my vote. Unfortunately, that puts us back in a tiebreaking situation, and I’m not that convinced Ichini is scum. If I vote anywhere else, we’re tied. If I keep my vote where it is, I’m condemning someone I believe to be town.
I have to reread. If I’m being manipulated, I want it at least to be with full information.
I think I can help with that dilemma. I’ve looked over the cases and like every other Day 1 they are weak. But out of them I think the case against Ichini is the best.
Vote Ichini
Turns out I was wrong, anyway. My vote wasn’t a tiebreaker.
Anyway, I’m back where I started.
**unvote Imaginary Fiend
Vote pedescribe**
First off, IF: I’m sorry that I caused you pain.
That said, I don’t see any better cases against anyone else: all of the prominent (in my mind) targets could easily be townies:
Ichini was throwing stuff against the wall, as were we all, this being early on day 1. And he came up with a mafia commonplace: the guy who posts a big info dump that isn’t directly related to scum-hunting could well be a scum trying to look helpful. And applied it.
Per his non-posting of whether his name and alignment matched, the big push only came with AllWalker’s post (#328) Monday morning, and Ichini didn’t post anything between then and Maha’s post of 4:41 PM (#370). I don’t think lynching people for missing a 6-hour window of gameplay is a good idea.
His accusation of me looks pretty OMGUS-like to me, but then it would. I guess if it looked to him like Town was heading off in the wrong direction by over-relying on the name-claim analysis, then I certainly looked like the head of the lynch mob.
BillMC looks more like an underparticipating Townie than a scum: he came in, saw that Meeko had gotten into yet another giant annoying fight, and voted on him. He may well not have stuck around to see Meeko’s claim. Then Real Life came along and kept him away from the game ever since.
Pede, likewise, looks like someone who got pushed around by Meeko-related annoyance.
Meeko has claimed convincingly.
Telcontar I frankly don’t see a case against – his vote against Pede seemed underdetermined, but it was also early in the day before things had firmed up, and there weren’t a lot of better choices at the time.
And that covers everyone with votes on them, except me.
Close to the deadline, and here’s where we are:
Imaginary Fiend(5): Tom Scud, Telcontar, Nanook, Pedescribe, CardinalFang, Jimmy Chitwood
Ichini(4): Chronos, Zeriel, AllWalker, Oredigger
Tom Scud(2): Ichini, Imaginary Fiend
Telcontar(1): ShadowFacts
BillMC(1): Meeko
Meeko(1): BillMC
Oredigger’s vote for Ichini means that an additional vote for Ichini, or an unvote for IF without a revote specifically for Ichini, will generate a tie. I strongly advise anyone who wants to vote for Ichini, or to unvote IF but NOT revote Ichini, to announce their intention to do so, and reasoning, without actually doing it. This will allow us to carefully manage the voting situation without risking a tie. I will be around and available for most of the next two hours, and so I will withhold my vote to be sure a tie doesn’t happen.
I’m going to look at IF, Ichini, and Tom Scud over the course of the next few hours. My vote will be for one of the three, one way or another.
And Ichini, if you have a role claim, I’d make it real soon. You’re as close to the gallows as Friend, really.
Your vote wasn’t a tiebreaker, but your unvote was a tie-maker.
You miscounted, storyteller. There’s still 5 on IF and 4 on Ichini.
Right, it was 6-4. Switching to Ichini would have done the trick.
Despite my promises to the contrary, I ought to be around until the deadline, as well. [’
Whoops. I obviously can’t be relied upon to count. However, my exhortation, carefully made before Jimmy’s unvote, now applies after it.
**Vote Count:
Imaginary Fiend(5): Tom Scud, Telcontar, Nanook, Pedescribe, CardinalFang
Ichini(4): Chronos, Zeriel, AllWalker, Oredigger
Tom Scud(2): Ichini, Imaginary Fiend
Telcontar(1): ShadowFacts
BillMC(1): Meeko
Meeko(1): BillMC
Pedescribe(1): Jimmy Chitwood**
Hm. Is that really what we need? Role claims just in case?