[oog]I’ve just come back from a day of intensive ante-natal instruction, involving several diagrams and indeed photos. All I’m going to say is, that is some trippy shit right there. Tomorrow, I’m in a team away day (i.e. no posting from work) so this is the last posting session for me until c.3 hours to Dusk.)[/oog]
Despite that lack of time, and only slightly worried by how little posting there’s been toDay, I’m going to take a look at JSexton, starting off with some of his own advice about finding scum, taken from:
Day/Night One:
Point 1: Scum will try to act townie. This is important, because I submit ahead of time that JSexton has acted somewhat townie, most especially in posts on game theory and in attacking bad ideas.
But there’s more to finding scum than just realising they will act townie:
So, hypothetically, if JSexton were scum, he might consider drawing some attention to himself, in order to appear more like a townie. Of course there are difficulties:
That puts the kibosh on that then, doesn’t it? We can clearly rule out any idea that **JSexton **would have considered drawing attention to himself as a way to appear as a headstrong but loyal townie rather than a conniving, skulking scum. (I know what some of you are thinking. You’re thinking, what if he not only did it, but he went out of his way to explain to people that he’d never do it? Damn, you people are cynical.)
Besides, it’s not like he did anything to draw attention to himself. Aside from this, earlier:
Why on earth would JSexton, who by his own reckoning has played over 50 games, ever place a vote without an explanation? He’d have to know that it’s the sort of thing that would garner attention. As indeed it did. Several people asked him about it. It was even the basis for **Cookies **vote on him. (Not long after, of course, **bufftabby **- scum - would vote for **Cookies **on the basis of that vote, calling it weak.)
So far, this isn’t really anything. Just a faint suspicion. For the rest of the Day, **JSexton **is mainly concerned with pushing **Pleo **over his calling out of pede’s slip. This is a reasonably townie thing to do, although as it turns out Pleo is not only town but gets scum killed that night. (Let’s hope he didn’t give anything away in his conversation with JSexton!) What’s interesting about this little chapter is JSexton’s description of his own style of play:
Bear this in mind as we go through the remaining Days.
**
Day/Night Two:**
Day Two was of course dominated by Hawkeye vs Cookies; Night Two by NAF’s claim. It started off with three dead bodies - one of them scum. Here’s JSexton’s take on that:
Two points here. One, it’s easy to suggest what people should do, and it sounds damn helpful. It’s even better though, if you do it. Secondly, note the scum behaviours we should be looking for: a) interacting with known scum and b) not interacting with known scum. Now, let me be clear: I agree that you can’t hold scum to just one behaviour. But I find it interesting that a player who would later have a go at me for suggesting that more than one behaviour could be used to profile scum would himself have made a very similar post earlier in the game. There is a difference, of course: I attached names to my “scum tells” and attempted to show some reasoning whereas **JSexton **just tells us to look for scum in the north, the south, the east and to the west somewhat.
In any case, it isn’t long before our pitbull gets his teeth into Hawkeye, who has gone back and looked at people’s interactions and non-interactions with macey. His first post is the beginning of what will surely be a tenacious challenge and is coupled with a vote. And there is some back and forth between the two. But here’s JSexton’s third post in this conversation:
Our pitbull has given up, because he can see a townie motive as well as the scummy one that originally had him biting down. He doesn’t consider Hawkeye town, mind you. But he’s going to unvote him.
Day/Night Four
After a quiet Day/Night Three (only four posts) we start Day Four. **Cookies **has posted her PM and is getting flack for capitalisation. In response to dotchan’s suggestion that we do some analysis, we have this enthusiastic endorsement:
It’s good when a player says things like this, because you know that that player will be a font of analysis, challenges and ideas. Here’s where we start:
It’s good when players say things like this, because you know they’re going to do a review of Total Lost.
Again, warning us not to trust Total Lost. At this point, this could very easily be the concern of a cautious townie. At any rate, we then kill Blam and find he’s the missing PFK. That should let Total Lost off the hook, right? Well, yes and no:
She’s probably alright, but in the meantime, here’s a little smudge to keep you worried. This would be less suspicious if it were followed up by a review (to set those fears at rest) but we’re still waiting for that.
Of course Day Four was a big day for JSexton, both in terms of posting and catching PFKs. He went after **Blam **hard and didn’t let go, pushing him on all his slips and refining his case until he’d pretty much nailed him. Good pitbull behaviour. That we hadn’t/haven’t seen on any other Day. And it happened to be on a PFK. The contrast between his play style on this Day and on every other Day could not be more marked. It’s like reading a different player.
Day/Night 5
This is an interesting Day, because it’s here I began to notice the contradictions. Not coincidentally, **JSexton **started interacting with me more toDay, mainly in a critical/suspicious fashion.
Contrast this with “someone should look at everyone who interacted with **macey **and bufftabby, and everyone who didn’t.” There’s nothing I’m being picked up for here that **JSexton **hasn’t *explicity *condoned or promoted earlier. Except it’s scummy when I do it. Also, note that I’m becoming a target of interest. It can’t be long before we see some pitbull action, right?
Around this time, I make my case against brewha. **JSexton **leaps in to knock it down. Mainly by attacking me:
Again: “everyone who interacted with **macey **and bufftabby, and everyone who didn’t.” Secondly, apparently scum now have clearly defined behaviour we can use to identify them. This is a complete about-face on his Day One scum-hunting pep-talk.
This is what JSexton said about the **macey **vote on Day Two:
Finally there’s this:
Now, the timing of this vote is suspicious, because this was the beginning of the swing back to **Hal **which led to his lynch. But note what he says about me. Two questions:
- Where’s my pitbull challenge? I actually made a point of engaging with JSexton’s earlier criticisms, but I’ve heard nothing back. Not even the “difference in playstyles” concession that **Hawkeye **got. It feels like I’m just being kept on the boil. 2) Many people have publicly voiced suspicion of me, including two of our confirmed town. Frankly, I thought there was a good chance they’d swing my way at the last minute. But it’s certainly true that **Hal **is a likelier candidate at this point; even a wishy-washy vote could easily be enough to push him over the edge. For scum, why not go for him first and keep me for later?
So,
Because he’s talked a good game, but produced very little;
Because the one exception to this is the attack on the PFK;
Because he’s smudged me for following his reasoning on finding scum;
Because he’s contradicted himself on brewha/macey and on what scum do and don’t do;
Because he hasn’t lived up to his admitted pitbull status, but instead has smudged and hinted and even gone two Days with no vote:
I’m going to:
unvote MHaye
vote JSexton