Mafia: Not-so-simple-Simpletown

I don’t see the votes for **kitten **as a pile-on (I think we more commonly use the term bandwagon) because **kitten **did something really scummy. And, as soon as (s)he did, there were votes. That seems more reasoned than scummy to me.

The same holds true for the vote for you, straggler.

See, the problem is, by calling it a pile-on, you’re effectively trying to stop people from voting for people who already have votes. That’s really unreasonable. Some people will and should get more votes than others. It’s natural when people do pro-scum things.

I too think his behavior was scummy, but Seeker hasn’t posted anything for over 48 hours. You’ve made other posts in that time but didn’t vote for him. The fact that you did so only after it was made clear he couldn’t respond doesn’t sit well with me.

Letting players defend themselves is vital to the longevity of town for many reasons. You should know this. Why can’t lynching the replacement wait until tomorrow?

The term we often use for that is “flinging poo” and it’s a tried and true scum tactic. It’s anti-town because it’s really just trying to smudge as many people as you can without really backing it up.

Your logic is that pile ons are bad and that a pile on is a quick succession of votes against the same person. So if a scum slips up and says something stupid like “Hey guys I think we should target so-and-so with our Night Kill.” And subsequently half the town votes for that person, it would be a bad thing? Yeah that would be an exaggeration, but that is basically what happens. Someone sees something they think is scummy, they point it out and vote for the person, other people go “Oh hey your right, that is pretty scummy” and maybe add a point or two of their own, and then vote also. I’m not saying scum don’t hide votes in “pile-ons” or “dog piles” or “bandwagons”. I’m just saying that it doesn’t always have anything to do with the scum. I’ve seen them where there were no scum in a pile on until there were already 6 votes against the person. So basically being suspicious of people strictly for voting the same as other players is crap. Especially before the person they voted for gets lynched.

I’m concerned about our 2 newbies, **straggler **and kitten.

My concern is that they are both engaged in anti-town and pro-scum behavior.

I’m afraid that instead of being scum, they just might be playing poorly.

If that’s true, we’ll waste 2 Days lynching them only to determine that they aren’t scum and have very little data since everyone will have voted for them for pro-town reasons. The real Scum can just sit back and watch as we do so, and participate as they see fit.

I’m not sure we can avoid it as long as they keep playing so poorly.

That said, I think it’s also entirely possible that one or both of them are newbie scum playing poorly because they didn’t realize the ramifications of their actions and were only trying to help their side win while trying to avoid suspicion.
These are just comments and not accusations or defenses of anyone. I don’t know their alignment, I’m only pointing out one possibility.

Yeah, no offense to anyone in particular, but I have seen a lot of newer players using this tactic. Whether they are scum or not doesn’t matter because it doesn’t really sway the town one way or the other. All it does is make people question your suspicions all the more. So in the end, if you are town, your only hurting the town because they have one lest person they feel they can rely on. It’s simple. If you accuse everyone, then of course you are gonna be right when some of those people are scum. Doesn’t mean you helped at all.

Just updated this list to see where I’m at:

1 - Oredigger77 (Seeker of Truth and Beauty)
1 - Pleonast (peekercpa)
4 - Sitnam (Nanook of the North Shore, Almost Human, straggler, Natlaw)
4 - willthekittensurvive? (special ed, [Undecided] Adrian, MentalGuy, Batman Jenkems)
1 - peekercpa (Sitnam)
5 - straggler (paulwhoisaghost, pedescribe, Oredigger77, Pleonast, BillMC)
1 - No Lynch (willthekittensurvive?)
1 - ok11 (Hero From Sector 7G)

Sorry, I missed this one.

Sitnam stuck out because he’s playing the game exactly as I would if I were scum. Not too forward, not too backward, acting more as the conveyor of bad news rather than the source. It’s just too clean for me, and his subsequent reactions to the votes he’s getting are still right in line with how I’d be reacting if I were a scum in his shoes.

Uhm, nervously looks left and then right. No, I swear I was in Chicago. It twernt me, I swear.

Oh, eff it, your withering logic has worn me down. You betcha I wanted to kill Horton. Who the who knew about the who?

Cripes.

Ok, I’ve just gone and reread the entire thread. I really hope I get the coding right 'cause I’m not writing this again.

peekercpa - Your posts still annoy the life out of me, but as has been pointed out by another, it would be unfair and unwise to lynch a person I didn’t highly suspect of being scum.

Nanook of the North Shore - I believe we butted heads in the last Simpleton, there I was intentionally abrasive to get as much of a reaction out of as many as I could. While I think it was a successful strategy I went back and read it later and didn’t like how I sounded. This is supposed to be fun and pissing people off intentionally isn’t it. I suspect our ‘past’ convinced you that was the player you were responding to these past two pages. I don’t have a scum read on you yet.

Special ed - You declaring that a player isn’t looking for scum is pretty ridiculous. Everyone does it in their own way, you don’t have to post to read. You’ve been on the soapbox early and often about every facet of scum strategy, perhaps to help town newbies, perhaps to paint in their minds your own innocence. I don’t have a good scum read on you yet either though.

Willthekittensurvive? - You’re new and you messed up, whether or not that means you’re scum is hard to tell. I’m not convinced right now enough to vote for you, however, tomorrow is another day.

straggler - Your ‘everyone vote in the last 24 hours and lynch anyone who changes it’ idea was anti-town, but posing a bad idea isn’t necessarily scummy. What began to bother me was that your posts are full of absurd flailing illustrated beautifully here, here and here which become all the clearer when called on it by Natlaw and seem all the more ridiculous.

Your List of Suspicion also rubs me the wrong way and unlike you I’ll provide a explanation why. You didn’t show your work in how your suspects were selected. Though you suspected us you didn’t vote for anyone until last night and you voted for me only after two other people did. Making your list public in your mind absolves you of bandwagon guilt. If one of the people on your list gets close to a lynch you can say ‘he was on my list so it seems rational to help push the lynch’ which is exactly what you DID say, however, what you’re actually doing is surrendering your final judgment to a mob you can hide in.

I have no idea why you think, if lynched, your vote is ‘100% authentic’ or even what that means. If you get lynched and turn up town, everyone here is responsible for their own vote and it apparently never occurred to you that a lynched townie can be wrong.

Once again your logic is tragic but that doesn’t appear to stop your random accusation generator.

I’m fully aware I’ll be accused of OMGUS voting, but I don’t care.

unvote peekercpa
vote straggler

The Natlaw link was supposed to be to here

Here’s what I said in those other posts:

Of course, I could have voted right away, waited for his response, and unvoted if it satisfied me. Instead, I chose to wait for a response and vote if I didn’t like it. I don’t think it matters that I chose the latter approach, because they accomplish the same thing. And yet you accuse me of not letting players defend themselves:

Guess what: SoTB can’t defend himself no matter how many Days I wait, because he’s not a part of the game anymore. The sub won’t be able to defend SoTB’s behavior, because he doesn’t know what went through SoTB’s head any more than the rest of us do. Hypothetically, what do you think the sub can say Tomorrow to make me less suspicious of the way SoTB acted toDay?

1 - Oredigger77 (Seeker of Truth and Beauty)
1 - Pleonast (peekercpa)
1 - Seeker of Truth and Beauty (ok11)
4 - Sitnam (Nanook of the North Shore, Almost Human, straggler, Natlaw)
4 - willthekittensurvive? (special ed, [Undecided] Adrian, MentalGuy, Batman Jenkems)
1 - ok11 (Hero From Sector 7G)
6 - straggler (paulwhoisaghost, pedescribe, Oredigger77, Pleonast, BillMC, Sitnam)
1 - No Lynch (willthekittensurvive?)

Final words?
Unfortunately those of us in different timezones won’t be awake for the lynching. I’m about to head to bed for the night, and I can see there’s a fair chance I’m not going to live through my sleep. In the event that this happens, some final words:

I enjoyed playing my first Mafia online game. I’ll certainly be re-thinking my playing style for the next one. Whatever I did, I “looked scummy”, which is obviously not the way to play this game, regardless of role.

Some final game-related stuff:
I urge people to switch their vote over to Sitnam. I’m not scum. I’m not going to turn up as scum. There’s still time to make the switch, and I urge everyone who will listen to do it. He played the game exactly as I would have if I were scum, but ignore that -> his case for scumminess is strong enough for 3 others, including experienced players, to vote for him as well.

From my List of Suspicion, I actually place special ed at the top. Get the blowtorch on him. Why? Because he spends a lot of his time swimming deep below the surface of the water, preferring to forage around on the river-bed with his wide bill. He does occasionally need to surface for air though, and that’s when you can strike.

I look forward to waking up tomorrow to the news that this tenacious scumbuster will live to fight another day. Go town!

Guys and gals - I apologize but RL stuff has just consumed me this week (still), and since next week looks the same I feel it’s unfair to the game to keep a spot. I can barely keep up with the Werewolf game, and that’s a lot simpler than this one (and I’m more invested in it as it’s in Day 5. Of course, knowing my luck I’ll get killed toNight in that game).

Anyway, I am hereby requesting a sub

If a sub can’t be found, then I’ll do my best to keep up.

Also feel due to this it would be unfair to place a vote. If people think otherwise, I can, but it won’t have much thought behind it.

I really don’t know how to defend myself from such logic.

Hey, the man thinks I’m scum because try as me might he couldn’t find anything scummy about me. On what planet does that make sense?

That’s not entirely true.

He claimed you were Scum because you didn’t do anything pro-scum, and if HE we Scum, that’s exactly what he would do. Too bad he missed the memo that the opposite isn’t true. He seems to be claiming to be Town despite having done many scummy things.

So, I think his accusation against you is that only Scum would avoid doing anti-town or pro-scum behaviors.

As for me, I’m at the top of the list because I have a bill which I use to forage on the river bank whilst spending most of my time submerged.

So, you’re admitting it now! :smiley:

Spring break starts today. How can I resist?