Now, when I talk about trust on here, I'm not talking about saying, "Trust me, I'm town" when town and not as scum. If done accidentally, that's a towntell. If done intentionally, that's a trust-tell. In either case, it will eventually be broken, be it by using the tell as scum (thus, breaking it), or in the case of a trust-tell, getting banned for it.
When I talk about trust, I'm talking about, "firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something", with synonyms of confidence, belief, faith, certainty, assurance, conviction, credence, reliance, 'depend on', 'count on', and 'be sure of'.
Now skeptics among you might be wondering...what place does trust have in a game built upon deception and lies? When you're part of the uninformed majority, and you know there's an informed minority in opposition to you, surely, you cannot afford to hold trust in anything, aside from maybe yourself. Right?
...Wrong. Trust is a fundamental part of the game, and every player uses or abuses trust in their game, whether they do so consciously or not. Trust is a critical element in every major town win, because it is town players trusting in one another that allows them to work together and lynch scum. Without that trust in each other being town, the town would never be able to bond together and achieve victory.
Of course, trust is not some unfair superweapon the town holds exclusive rights to: it is fallible. Just because someone believes they are worthy of trust doesn't necessarily mean they are, because quite often, they will be working from a faulty premise. Similarly, because town players do not hold a monopoly on asking for trust, if you place trust in a scum player who asks for it, then you have equally condemned yourself.
Trust can also be easily destroyed or employed by the scum. One side-effect of apathy is that a player no longer caring about the outcome of the game will either trust no-one (rendering them useless) or literally anyone no matter how dubious (rendering them a sheep easily manipulated by scum).
And, if scum manage to create an environment where town players don't trust each other, the result is a long TownvTown fight, in which no matter the outcome, town loses. By definition, TvT fighting is a scenario where a town player does not trust a town player, often mutually.
So that is why trust is necessary in a game. For the town to overcome their paranoia towards every player having a chance to be scum, they must make assumptions about certain players being more reliable, more honest, and more competent than others. In other words, to trust in the abilities of another, and for them to be town.
Players who think that their own decisions are more reliable than that of others may still be questioning this--why would you need to trust in them, when your own skills are as far as you are concerned, reliably superior? Well, let's say you play more by gut than by solid logic.
What are the words most readily available to get others to follow you?
...Exactly. "Just trust me."
Players who insist that logic holds the answer may wonder how trust plays a part in their game, but you must understand that while in theory, there is a perfect logic that will perfectly, logically, undeniably give you the scumteam 100% of the time, humans are by their very nature imperfect, illogical beings.
Your 'perfect logic' may not be as perfect as you think. So you still need trust--in this case, you need to convince others that your perfect logic can be relied on, that your perfect logic is dependable.
But no matter how skilled a scumhunter you are, you cannot realistically expect to be trusted without yourself trusting in others. While your gut may be fairly reliable, even paragons of mafia hunting are not infallible scumhunting gods; you should be considering the words of others to see if maybe you might be wrong.
While logic may generally hold the answer for you, your logic may contain imperfections, and it would be folly to think otherwise, so listen to players that are willing to point out gaps and flaws in said logic.
This process allows the town to work together as a team: giving and receiving trust. And, sure! The process will occasionally let a scum slip into the cracks. Typically there's going to be one scum in an average player's townbloc. Usually, there's going to be at least one player who shouldn't have been protected yet earned that status through trust.
...But the vast majority of the time, by sheer probability, the process of trust is going to improve your odds of correctly identifying and working with town, simply because the majority of players in a game
are
town.Of course, scum might themselves be wondering where they use trust. Well, for a start, you have to have a fundamental trust that your scumbuddies are actually working to the same wincon that you are. While the town technically holds this same problem, they don't actually know the alignment of players whereas you do.
The second area where you generally use trust whether you're aware of it or not is when it comes to how town players are reading you. Sure, that player townreading you might secretly, say, be a cop with a guilty on you, but generally, you're going to trust them that what they say is what they mean.
Furthermore, when it comes to your choice in nightkills, trust is a fundamental factor that you will generally take into consideration: whenever you decide to spare a player who is townreading you, you are placing fundamental trust in them that their read will not change overnight.
The third and final area scum use trust is in the aforementioned areas above, by subverting town trust and implementing themselves into it, via themselves being the type to say, "Trust me", and working into townblocs.
So all-in-all, trust is the foundation on which games are won or lost.
And on that fact, you'll just have to trust me.
