Which style do you gravitate more to?

[Firebringer]

I am just giving a basic summary of these two types of players. But I understand not everyone uses just one. I think most people probably gravitate towards one of these more than the other. That doesn't mean you will never use both.

Tone Reading:

This is what I think of the more emotional side of mafia. This is analyzing someones words and seeing if they match both the context of the situation and if it matches what they are overall saying. When a person is tone reading they are looking for things that don't match in terms of what a person is feeling and saying. For instance when someone is AtE because they are being pushed. Is the AtE anger over ridiculous accusations or is it more anxiety of the whole situation and not knowing how to act? Is someone being sincere when they claim to have a scum read on another player? Are their words showing they aren't being completely truthful or trying to avoid certain subjects?

If you are a tone reader, you are trying to understand what a player is feeling and seeing if it makes sense from someone of your alignment. If I was in their shoes, would I feel and act similarly as the same alignment?

Motive Reading:

This is what I think of the more Logical side of mafia. This is analyzing someones words to what exactly are they doing. If you are motive reading, you are trying to see each step. What is it are they doing and why? You might see someone pushing someone for a lynch and think, well why does this person want to lynch this person. Do they really think they are scum or is it just something there to distract. If someone claimed something, why did they claim this? Are they in danger of being lynched? Did they make it just because it was easy information to give out and didn't hurt them either way?

If you are a motive reader, you are trying to see if what they are doing is something that makes sense as someone of your alignment. Are they doing something that will logically help your win condition?

[mastina]

Depends on the player.
Some players I can't read tone worth shit.
Other players I can tone read like a book.
Some players I can read their motives ridiculously well.
Other players have motives where it's impossible to tell one from the other.

I use both about equally. There's huge overlaps: players where I use both. And also players where neither will work for me.

[Accountant]

I'm a motive reader.

[The_Jester]

99% tone reader and honestly it's the inferior way of playing. Too easy to get mislead.

[mykonian]

Tone, usually, it's harder to fake if you are tuned in with someone. Motive is nice to argue through, but honestly, with the people around, fuck if I know what they are thinking. Forum games are way too slow for that.

I think you are missing a side btw FB. I am not a big user of it, but I've known people to be advocates for it, and that would be statistical scumhunters, who lean more towards general (non personal) tells, and finding tendencies in the entire player pool.

[Wisdom]

Mainly motive; the first thing ill ask myself about a post is "what does x want to achieve here?"

but ive found that its impossible to scumhunt based only on logic, because players are humans and they never play perfectly. They might do dumb things that dont make sense for their win condition - you have to take it into account. And thats where meta and tone reading come to assist me.

[Gammagooey]

I probably lean more towards tone for most reads in the game - as myko said motive is way harder to correctly analyze unless that person is constantly responding quickly, usually b/c they're either close to lynch or if it's a really fast game since that speed can force mistakes from scum (freedom's call for instance - viewtopic.php?f=23&t=66480)

[Gamma Emerald]

I think I'm more motive based.

[Firebringer]

I think you are missing a side btw FB. I am not a big user of it, but I've known people to be advocates for it, and that would be statistical scumhunters, who lean more towards general (non personal) tells, and finding tendencies in the entire player pool.

I don't find this to be very much reading a player so much as applying standards of play onto players? Its more projecting than reading a person.

[Lil Uzi Vert]

Both.

[mykonian]

I think you are missing a side btw FB. I am not a big user of it, but I've known people to be advocates for it, and that would be statistical scumhunters, who lean more towards general (non personal) tells, and finding tendencies in the entire player pool.

I don't find this to be very much reading a player so much as applying standards of play onto players? Its more projecting than reading a person.

Well if you pull it into an extreme, there were a couple of girls who would just keep a spreadsheet of who interacted with who throughout the game, there's people who have VCA's that they think work for them. But more casually, I'm sure some of us have had a peek at post length and or frequency as a tell, and you could get properly creative with this too, but the approach is different compared to motive or tone which are rather individual, where this would look more at how everybody behaves and add it all up.

[mhsmith0]

I'm probably more of a tone reader than motive, but honestly I feel like you should just use whatever you can to solve. Tone, motivations, voting quality, voting history, setup issues, interactions, etc etc etc etc etc

and what works best can vary a lot game to game

[Loopdan]

Trying for:

Day1 = 80/20 Tone/Motive
Day2+ = 20/80 Motive/Tone

Or something like that.

[Accountant]

Well if I'm in a game with 10 clones of FA or mastina or KTS, tone reading can work. But if I'm in a game with 10 clones of Thor or cabd, nothx

[TesXX]

I'm more a motive reader. There can be times that I can tell when a tone is forced or genuine, but I mostly look at motivations in how people are trying to strategize and the logic they use when I hunt for scum.

[McMenno]

Trying for:

Day1 = 80/20 Tone/Motive
Day2+ = 20/80 Motive/Tone

Or something like that.

that's the same thing

[Ircher]

Imo, tone plays a role in discerning motivation.

[Loopdan]

Trying for:

Day1 = 80/20 Tone/Motive
Day2+ = 20/80 Tone/Motive

Or something like that.

that's the same thing

huh?

[Infinity 324]

Both are 80% tone, 20% motive.

[Infinity 324]

Oh you're sly