So, I'm going to run through BlankFace's
=25709#p6858034]ISO and list my points of note.
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-Most of his initial stuff isn't particularly interesting - There's a bit of questions & light pushes/nudges, but nothing that's particularly alignment indicative.
-
157 catches my eye a little, because it's the first part where I feel like he's engaging, just a little - he's pushing Lucian for a soft-defense, & something lite on Farside/Suzenne. Mostly Null, even if I'm a little uncomfortable with the former.
-
214 &
234 - Now he's gently pushing Soren. It's coming at a time when Soren's getting a little bit of backlash. My discomfort is solidifying, and this is about when I started to form a light scumread on him.
Like, it's not so much that he had a scumread on Soren per se, but how he went about it, if that makes sense. There's an easy, straightforwardness to the read that bothers me. He's focused on Misplays over scuminess, if that makes sense, and he's focusing on buzzwords over what makes Soren scum in this particular instance. ('WKing' & 'Buddying' have counterparts in Town, for example. I don't see BlankFace trying to sort that out.) I want to call it opportunistic, but I think a better word is that it feels calculated. He's constantly pushing & nudging, and doing very little with it.
-I actually do like when he engaged with the game in his posting spree, in
283,
284, and
285, and I've questioned myself about this a fair bit. I kinda liked how his Suzenne read developed, and while I don't automatically townread people for pushing the game forward, it was at least a positive in that direction. I'll admit to wafflling hard here.
-The problem is, his reads don't really grow from there. There's an easy aggression to his posts that has me leery - a number of his questions feel like they're being presented to an audience, rather than seeking information out, such as
314 &
497. Basically, he's constantly challenging people, but rarely doing anything with it. It feels like baiting for a lynch, honestly.
-He continues to focus on 'stiff' (my best attempt to sum up the way I'm seeing his reads move.) scumtells over analysis, and comes away confidently reading Peregrine as Scum for 'lurking.' This is despite being Null on Katsuki pulling almost the same thing. (Granted, Peregrine scumread Blank. I don't think this is a major point in Blank's favor, though.) This bothers me - it's not that I don't believe PV couldn't theoretically be scum, but the way Blank reached that conclusion feels kinda forced.
-I very much dislike the manner in which he transitions from seeing my play as
weak, but not opportunistic', (which was okay, given he was scumreading Soren.) to dismissing me in
770, to his epiphany that Soren was posting elsewhere, and therefore, his replace-out wasn't legitimate.
It feels less like a natural pattern, and more like he's playing cool to avoid getting flak that would come with counter-scumreading me. (It's not like he would consider himself in much immediate danger of a lynch anyway) The bit about Soren joining a new game feels like an excuse for getting his vote on me while avoiding that pitfall. (Did he really only just now discover Soren immediately /inned for a new game, days after the fact? More on this in a second.)
In short, I'm seeing a lot of stuff from BlankFace that looks calculated rather than natural scumhunting. He's consistently nudging towards perceived weaknesses, rather than sorting through the them - challenging other players, but largely following through only on weaker targets. I don't really see much engagement from him, in terms of actually sorting through the game. There's just a bunch of targeted questions.
So....yeah. I don't know what else to say here. I'm not particularly charismatic, nor am I great at explaining my thoughts. This is the kind of read I consistently have to fight for, because it's hard to convey why I find a particular mindset scummy. I have to use words like 'feels', or 'probably' that don't tend to inspire confidence, but at the same time, this works for me. Individually, none of these things are particularly condemning, but added together, I'm confident enough on this read that I'm willing to take a ridiculously high risk of getting screwed over by the deadline to get it through.
Just give it some thought, please.
)
