"Don't look too town as scum"

[mastina]

The saying goes that if you look too town as scum you'll get lynched in lylo for still being alive. Except, I don't think I've ever seen scum snow a town and then lose the game in lylo over it. So, does this actually happen?

The only reason to not look too town as scum is because the headache it'll give you in all future games.

For instance.

Because I've done literally everything as scum, there's nothing I can't do as scum, meaning anything I could do I could be doing as scum--meaning, regardless of it being a towngame or scumgame. People are suspicious of me because of what I did in that past scumgame where I did that town-looking thing.

Which, honestly, is a silly reason. You should always be playing to win your current game, not your future games, so do your utmost for your current game even if it means towning it up as scum and facing the fallout postgame.

So while there's technically reasons that not being too town as scum could be of use in theory, in practice, if you manage to look town as scum? Good for you! You're doing what you're supposed to be doing.

[mastina]

There's a better case to make to not look too town if you have a Town power role seeing as you're not trying to gain the attention of scums for a night kill.

Yeah that's a terrible idea. If you try to avoid looking town, there's no favorable outcome. If vts look town and PRS don't, scum can find the PRS. If you practice this, it becomes easy for scum to spot PR you. And then the obvious: if you don't look town in a game where the vts (and probably scum, too) look town, who do you think that they're going to lynch?

[mastina]

there was a time when i mimicked my scum game as town to get mislynched less. and it worked.

And people wonder why I do it.

[mastina]

The point of being Scum is to be indistighable from your Town game.

Actually, that mindset is the most self-sabotaging one to get in as scum.
The goal of scum isn't to look like your town self; the goal of scum is to endgame the town as quickly as is possible, which is usually served best by keeping yourself alive, and to keep yourself alive your greatest ally is usually to make others think you look town and it is easiest for them to think you look town if you are mimicking your towngame.

But as you can tell.

Indistinguishable scumgame from towngame is fourfold removed from scum's primary objective.

Looking town takes priority over mimicking your towngame; if you have a scummy towngame, then as scum mimicking it you are going to get lynched. Keeping yourself alive takes priority over looking town, so if you focus too much on looking town and give up on more pragmatic survival strategies, you are going to get lynched. And reaching endgame takes priority over keeping yourself alive, so if you keep yourself alive by power-bussing your entire scumteam...you are going to get lynched.

[mastina]

Elsa Jay openly claims that he plays as town to try to be like his scum game

As has been discussed, that's actually a valid strategy, if the attempt to make your towngame be like your scumgame has the end goal of bettering your own towngame.

This is something that you get taught a lot. Like, say, in martial arts:
If your kick on one side is amazing, but is atrocious on the other, your teacher will tell you: "analyze what you are doing well on the side you're good on, and try to replicate it on the side you are bad on", more or less.

Same principle applies for alignments.
If you have a good scumgame but a really shitty towngame, analyze what in your scumgame is so good, and attempt to replicate it in your towngame.

(Vice-versa, where you have an amazing towngame and a shitty scumgame and yet as town try to mimic your scumgame? Sure yeah, that's self-sabotaging and is bad. Trying to bring your skill level up = good; trying to drag your skill level down = bad. But there's merit in mimicking scumgames as town if doing the former rather than the latter.)

[mastina]

The only reason to not look too town as scum is because the headache it'll give you in all future games.

This isn't allowed on any sites I've been on, fwiw. It's gamethrowing to go against your win condition for one game in order to help your meta/some future game.

Yeah--thus why I said it was the only real reason...and it's a shitty reason.

Wanting to avoid looking too town as scum because of the headache it'll give you in future games is a weakness in scumplay, because if you're good enough to look too town as scum once, then you should have the skills to look too town as scum again--just, in a different way.