Newbie 870 - Game Over

[Netopalis]

Haldo, all. Even though it's traditional to start with the whole random vote thing, I really despise it. Here are some questions for you all to mull over - I'll give my responses after everyone else has.

1) Tell me about your thought processes. How do you think, in general?
2) If you were playing as mafia, how would you play? What sorts of players would you kill?
3) Have you ever played Mafia anywhere else? Played before on this site?
4) What do you feel is your greatest asset in a game like this?
5) How many roads must a man walk down?
6) What drew you to this site and this game? Why mafia?
7) Take the following situation: You are in the final 3 of the game. You know that one other player is mafia, and you know that your vote will determine the end of the game. You have a player who has been largely inactive throughout most of the game and you have a player who has been a driving force behind the game. Both have been early to vote for both mafia and town players. Who do you suspect more and why?

[almightybob]

Votecount 1.1

chauchaudotcom - 2 (ace5993, Nikanor)

Not voting - 7 (bv310, brothernature, chauchaudotcom, karthikking, kirby_is_kyaan, Netopalis, Tokillablockingnerd)

With 9 alive, it's

5

votes to lynch!

[ace5993]

Do you actually expect us to answer those questions? Wouldn't that be a tad revealing?

[Nikanor]

1) I think like a kitten: playful most of the time, but I can be serious if the need arises.
2) This just opens the door to a whole mess of WIFOM. I'm not answering this, and I suggest no one else does, either.
3) I first played mafia on this website. Since then, I've played mafia on IRC and face-to-face.
4) Clairvoyance. But seriously, the ability to see things clearly is a great asset.
5) Fourty-two.
6) Mafia is like excercising the mind. That, and I was bored.
7) I'm not giving you a strategy for how to survive endgame, Neto. This is a very scummy question. I don't know how in the world this would help you if you are town.

Unvote. Vote: Netopalis.

[Nikanor]

ace: The point of the game is to probe others to get reads and whatnot. The series of questions Neto just asked is Newbie Game standard operating procedure. Well, most of the questions, anyway.

[Netopalis]

In re: Question 7, I'm trying to do two things. 1) I want to see how the new players think about their suspicions and 2) I want to make them consider why they suspect people. I will play the same either way in my normal obsessive-compulsive posting style.

[Nikanor]

In re: Question 7, I'm trying to do two things. 1) I want to see how the new players think about their suspicions and 2) I want to make them consider why they suspect people. I will play the same either way in my normal obsessive-compulsive posting style.

1) That's not how the question looks to me. I see subtext: 'Would you rather lynch a lurker or an active player? Is it alright if I lurk?'
2) The decision you gave was between an active player and a lurky player, all other factors controlled. How is it not a question of, 'Will you lynch the leader or the lurker?'

[Netopalis]

Oh, it most certainly is a question of whether you'll lynch the leader or the lurker. That really is the point - I want to see *why* the players feel that way about their position. The "Is it alright if I lurk" thing, though, is certainly not me...We've never played a game in which I was particularly active before, but I assure you that I will be more than active in my play.

[Nikanor]

In that case, I think it is best that the question be left as a statement,
'Beware voting for someone who is a leader just because they have said more scummy things. It's likely that the lurker has said more scummy things per post as compared to the leader.'
I don't think that question seven is a good question to answer, since it gives scum an unnecessary amount of information.
Do you agree?

[Netopalis]

Not particularly. Scum is the informed minority which attempts to hide information. The town, conversely, should try to keep information in the open - more information helps town and hurts scum. By gauging reactions and thought processes to similar questions, we can determine what players are essentially playing an offensive or a defensive game and analyze their play from that viewpoint.

[Nikanor]

In some cases, hiding information is not a bad thing. By telling everyone which you'd attack in endgame, you're basically telling the scum who to leave alive based on how they're playing. Then, you open up a can of WIFOM when you come back to this question in lylo and ask, 'Is this the reason I'm still alive?'
Remember that by posting thoughts in-topic, you're not only sharing your thoughts with town, but also allowing scum access to your thoughts. It's for this reason that we don't speculate on nightkills. It only gives scum information on who to kill and who to keep alive, and inevitably leads to anti-town WIFOM.

[Netopalis]

Fair enough, I suppose. The goal of my questions was still to better understand the thought processes of these players who don't have a lot of experience on this site and to avoid the...blech..."Random Vote Stage".

[brothernature]

Rawr. I always seem to show up late to the start of the game. A

nnnnnnnnnnnn

ywho,

Vote: ace5993

for not knowing PSP's cause cancer. Everyone knows that, stupid.

[Nikanor]

Anything to add bn?

[brothernature]

Eh. Nothing much. Nothing has really been going on. One thing to say about the questions, though. I don't really want to answer them. If I do, scum could turn what I say right back around on me. Like the "Who would you kill?" one. If I were to answer that, scum could base there kills as I would do them, therefore making me a likely lynch candidate.

[Tokillablockingnerd]

Interesting approach with the questions. Here's my take:

1) Tell me about your thought processes. How do you think, in general?
- As rationally and objectively as possible. When that fails, gamble!

2) If you were playing as mafia, how would you play? What sorts of players would you kill?
- Doctors and cops. Most powerful townies.

3) Have you ever played Mafia anywhere else? Played before on this site?
- Nope, never.

4) What do you feel is your greatest asset in a game like this?
- mmm... willingness to read through all posts and think independently... lack of bias from previous games...

5) How many roads must a man walk down?
I think you should call him a man before he starts walking! might help him out.

6) What drew you to this site and this game? Why mafia?
The psychological aspect is fascinating.

7) Take the following situation: You are in the final 3 of the game. You know that one other player is mafia, and you know that your vote will determine the end of the game. You have a player who has been largely inactive throughout most of the game and you have a player who has been a driving force behind the game. Both have been early to vote for both mafia and town players. Who do you suspect more and why?

I'll make that decision when I get there. I agree with Nikanor's point on this.

And about the random voting. I don't see how it serves any clear purpose to favor town other than witty reasons for such votes. If it came to it I'd go instead for a totally random lynch... the math should favor town because even if its only a bit under 20% to get it right, if one of the two mafia is lynched, then town is in a great position.

any thoughts on this latter reasoning?

[bv310]

1) Somewhat like Zoidberg, Whooping included.
2) Too much to read into from this question
3) A game or two way back when
4) None.
5) One more than you've already walked down
6) It's something different from the norm
7) I respectfully decline to answer, although you got your point across quite well.

Answered them, although I think it goes against the story of the townsfolk. Seems quite scummy if you ask me, despite your seemingly logical answer.

Vote: Netopalis

[Tokillablockingnerd]

by the way, I'm fully aware my answer to question 2 was the obvious choice. Brothernature and nikanor made good points against an elaborate answer.

[Netopalis]

Why do you think it's scummy if it is also logical? Also, why did you give non-answers to most of the serious questions?

[Tokillablockingnerd]

plus I still need to work on the whole quoting part... newbie at forum using, believe it or not...

[Netopalis]

Not a problem. Quickest way to do it is just to click the little "Quote" button in the top right. Do you use firefox?

[Tokillablockingnerd]

Not a problem. Quickest way to do it is just to click the little "Quote" button in the top right. Do you use firefox?

nope. Internet explorer. should've seen the "quote" button sooner. thanks for the tip

[Netopalis]

Not a problem. If you right click and choose "Open in new tab", you can get preformatted quotes in the replies that come up so that you can quote multiple threads. Just be sure not to hit reply in the windows that come up.

[ace5993]

So far two people have voted for me after informing me I might get cancer Interesting.

After thinking about it, I suppose there isn't any harm in answering those questions, particularly if most other people are going to:

1. I am somewhat obsessive compulsive, if I get an idea into my head about someone, it is quite hard to change my opinion on them.

2. In general I would try to act innocent, and at night I would try to kill townies >_>

3. Yes I have, not on this site though. I also play real life mafia a bit.

4. I am good at logical reasoning, but often I will over-think myself.

5. Just one, provided it is the correct one.

6. Probably my love of mysteries/mystery books and then I got introduced to real life mafia.

7. Lol yeah right =p

TKaBN - I don't really understand your reasoning to be honest. How can random lynching be better than random voting when random voting can lead to bandwagons and role claims, which can give people a better chance to identify mafia behavior. And random lynching isn't practical at all because mafia will not vote for themselves in a random lynch, and will talk the town out of a random lynch of a fellow mafia member, causing the probability of a mafia random lynch to be less than 1/100 I would think, even with only 2 out of the 7 being mafia.

[Tokillablockingnerd]

TKaBN - I don't really understand your reasoning to be honest. How can random lynching be better than random voting when random voting can lead to bandwagons and role claims, which can give people a better chance to identify mafia behavior. And random lynching isn't practical at all because mafia will not vote for themselves in a random lynch, and will talk the town out of a random lynch of a fellow mafia member, causing the probability of a mafia random lynch to be less than 1/100 I would think, even with only 2 out of the 7 being mafia.

Its 2 out of 9 right? and I was referring to a totally random lynch, when nobody gets a say about who gets lynched... which come to think of it is quite impossible in a forum game, as nobody can be trusted to oversee the random selection process (or throw the dice).

Is random lynching ever done in live games where throwing a dice is actually possible?