Well, I was hoping I would feel a lot better about Neruz, Llama, and GreyIce after getting a chance to talk to them a bit. The constant refrain of innocence they have produced for Neruz has been one of the most baffling things about this thread, especially in the early pages, as early as 4 I think when people were still in RVS and already proclaiming his innocence?
That being said, I will just have to hope I am wrong about them, because there's really just no way to ignore bgg's actions this game.
Vote bgg1996
From the first post in this game, bgg softclaimed town:
Btw, mafia: Please don't kill me on the first night?
and virtually every post he made in the first few pages of the game to greater or lesser extents were softclaims.
Until he unexpectedly and without reason hardclaimed vanilla town. This, at the time, some people were willing to sweep under the rug since he came off as newb town and perhaps stupid.
However, bgg in the time since has come off as actually clever, and not nearly so newbish as he initially seemed. So why these initial antics of soft and hardclaims?
Apparently, it was a trap (cue stupid graphic of Admiral Ackbar here).
With it said that way, why would you tell everybody to "see what his proof is tomorrow. If he is unable to provide proof that he is not scum tomorrow then we will have a direct contradiction from him, which is a powerful scum tell." You went on to vote Nathanael.
With me claiming VT, what reason could you possibly have for believing that I had proof, regardless of what I actually said?
Why would bgg put out the claim of being able to produce evidence tomorrow if he himself so quickly accepts that doing so is absurd? At this point, it more or less seems that bgg deliberately produced an absurd claim just to see if anyone would accept it, in the hope of calling out whoever accepted it.
As a fishing gambit, this might not be the WORST out there (better than a self-vote at least), but it's still pretty bad and, I think, far more anti-town than town.
However, this has not just served as a fishing tactic for bgg, instead he worked very hard to actually try to more-or-less transform this into a wagon on Neruz.
My vote is between:
Neruz, for among other things, contradictions and hypocracies.
Surprise_Carcinogen, for being so adamant about me being lynched and a few logical fallacies.
This is like, the only time bgg mentions Surprise_Carcinogen, and he never really addressed the logical fallacies he claimed to have seen. At this point, whatever logical fallacies he saw for S_C is irrelevant. What's important here is that he didn't vote for Neruz yet. I see this post as one of several where bgg basically tried to present himself as not tunneling, and not simply throwing an omgus vote on Neruz.
Then we get to bgg's vote on Neruz himself:
I told myself the next time you posted, had at least three sentences, a quote, and the word "fuck". And have not yet answered any questions or otherwise contributed to our victory, that would be the point where I stopped making idle threats and actually put your life on the line.
Vote:Neruz
Although bgg did elsewhere sort of hint at reasons he might see Neruz as guilty, it's interesting that the main reasons he lists right before his vote are more based on characterizing Neruz as incoherent and emotionally laden. This is very problematic for me, especially when bgg very clearly was provoking Neruz and pretty much everyone else in the thread:
Some examples:
Or maybe he is actually smart (doubtful)
In case your incredibly thick head still does not get it,
Either that or they are too stupid to remember the difference between me and Xine.
bgg basically does his best to enrages people, and then votes Neruz because he's swearing and coming across as angry? Yikes.
And one of the worst, in retrospect at this point, is this:
In other words, yes I am stupid, but you still have to answer my stupid questions.
I think that really sums it up... bgg set himself up as stupid, provoked other people with his questions, and then at the first person who "bit" threw his vote.
This is WAY scummy, and he has been so much more dramatically anti-town than anyone else in the game, I don't see how I could really justify a vote on the people I find "only scummy."
I can't deny that in the last few pages bgg has been 'way better' by comparison, but somehow that only makes the first ten pages of this thread even more absurd, because he clearly understands how to play the game and is well capable of rational thought. To me, his actions this game read like scum tactics trying to trap a potential innocent into a convoluted day one lynch.
I'm still not thrilled with the produced innocence for Neruz from Llamarticle and GreyIce, but I simply can't ignore the player that is way more suspicious.
Also, in the few posts that he's made since he's joined the game, I sort of got the feeling he really wanted me to get on his side; he indirectly agreed with pretty much every point I made, which actually came off as a bit desperate to me. But then again, it may very well be true that we both don't get the wagon on Xine and that he doesn't need to fake that.
End of the line, though, bgg's actions for the first ten pages of this game were either: a) stupid and indirectly anti-town or b) smart and really, really suspicious. But bgg doesn't strike me, at this point, as dumb or newbish, so at this point he is far and away my top candidate.
