Newbie Guide to Survivor! (Questions + Tips Encouraged)

[MattP]

When I first played I was worried about saying anything identifying because the game is anonymous. However there are ways to talk about yourself without identifying yourself if you're worried. When someone asks you something about yourself, don't respond by saying "Oh I can't answer that because it's an anonymous game". You can find something to say that isn't identifying and keeps conversation going. It sort of just kills the conversation when you reply to a PM like that. If you're worried then change minor details or something.

Bad:
"Where are you from!"
"Oh I cant say because then you might know who I am"

vs

Better:
"Where are you from"
"I live in a small town in bumblefuck nowhere Theres basically nothing crazy to do but I go hiking all the time and I love the peacefulness of it. After I finish school though I was thinking of maybe moving somewhere cool like NYC or San Fran just to get that experience How about yourself?"

That like gives a bunch of different possible hooks for continuing conversation and doesnt risk identifying you by giving your exact location

[MattP]

The only thing that can really influence my vote is if one of the finalists brings something up i didnt know thats a big game move, good or bad, but ive never had a finalist sell me their story by fashioning it to look a certain way when i already knew the details of it before the ftc. Every finalist got to the end for a reason, i have my own values for what sort of game is most exciting to me and im going to choose that sort of game to win. I define my values as "looking for who played the most strategic and dynamic game" but thats sort of bullshit because I dont know how to even quantify that, but considering I need to put down a vote on someone I need to feel like I'm somehow creating a fair rubric to go by. I personally dont want to be sucked up to or try to be convinced by a finalist that i had some part in where the game went, it turns me off, but every juror is different. I just think the key is to spend some time thinking about what you know about each juror from your time talking to them and about what their values are.

I think an ideal ftc scenario and something ill at least try to do from now on, for online games specifically, is as a juror to think about what my values are about a game and explicitly list what I care about somewhere in my first post in my juror thread so finalists dont waste their time going for a certain angle that wont really have an impact on me specifically but might work for a different juror. I know in the past Ive like judged a finalist for going a certain route in their ftc strategy but its stupid to assume the finalists will know what I value especially if we werent super close allies, and I dont think being a super close ally should determine my vote - making my vote about who panders to me best gives my closer allies an inherent advantage because they know me better, of course they will be better at pandering me. But some other people want to see their closest allies win, I was like that in Survivor Eon.

Sort of rambling but my point is that jurors could help by being transparent with the finalists about what they're looking for, and finalists shouldn't expect that there is one thing each juror is looking for.

Also, Im of the opinion that if you already naturally have really strong feelings about some aspect of the game then sure, itll come off iconic when you figure out how to put those feelings into words, but I wouldnt go into an FTC trying to be iconic.

[MattP]

I dunno I feel like if you tell a finalist what you want up front then they'll BS and give you that instead of being honest.

I guess it depends on what it is, but saying you want to be convinced that some aspect of their game was better than the other finalists is prob not something with wiggle room for BS without it being obvious

But being like "I want to know you cared about me / I was valued" is prob not worth bringing up bc that invites BS yeah

[MattP]

Not giving your id away is hard

[MattP]

btw i'm new

haha yeah

[MattP]

If you're a newbie, try not to be too newbie ish but also try not to not to be too newbie ish