Scummies Nomination Thread 2017

[mastina]

While not needed, a second submission of the same nomination offers support for that candidate for the judges--a second opinion which elaborates on the first, gives a different perspective, and lets the judges know it wasn't just one person who thought this; at least another also supported the idea. So while not needed...if you actually believe in your nomination, if you actually want them to win, then seconding is a Very Good Idea.

[mastina]

Nominating camn's revenge for Game of the Year

.
Seriously. This game was an absolute blast. I've NEVER had as much fun in a game as I had in this game. It was pure, unadulterated, fun. More than that, it is an example of some really, really strong town plays. The town this game was good. The town this game made many, many strong plays, including having PoE'd two of the three scum on D1.

The scumteam made some hilarious mistakes along the way as well, including a guilty result which almost entirely fucked them over because of how condemning it was (even after the mod redacted part of the guilty!), and yet, in spite of this because of what boiled down to basically luck, they were able to set up an endgame where via paranoia the town player who had been cleared since D1 ended up vengekilled.

It was frustrating to watch all the town's hard work go down the drain basically overnight, when we had fought so hard to get there and had locked the game down, but it was a good recovery on the scum's part. Scum avoided the lynch D1 when they were set to die. Scum laid wifom when their second member died. Scum managed to keep their third member from being the mislynch...three times in a row. And in spite of the vengeful townie having the remaining scum as their top scumread the whole game, they were talked out of it...by no less than the town's archnemesis, Pine, the guy the game's mechanic revolved around.

As infuriating as the loss was, it was still the most fun I have ever had in a game and I think I'll never find a game as enjoyable as this one. Except, maybe a sequel...


...Oh. And speaking of that game:

Nominating the Town Jam Session for Kodak Moment

.
What was the Town Jam Session? In a word, pure, unadulterated, awesomeness.
It started here, with Nacho asking if TheRealGin-N-Tonic and I were around.
What resulted was 8 (almost 9!) real-life hours of continuous posting, where any player who was around (mostly us three, but later also Aristophanes among others) would talk and give contributions as we rocked out and locked the game down. We went from having no coherency at the beginning to having two of the three scum in our lynchpool. It started at Nacho's 1555.
It ended at around post 2005, a full 450 posts and 18 pages later. This was pure town posting, a bloc of town players, hashing their reads out, bouncing it back and forth, with the results of having solidly townread each other and solid, established, firm scumreads.

THAT is the essence of a good town, of synchronization that is deadly effective.

[mastina]

Also worth mentioning in that game were some hilarious moments, like this sequence:
-Me lying about my claim.
-Scum KNOWING I was lying about my claim, but being unable to do anything to prove it aside from nightkilling me.
-A scum player botching their fakeclaim because they were relying on me having

not

lied about my claim.
-The hilarious moment where scum realized I had effectively trolled them and that their strongest remaining role was now confscum.

[mastina]

I 2nd the nominations above.

I will never forget the Town Jam Session, or this game really. It created probably the biggest bond I have with any player on this site(Mastina/Nacho) and it made me become 10 times better than I ever thought. Also, with the game mentioned above, if you spectated or played in it, do you think Pine deserves a Nom for most cunning manipulator?

Third the above nominations

For reasons stated. The Town Jam Session ripped us apart, and it was the work of weeks to stitch things back together.

For the record, since I don't see your names listed there, you need to actually submit via the form (twice, to get both noms) in order for the second/third to actually show up to the judges, unless the judges actually read the nomination thread. (Which I'm under the impression the nomination form was meant to fully replace them doing.)

[mastina]

I submitted it as being us and later Aristophanes, and in the description explaining the name of it as the Town Jam session, even though it really should be the other way around with it being the Town Jam Session as the name with a mention of the players in the description, but the format's what the format is, so.

[mastina]

I'll be sure to submit official nominations (remember kids, if it's not in the form it's not formal! No formal nom equals no fucking entry into consideration for the reward) in a bit for that game, butyeah. I'll make proper writeups later, but:
Varsoon's work is more than worthy of Paperback Writer.
Varsoon's work is definitely worthy of Best Setup.
The only sin against Varsoon's best mechanic is that I beat him to it by a couple of months. But if mine was worthy, so too is his. (That, aside from how our exact integration of the mechanic/role was different, so.)
Given the epic nature of the game, it is definitely something which might be a contender for Game of the Year.

But I need to formally go over that game, formally submit these, and write up some proper nominations rather than just this plain verbal support.

[mastina]

Going back to camn's revenge, by the way...

Nominate TheRealGin-N-Tonic for Rising Star

. Honestly, I thought this had been done already and was flabbergasted when I learned I was the first to do so. For those not in the know, this is why Gin's going to win it this year:
TheRealGin-N-Tonic is a player who shows incredible promise both as town and as scum. As scum, Gin is reasonable and charismatic, friendly, likable, and someone who is ridiculously hard to lynch--Gin influences towns, and can manipulate them marvelously. And yet, while Gin has begun to show this rise to greatness, Gin still has room to grow, and best of all, an active interest in doing exactly that: Gin recognizes the flaws in their play, and is actively working to correct them and become better.

Similarly, I have seen TheRealGin-N-Tonic's townplay grow EXPONENTIALLY. In particular, at the beginning of camn's revenge, I felt that TheRealGin-N-Tonic was scum, or if Gin was town (which was the case), Gin was lynchbait--and so did everyone else.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, everything changed. Gin became obvtown immediately to literally the whole game thread. Gin went from a mislynch candidate to being one of the core members of the townbloc, and this was even prior to that game's famous jam session. Gin showed remarkable analysis and a great capability to lead towns there, while making their alignment known: the town triple-threat of obvtown, good reads, and good charisma that you'd look for in a town player.

This is not unique to that game. In Mini Normal 1873, Gin had the scumteam basically pegged at several points, using good logic, and was pressing in all the right areas. While Gin ultimately second-guessed (something we all do) and lost thanks to that paranoia, the simple fact is Gin used their given role in the best possible way it could be used, and after expending Gin's role, was on the money with the implications.

Though Gin has lost games as town, and Gin still will lynch town even when being town, TheRealGin-N-Tonic, every single town game, is open to feedback: Gin

wants

to learn what Gin did well and where Gin fucked up. And Gin actually applies those lessons. Gin listens to what others tell them, and continues to improve, each game getting better than the last.

While I give a link to camn's revenge, I could link to almost any game contemporary to this or taking place after this and show the evidence of this growth. I firmly believe no player is more worthy of this reward than TheRealGin-N-Tonic is.

[mastina]

You still can!
Just because I have an early eye for talent doesn't mean you can't support the nomination when said talent has blossomed and grown.

[mastina]

Also I think Rising Star should go for someone who actually plays well to its win condition, not just is active.

All of my rising star nominations (Gin, Leonshade, might make more eventually) are nominated for exactly that (why the fuck nominate them otherwise?) and it's a little insulting to them to imply otherwise.

(Also for what it's worth: I don't nominate a person for Rising Star until they've demonstrated competent play as BOTH alignments. If they're competent as town but not scum, they should be a Paragon nomination. If they're competent as scum but not town, Don Corelone. It's only when I see a player who has promise as BOTH alignments that I nominate them for Rising Star, but that might just be my personal opinion.)

[mastina]

Nominating the entire fucking town of Micro 719: For Us for Kodac Moment

. Because for some ATROCIOUS reason there's no longer a Scummy for Best Performance: Town. (Kodac Moment is the only category left where that nomination can be made.) This game can singlehandedly give evidence of why it's a shame we don't have that, but to describe why...this was literally a picture-perfect town win. As in, scum lynched D1 and D2 with no town death N1, perfect. That alone should tell you why this was a stellar moment worthy of being remembered. But just in case you want to know the details...

The entire town was able to form a cohesive townbloc. As in, basically four playerslots with HARD townreads on each other (and said slots by and large being universal townreads), with strong townreads on the other three which they were able to hash out over the course of the game. Town identified with town, worked with town, and synchronized with town, early and immediately, and that left scum no room to breathe. Furthermore, the town used just about the best possible usage of their roles, able to coordinate actions such that there was essentially a masonry which would make it impossible for scum to win--all of this, largely on D1 and finishing by N1.

This communication was on an unprecedented level of awesomeness. Any number of things could have gone wrong. Fears of "it couldn't be that easy" could have cropped up. Paranoia could have run wild. Lesser townreads could have been lynched instead of scum. But

these things didn't happen

. There was one period near the beginning of the game where players were still sorting each other out. But past that initial point, everything clicked into place and the town just knew who each other were and knew who the scum were and were thusly able to trounce them.

You cannot ask for a more perfect town game, because there is no way a town could perform more competently than this. It was perfection personified. This is not something you see every day. This is something which took a lot of skill and natural ability to pull off and it is absolutely something worth the history books.

For that same reason,

Nominating Micro 719: For Us for Game of the Year

.
The game was a blast to play in. It was immensely fun and was just a stellar example of everything a town can and SHOULD be. If you ever want to give a game where you demonstrate how people should scumhunt, how people should work together, how people should be a cohesive unit, this game would be a shining beacon of how to execute that. And that is something which I feel is worthy of being on display. It was awesomeness incarnate. A work of beauty. It really must be seen to be believed.

[mastina]

also why do we have no one nominated for Best Moderator yet?

Because currently it takes three completed games in a calendar year to qualify for nomination (that'll be reduced to two next year it sounds like consensus is), and very few mods qualify because very few mods run three games to completion in a calendar year.

[mastina]

(Or more specifically. Sure there are mods who run three games to completion in a calendar year. But there are very few mods who run three games to completion in a calendar year who are eyecatching and noteworthy in their moderation. Many mods can mod competently enough where players don't really have any complaints: a votecount at least once a day and/or page, prods relatively quickly, replacements relatively quickly. These are things we universally expect of moderators in EVERY game so mods aren't generally considered noteworthy when they do these things. It's mods who go above and beyond the call to duty that get nominated for Best Moderator, yet those same mods who go above and beyond the call of duty are the type of mod to not run three games to completion in a calendar year. Thus the rarity of nominations.)

[mastina]

Also the sheet for the scummies seems to be cut off

This is still a thing btw.

[mastina]

Nominate mastina for best moderator

Seconded

While I'm flattered, there's no award for best moderator.

...

...There is, however, an award for excellent moderation.

[mastina]

I was about to make a post whining about the lack of Paragon noms
but then RC nominated someone for Paragon
and then I also realized how much we lack town players that are above average.

I nominated Leonshade for Paragon a while back and I think it's justified. At the time, the nomination was for Civilization Mafia, where he was literally the

only

player to have absolutely-perfect reads having all five scum nailed, and having consistently scumread the scum longer than any other player.

Not only that, but he was able to keep the scum from mislynching him every step of the way. He had to have been someone the scum talked about lynching two or three times and I KNOW we discussed nightkilling him equally as much simply because of how much of a threat he posed. He always managed to talk his way out of the lynch. And, I mean.

Let's be honest.

Can you really beat a guy who literally talked his way out of a lynch by posting Lion King gifs?


Since then, another solid game to add to this would be his performance in Kingdom Hearts, where he was a crucial part of the townbloc and essential to their success, yet again having great reads which helped drive the town to victory. This is far from the first game he's been town in and done incredibly well, too.

I only caught parts of the game but my understanding is that he also was respectable in Code Geass among others as well. Dude's just a solid scumhunter all-around.


That being said I also support the JaeReed nomination though I don't think I'll make an official second there because I may have some obvious biases there.

[mastina]

(Also changing Don Corlene from being a body of work award to a singular game seems nonsensical to me.)

The problem with a body of work award for scum is that in your typical calendar year, you need to land scum multiple times to be eligible. Now for newkids of the current generation that might be easier if they play 100 games in a calendar year, because balance of probability they're going to have more than one scumgame.

But for old folks who only play in one game at a time, a body of work scum award discriminates against them because they're likely to only have one scum performance in the whole calendar year.

[mastina]

How many games should someone have before I should consider nominating them for Paragon?

I'd say at least two if not three.

Speaking of, I have someone who is either a nom for that or Rising Star, I just need to decide which and make the writeup. (Basically Unabomb is impressing me.)

[mastina]

Btw going through Scummies Nominations and speaking of Rising Stars...

I'm

seconding the existing nomination for Alisae for Rising Star

, because Alisae has been around for only a short amount of time, and yet already risen to the level of star player...and has shown some immense potential in growing even further. Alisae has become an integral part of the community and has developed a good reputation as a player and a moderator. Alisae is rising in just about every way you can rise. To not just rise as a player, but also a person, as a beacon, and striving to become a pillar of the community.

Alisae has already shown an innate understanding of the nature of the game of mafia, having excellent grasp on existing theories...but Alisae is taking things a step further, and DEVELOPING those theories. (A hallmark of the truly exceptional and the only other Rising Star thusfar I've nominated to have that as far as I can recall is Ginngie.) As in, Alisae isn't happy just accepting the established site standards. Alisae is striving to develop new, better ones. But even if that isn't considered a part of the award (I honestly think it should be taken into consideration), Alisae is a strong player on eir own merits.

I could bring up any number of individual games, but most recently would be Night And Day, where Alisae had full control of the game the entire time. Basically the entire scum stratagem was Alisae's cunning at work. Alisae's towngame might not be quite as stellar, but it is FAR from weak, either. And Alisae is constantly working on improving it whenever e plays. Alisae is basically a scummer who you'd think has been around for years with the level of play Alisae displays...yet Alisae joined less than a year ago and got to this level in that remarkably-short period of time.

[mastina]

Nominating Something_Smart's XP Mafia for BOTH Best Setup and Best Mechanic/Mutation

. (Because both apply for the same reasoning.)

Many, many times has an attempt been made to hybridize an RPG mechanic of evolving powers and the game of mafia...but few ever materialize into an actual game, and of those that do, even fewer still manage to pull it off so successfully.

And yet Something_Smart did so magnificently. It's so easy to screw something like this up--yet he DIDN'T. He got everything right, nailing it down perfectly, and created a game which featured unique mechanics that were interesting and forced the players to think, town and scum alike.

The players had to make decisions on paths for what to choose, akin to choosing paths in an RPG for characters. The players had to choose how to use their XP. Everyone had an upgraded role they could unlock. Everything was just done so well.

The game was balanced incredibly well with multiple anti-swing features built into the game. While the nature of the complex mechanics meant some swing was inevitable, the game was incredibly well-designed such that it would never be overwhelming.

While good townplay would be rewarded just as good scumplay would be rewarded, and poor townplay would be punished just as poor scumplay would be punished, it was never impossible for one side to be left utterly screwed over because it was always possible to recover, something demonstrated magnificently in the game where both town and scum were forced to recover from setbacks.

This is EVERYTHING a game moderator should strive for when creating something unique, original, and ambitious. The result was immensely satisfying, owing to the feeling of the game having been handled with the incredible delicate care necessary for a good game.

[mastina]

Honestly, what's terrifying is that if I just ran two games like Steven Universe 2 back-to-back, I could've been moderating games literally this entire year and still fall under the total number of games needed to be run to hit the 3 game minimum.
Take that as you will. D:

I brought this up in the Scummies suggestion thread; they said that in the future they could reduce it down to two, essentially. (I believe the exact words were, "We could do two"?) So if not acceptable for two now, then it certainly will be next year. (Assuming the people behind the scummies remembered the suggestion and don't slack off on implementing it. )

[mastina]

I'm hoping there's a grace period for nominations--I've got like a dozen that I think should be made, but I need the time to sift through my games to organize them and the first chance I got for that is today.