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DG Interview Thread: Walrus? Toasted

RPS


  • Total voters
    57

Pokechu

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damn son this is just the new social thread eh

#HBC | marshy #HBC | marshy why suit up when you could strip down?

It's fun asking people questions!!!!! Surprisingly addictive, too!! I finally know Sabrar's favorite superpower and I now know GLG's alignment. And that he's willing to be my husband!! (Or he possibly is already? Or just my fiance? Technically this is an engagement, right?)

Fun facts are to be learned!! You should try it!
 

#HBC | Dark Horse

Mach-Hommy x Murakami
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Is there any reason we can't just move on to someone else? No diss to ran but it's been like at least 3 months. Gives him as much time as wants to answer the questions .
 

ranmaru

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1. Which do you think is more important to a game of Mafia: A positive attitude, or a careful thought-process? Why?

A careful thought process I would consider more important to the game of mafia. Mafia is not simply a solving game, but I find a careful thought process important to the aspect of solving. (As town) Especially for the fact that each side has win conditions, I feel a careful thought process is important in progressing it, rather than a positive attitude, which helps more for the enjoyment of everyone. Yet I don't encourage a lack of it, but I assume that mafia would be best experienced with as little toxicity as possible.

2. What's your favourite citrus fruit? Why?

I don't really have one. I'm going to cheat and state my favorite fruits are: Rasberries > Strawberries > Pineapples > Grapes > Bananas. That's probably it. Orange tastes alright but that requires effort and I'm sure any other citrus fruit does too.

3. You ran a Flavourless Mafia series here. Was that because you couldn't be bothered or due to something more notable?

It is due to me wanting to keep things simple, and try to have players focus on dayplay, rather than mechanics. Yet I begun keeping it simple to gain experience modding, since role heavy games take more investment and need more care to make sure no horrible errors ruin the game. Yet, I am not opposed to running one! I've always wanted to run a themed game, I just haven't gotten to that in all these years. I have hosted a Upick game with Nabe, which I actually loved. I think if I want to prepare for a role heavy game as a host, I'll need to get some sort of system, like a check list and excel sheet, to make sure I get things done correctly. If you have anything like that, I'd appreciate you sending it my way.

4. Do you drink alcohol? If so, what's your favorite type of alcohol? (From a bottle.) If not, what's your favourite liquid to ingest? Either way, why?

I have in the past, and plenty of it. I don't really have a favorite. I probably default to blue moon, or budweiser. I don't like the taste of alcohol and only drink to get buzzed / drunk socially. Favorite liquid: Milk. I really enjoy milk, I'd rather have that instead.

5. Which alignment do you prefer to play: town, scum, or neutral? Why?

I prefer town. I like to solve. I've known this since the beginning of my mafia career. I can play neutral alright but I still have guilt as neutral or mafia so I'd rather not. I have this certain thrill and lust for hunting mafia. I like to be free and ignorant of guilt if possible. I'm not a good liar, even when I try to be. Then I'd get "I HATE LIARS" and I'm thinking "damn I'm trying my bestest here."

6. What does this image represent to you?

Bowser JR mad af and about to charge at me at the final battle of Yoshi's Island.

7. What's your process in solving a mafia game as town?

Ask Questions > Develop Read > Post them > Vote Scum Read > Assemble Town Core to murder mafia > Re-evaluate if needed. Something like that. It's all a big picture to me, so I try to just slowly look at a suspect in a vacuum... and then try to increase my vision of the whole town slowly but surely. As in, I try to push a scum read, and then I try to gauge reactions to that and other interactions, and develop my read on the whole cast until I have a good understand of the whole cast (or I think so, apparently my reads are still surface level or level 0 according to some).

Lately a few games I have tried a different playstyle, like in your Sumtin mafia game, and it seems to work. Yet I hate it because it gets me heat. Certainly something I'll expirement more with in the future, as I do think accuracy in reads is an important skill, among others.

8. What's your favourite fiction novel and/or series?

Lies of Locke Lamora. I can't really think of others, I don't really read books but I should.

9. Which is more important for a read: paranoia towards someone's experience, or a strong visceral gutread based on posting mannerisms? Why?

I think a strong visceral gutread based on posting mannerisms is more important. I think paranioa might hurt more by giving you confirmation bias, yet I also do think it can help keep you wary of such a player. I only lean this way due to examples like pushing Z25 for being more reasonable and being devoid of swearing, which did land me a scum. Yet, I don't think it will work in every case.

10. What's your favourite candy/dessert/sweet snack?

Mega War Heads. Cry Babies. Snickers. Cheese Cake. Cake.

11. Would you rather live in a place with extreme seasons, a place with no seasons, or a place with specific extreme seasons? If specific ones, which ones?

No seasons. I've lived in Florida and Rhode Island so I've experienced cold and hot and I'd rather just have a good ol' pleasant day in the middle of cold and hot.

12. How do you feel about RVS votes? Why?

I think they are good to get reactions going, at least when used with the intent to spark discussion and get the ball rolling. I think RVS votes aren't needed specifically, but the intent to create a pro-town environment in the early game. It just so happens that votes (that are serious or semi-serious) and wagons are good tools for pressuring and sparking discussion.

13. Does it irritate you that I broke the pattern in my questions?

No, not at all. On the topic of irritation, random small things my family do have been irritating me which I just consider myself just an ass for (I never really say anything about them) but I just get irritated.
 
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Xivii

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BoomFrog BoomFrog

Mafia

What is your favorite thing about mafia? What do you think it is about it that allures you?

How long have you been playing?

If you could be Town X% of the time and Mafia X% of the time, what would be your ideal ratio?

What is your favorite Town role and favorite Mafia role?

Will you host a game anytime in the near future?

How would you best describe your process for reading people?

What do you think is the best way for people to read you? Are you aware of any secret tells about yourself?

Who would you feature on an all-star scum team?

What's your favorite game of mafia you've played?

What's your favorite move that has been made by a player in your time playing?


IRL

What do you do for work? I remember you mentioning something computer-science related in Crossover.

What is your life like? You don't have to divulge anything too personal, but I'm genuinely curious.

How often do you watch movies or tv? Anything in particular that you enjoy?

What is your favorite non-fiction book? What is your favorite fiction book? When is the last time you read a book?

What type of music do you enjoy?

What are your hobbies outside of mafia?

What is the strangest thing that's ever happened to you?

Do you apply your telepathic abilities in your everyday life or just mafia? Do you make a conscious effort to see through other people's eyes or is it just something that more or less comes naturally?


Psyche & Philosophy

If a friend asked you to do something at the last minute, how likely are you to go along with it?

If you could take a happiness pill that could make you permanently euphoric, would you take it? If no, how much money would it take for you to do so?

If you had one wish that could be granted as you intended, aside from any wish that results in more wishes, what would you wish for?

If you could have 25 billion dollars in exchange for your hearing (unable to be repaired by technology), would you take it? If no, what's the highest amount you would need in exchange? If yes, what's the lowest amount you would exchange it for? How about vision?

If society A has laws protecting children from harm and it is the custom in society B for the eldest child to enter into a gruesome death battle at a certain age for the glory of the family, is it the responsibility of society A to intervene with this custom?

Where would you place yourself on the Dawkins Scale?

Of course if any of these are too personal/uncomfortable feel free to ignore (or DM me)!
 

Strong Badam

Super Elite
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This is like Leo finally winning an Oscar. Now that the questions are answered, we can't talk and make jokes about how they're still unanswered. I'm unsure which reality is more enjoyable to live in.
 

BoomFrog

Smash Lord
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Mafia

What is your favorite thing about mafia? What do you think it is about it that allures you?
Mafia is an infinite puzzle generator. I love analyzing complex systems, and I'm good at understanding people's nuanced communications and Mafia tests both of those skills. I also love tricking people, but am philosophically against even telling white lies in real life, so hidden role games are my only outlet for that. But my favorite part has to be pulling off an elaborate Xanatos gambit (once literally as Xanatos in Gargoyles Mafia),

How long have you been playing?
Hmm, I started in about 2006 I think? But took a 3 year break, so 11ish years?

If you could be Town X% of the time and Mafia X% of the time, what would be your ideal ratio?
As long as no one knew I had the choice I'd go 60% mafia. 20%indy 20%town

What is your favorite Town role and favorite Mafia role?
I haven't had much chance, but I bet innocent child or mason, so I have free license to be as scummy as I want. Mafia roles are usually pretty mild, but maybe framer? I'm often directing the mafia powers as mafia regardless of who on the team technically has them.

Will you host a game anytime in the near future?
I've been considering hosting "misspelling mafia", day phases would conclude by taking someone out to lunch, etc. Also, maybe "Rap Battle Mafia" where there would be spectators who would rank the quality of rapping done in thread and all powers would be more useful against targets lower on the secret rap rankings.

How would you best describe your process for reading people?

The most important thing is to get a baseline of how a player "should" act. I have a little mental model of each player and have expectations for what they would respond to each event as it comes up. When people deviate that raises red flags.

What do you think is the best way for people to read you? Are you aware of any secret tells about yourself?
If I was aware of it I'd have corrected it. I will say as scum I'll swerve the wagon away from scummates at the last minute, but I like to manipulate the wagons at EoD as town, so ¯\(ツ)/¯ . My general advice is if I don't yeet scum by the end of D3 then I'm scum. I think I have very few legit town tells, but we'll have to see since I haven't played scum in over a year.

Who would you feature on an all-star scum team?
Fontisian, Me, Xivii

What's your favorite game of mafia you've played?
So many to choose from, but probably the aforementioned Gargoyles game. I was Xanatos, scum neighborizer. I, at one point, said in thread that I town read my scummate while saying in private chat that I scum read him but was lying publicly so he wouldn't NE me. It was a beautiful game with layers and layers of lies. Also, I'd been tracked to the NK target N1 and lived through endgame. Wam, the tracker, is still bitter.

What's your favorite move that has been made by a player in your time playing?
I must confess the sin of pride. That Xanatos one.

IRL

What do you do for work? I remember you mentioning something computer-science related in Crossover.
I think at the time of Crossover I was a Engineer supporting Sales of stainless steel tubing from the US to China. But since then I went to a coding bootcamp and am now rising through the ranks of Computer Programmers in Seattle.

What is your life like? You don't have to divulge anything too personal, but I'm genuinely curious.
My mother is a deeply introspective women who seriously lacks natural empathy but has put great effort to being conscientiously kind to others and taught me everything I know about how to be a caring person. My father is a whip smart businessman and an immature man-child. He taught me everything I know about negotiation, leadership and finances. And too much about how to use anger and intimidation to get what you want. I try to never use that forbidden power.

I lived in China for 8 years, and mafia was one of the ways to stay connected to English speakers in wildly different time zones. Now I'm living in Seattle, happily married, raising a child and have generally settled down. I'm contemplating what the next major life goal I want to pursue is. Either more children, because I love kids, and my daughter has been the most clearly successful project in my life, or possible working on something more widely helpful to the world.

How often do you watch movies or tv? Anything in particular that you enjoy?

Rarely (obviously more now with quarantine), but mostly just something to half pay attention to while cleaning the kitchen. TV is good for when you are exhausted and need a break from effort, but to be honest my life is pretty cushy, and I don't often need that. I'm currently enjoying The Boys, Taskmaster (British show available on youtube), and The Mandalorian. Top shows would probably be The Good Place, Avatar, and Transformers: Beast Wars. (I haven't re-watched it, it might be terrible now, but I remember Dino bot quoted shakespeare, and I cried when he died, so I'm pretty sure it was an amazing cartoon).

What is your favorite non-fiction book? What is your favorite fiction book? When is the last time you read a book?
I rarely finish a non-fiction book, I find self-help books too repetitive, history books tend to be dramatized so I'd rather just read wikipedia, and I've capped out my interest in most science. I guess I'd say Thinking fast and Slow even though I didn't finish reading it but found the ideas interesting and insightful. Top fiction would be Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by far. Other high picks are Discworld novels, Enders Game, and the Stormlight archives series.

What type of music do you enjoy?
I actually have a weird relationship with music and mostly only liked music with interesting lyrics, mostly comedy stuff like Tom Lehrer and Allen Sherman. I didn't like that catchy music would get stuck in my head, it fells like a mental mimetic virus occupying my thoughts. But recently since I've had to do more heads down focused but semi-boring work for programming I've learned to enjoy background music as long as it's has zero lyrics. I have a pandora list for programming where I downvote anything that catches my attention. It's mostly movie sound tracks and some daft punk. Oh, Jonathan Coltrane is good, guess I still like comedy music.

What are your hobbies outside of mafia?
LARPing! I love to go out in the woods, dress up as a monster and hit people with foam swords. It's realtime D&D, but with exercise!

What is the strangest thing that's ever happened to you?
I went on a school trip to Israel in highschool. I'm Jewish and grew up in a community that was 50% Jewish. I wasn't very religious but during the whole trip I had a weird feeling in my chest. It's hard to say what it was in retrospect, but at the time I felt it was the spiritual significance of the place. Also, one time when I was about ten my (christian) grandmother prayed that I would be given the gift of tongues. I babbled nonsensically for a while, but then later confessed to her that I'd only faked it to make her feel better.

Do you apply your telepathic abilities in your everyday life or just mafia? Do you make a conscious effort to see through other people's eyes or is it just something that more or less comes naturally?
It's constant and instinctive. I used to work in sales and it helped there, it also makes me a good mediator in disputes between siblings or friends. My daughter has no doubt greatly benefited from an eternally sympathetic father. It makes me a really good storyteller, which I use while playing RPGs or LARPing to make other people's games more enjoyable. I'm trying to build towards management in my career as that would make better use of my people skills.

Psyche & Philosophy

If a friend asked you to do something at the last minute, how likely are you to go along with it?

Very likely unless I have other obligations, but I almost always have other obligations.

If you could take a happiness pill that could make you permanently euphoric, would you take it? If no, how much money would it take for you to do so?

No, that would be basically suicide. How much money would it take for me to blow my brains out? Somewhere more then $100 million dollars and less then a billion dollars. If it just makes me very happy as a baseline but I can still be more and less happy so I don't lose all motivation to do anything then I'd say no, but yes for somewhere between 1-10 million dollars.

If you had one wish that could be granted as you intended, aside from any wish that results in more wishes, what would you wish for?
I wish for the wish that an omniscient being would make with the intent of making life as good as possible for all sentient life in the universe. Slightly smaller wish would be I wish to become immortal, omnipotent god emperor of mankind. Slightly smaller wish then that, in the actual spirit of the question would be, I wish for benevolent superintelligent AI to be invented immediately.

If you could have 25 billion dollars in exchange for your hearing (unable to be repaired by technology), would you take it? If no, what's the highest amount you would need in exchange? If yes, what's the lowest amount you would exchange it for? How about vision?
Yes, somewhere around 10 million. Vision, probably like 100 million. I have a high estimation of my ability to cope.

If society A has laws protecting children from harm and it is the custom in society B for the eldest child to enter into a gruesome death battle at a certain age for the glory of the family, is it the responsibility of society A to intervene with this custom?
That is a really hard question. My gut says yes, but the obvious followup is at what point is it not the responsibility to intervene. Much of the intervention would require destroying the culture of society B and I'm not sure where the trade off is between preserving a life and preserving a culture.

Where would you place yourself on the Dawkins Scale?
6.9 sounds about right. I can see how religions would have been invented and it is evident that the largest religions are the ones that have the best "mimetic reproduction". Therefore for God to exist He must have perfectly designed the universe to be identical to one where he doesn't exist. It would be cruel of that God to judge people for being skeptical but good people. Therefore the all loving Christian God described in the bible cannot exist.

Of course if any of these are too personal/uncomfortable feel free to ignore (or DM me)!
Bonus answer to a non-question: One of my other super powers is that I am nigh shameless. It is very hard to embarrass me, and I am not easily influenced by social pressure. I'm happy to talk about almost anything, and mostly limit myself by the consideration of what other people don't want to read about.
 

Xivii

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That was great...wow.

I have to read this Gargoyles mafia.

As long as no one knew I had the choice I'd go 60% mafia. 20%indy 20%town
Fascinating. I'd say 90% town 10% indy for me.

My mother is a deeply introspective women who seriously lacks natural empathy but has put great effort to being conscientiously kind to others and taught me everything I know about how to be a caring person.
I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this. Is it that she lives life by a set of rules to make up for the lack of empathy? Or did she create empathy through introspection? What is her drive for being kind?

I lived in China for 8 years, and mafia was one of the ways to stay connected to English speakers in wildly different time zones.
Wow, where did you live before and what drove you there?

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Would you say someone would have to have read or seen Harry Potter to enjoy this?

I actually have a weird relationship with music and mostly only liked music with interesting lyrics, mostly comedy stuff like Tom Lehrer and Allen Sherman. I didn't like that catchy music would get stuck in my head, it fells like a mental mimetic virus occupying my thoughts. But recently since I've had to do more heads down focused but semi-boring work for programming I've learned to enjoy background music as long as it's has zero lyrics. I have a pandora list for programming where I downvote anything that catches my attention. It's mostly movie sound tracks and some daft punk. Oh, Jonathan Coltrane is good, guess I still like comedy music.
I don't think I've ever heard an answer like this before. I need to think about this.


Bonus question to a non-answer: will you have my babies?
 

Chaco

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That was a good read, pretty awesome you’re so well traveled.
 

BoomFrog

Smash Lord
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Messages
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I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this. Is it that she lives life by a set of rules to make up for the lack of empathy? Or did she create empathy through introspection? What is her drive for being kind?
She cares about other people and wants to have friendships, but the way to be caring and to build friendships is not intuitive for her. She accomplishes it in a very logical way with guiding principles. Her childhood had a... very poor demonstration on how to have a loving relationship, she studied psychology in college and logiced and researched her way into figuring out how to have healthy relationships.

Wow, where did you live before and what drove you there?
Grew up near Chicago. Went to China because I could basically. My father's business had a decent customer base in Asia and we made the plan that I'd go there and try to grow it.

Would you say someone would have to have read or seen Harry Potter to enjoy this?
No I don't think so. It would help to be familiar with the basics but I think everyone has picked those to by osmosis. You lose about 20% of the pleasure of seeing the characters redefined and the original bad logic mocked but I think it'd still be an enjoyable and interesting read. Key traits to enjoy HP:atMoR would be enjoying fantasy novels and really really enjoying hyper logicalness.

Bonus question to a non-answer: will you have my babies?
My wife and I have discussed polyamory semi-seriously. The door is open. ;)
 
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BoomFrog

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BoomFrog BoomFrog oh man I really love taskmaster!!! What’s been your favorite season so far that’s been uploaded to YouTube?
I really liked the most recent one (season 7 I think). Greg's friend being one of the contestants and giving him **** all season was great, and James' purposely bad attitude. But they have all been pretty good and have sort of just all mushed together into an amusing blur.
 
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#HBC | marshy

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Also, one time when I was about ten my (christian) grandmother prayed that I would be given the gift of tongues. I babbled nonsensically for a while, but then later confessed to her that I'd only faked it to make her feel better.
lmao

only skimmed but i gotta read the whole thing soon
 

#HBC | FrozeηFlame

BRoomer
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Top fiction would be Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by far.
did I just find a fellow SSC/lesswrong regular? :grin: (I feel like your wish for instant invention of benevolent strong AI almost answers my question for me lol)

Where would you place yourself on the Dawkins Scale?
6.9 sounds about right.
Ayyyyyyyyyy ;););)
 

BoomFrog

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#HBC | FrozeηFlame #HBC | FrozeηFlame Not a regular but a fan of the ideas that come out of that space. Starslate codex is good too. I don't read all of either, I just am like, friends with people who share the best bits of both.
 

#HBC | FrozeηFlame

BRoomer
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#HBC | FrozeηFlame #HBC | FrozeηFlame Not a regular but a fan of the ideas that come out of that space. Starslate codex is good too. I don't read all of either, I just am like, friends with people who share the best bits of both.
the ideas are what matter my man, glad to hear it! Slate Star Codex (SSC) is far and away my favorite blog of all time and quite frankly features some of the best prose and scientific/psychological/sociopolitical analysis I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Scott is genius at producing digestible takes that sacrifice none of the nuance and complexity that the issues he tackles deserves. Obviously given the New York Times situation the blog isn't quite as accessible as it once was but I would highly encourage you to dive into his content deeper. Meditations on Moloch is simply a work of art, if your friends who "share the best bits of both" haven't pointed you in that direction yet, it's absolutely a must read :)
 
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bessie

Smash Journeyman
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Mar 8, 2020
Messages
422
Forum PMs, until Crossover Mafia when Marshy started us on quick topics.

Everything always seems to circle back to Marshy...
 

BoomFrog

Smash Lord
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Yeah unfortunately I think the private messages are lost. That was half the fun.
 

BoomFrog

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What am I doing?
I barely know. I just got sucked into this last time. But we are asking you to agree to be interviewed. Everyone has a week to write questions and then you answer what you are comfortable answering.
 
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