Alright, after sifting through all of this I've broken down what we have so far into a few major issues.
Issue #1: Tom calling out the "fake posting restriction"
Issue #2: BabyJesus ****storm
Issue #3: Empty/non-existent reaosning for mid tier voting
Issue #4: The name claim
I'll go through each of them and let you know what I've gathered from them and my opinions on ea ch subject.
1.) Tom called marshy out on allegedly faking a posting restriction, citing his reasoning as preventative action with the intent of preventing a repeat of some past posting restriction facade that he had once pulled off. Though I don't necessarily see such action as significantly scummy, Tom's choice does lean toward the anti-town side barring his metagaming reasoning. The reason being, is if Marshy WAS in fact faking a posting restriction, he may have messed up and forgot about at some point in the future. If that were to happen and no punishment occurred, that would be a dead giveaway that Marshy was lying, and of course, Lynch all liars applies. By having your suspicion that he's lying, but not publicly announcing it you allow Marshy continue faking the restriction with NO excuse to stop it if he was indeed faking. If people are going to lie, let them. Anyone who does is playing in a very non-town fashion and thus, you should allow people to lie and eventually get caught. Essentially what you did Tom was gave Marshy an excuse to quit while he was ahead and save face, when the same couldn't be done later in the game.
2.) I almost regret bringing BJ up in the strategy discussion thread, considering all the crap imitating him started lol. Basically what I gathered from the arguments surrounding him were just angry reactions to a very unorthodox style of play, regardless of the fact that it was implemented jokingly. I gathered that most of the reactions were personal, and not necessarily reactions that should be read as being influenced by any given player's mafia role. I'd take any analysis of a player surrounding the BJ incident with a grain of salt because I don't feel it had substance enough to warrant discussion that would bring out player motives.
3.) Tom essentially mentioned how scummy it was for Macman and Pythag to vote for you with either nonexistent in Macman's case or very shoddy reasoning in Pythag's case. I'd call particular attention to Macman who seemed to have blindly tossed a vote on tom, perhaps after coming to a conclusion that a bandwagon was about to start and wanted to get on early? He literally just tried to sneak his vote in with a post consisting of no more than a simple "Vote: Tom". He is then very quick to unvote when Tom retorts in the lightest manner. Seems like characteristic jumpy scum behavior to me.
4.) As far as the name claim goes, I was never really in proposition or opposition of this course of action. I've decided now that I'd actually be in favor of a name claim, considering how stale the game has gotten. This may be what we need to revitalize discussion. However, if a nameclaim is the course of action we'd like to take, it would be a better idea to wait until Day 2, considering how close the deadline is and how unrealistic it is to expected everyone to claim in time, and if not everyone claims, there is little to no benefit for the town.
Tom did raise the interesting debate of whether or not a nameclaim would be pro-town or pro-mafia in the context of this game. I'd actually be inclined to agree with Ronike and say that in this case, mass nameclaim would probably favor the mafia slightly for the very same reaosn Ronike cited: we'd be revealing who the likely power roles are for the mafia.
Tom, you make the argument that in mafia, the town are at the informational "disadvantage" and then postulate that following that logic, it makes sense that any effort to increase the town's knowledge is inherently pro-town. Though this makes logical sense, in falters when one considers the IMPACTS of such an increase in knowledge. For a townie, a nameclaim has the slim but existent chance of revealing a mafia either by forcing a mafiat to claim a role possessed by a townie, or a claim error. Furthermore, a nameclaim can help town power roles establish who would be the best candidates for their night abilities. Though these potential benefits are indeed significant, they simply do not outweigh the impact that bestowing such information upon the mafia would have. Name claiming essentially bestows the mafia with the information they need to make the most informed nightkill choices. They can abuse flavor and kill certain characters to frame others. They can judge who are likely power roles, who is likely to be protected, and who would be best to debilitate, recruit, or affect with whatever other abilities they might have. The point is, in the context of this game, where propensity of a name claim to force false claims or reveal "likely mafia" roles is very low, mass name claim leans in the mafia's favor ever so slightly.
You might be thinking, "FF, if you think mass nameclaim is pro-mafia then why do you support it?" The answer is, it may be a move that is necessary to cure this game's stagnation. Constructive discussion is the lifeblood of town victory, and sacrifices are needed sometimes to sustain it.
The deadline has unfortunately limited our options significantly. I'd like to hear opinions on macman especially, for he is my prime suspect atm. I doubt we'll have enough to to reach a majority on anyone in the next 24 hours with our current activity level, nor will we be able to do a name claim. Let's just try to talk about as much as we can before our time is up and just settle for the No Lynch.
Unvote: Tom
Vote: Macman
it wont bite. hard.
