it seems everyone's a critic these days!
that's ok. please allow me, dear reader, a post of navel-gazing contemplation. this will be an attempt to illuminate my thought processes, and hopefully restore some faith in my posting brand.
~~
the crux of my disagreements with players like cooldog is that we value different things on day 1. cooldog seems to think the purpose of day 1 is lynching scum. this a classical view. i'd say most players agree with this view.
unfortunately, the grim reality of day 1's is they are a largely random affair. it's true! historically, the day 1 lynch hits scum little more than random. so, why the objective posturing from players like cooldog, who think they've nailed scum in a gamestate devoid of any
real
information? does he actually believe with conviction he has scum pinned at a much higher rate than random? the fact that i am town calls into question his surety.
is he merely exaggerating his suspicion on me? is he reading too much into things aren't alignment-indicative and passing it off as useful scumhunting? is he scum? or is he perhaps just incompetent? we don't know yet.
we don't know, because we don't have much
real
information in the game yet. i refuse to pretend my suspicions are much better than random before we've had any roleclaims, flips, or substantial wagons. these events are the beginning of information. do i have my intuitions? yes, of course. but they are just that. and my intuition is honed from large scale data collection and attempting to look at broad trends.
~~
this leads me to my opinions on day 1 and what
i
view its purpose is. in my observations, towns often struggle with organising a lynch before deadline. 30% of day 1's end with a lynch on an unclaimed player. this occurs because town's wait until the 11th hour to organise a lynch, then when a roleclaim comes, all of a sudden things change. the gamestate has changed. information - real information - has finally come into the game, and they now only have 24 hours to organise a new lynch, and lo and behold it lands on some random townie, as any vote can be justified in a deadline panic.
this is an all too familiar pattern of how day 1's often go. town's don't actually realise what real information is. they spend the day in petty arguments over their favourite behavioural tells, proudly proclaiming XYZ is an oh so objective tell, and not merely flavour of the month.
this is all well and good. we do need players engaging in these little dances. we even need players to mistakenly believe their reads on day 1 are better than random. you simply have to "fake it til you make it", so to speak, with day 1 scumreads. then, once you've said them enough, they crystalise.
but...
i refuse to participate in this charade. i know my biases too well, and dislike pretending i am much better than random. on day 1, i see my role more as the "benevolent head of content curation". i prefer to engage lurkers, and ensure they can't skirt by. a balance of voices is crucial to producing a readable, yet informative day 1 for future rereading. i prefer to push wagons and accelerate the game, and readily encourage others to do the same. in my eyes, we should have the first L-1 wagon organised before the halfway point of day 1. that way, we have enough time to assess the claim and deal with the fallout.
i focus on these things because they are +EV. this is my way of trying to achieve my win condition. it's probably not best if everyone played like me, but every town needs one of me. a functioning town takes all types. i'm not asking anyone to change their ways, but i'm asking others to consider mine.
you'll get more a focused approach to scumhunting in the traditional sense from me post-claims and flips. until then, to me it is all one big hoopla.
![:]](./images/smilies/icon_smiling.png "Cheerful Smile"){kind=icon}
