Your Scumhunting Blindspots

[Shadowmod]

The hardest are players who are, or at least feel, absolutely uncommited to a game, also known as active lurkers. It's probably safe to assume that these have an above average likelyhood to be scum, but there are a surprising amount of townies who behave like this (or probably rather players who behave like it in general, or just overload on games and then cannot muster up the time or energy to actually play most of them).

[N]

it's not even october n how daree you

it matches my scummie

[Thestatusquo]

The hardest are players who are, or at least feel, absolutely uncommited to a game, also known as active lurkers. It's probably safe to assume that these have an above average likelyhood to be scum, but there are a surprising amount of townies who behave like this (or probably rather players who behave like it in general, or just overload on games and then cannot muster up the time or energy to actually play most of them).

I have found active lurking to be completely null. Which is awful because it 100% shouldn't be.

[PeregrineV]

Also posting in other areas but not the current game. I've never seen scum do it but it looks so awful.

This is the number one reason I played exclusively on alts for a long time. My site activity outside of game is not game relevant at all, but that doesn't stop people from THINKING its game relevant. And I was tired of talking about it.

AuntJ?

[PeregrineV]

What kinds of scum are you the worst at catching? People can share their general scumhunting weaknesses if they want, but I'm talking more about specific behaviours and styles of scum play (not so much individual players) that fool you.

(I'm putting mine in a separate post so I don't distract from the OP. Some people might be paranoid that omigod, now scum can USE THESE AGAINST YOU!11!!, but 1) the only consequence is some extra challenge, because it's a game with no stakes whatsoever, 2) you're less likely to be manipulated by weaknesses you're aware of, and 3) I'm probably not playing Mafia until 2018.)

The logical scum poster. It's really hard to pull off logical fake-scumhunting, so when people manage it, I almost always townread it.

[Thestatusquo]

Also posting in other areas but not the current game. I've never seen scum do it but it looks so awful.

This is the number one reason I played exclusively on alts for a long time. My site activity outside of game is not game relevant at all, but that doesn't stop people from THINKING its game relevant. And I was tired of talking about it.

AuntJ?

I have like 30 alts. That is not one of them. Also, lets not turn Mina's nice thread into a TSQ alt guessing game. I haven't played on an alt in quite some time. I think the site might even be more strict about that now a days. I'm not sure.

[Konowa]

This might be backwards, given how I use meta, but someone who I have played a number of games with recently. I get paranoid really quick.

[Thestatusquo]

So does that mean you're less likely to think someone is scum if you haven't played with them in a while?

[Konowa]

Probably not?

I just think I have a harder time reading people I've played with consecutively.

[kuribo]

Scum that responds to my attacks by buddying me instead of arguing with me

Scum that doesn't allow themselves to be drawn into the pissing contests I create in order to form my reads

[BROseidon]

I'm the worst at catching people that I think of as being irrational already. It's hard for me to differentiate the irrational because scum from the irrational because they just are.

I'm terrible at this one.

I also can't read lurking scum for shit

[BROseidon]

Pretty much any variety of scum that doesn't try to influence the gamestate I'm terrible at reading. I can only read people who are doing things.

[pirate mollie]

I get distracted by shiny things.

[Brian Skies]

I get distracted by shiny things.

[mastin2]

The person who's putting a whole lot of effort into the game, so I'd feel just awful lynching them.

The really strong player who we'd screw ourselves over by mislynching.

The really weak player who I'm sure isn't smart enough to manipulate me.

The player who claimed an awesome power role that I'm afraid to lynch.

The player who claimed VT prematurely, because wouldn't scum be worried about self-preservation?

For me, these aren't so much "easy/hard to read" as it is, "give 'em time, then judge". After that, becomes easy more often than not.

The "emotional" player:

The jerkass:

The person playing to what I've decided their town meta is:

The warm and fuzzy bunny:

These are the types of players I can read well! (Emotions are ridiculously easy to read. Jerk-town is different from jerk-scum is different from just-jerk. I actually know how to use meta RIGHT. I know how to read innocence. And I advocate casual play, so obviously I've learned to read people doing it better.) Ironically, they have significant overlap more often than not.

For me, the type of player I have trouble reading is the "oldy" type player. The pre-2009 style play, such as, say, Yosarian2 or CTD. (DGB is from that era, sure, but has a more "modern" style of play that is readable with ease.) I find formal players that are using tight logic to be artificial, and lack sincerity, meaning that I'll scumread them their alignment regardless; I struggle to differentiate between them playing as town and as scum.

[kuribo]

I agree, I can read emotion well enough that my entire playstyle is based around driving people into emotional response. The problem with my style is that it becomes less effective once a person has played with me a couple of times. The people that tend to fool me are the folks that already know going in that I'm going to jump down someone's throat. Newer players tend to be taken by surprise.

DGB is from that era, sure, but has a more "modern" style of play that is readable with ease.

DGB is one of the few players on the site that I'd say has a completely unique style. And she knows it. I can read her flawlessly, but it almost always takes me at least one day phase.

[Thestatusquo]

100% of people who say they can read another player flawlessly are wrong.

[Mina]

See, I didn't really make this clear in the OP, but I'm not talking about play I find inscrutable (generally, I townread so many people that I don't mind lynching the remainder who I can't read) so much as types of scumplay I'm biased towards townreading. For example, I definitely get reads from emotions--I'm generally the person screaming my head off at everyone to unvote the obvtown imploding player who's being wagoned for "AtE". But sometimes I fall for fake AtEs, or think "emotional = town", "unemotional/robotic = scum," when it's often just player-dependent.

If we're talking just people who are hard to read in general, then god, yes, lurkers and the old-school, hyper-logical playstyle. I skimmed the beginning of Oldy Mafia and was driven crazy ("Why are all these people quoting posts and nitpicking over the correctness of throwaway statements in them with no focus or emotional investment? Are they town, scum, or robots?") Certain kinds of newbies/VIs/irrational players are hard to read, whereas others are transparent.

[Katsuki]

100% of people who say they can read another player flawlessly are wrong.

I disagree with this statement. There are certain players who I can not play a game of mafia with because we can read each other's alignment (including 3p like SK etc.) with 100% certainty.

[Faraday]

Most people don't play enough games with the same person to ever be able to make me believe them on something like that.

[kuribo]

100% of people who say they can read another player flawlessly are wrong.

well when the day comes that I don't read DGB correctly I'll be sure to let you know


so far that day has come not once in 7 years

[Faraday]

number of games would be more relevant than time frame.

(also there's also the point that you're likely to be killed before that becomes an issue - since well as long as she believes it, then she'll just kill you and you'll never really find out since spectating games is different)

but that's how I view those sort of things in general, and applies to most "I can read this person 100%"

[Thestatusquo]

seems like confirmation bias to me, but this perhaps warrants its own thread.

[Ankamius]

I tend to scumread anyone who puts me as one of their biggest townreads without a setup-related reason.
I can't read defeatist newbies for shit. Ever.
I can't read people who go into lengthy 1v1s all the time.
I can't read fluff posters.

[kuribo]

(also there's also the point that you're likely to be killed before that becomes an issue - since well as long as she believes it, then she'll just kill you and you'll never really find out since spectating games is different)

nah usually she waits until i call her scum to kill me