Of course people make errors or look suspicious or even, as you suggest, use speech patterns that the rest of us can analyze for nuances of mafianess. And if this wasn't the case, mafia would probably be boring.
Yes.
But if not practically than at least theoretically, there certainly must be some better strategy than "wait for someone to mess up."
Not necessarily. But it's not just "wait for someone to mess up", as you summarized. It's never a big thing. Random votes can be a part of it, though; maybe not as useful as other things, but random votes generally *aren't* completely random (some people probably do do properly random ones, and they're pointless, but most people pick someone, and if they're Mafia, Cop, Doc, whatever, it's probably for some minor subconscious reason, or possibly some less-that-subconscious one).
Regardless, I've bashed random voters before. It's just the way some people play at first. *~shrug~*
But...
What if everyone played this way? The game would be horrible. mith, what do you do if you're the first to post in a game?
But even *I* don't just wait around for things. Sometimes I post speculation on roles, sometimes I pick a random fight with someone to get people talking (hint hint). Sometimes it's meant to look like just me griping, sometimes it really *is* just me griping. It's all part of the game. *~shrug~*
I only said you were content with random voting because I proposed a plan which I felt and still feel is better than a random vote, and you maligned it while ignoring the other votes.
I picked on it *first* because it got me two votes, and was being pushed as a lynching method; much more likely to get to a quick lynch than random votes.
And, while you may feel it is better, *I* don't. If my little attempt at actually quantifying it is worth anything, it looks *worse* than random, to me.
perhaps emphasizing one over the other, but you specifically said you were voting for me to discourage out-of-game reasoning.
Perhaps I could have worded it better, but discourage does not necessarily equal "all is bad". Discourage means I think there is too much of it.
Rest assured, however, that I am not discouraged by your votes. And if you continue to vote for people to dissuade them from disagreeing with you, then I think you'll find your strategy is in fact worse than random: It's just as easy for a mafia to shut up and listen then to embroil themselves in a lively debate.
*~shrug~* You may not be. Perhaps, though, it will encourage people to look for these types of things, that perhaps look good on the surface, but aren't really. Mafia love to do things like that. And, if enough people catch onto them, it won't be worth it to you to try them as Mafia. Maybe you'll come up with better ideas.
And if you continue to vote for people to dissuade them from disagreeing with you, then I think you'll find your strategy is in fact worse than random: It's just as easy for a mafia to shut up and listen then to embroil themselves in a lively debate.
I think you need to go retake probability (or take it) or something. You've *got* to stop posting things like "I think this is better" and "I think this is worse", with nothing better than "well, maybe some GLers kill other GLers" and "maybe Mafia will shut up". Mafia *don't* usually stay completely silent; perhaps they will in future meta-game goodness, but when that time comes I'll be voting differently too.
What I find more interesting than this lack of actual fact is that you've once again slipped something in that gets you off: first the "let's lynch GLers" bit, then the "well, Mafia are silent and won't debate". Very subtle.
As for my vote, though, I'm considering switching to jasonpingpong. Still can't decide if he's being random-newbie, or just trying for quick lynch. I'll think about it and decide on something when I'm not so tired.
