I'm at a bit of a loss for how to start here. Jake from State Farm has been incorrect on some points, and outright untruthful in others. It's one thing to disagree about how useful questions are to start the game, but it's another to outright lie about them. At the risk of this post being obscenely long, I want to hit a couple of points here.
1. Starting the game with questions rather than arbitrary votes isn't as uncommon as Jake from State Farm would have you believe.
I can provide more games where this happens (and will a bit later), but I got the idea from the creator of this site who used it in at least one game that caught my eye. In any case, he's trying to take a playstyle difference and use it as if it's somehow a scumtell. I'm also perturbed by his strong reaction against answering questions that are meaningless. (Why not just answer them, if they don't do anything, and move along to what you feel will be productive?)
2. This quote from Jake from State Farm below is an outright lie.
In post 78, Jake from State Farm wrote:Thesp will tel you it's useful but his first time doing it, he lead a lynch on a town PR and scum had a perfect victory.
The game he's referring to is
Newbie 1498, where I opened with a series of questions. Jake from State Farm would have you believe that scum's perfect victory in that game came at my hands. Instead, I'll note that I was nightkilled Night 1,
specifically because scum thought I was "scary good" and "already got a little bit of a bead on [one of the scum]".
Beyond that, though,
this isn't close to my first game starting out with questions rather than meaningless votes
. I've done it here as well:
Micro 311
Mini 1553
Newbie 1042
Newbie 890
Mini 905
Mini 900
Newbie 792
(I stopped looking after I got this far back, I likely have more.)
In fact, my distaste for what is commonly referred to as the "Random Voting Stage" of the game has a clear history, as noted
here and
here and
here and
here and
here (where others also note that RVS isn't useful) and
here. I can likely find more examples if you like, but I hope you get my point. Last game wasn't the first time I've done it, and it has a long, storied history of being used (and being used effectively) to begin games. I'm in no way suggesting that scum out themselves in initial questions. But arbitrarily voting, then arbitrarily voting other people based on
those
arbitrary votes, has never struck me as productive. Instead, I've been able to read people better the more I know about them, and asking people questions has been the
best
way to start that process with a bunch of people I've never met, rather than expecting them to volunteer information.
3. Jake from State Farm has lied about
his
questions about my approach to starting games.
Early on, he said:
In post 18, Jake from State Farm wrote:Damn I missed your last newbie game where you did that. I stil want to know why you start games like that. I don't understand the point
However,
I opened the game he's referring to with a detailed explanation as to why I asked the questions to open the game. (I probably should have done so in this game as well, but was pressed for time when the game opened, as I had guests in town.)
If he saw that I opened the last game with questions, then he saw
why
I open the game with questions.
When he asked again:
I responded by quoting the post explanatory post that gives a pretty clear reason why I ask such questions rather than arbitrarily voting. He then responds that it "still doesn't answer my question" and begins being abusive rather than productive.
4. Jake from State Farm has been doing nothing to scumhunt outside of attacking me.
He has used our playstyle difference as an excuse to provide otherwise empty content, and has been asking players to post, but hasn't been doing anything to get them to say anything substantive. He's done things like complain about a lack of activity:
...but doesn't actually do anything to promote activity. That's the hallmark of trying to look busy while not accomplishing anything. It's crazy scummy and bad for the game.
That's why my vote is on Jake from State Farm. I'm very, very happy with my vote there.
At this point, everyone should be doing
something
with their votes.
Either make a best guess and put it where you think it belongs, or unvote and ask questions to find out where you think your vote should go. There are things in this game to consider at this point. Jake from State Farm has his mutiny thing against me. I've pretty clearly laid out my thoughts. TheGottemer and Flames682 simply voted me after Jake from State Farm's post, without further statement. (Why, TheGottemer and Flames682?) Maybe there's someone who hasn't posted much ("lurking") who you think needs to be called out. Whatever it is, here's your chance to
do
something.