Otolia, Ace, TehBrawlGuy, Junpei, VisceraEyes, and Mozamis all get a pass from me today. They're active, they're posting content, and if I'm going to lose to scum, I'd rather lose to scum like that rather than scum that don't work for it at all. Also, if they're scum, it'll be easier to discover late game than with the people who aren't doing anything of value.
Speaking of doing nothing of value, Wasabi and Hiplop, despite wasting internet space, have each shown a few glimmers of behavioral patterns I associate with townies, so they'll get a pass from me today as well. Specifically, Wasabi acknowledges his uselessness, speaks of it as though it's something to correct, and has an overall tone of genuine frustration at the lack of knowledge gained thus far. In Hiplop's case, he's almost daring someone to call him a scum and lynch him, as if he knows he'll get the last laugh ("I told you I wasn't scum"). Not the strongest reads, I'll grant, but good enough for me for now.
Darox shares some of that same tone in his posts (unless I misinterpreted it, his last post insulted everyone's proficiency at Mafia), but he has a few other moments that keep him on my scum list. First he called the random questions useless, and then, at the first whiff of pressure, he happily caves and treats those questions seriously. Here's the quotes:
Darox wrote:
Those questions are useless.
Junpei wrote:
They help me scumhunt, Darox. Do you still refuse to answer them?
Darox wrote:
Sure, I'll answer them.
Uh.. what? I don't know about you guys, but if I felt the questions were worthless (and I do) and someone asked me if I refused to answer them, I would say yes. Even if I did decide to answer them at that point, it would include a statement such as "If I must...". Except, of course, if I was scum. If I was scum, I wouldn't want to fight about it. I would want to slink away from attention so as to reduce my chances of being lynched. I would just answer the questions and be done with it. And that's exactly what happened here. Darox mocked the questions when he didn't have the focus of another player, and took them seriously when he did. He quickly made sure to subdue Junpei's in him so that he could resume flying under the radar.
It wasn't the only occurence, either. The act of placation happened again.
Darox wrote:
Can we get a fake hammer in here?
TehBrawlGuy wrote:
....do you people have some confusion with what content is?
Darox wrote:
I fake don't even fake know what the fake votecount is up to, but fake you should be fake voting him so that he's one fake step closer to fake lynch.
Translation: 'I don't even know what's going on right now so I can't possibly be held responsible for anything scummy I might have done. Also, everything I'm doing right now is fake and means nothing, so no one need to pay attention to me.'
And, no, the sarcasm is not lost on me. But use of the word 'fake' rather than, say, 'pending' is an indication that he finds the wagon not just less potent than a normal game's wagon, but altogether useless. He's entitled to his opinion, but he's
again
spending time on things he believes are worthless
. Plainsight lurking in its clearest form.
I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over his Night 1 lynch, but he's not my first choice.
Internet Stranger has posted very little, but that's not why he's high on my scumlist.
Internet Stranger wrote:
If I had to pick a scum, it would probably be Mozamis.
You DO have to pick scum, assuming you're a town playing towards their win condition. That would be enough to gain my suspicion, and likely a vote, but the post that came before this one is even worse in my opinion.
Internet Stranger wrote:
Mozamis looks like he is trying too hard at something, but I havent quite figured out what yet.
"I haven't quite figured it out..." is a line that comes out from time to time in mafia games and is a red flag in my book. Used in this context, I believe it to be a scum slip that can be translated into "I haven't made up the reason yet". He's not going to analyze, probe, test a wagon or ask questions like a townie would. Instead, he's going to fabricate a reason for his invented suspicion.
No problem putting a vote here tonight, but still not my first choice at the moment.
ThirdKoopa is my first choice.
He has two posts, both of which are terribly scummy within the context of having no other posts. The first post does nothing more than answer the random questions. Worthless, but might meet the lowest standards of acceptable for a RVS phase, except that he doesn't post again until after he's challenged by the town. Curiously, it was very soon after.
In his second post he was clearly highly concerned with placating the town, even more so than the first.
ThirdKoopa wrote:
I'm here anyways. What questions have I missed? I need to take a re-read here.
Oh and I haven't voted yet.
"Lurking? That's scummy, heck no I'm not doing that, I am here and ever-present, for I am town! Look at how I make sure I'm not missing any questions sure to answer all questions like a good townie does!
Suspicions, thoughts, and reads? Oh, I have them, you betcha, but I'm not going to say a peep about them, because I want to read the entire thread a second time, so that no nefarious scum slips through my ever vigilant net of justice. For I am town and catching scum is what I do, and I want to make extra sure of my highly polished and researched suspicions before I post them in thread, for I do not want to mistakenly lynch one of my precious, innocent co-townmates!"
Yeah, this post is not only nothing, but it's an indication of a game-long commitment to nothing. Nothing we can hold him to, the nothing that he's going to attempt to uncover for himself, and the nothing he would be worth in lynch or lose.
Nothing in this post suggests that he has any interest in helping find scum (because he already knows the setup, perchance?). Instead, it appears that he only has an interest in removing attention from himself. "What questions have I missed?" Uh, go read the thread. "I need to go re-read." Oh, so you already read the thread but you weren't interested in answering any questions then. It's only now that you've earned the attention of the town that you care about answering them? Scum, scum, scum. And let's not forget the utter lack of anything that could even try to pretend to be content.
unvote, PendingVote:ThirdKoopa
