I'll finish the PBPA then respond to anything that's come up.
First post I note is
23 where Porochaz is posting about CS and says, "I am sure your scum." I realise this has already been discussed but I thought I'd bring this up. Later in
Post 31 he says:
Porochaz wrote:The "sure" comment was A. To keep the pressure on Civil and B. a slight mistake on my part showing my over keenness in the game...
I'm not sure (heh) how true both of these can be at the same time. I could understand A alone, but B implies that it had more to do with trigger-happiness than pressure tactics.
In
Post 39 Porochaz seems to back Zeek up after Erg0's attack suggesting that he may be reaching (grasping) and even suggesting a connection to CS. His suspicion of Erg0 get fleshed out further in
Post 70 (eventually leading to his vote on Erg0) and
Post 87. Given the nature of these posts, including
Post 44, where he points out a short-fall of Erg0's theory about addressing the latest voter in reference to CS, I think it's safe to say that Erg0 and Porochaz are not scum partners.
Post 70, where Porochaz posts a player summary, has been discussed already, especially his verdict on peapod. It was pointed out that he was a bit generous with it, and provided an explaination in Post 74, which I really didn't find too convincing. Defintely something to keep for reference.
On this point, though, Zeek and Porochaz recently had a to and fro. I'd like bring attention to this:
Porochaz in Post 123 wrote:I started with peapod because A. she had nothing much to do with the game, B. I didn't have much to type about her and
C. I had already come to my conclusion that her few responses had been what I think has been pro town but because of her lack of posting you cant say one way or another.
I find this non-conviction suspicious. He basically states an opinion then backtracks immediately. What are we supposed to make of his reasoning? He certainly hasn't legitimised his initial stance on peapod. This particular quote is also reminiscent of his earlier comment, which I quoted above.
The exchange with Zeek makes me think that he and Poro are unlikely scum partners, too.
There have only been a few posts of Porochaz's that have stuck out as particularly odd to me. I don't think that he's town for sure, but he's certainly not my most suspected player at this stage.
Ripley has been harder to read than most players. I can't say I've picked up anything obviously anti-Town from
him
. There's not much scummy either. As the game progresses, I'm sure his alignment will become much clearer.
First thing I noted was that he voiced early suspicions of CS (
Post 17). I think his comment was not unwarranted. He did continue to flesh this issue out in his posts that followed, the one in which he elaborates most being
Post 46 where he notes CS's selectivity between leet and Porochaz.
I noted the last paragraph of
Post 61. Ripley included the words, "if you're town", but regardless, he does give an impression that he believes that CS
is
town, which he may be doing under the guise of ICing. I also note in this paragraph a slight casting of suspicion on Erg0. It is subtle, but that seems to be the way Ripley is playing.
Ripley has raised peapod up on a few occasions. He refers to her questioningly in posts 61, where he asks her to qualify her comment about the CS issue being over-explored,
73, where he says Poro's verdict on peapod was generous,
130, where he shows a possible connection to Erg0,
139, where he explains the possible connection to CS. Also, on a number of occasions Ripley has either requested peapod be prodded, replaced, or something of a similar sentiment. This does come across as scum-hunting and dealing with a lurker, but the possibility has crossed my mind that he is bussing or buddying peapod up with various players. The fact that he has asked for her to be replaced does make this seem unlikely (or incredibly ruthless!), but I thought I would note it anyway.
I wasn't really convinced by the reasoning he provided for a possible connection between Porochaz and leet (me) in
Post 92. I assume their simultaneous unvoting was a matter of coincidental timing and CS voting for both is something neither could control. This leaves the only real connection being their initial vote for him and their thoughts on him, though they both come at CS from notably different angles, so his suggestion came across to me as a bit of a reach.
The last paragraph of Post 92 also seemed to contain a subtle defence for Zeek. This came across to me in much the same way as Post 61, which I noted above, did like a comment about players being merged into a bit of ICing.
Overall, Ripley seems to be helping the game along, providing insightful comments and scum-hunting. He is hard to read, though, so the jury's still out.
His first post,
Post 21, was phrased too aggressively for my liking. Despite this, I found myself agreeing with the gist of it up until he seemed to blow the 'obligated' point out of proportion.
He responds to Erg0's accusations in
Post 42 and gets pretty defensive pretty quickly. Again, I think he is still more or less on the money with his comments. He raises good questions and, besides the tone, I think what he says is called for. His last point about the 'obligatory' thing didn't sit very well with me. I thought he did make a big point of it, while he says it was "kind of an after thought".
His confrontational manner continues in
Post 53 when he responds again to Erg0. I think he exaggerates a few things and magnifies certain points, which I find dodgy. But he does manage to illustrate a certain perspective, which seems reasonable once you look past the loaded language.
Given their exchange in page 4 and earlier, I think it's highly unlikely that Erg0 and Zeek are scum partners.
Zeek's response to Porochaz in
Post 108 seemed more aggressive/defensive than it needed to be. He seemed to gloss over the point about Poro asking for his opinion on Erg0 and focus on the part about him not posting. I get this impression that Zeek will cry foul every time someone casts the slightly bit of suspicion on him. I think this isn't too cool from a pro-Town perspective, since it can end up causing confusion, but on the other hand, he
has
generated discussion and raised decent points. Regardless, I find his defensiveness unsettling.
I thought
Post 122, where he suggests a connection between peapod and Porochaz, was a reach, or at least the angle he approached it at. He articulates this connection more convincingly in the post that follows, but I found his initial reason, that peapod was at the top because she was "easiest to identify as town", questionable.
His bout with Porochaz that follows was interesting. His point about "bad logic" (
Post 126) was shot down by Porochaz in the following post. I assume his question about Poro voting Erg0 was based on the 'bad logic' issue, so I found it a strange one to ask. His question about peapod was better, and I'm still not convinced by Porochaz's response to it, as I stated earlier.
I've read Zeek as reactionary, aggressive AND defensive, though this may be his playstyle seeing as he's been consistent about it! I'm not a fan of playstyles being used as excuses for scummy behaviour, but it does look like he is scum-hunting and I find myself agreeing with him more often than not.
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PHEW!
That took too long! =D I'm still playing catch up, but now that that's done I can respond to the game as it goes.
I'm still most suspicious of Erg0 and I'll be responding to his response first thing after this. That said, I think Garnasha needs to post more content before I think about voting Erg0 and placing him at L-1.
On votes, I am unimpressed by Civil Scum's vote on me. Eager much? I will be responding to his posts too.
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