out of the gate, buddying up to the newer players, also with a random EFHW vote:
Hey everybody! Good to be back in a game for the first time in almost a year.
vote: EFHW
infang and WestCoast, nice to meet you guys (well, meet through this mostly anonymous, virtual world in which we find ourselves). If and only if the games are over, how did your first games here on f.ds go for you?
posts 3&4 (skipped 2, didn't see much in it:
Strong town read: Awaclus, e.
Normal town read: mcmc, faust, space
Normal scum read: EFHW, Robz (although I think I always tend to scumread him, I'll reread him after this post).
Everyone else is either null or just pretty neutral.
lolz, Robz has like 2 posts. Yeah, my default is just to scumread Robz. Move him to null.
Very meta aware. Awaclus and I get strong town reads, which is interesting to me since those are town reads that I have as well. Then mcmc, faust, and space get town, EFHW (why?
) and Robz (because meta) get scum reads.
and....screw it. I think dylan is town now. His posts feel very much more in line with "me against the world" than "me and my team trying to nail down townies as lynches"
like this post:
Post 198 from fang reminds me of something I did in (I think) NM9, when as scum I pointed out some flawed reasoning a guy was using to townread me, and basically told him not to give me town points for that. You don't see many people (especially town) actively turn away town points unless doing so has even more pro-town benefits than having someone reading you as town correctly, even though the reasons are wrong. So this seems like a very new scum post. Combined with his voting pattern at EoD and the recent stuff, I'm very happy leaving my vote on infangthief for a while, preferably until he's on guillotine.
and this post:
Vote: Dylan for putting me on his scum list and then reconsidering.
Robz, I don't necessarily remember how my gut used to read everyone here that I've played with, but I definitely remember having to fight against gut reading you as scum. When I posted that list, my gut said you were scum, but then as I typed it, I remembered the aforementioned fact and decided to see if there was anything specific that I saw that justified that read. I decided to hit post and then check rather than checking so I could edit my post to make sure it was just right.
and even a little bit of this post:
E also seems to be trying to stay in the background. I think most of the people who have been doing a lot of talking (pps, EFHW, infang) have been doing so from a towny perspective.
It feels like we are playing with like 7 people instead of 14. There are definitely some folks who’ve had very little interaction. They respond to a prod and then disappear again. E, robz, mcmc, Joseph, Dylan, Swan, and Space all seem to me to be on the fringes, perhaps allowing us to just pick on one another.
Upon cursory investigation, at least 2 of those actually have more posts than you...
My list might well have some inaccuracies (I'm on my phone so limited searching ability) but my question is, is my impression correct? Does it feel like everyone is playing? More to the point, is that normal?
My whole purpose in continuing to play a game that I am not very good at is to learn how to do it better. It seems like being around infrequently and/or randomly would be better for scum. Is that right?
Responding specifically to italics: This just depends on the person. Some people are very good at being very active, controlling the discussion, and actively manipulating town as scum, while others do what you are suggesting and try to blend into the background and only post the bare minimum. I tend to operate under the assumption that most people's activity level is a result of irl business and so I don't look at activity level as being a worthwhile starting point for a case. A point in a more comprehensive case, sure, but not the primary one, outside of extreme cases.
I'll be back on later this evening with a lot more free time to reread the last few pages.
although that last one is more of just big concept theory