First of all, I have to admit that I've made some mistakes this game. My strong and focused suspicion of SVS has made me look like I have a one track mind, like I'm on some sort of mission. In a way, I am.
I assumed that my suspicions would be given a certain benefit of the doubt, that players would at least believe that I myself believed firmly in my suspicions. I assumed that players would look at what I was saying and decide for themselves whether or not they agreed with the things I was pointing at, with the behavior I've observed. This is not at all how people reacted to my posts about SVS: people only wanted to look at whether my intentions were pure or not, and did not focus on the actual points I was trying to raise.
I tried to open a dialogue with SVS so that others would see the same things I was seeing. I was hoping players would read between the lines as I have done.
I'm also not very good at sounding convincing, it seems. I like to play a clean game: I don't get into shouting arguments with players I'm playing against, I don't take cheap shots. Mafia should be fun, and in my opinion it gets too harsh sometimes, especially in the heat of the moment. I try to always be cool and collected when making my points against other players: perhaps this causes people to not trust me, or to doubt my intentions, or to think that my suspicions are not genuine.
This was my mistake. I've been making this mistake from pretty much the minute I set foot onto The Syndicate, after a mafia hiatus of a few years. People do not play mafia the same way they used to. People do not play mafia the same way that I do.
I was able to play a good baddie game in Harry Potter because I was able to figure out what indicators people look for in a civilian.
I have yet to figure out what people look for in baddies.
It is much easier to FAKE being a civilian than it is to actually be one. It is much more difficult to be a civvie these days than it used to be. Baddie games have gotten slicker and harder to pin down with "evidence". And as a civvie, you have your own team working against you, doubting your every word as you try to pursue your suspicions and catch baddies. Paranoia floods the civvie mindset. Some civvies sit back and do not contribute toward their team's efforts. Baddies sit back and avoid suspicion altogether. In a speed game setting especially, where there is not much time to discuss what's happening, it's difficult for the civilians to make the right moves. The baddies hold all the cards.
In the time since I joined The Syndicate, the civilians have not won a single game.
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You know what bothers me the most about your behavior the past 24 hours, SVS? You have not even
tried to look like you were hunting for baddies. I know that if you were a civilian, you would not have let the lynch get to the point where it was between you and 2 people you believed were civvies. At the very least, I think you would have been more upset about how we let it
get to that point. This is a game where we can change our votes; you had plenty of opportunity to help find a baddie yesterday, to swing the lynch in another direction, away from me, you and Llama. In all of your posts towards the tail end of the lynch, there is
not one single mention of a player that you find suspicious. Your posts are just explanations and justifications; no pondering the motives of other players, no questioning their intentions or their tone. You're not interested in finding baddies to lynch; you're content to lynch civilians, as long as you're able to come out of it looking blameless. You don't want to accuse your teammates, because duh, and you don't want to accuse civilians either because you want to keep them on your side.
Your only suspicions this game, SVS, have been half-hearted at best. "I did not love INH's vote for Sorsha"; "I thought bea and MM's self-votes on Day 1 were unnecessary". Those are, to my knowledge, the ONLY suspicions you've voiced all game. I know you've been under fire since the start, but I also know that as a civvie you are capable of so much more. Even if your name is being bandied around as a lynch prospect, you would want to be voicing your suspicions, you would have gut instincts that you simply wouldn't be able to ignore. And you would want to prove your civvieness by helping lynch a baddie. You would want to help your fellow civilians win.
I asked you to further develop your case against INH, when there was still plenty of time to swing the lynch against someone you thought was a baddie. But you dropped that suspicion completely and focused only on defending yourself while trying to make my suspicion of you look misplaced.
I enjoy playing with you as a civvie (at least when I'm a civvie too), I trust your gut and your intuition, I value your reading of other players.
But I hate playing against you when you're a baddie. I do not enjoy having to make arguments against you, or trying to convince others that I might be right about you; I'm not a masochist.
That said, this is why I play mafia. The battles of wits. The struggle. The need to be proven right. The desire to win and to be an important part of that victory.
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I have not forgotten about Burglekutt, who likely had a hand in yesterday's lynch. Unless his victims missed the vote (a possibility, and I'm not sure what the punishment would be), Burglekutt either made DH and Sorsha vote for me, or he made Kate and Metalmarsh vote for Llama.
THIS IS ALL SPECULATION, OBVS: It is my current belief that Kate might be SVS's teammate, and if Kate had not been successful in helping to lynch llama yesterday, perhaps SVS's team would have lost access to one of their powers... potentially tonight's kill. That's why I think SVS voted for Llama yesterday and not me. Llama's suspicion of SVS was much different than mine, and his points against her were easier to refute. I think she'd much rather have me dead and gone, tbqh. Perhaps she'll get her wish tonight. The baddies can't afford to keep me around much longer.
Between the time that Day 2 started and when it ended, Kate made exactly one post:
Kate wrote:I spent the day in court and just read though kinda fast. I would not and did not try to save svs. I'm a better player than that even my head is half in a game. I think bea alluded to this earlier. Not me specifically but anyone. And I don't think svs would let or encourage her team to do so.
I'm not sure why llama is so hot on her trail but it seems like a personal vendetta.
I'm voting llama or th (just because you seem bad and I don't think you should have gotten the acorns).
For now at least it's llama.
I think she was forced to vote for Llama. If she had had her own way, I think Kate would have wanted to voted for me yesterday, it certainly seemed like she wanted to in that post. I think she's jealous of my nuts.
We've lynched 2 civs in a row, obviously we're doing something wrong so far. If you are a civilian, you know that we HAVE to get a baddie tomorrow.
I want everyone to be aware of the fact that Burglekutt will probably have a hand in tomorrow's proceedings as well, and we need to be watching out for his influence.
My intention tomorrow, if I'm still alive, is to continue to work through my suspicion of SVS. And despite my speculation about Kate above, I am not currently looking to lead any case against Kate tomorrow. I would have to be successful against - and correct about - SVS before I went chasing after anyone else. So if my thoughts wander in some other direction, hopefully it will be clear why.
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seriously? Why don't you educate yourself before insulting an 8 year old? Or better yet mind your business and trust the host's word?
They can't all be bad but they're the ones I'm watching the closest right now.