The Syndicate

abyssum wrote: ↑Wed Aug 15, 2018 10:57 pm some reads/impressions on the game so far:

ColinIsCool - encouraged people to give extra meta for specifically scum play, which is a +1 in my opinion. the post itself is pretty open-ended and inclusive, which i think indicates more town behavior (attempting to assess a wide range of people in the game + generate content about those players). i feel conflicted about him spelling out that he isn't willing to vote for new players on exactly D1; i think it's a good policy that avoids some of the easier mislynches of the game, but the need to spell it out more than once is so-so. liked his progression on alien.

he's done a couple things that i'm not a fan of: he asks the thread-at-large if sprityo picking apart Mac's reads list was hunting or discrediting without offering his own opinion til prompted, but i'm holding off on really evaluating him on that point since it's the dead end of his ISO.

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DharmaHelper - will not stop talking about the fact that he hasn't read the game, which got annoying about the third time he mentioned it. unfortunately, not reading the game isn't technically AI. he started my ISO but i think he dropped it because i haven't seen anything else. he makes me laugh but unfortunately that isn't AI either. idk call me when he starts playing the game for real and i'll reassess.

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Infected_alien8_ - ok, so i'm assigning alien the color i chose for "slight scum," but it's mostly because i'm being pulled in a few different directions with him and i don't wanna slap the neutral color down on him bc he's done scummy+towny stuff (not just Nothing). i could see him as either town or scum as of right now, and i'm worried that i'm having some difficulty reading him because of how recently we played together where he was scum, but whatever. he's absolutely the towniest of the 'slight scum' and could probably do with his own color or tier, but eh.

i've already stated that i think alien's entrance to thread is towny. it's a lot more solid and less hedge-y than Alien was in wildcards (where he was scum), and even though i disagree with his points on MP7, i can sort of understand where it's coming from: Alien played two games with a town MP7, and the last game Alien was scum while MP7 was town; if Alien is town in this game, then his last experience of MP7 was seeing him post in a very town-like manner (because Alien knows he is town), and now he can't see his posts at the same level of towniness because he doesn't have that confirmation. i have zero difficulty seeing that post/its proximal follow-up as coming from town.

where i'm not following is where he does things like accuse Lunalee of not being genuine before he ever tries to engage her on where he thinks she's wrong. he says that she is wrong about him being in commentary mode/not having opinions: fine. he says that her thoughts about not only him, but about Turnip Head, are not genuine and make her scummy: not fine. it doesn't feel like he's trying to solve there, it feels like he's trying to shade.

points in favor: seems to be posting more loosely now than in wildcards, seems to want follow-up on his thoughts, invites thread to participate in his thoughts, tone might be good? (i have decent vibes off of his posts but i'm not sure if this is tone or just me being stupid)
points against: strayed a bit more toward overexplaining as the game has gone on, seems laser-focused on MP7 without a lot of willingness to reassess (it feels like every few pages that MP7 posts, Alien pops up to say it's scummy without considering town possibilities), suspicion on Lunalee seems odd, has an "off" feeling about me that he can't seem to get a grasp on even when i engage him about it.

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JaggedJimmyJay - i had a townread form on Jay somewhat early, which is sometimes a bit worrisome for me but i think is probably fine here. he came out of his cage giving opinions on everything, which i like a lot. he seems like he's in Takes Everything Seriously mod & also seems to be encouraging content on a similar level to MP7, but not in the same places (if it was in the same places, i'd feel like Jay might be just following MP7 around and echoing him or vice versa, so that's a bonus). i liked that he suspected me at first and later gave some sensible light aby-could-be-town reasoning; his posting on MP7 has been pretty solid as well.

there are some things i really love in the way he posts, too. like letting people respond to things before responding to them himself/giving his own take, even though he clearly has one--it's a minor thing but i think it reflects a townie's mindset pretty well and also indicates valuing process over appearance IMO. maybe it's a little too minor, but it's something that i really like seeing.

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Kylemii - seems to be posting in a lighthearted way that could probably easily veer into detached, but i don't think it has yet. he posted asking people about their histories, and when Jay responded saying that he thought it reflected poorly on kyle, kyle turned that on its head with a question that i liked. generally a good look. he called me soft good which is better than normal good because it's softer and therefore better fight me. (actual impression: i think his reads list makes sense and doesn't feel like he's padding it or unnecessarily shading anyone).

overall doesn't feel like he's feeling a lot of pressure in particular, but is keeping up and doing his thing anyway. he's not posting in a high-volume/wordcount way but there's thoughts there that i don't have to fight for.

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Lunalee - her first notable post is a reads list that i like the formatting of (i'm a sucker for things that jump out at my face, ok?) and is in reverse alphabetical order, which is fun. there are some sort of empty reads there, though idk if i can fault her for it considering it was D0 and she didn't seem to indicate reading the entire thread. her interaction with Robot on sprityo/Mac is kind of weird; i think it's a worse look for Robot than it is for Luna (obviously it could be bad for both of them). i think her take on it is a little bit too summary-like, but has an interesting take on it that i like (and iirc is not actually in line with the thread consensus).

she doesn't seem to have any issues with her opinions and doesn't seem interested in changing them without a good reason to do so (can be seen pretty easily in alien engaging her on sprityo). she has a couple of things that are a little immediately off-putting to me (like saying "you should trust me, I have been nothing but my usual town self this game" to MP7), but i've seen similar things from MP7, so it may be a cultural difference...? would appreciate somebody who's used to this forum weighing in on that.

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MacDougall - a bit aggressive at times/in directions that i don't always fully understand. a lot of his posts seem like he's just reacting to things that happen in the thread (especially-to-almost-exclusively the ones that pertain to him) instead of producing much of his own content, but it's early so that may be a shit take. i don't like him admitting to trying to adhere to his town meta; i don't intimately know his play history so the context may change that, but i kind of just want to automatically lynch people who make admissions like this.

i like him telling Jay to go back to suspecting him. it's funny and probably comes from town more often than not. i liked his conduct with MP7 post-mutual outburst, too. i'm leaning on the side of him being town that plays in a self-centered way (i really don't know how to word this in a way that doesn't sound rude; i think it's a legitimate way to play for a lot of people) and expresses frustration easily.

some more points in favor: i like him appearing to engage people genuinely once he's calmed down a bit (appears to do this without calling somebody town/giving credit to them, but engages them anyway). if his statements about viewing meticulousness being a mafia trait are accurate (anyone w/ experience with Mac that wants to weigh in on that?), i don't think his posting matches up to that.

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Marmot - i was frankly surprised Marmot had even 8 posts, so i guess my memory sucks.

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M Plus 7 - i am not ISOing MP7 as a whole. bite me. i like his enthusiasm and his eagerness to both post and get other people to post alongside of him (the latter in particular, more strongly than the first point). more recently i like the way he pounced on Mac but then backed off and apologized for his behavior in a way that seemed sorta sheepish (in the sense of "i jumped the gun" not "oops Mac has teeth" since he'd know the latter).

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RobotNerd277 - Robot seems to be in perpetual catch-up mode so far, which isn't AI, but is a good mode to be in if you want to avoid potential scumslips. says they're trying to get a read particularly on Mac, but i'm not certain as to why; they then ping Mac to ask for a reason to not be at the bottom of their reads list. their worry with MP7 and subsequent clearing-up of that worry is an interesting progression, but i'm not sure if i think it's town or not. like i mentioned briefly in Lunalee's section, Robot leveling a question about sprityo/Mac to Lunalee is weird and almost like they're expecting to be questioned on why they're asking Luna specifically. i might feel better once Robot real-times some more.

some points in their favor: says that strong townreads are good to have early on as long as you reevaluate (caveat: robot/tsaiah could be partners, but their other interactions don't make this the likeliest in my brain). read on Jay seems good and not necessarily conventional (gives a point about liking Jay's read on me specifically; Robot doesn't have a strong townread on me so it's likely not buddying, and w/ Jay being consensus town, they didn't have to give a reason that specific). rather minor points in the long run but i want to keep them in mind.

this read is really one more about conflicting pieces of evidence than anything, and me wanting to keep my eyeballs on Robot because of it. has Robot played here before or something?

they posted this while i was ISOing Russ and i hate it:

Wait why the sudden flip onto Kylemii? I'm willing to join the wagon, but I just don't understand why.

if you don't understand why the wagon is happening, why are you willing to join it?

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Russtifinko - kinda started off with a decent and reasonable analysis of Mac and alien re: the scumslip situation. i like his interactions overall with alien, actually; Russ comes off like he's grilling him, but the logic isn't thin there. him questioning Colin on why he's high up in the reads list is a good look, and he again comes in with reasonable words with Mac and MP7-this-time. seems self-assured and willing to follow his own thoughts and he just seems really nice!

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sprityo - i hate, hate, hate the way that the Mac ISO is formatted. it's hard to read. that's not AI, i just wanted to complain about it.

what i'm getting from reading sprityo's ISO is that it's largely reactionary, which by default makes him hard to read for me. he said that Mac is attempting to distance from Jay, at the same time that Mac is giving Jay a townread--does 'distancing' mean something different in this forum than in mine? because to me, distancing implies that two scumbuddies are attempting to appear like they don't have knowledge of each other's alignment or are putting light suspicion on one another to seem like they aren't teamed. sprityo went into that ISO with the express purpose of dismantling Mac's arguments, regardless of alignment.

points in favor: good ISO of Jay, seems to be going all-out w/ Mac, sprit/Mac are an unlikely team*
points against: quickly dismissive of Mac's posting, apparent bias in assessing Mac (probably 65/35 on this coming from scum though), has two very consensus townreads (and no other townreads)

*this doesn't really matter for D1, it only matters for potential reference later on

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Tsaiah - she's posting pretty easy-breezy this game, and seems to be evaluating and poking in the places that i'd expect her to evaluate/poke. while i like that she was able to give reasoning for me 'getting townier' and the progression makes sense to me, that's only moderate confidence for me on her being town. i think for the most part, the safest way for me to go with Tsaiah is just to gaze at her warily for most of D1 and pick apart what she says and see if any of it rings false/distracting. atm she's following the flow of the thread well and seems authentic and like she's enjoying herself.

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Turnip Head - first really game-relevant post is just asking if Colin is bad without offering any of his own opinions. does the same thing later on with Lunalee. he's clearly been around and has said almost nothing that could be construed as solving or trying to progress the game forward. i don't really care if it's "too suspicious to be suspicious" or whatever logic is supposed to apply here, he's just not really moving the thread forward or showing off his shiny thoughts and i don't like it.

this is a sad read for me to have to make because i really like TH's name.

arranged more in colorful order for easier viewing:

Spoiler: show

M Plus 7
JaggedJimmyJay
Kylemii
Tsaiah
Russtifinko
MacDougall
ColinIsCool
Lunalee
Marmot
DharmaHelper
(Infected_alien8_)
sprityo
RobotNerd277
Turnip Head