WW21 - The Professor Is Dead [game thread]

[Serdoa]

Is the game worth buying for the story?

Well, that depends on your standards. I found myself several times hoping that they would make more out of it. But I do like the franchise, so I don't care that much. The end definitely does feel more like the beginning of the actual story though and everything you played till that point more like a prelude. In general I do miss some character development, I think they could have made much more there. But I am probably of the minority that would enjoy sitting 10+ minutes in front of my computer and watching a cutscene that is only talk (or heck, even no talk) and no fight.

I also think they missed out on quite an opportunity to give better insight in how the Zerg think. What is really a shame because that could have been used to bring some tension and life into the group, but as it was, the group was barely important at all. Just Kerrigan all the way. No characters like in the first chapter with Raynor and his whole ship-crew.

@Jkaen

Which comments exactly? How was what Ryan wrote not misunderstandable? And why would I want to rush on any bandwagon early on?

[Qgqqqqq]

My mistake.
I seem to have misread the past 24 hours.

Lets try jkaen

[Jkaen]

the way i read things here from my mobile is that you understood the 3 votes to be against ryan when they were invact aganst zak

[Jkaen]

Q. Are you even going to try and pretend there is a reason to vote me or just leaving things at that?

[novice]

serdoas comments seem a bit odd to me. Misunderstanding ryans post and seeming to want to rush onto a potential bandwagon

Except he's already on a perfectly good bandwagon on Q (and the only Ryan voter is Q). What did Serdoa misunderstand, anyway?

You really have that low an opinion of me?

Actually I think you're a good player, at least when you don't post from an old phone.
The "perfectly good" was more from a scum point of view - why would scum Serdoa want to rush onto a potential Ryan bandwagon? I guess it would make sense if JKaen has pegged Serdoa + Q as the scum pair. Anyway I'd like to hear JKaen elaborate on that post of his, if he has a keyboard available at least.

My vote stays on Q for lack of better candidates - I still think Q's character claim was fishy.

[Ryan]

So the ending doesnt satisfy any of the story questions -.-, Was it the same as the leaked ending?

[Ryan]

DONT SPOIL. Just wondering if it was the same as the leaked.

[Qgqqqqq]

Sorry?
I knew I was the only one on Ryan - its been said enough.
I don't have much time but my feeling is that you've been skirting around the bandwagons trying to herd onto me.
Its not masses, but this is day 1, and I'm not one who can solve the whole game in 24hrs.

Preview post: thanks novice - it was addressed at serdoa though.

[Gazglum]

Unsurprisingly, nobody seems to have made a huge slip up overnight. It looks like Q Is still top of the tally, and I’m not very happy with that.

Q’s opening was clumsy, and it drew attention to himself. All I really know about Qs play is that he made a pretty careful and cunning wolf in 20, keeping his head down early. I’m pretty unconvinced that a scum Q would have made as much noise as he did in the first few pages.

Remember that, initially, there is a 75% chance that any given person is innocent. I think it was my mentor Grandmaster Zakalwe (who I must discuss Iain Banks with sometime) who suggested taking that as your starting point for early scumhunting: assume someone is innocent, and see how other player’s behaviour then stands up.

Well, I’m going to assume that Q is innocent for now and see how we go. Serdoa, your attack on him/me is a bit flimsy, but I can see the logic behind it now and it doesn’t seem particularly wolfy – again, it’s sticking your head out, which is risky wolf play. JKaen…not much there either way. Novice seemed more like a justified pressure vote, trying to get Q to defend himself or crack.

No, it’s Zak that I don’t like in this scenario.

Good attacks on Q by Zak early in the day, as Lewwyn mentioned. And good scum-hunting is in character. But I don’t like Post 44:

I don't have much to add, really. Jkaen is being kind of scummy but maybe also a bit too sloppy to be scum.

Ryan could also be scum. I haven't seen any indications to the contrary.

I'm happy to see the Q lynch through in the absence of better leads. I have some thoughts about who to look to next, depending on his alignment, so I'd like to see it.

Agree that there is not much evidence on anyone yet. But isn’t that exactly the kind of time we need Detective Zak sniffing around? By announcing your intention to stay on Q half-way through the day, when he has a clear vote lead, you are shutting down pressure on other players while at the same time casting a few pretty weak assertions as Ryan and Jkaen (two other players I would put in the ‘mislynchable’ basket), perhaps to set them up for tomorrow? Or perhaps me, with ‘I have some thoughts about who to look to next, depending on his [Qs] alignment.’

This is exactly how I could see scum Zak playing out the day – get an easy mislynch Day 1, nobody can blame you because you’re going with the flow. Kill off one of the other Big Names Night 1. Turn on another ‘mislynchable’ Day 2 and the game is already getting close to being in the bag.

Maybe if you gave your reasoning behind your thoughts on who to look to next, I would feel more comfortable following your lead on this one. Until then, Zakalwe.

[zakalwe]

Alright, let's do a little analysis, then.

Vote Tally, 24 hours til deadline

Q (4) - zakalwe, novice, Jkaen, Serdoa
zakalwe (1) - Ryan
Mattimeo (1) - Gazglum
Ryan (1) - Q
Jkaen (1) - Lewwyn
Gazglum (1) - Mattimeo

If Q is scum, I think it's quite likely that all four voting for him here are innocent. If Q is innocent, then one of the Q voters is probably scum, but not necessarily. So looking at the bystanders, here is how those people "reacted" to the wagon:

- Ryan attacked Serdoa and me, while also being Q's target of suspicion
- Gazglum corrected Jkaen's reading of Q's post, and put a pressure vote on Mattimeo
- Lewwyn hemmed and hawwed (I'll quote this below)
- Mattimeo OMGUS voted Gazglum and faded back into the ether

At the time I wrote post 44, I mostly had Ryan and Lewwyn in mind as potential scum partners. Coincidentally, they had both been voting for me, too. This was before Ryan's renewed attack on me, so my suspicion towards him was really just based on Q wanting to see some "early pressure" on Ryan. But that attack doesn't do anything to reassure me. I guess Mattimeo's reaction is kind of scummy, too, now that I revisit it. Most of all, it's utterly useless, so at least he's staying in character.

If Q is innocent, I was thinking Gazglum might be playing the role of "white knight".

Anyway, back to Lewwyn's reaction.

Q, Gazglum = wolf pair.

Qgqqqq

While I do think Qg is suspicious, I'm not reading scummy Gazglum. Everyone wanted to lynch him last game because of his "Can do" attitude and overall awkwardness, at least that's how it seemed. Either way this game he seems similar to me... at least in the first two posts.

Qg... playing too terrible to be scum? Except that he just called himself out as playing terribly as an excuse.

Whenever a post starts with "while I do think X is suspicious", alarm bells go off. And then he oddly contradicts that in the very next paragraph, saying he is playing too terrible to be scum. Except that... yadda yadda. So there's a whole lot of waffling going on here. I was reading this post as a pretty big scumbuddy alert, but I didn't really want to call attention to it until we heard some more from Lewwyn, preferring to lynch Q first anyway. But there you have it. Maybe this will at least stir Lewwyn into action.