DG Interview Thread: Walrus? Toasted

[Rockin]

Voting is over. FF wins.

Start asking them questions. Me and FF are currently working out a schedule for this week.

 

[Overswarm]

@FF

Explain your ability use in Fire Emblem! I still don't know why you doubled my abilities instead of your own and didn't abduct me after I had claimed cop o_O

 

[Beat!]

What do you think is the main reason you've become so good at scum hunting?

Do you have any general advice for new players?

 

[#HBC | Ryker]

Let's cut to the chase. We both know I'm better than you. When are you going to play with me so I can kick your ***?

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

What do you feel has changed about the metagame of mafia from when you started, to today? Is it a good change, or a bad change?

If you were in a game with Xonar, and you had a DayVig role, how would you use it?

What is the number one scum slip that a scum player can do to expose themselves to you, that normal players might miss?

 

[#HBC | Ryker]

Do you get the feeling that some people assume they can't play on your level before the game ever begins?

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

Tagging along with the above question: do you think townies would be moronic for playing the game without confidence and basically relying on you to help guide them?

 

[adumbrodeus]

Whose your favorite scumbuddies and why?

Whose your favorite friendly townies to have on your side and why?

Why do you hate me so much? (aka, why abduct me d1 in PoR?)

Who are your "must-plays" and why? (People who if you see them sign up for a game, you'd always sign up)

Does Gheb suck? If so why?

 

[#HBC | Ryker]

Tagging along with the above question: do you think townies would be moronic for playing the game without confidence and basically relying on you to help guide them?

Derp? This is a really stupid question. Really, REALLY stupid.

 

[smarboy69]

Yea but maybe if unnamed people heard it from someone like FF, then they'd understand.

 

[Rockin]

Derp? This is a really stupid question. Really, REALLY stupid.

No such thing as a 'stupid question,' under any regards.

If they want to ask a question that is either important or silly, they are encouraged to follow it. Just as long as it follows the rules (such as no personal questions)

 

[ranmaru]

Yea but maybe if unnamed people heard it from someone like FF, then they'd understand.

This is correct. There may be some people who would listen to those with much experience.

But the answer is obvious lol.

 

[smarboy69]

'Course it is.

 

[#HBC | Ryker]

No such thing as a 'stupid question,' under any regards.

Bull****. That's a load we got in elementary school. There is most certainly such a thing as a stupid question, but I wasn't saying don't include questions in the this thing you're running.

 

[Pythag]

I don't recall ever seeing you in any adventure games...what gives? And if you have been in them, what do you like/hate about them

 

[KevinM]

Hi Pythag :3.

Sup Bro?

Scale of 1-10 how bad are you gonna get tapped by me and Yedi at Zenith?

Are we actually going to play IRL mafia this time

This is more an old school question, but going into a lot of your other games what was your D1 plan knowing that you most likely were going to be killed N1

This isn't really a question but more nostalgia... how funny was it when I ended up being mafia in the only Epic Mafia game we played together and I killed you N1

 

[Swiss]

What was your single best play? Any alignment.

 

[Nicholas1024]

What are you planning to do to Ryker for his trolling in the new dice rule thread?

Why does it seem that most of the vets aren't active any more?

If you could pick a roster for a mafia game (that you're modding/playing), and which alignments they'd be, how would you choose?

If I were to run that LOTR adventure game idea, which character would you want?

 

[giraffelasergun]

Do you like puppies?

 

[ranmaru]

OH NOES. You have been ordered to ring up all the newbies to play mafia with you. Of course, you still want to win. Them knowing you are good, would follow you and would take your words to heart. List 2-3 Points that would help their game immensely, thus helping you win your game with the majority of them. Of course, you would have had played with them or read their game to know how they played. So if there is a newbie you haven't played nor read, you cannot give him pointers, and cannot enlist him in your team!

Lulz.

 

[#HBC | Ryker]

That paragraph is so full of grammatical errors it isn't funny.

 

[#HBC | J]

Why are you like KevinM in playstyle when it comes to dealing with me?

Which ancient would you NK on N0 so you wouldn't have to deal with them? Which n00b?

Who do you personally recognize as good players?

What is your worst game? Both alignments (or technical, third being an indie if you have been one before)

 

[KevinM]

>_> @ J's first question.

 

[#HBC | J]

=P

Hey it is the truth cuz it worked. More-or-less though a joke.

You two however have polarizing playstyles where you post little but have info within your posts and FF posts walls and have info as well.

 

[vanderzant]

Could you give some general thoughts on the 13 player BIM set-up Gheb ran as opposed to the larger set up you ran for BIM:2? Did you work on the set up and where do you think they differed in terms of how they played out?

 

[Tom]

Speaking specifically about vets, if you could change things about other peoples' playstyles, who would you adjust and what would you change?

What do you think a moderator can do to make his game more enjoyable?

What are your favorite roles to play as? What roles do you wish were more common?

What the **** is wrong with Ryker?

 

[M.K]

Hi there! What do you plan on doing with your life through college/life ?

 

[#HBC | marshy]

do you still enjoy playing mafia? if so do you enjoy it as much as you used to?

have you had any experiences in mafia games that left a serious impact on how you viewed the game or how you played? that taught you lessons and improved your play as a result? if so what were they?

how was your day today? howve you been?

if you could meet and chill with 5 dgamers irl who would they be and why?

glad youre still around bro

 

[Tom]

do you still enjoy playing mafia? if so do you enjoy it as much as you used to?

if not why not

 

[#HBC | Mac]

who ***** you harder

me or kevin?

 

[KevinM]

Who ***** you harder

me or yedi?

 

[Evil Eye]

I'm going to assume all the good mafia questions have been asked, so:

What was it like playing your first adventure game? What transferred over from mafia? What was new and exciting?

In Eor's "The Thing", you killed Clark (camo-man) and Bennett (marthmaster or something like that). Both were human. How did you feel when it became increasingly obvious that they weren't going to reanimate as Things, and were in fact human? Was this just like misfiring as a vigilante in mafia, or was it a different experience somehow, given the adventure game format? What was all that like?

In Eor's "The Thing", you held like glue to the Vevski Brothers, played by Scav and I (EE). Me? Scav and me? Whatever. How did you feel when you found out we were bad guys that were going to kill you at the first opportunity? What was that like? Was it different from when you are positive someone is town and they flip scum in a mafia game?

 

[JTB]

What happened to Starcraft?

 

[Moriarty]

 

[Rockin]

erm....is that a question, Moriarty? o.o

 

[Moriarty]

daykill: rockin

 

[#HBC | FrozeηFlame]

I'm honored to be featured in a Moriarty pic. So much bromance. ;_;

 

[Rockin]

daykill: rockin

D:

Jerkface.

 

[Rockin]

Yooooos

interview with FF has been done

will try and post it sometime today

 

[Rockin]

For those who don't know Frozenflame would soon get a view of his supurb scum hunting. For those that do know him, they would have just the idea of how long this old geezer been. Here's the grandfather of all mafia players, Frozenflame.


-------------------------------------------


Thank you for joining this interview. How does it feel?

Great to be here. I thought that this whole interview idea was really interesting from the get-go and I'm glad to get to be a part of it. =)

So Frozenflame, you are practically the grandfather of Mafia games. How much progress you think this game/community has gone?

Hmmm, that's a tough question. We've lost a lot of great personalities and players along the way since when I started playing here I think about 5 years ago, but a lot of the changes that we've undergone have been for the better. From getting our own sub forum, to instituting the que system, to developing and MVP system, to adding the dice postbits, to introducing the concepts of hydraing to our community, and so on, this community has undergone a lot of significant change and it has really been quite a ride to see it all happen over such a long time. I think in terms of organization and creating a community environment, SWF mafia has come a long way and stands far better now than it once did, but it terms of the community it's quality has only fluctuated ever so slightly over the years, and has maintained a pretty consistently friendly, lively, and enjoyable group of folks to play with. I'd say in general, nowadays, players know a lot more about the fundamentals of very BASIC mafia than people did way back when, when it was often common to have many people who had never played before joining games. So in that regard, I'd say the community has improved in terms of general functional knowledge about the game, however the community is just as diverse and unique in terms of its various players as it was in years past. Different, but no worse nor better.

Explain your ability use in Fire Emblem! I still don't know why you doubled my abilities instead of your own and didn't abduct me after I had claimed cop o_O

Well I think I mostly explained this question in the FE game thread, but I'll give the abridged version again. I couldn't double my own abilities, so that was out of the question. I doubled yours [OS] because I knew that if you could use your powers to prove your legitimacy, regardless of alignment, and I was tied to that legitimacy, and then was able to abduct your later, it would help me significantly in the late game. Had the Sealing shenanigins not botched my plans, I was on track to abduct you before you could claim an investigation on me (since as I predicted correctly, you didn't claim an investigation on me the night after we lynched Cdubs. I figured you wait another day). So yeah, that's that.

What do you think is the main reason you've become so good at scum hunting?

Idk, I really don't regard myself as all that great at scum hunting, or at least, I'm not very flexible in the tools I use to do so. I have a few tricks here and there that I use, and a few things that I look for and can get good reads from typically, but the efficacy of my scumhunting ability varies wildly from player to player, and often playing with new players a lot can give me a hard time scum hunting. I guess my number one strength is being able to go over a flipped scum, and figure out based on his interactions with others who he was bussing and who he was trying to legit get killed as townies. I learn far more from scum flips than anything else in the game, though I doubt that I'm alone in this. Basically though, I'd say my ability to scumhunt has just developed over time by observing and learning what types of tricks people pull to try and seem genuine, and how people really act when they ARE being genuine.

Do you have any general advice for new players?

For general advice, I'd just say focus on reading posts CRITICALLY. Mafia is not a shoot the ****, chat it up and try to provoke silly reactions from people and then draw silly conclusions from it game. It's a game of debate, deception, strategy, and persuasion. You need to focus on winning key debates to further your own agenda, decieving others when you're anti town in order to further that agenda and ensure you get the maximum benefit from your actions, recognizing people who are being deceptive when you are town, and by doing so make winning debates further the town agenda effectively, and lastly, strategize your attacks, stances, and pressure so that you better ellicit the responses you need to figure out what people's motives are. Simply put, look for intent beheind actions, not NECESSARLY actions by themselves, though sometimes extra ******** actions can't always be explained away by innocent intent. Read posts critically and try to determine not only why a person said what they did, but also why they choose to say it the say the do and why they are discussing or targetting the people they are. You have to figure these things out if you ever want to effectively read people, and don't get discouraged if you're wrong sometimes, or be afraid of BEING wrong. Everyone, even the best scum hunters are wrong sometimes, and it isn't always necessarily your fault, since oftentimes people bring scummy aura unto themselves.
frozenflame751 (1:47:26 AM):

What is the one thing a town member should do when in a Mafia Game?

Be vocal about your suspicions, and do your best to be consistent. Reads can shift during a game, and that's all well and good, but DO NOT just go accusing people on a whim and then contradict yourself a few posts later because your old case was **** and you didn't put any thought into it. Make your public thought processes clear and make it easy for people to understand you. Basically, only offer your most genuine, solid stances, since really the only reliable tell in mafia is whether or not people are being genuine, and if you aren't being genuine as town, you're only making yourself look like scum.
frozenflame751 (1:52:36 AM):
done

Let's cut to the chase. We both know [Ryker] is better than you. When are you going to play with him so he can kick your ***?

Haha Ryker is a man of many bold claims. I don't ever really go out of my way to play with any specific person, but if my schedule allows for it I'll try my best to /in the next game you're in if you really want to see what I've got. =P
frozenflame751 (1:56:32 AM):
done

You always seems busy in life. What do you do when you're not playing Mafia?

Well, during the school year the vast majority of my time goes into class obviously, and then the many clubs and organizations I participate in. I'm a member of my school's ultimate frisbee team, debate team, Model UN club, run our school's Mafia club, attend anime club, do student government, and of course party hard on the weekends. I'm also an officer in pretty much every club I'm in so extra duties here and there with regard to those positions tends to stack up from time to time. But yeah, other than extra curriculars, the traveling involved with those (esp. on weekends >_<), studying, and HW, I try to make as much time as possible to hang out with my friends, play video games, watch anime here and there, and of course have some down time just to myself to relax when I can. =P

What do you feel has changed about the metagame of mafia from when you started, to today? Is it a good change, or a bad change?

Well I know that at the very least my personal view of the ideal metagame of mafia has changed a lot over the years, and definitely for the better IMO, but that's a completely different story haha. In terms of SWF's metagame, like I kind of touched on earlier in a previous question, I feel like the average player here knows more about mafia fundamentals than players did in the past, and furthermore, now that we have such a long history of games here at SWF and more experienced and especially creative mods, games nowadays feature far more complicated roles and allow for more in-depth analysis and interesting and unique experiences for players both in terms of individual roles and setups as a whole. I feel like the player base has certainly changed over the years, but every player is unique in their own way and as far as strategies for winning and what ideal play is goes, those arguments still arise time and time again, and honestly, we aren't really much closer to finding a solid conclusion than we were when I started. The most definitive change to the SWF metagame has definitely come mod side, with mods getting better and better at balancing setups, introducing clever and balanced roles, perfecting things like how to provide safeclaims, streamline communications, perfect the execution and resolution of abilities, etc. which as just led to a much more enjoyable and diverse experience when playing here at SWF, relative to old SWF and likely many other communities.

If you were in a game with Xonar, and you had a DayVig role, how would you use it?

Certainly not on Xonar just for a silly spite kill lol. I'd use my DayVig power like I would in any other game scneario, on a person who I feel is incredibly scummy but can't seem to convince the town to lynch him with me.
frozenflame751 (2:15:09 AM):
done

Are their any examples?

Hmmm, well I guess one scenario, had it gone differently, would have been a perfect example. Me v. Cello in newbie three. If people started following Cello on his wagon on me, I would've dayvig'd him in a heartbeat.

What is the number one scum slip that a scum player can do to expose themselves to you, that normal players might miss?

Well I don't really consider my self a non-normal player lol, but I guess my specialty tends to be figuring out when scum are trying to bus their partners, which ideally lands me two scum, not just one. Not that other player's can't do this, but I just think that's something I'm better at than most other types of reading. Since I don't really scumhunt in any super quirky way I don't really think there are many scumslips that I might notice that other players are VERY likely to not notice, ya know?
frozenflame751 (2:23:32 AM):
done

Do you get the feeling that some people assume they can't play on your level before the game ever begins?

Yeah, sometimes. I think Doctor Who Mafia is pretty good evidence to this being at least partially true. For those who don't know, I was the Town Ghost, a modconfirmed town player who was forced to go into tree-stump mode from the very beginning of the game. A decent chunk of early game discussion was about the idea of having a newer or "less skilled" player serve as my proxy vote, since as a tree stump I was voteless. Obviously, part of that idea came from the fact that I was, ya know, confirmed town, but I can't help but feel some of that came from people simply thinking I was better with a vote than some other players in the game and that they simply couldn't compete with me. This isn't a good mentality to have though. You'll never get better if you just marginalize yourself and assume you can't outplay people with good track records or reputations. Even the best can be wrong, ESPECIALLY in mafia and ESPECIALLY if they're playing with other smart players, because anyone can be tricked.

Tagging along with the above question: do you think townies would be moronic for playing the game without confidence and basically relying on you to help guide them?

It's moronic to play without confidence (it's also moronic to play with severe over-confidence) and to completely rely on someone else to guide you (unless you're in a hydra, where that becomes slightly more acceptable if you're relying on your hydra partner). I have no problem with people looking to me for general guidance, or coming to me with strategy/mechnical questions, or just asking for suggestions about what issues/interactions are key and should be looked into with greater depth and such, but just assuming I'm going to carry you is a terrible assumption to make and one that hurts me, you, and the town as a whole. It hurts me because if you just copy all my reads its hard for me to read you, it hurts you because you'll never learn how to scumhunt and take a stance on your own, and it hurst the town (if you're town of course) because you're either directly supporting anti-town if I'm anti-town, or simply not giving the town any constructive stances or new material to analyze in order to determine your alignment and figure out you're town.

Whose your favorite scumbuddies and why?

Hmmm let's see, I don't really have any clear favorite but I'd say my favorite scum experiences were Vengeful Mafia with KevBro (****in brofist hell yeah @ flawless victory), Tom's original FFVII with Chaco and mentos, and Chibo's MXC mafia with OS, Praxis, and Kirbyoshi (albeit for only a short while with him). Vengeful was awesome well, just because the game was just a solid ****ing 5 man game with solid ****ing players, and Kev and I played really well off of each other that game to get the perfect win. FFVII was fun because mentos and Chaco were easy partners to work with and we pulled some pretty clutch **** it terms of NA choices and just general game strategy, and ultimately, again pulled off a flawless scum win. MXC, though we lost, was a blast because it was fun working with scum OS and seeing how he operates, and Praxis too later in the game who is just generally a pretty solid player and brought some interesting strategies to the table. It was just a strong scum team to be a part of. Honorable mention goes to Adumbro in Majora's Mask since I replaced into that game late, but it was fun figuring out who that abductor was in endgame and then winning without even having to alpha strike hahaha. Another game with a strong partner who was fun to bounce off of and really try some tricky **** with.

Whose your favorite friendly townies to have on your side and why?

I generally like to have people who I know scumhunt in a manner that really differs with mine cleared as town for me. Players like this are Marshy, KevinM, Macman, Swiss, and OS. Not that I don't love having consistently active, and otherwise generally strong players cleared as town too, it's just that I very much prefer to have those who have different strategies than I, or different penchants for reading people than I do, as cleared town, because then they can obviously provide me with very different but genuine perspectives of players and the game as a whole. To be perfectly honest I really have a hard time following how the aforementioned group of players scumhunts, but somehow they tend to have pretty decent scumdars, and as such, I want reliable access to the skills they possess that I don't. When they're cleared as town for me, I know I can trust them to have good reads, and give me things to consider that I normally would not come up with myself or not be able to trust if they weren't really cleared.
frozenflame751 (2:57:50 AM):
done

Why do you hate [Adumb] so much? (aka, why abduct him d1 in PoR?)

Hahaha trust me it was nothing personal. =P I just didn't want you around to bounce off of OS, Rajam, and Raziek. I didn't want to have to deal with a potential OS and Adumb alliance if you guys happened to feel each other out and hold hands (which now knowing that OS was scum, probably wouldn't have happaned), nor did I want to have to deal with you defending Rajam or Raziek if I decided to pressure one of them, since you likely had extensive meta knowledge of the two of them. Normally, I probably would have left you around for a little longer, but the metaknowledge you had of so many players in the game right from the very beginning, combined with your initial low activity and lack of connections, made you an ideal target.

Who are your "must-plays" and why? (People who if you see them sign up for a game, you'd always sign up)

No one really. I try to be really strict on myself when signing up for games because I know how ****ty of a player I become when I get in over my head. You [Rockin] know this well as I had to turn down playing in one of your games despite your asking me personally and my interest in the game. The roster of a game will certainly have an effect on whether or not I ultimately decide to /in a game, but first and foremost comes my RL schedule and the number of game's I'm already in. Who is already in the game is only a secondary factor that might help me decide between say, a big or a small game, or whether or not to replace into a certain game. I'd say if anyone, it's the old school players that have the most appeal when I look to /in a game because they seem to be playing less and less often and it's always a blast to play in games where my old buddies from the past and the new guys here are all mixed together in a good competitive game.

Does Gheb suck? If so why?

As a mafia player? No. As a melee player? Probs, because he plays Brawl. =P As a Brawl player? Probs not. As a person? Probs not but I've never met him in person so I don't know for sure, but he certainly has some points against him for not making it out to APEX last summer, and for calling me free at Melee. =P

I don't recall ever seeing you in any adventure games...what gives? And if you have been in them, what do you like/hate about them

Well you need to look harder, because I've been in 'em lol. I was definitely in The Thing, and I'm pretty sure I played in The Fog as well, though I was much less active in The Fog compared to The Thing. I was also in Tom's X-men game and completed my beta for it but sadly that game never saw the light of day. =( I was also in Macman's original escape game and the remake of it but again sadly both of those never completed. I missed out on all the infection action unfortunately because those all sorta happened during one of my longer streaks of inactivity here I beleive. Oh and I was also in Batman WOTK but I signed up at a time when I thought I would be able to commit more to the game but ended up failing miserably, so let's not talk about that. =/But it terms of what I like/hate about adventure games, I really like the think on your feet, solve the puzzles, aquire resources, and basically do whatever your resourcefulness and wit can conjure up feel to the games. I like how many options you tend to have as a player and really feeling like you're in a really expansive world with tons of options, and lots of other potential friends and enemies that you can manipulate (or be manipulated by) on the way to achieving your goal. What I don't like about adventure games is sometimes the open ended-ness of the games. I'm not really a "sandbox game" type of guy. I like SOME freedom of choice (ya know, enough to be able to develop creative strategies and approaches to things), but I don't like really being dropped into a huge world and being told to just go do stuff or go find something interesting to check out. I like having a clear mission or goal, and at least a few key aspects of the goal that help streamline my progress toward reaching that goal, obviously with challenges along the way. I just hate wandering around or feeling lost or without urgency or purpose, which I feel tends to happen a lot in bigger adventure games. I largely admire the creativity and vision of the mods of adventure games, and I'm sure plenty of people thoroughly enjoy exploring those huge worlds just for the sake of seeing what the mod has built, but I seriously am devoid of even the slightest strand of creativity in my body, and as such, just don't jave the drive or desire to really thoroughly explore the massive creations of others. I like lots of options, lots of tests, lots of a resources and lots of ways to go about things, but I don't like to have lots of potential end goals, or worse yet, no set goal at all.

How was your experience in 'The Thing?' What role did you play?

I had a blast playing The Thing, mostly because I felt like the world was just the right size for my tastes and the goal of the game was pretty clear. We had a fairly large base filled with secrets and fun things to work with, but it definitely limited player movement and wasn't really and "open world" type game. Just what I like. The objective was also damn clear: don't die, don't get turned into a thing, and escape the base without letting a thing escape with you. Clear cut, but not easy to accomplish. Perfect. I was Windows, the Radio Operator. I was the youngest team member and was fluent in English, Russian, and a few other languages I was told. He was a fun character to play, and I just overall really enjoyed the world Eor built, and essentially the thrill of playing a really strange version of mafia with a lot more liberation, different type of strategy, and more stress on one's own wits and ablity to preserve one's self from threats lurking in the shadows.

Sup Bro?

Life as normal broseph. Kickin' back and chillin' on my typical class free thursday, livin' large.

Scale of 1-10 how bad are you gonna get tapped by [KevinM] and Yedi at Zenith?

Hmmmm. Well, I'd say APEX was about a 7 or 8 on the tapped scale, so I'm hoping that this time around maybe I can get that down to like a 4 or 5. =P I've been playin' a bit more and I'm seeing some improvement IMO so hopefully I'll give you guys some better matches this summer.

Who do you main in Melee and how bad were the matches between KevinM and Macman?

I main Fox, and I have an ok Falcon and Sheik as backups. I pretty much only played Fox against those two though, and if I recall correctly most of my matches v. KevBro (him using Fox as well) were 2-3 stock differentials and v. Yedi (using his Falco) was about the same deal. Yedi threw his Fox against me a few times though and those matches were much closer, usually down to the last stock. I think I might have even won a few against his Fox but I'm not sure lol. I think my main issue was just a tech skill consistency gap which I'm hoping I've closed at least a little bit with my recent practice, but we'll see I guess haha.

You plan to make them eat their words?

That's the ultimate goal haha, but it may take some more time and practice to get there. =P

Are we actually going to play IRL mafia this time?

I'm totally down for that, but of course we need more people than just me to be down to play in order to play haha. At APEX everyone was really spread out and crazy absorbed in friendlies and watching the hype matches n' such. Not that I blame everyone, because APEX was hype as ****, but yeah, hopefully at Zenith, since it'll be melee only, it'll be easier to round people up and get a game going since we won't have like a melee room and a brawl room. Hell, we only need 5 players to get some vengeful mafia doing (down to run some more train in vengeful IRL kevbro?) and 8 for Taco mafia (I think it still runs decently well as an open setup), and 9 for some F11. Shouldn't be to hard to get somethin going if people really want to play, and I always have cards on me so that's really all it takes.

This is more an old school question, but going into a lot of your other games what was your D1 plan knowing that you most likely were going to be killed N1?

Hmmm, well back in the day I think me being NK'd N1 was far more likely than it is now, like regardless of how well I was playing on D1. Even if I was lurking or inactive or even if my scumdar was way off, people would still kill me just out of what I guess was fear of my rep./lategame scumhunting ability. That has kinda changed now (thank god) and I'm no longer always the default target and I feel like I can actually dodge NKs for a decent amount of time if I play right, which I enjoy a lot more. But anyway, years ago when I pretty much never expected to live past N1, I tended to just put a lot more effort into scumhunting on D1 and putting a lot of pressure on a lot of people, often for not the most significant reasons. I basically tried to stimulate discussion as much as possible and get as many of my thoughts out there as possible so people would have stuff to use after my ineveitable death, and build from it. Part of this was also the fact that I simply wasn't as busy and full of RL johns back then too, but it definitely was a different strategy D1 than what I employ today. For example, back then I used to be very vocal about who I thought was town, not just who I thought could live for now, on D1 which is a practice I almost never do anymore. Kinda shows the difference in how back then I was really focuses on making all of my thoughts public, whereas now I have more reserve with the hopes that I'll live long enough to reveal that info when it is strategically most useful.

This isn't really a question but more nostalgia... how funny was it when [KevinM[ ended up being mafia in the only Epic Mafia game we played together and he killed you N1?

I ***kin' lol'd. It was even more hilarious because I first I really didn't think you were scum and that some random guy just decided to NK me N1 by sheer coincidence as if to prove I was like cursed or something, but then I found out your were scum and just being a total **** to ruin my fun. =P We should play EpicMafia again sometime.
frozenflame751 (12:58:07 PM):
done


What was your single best play? Any alignment.

Hmmm, I'd probably have to say my best overall play in a game was Mafia Tournament Sleepover, where I won as 1 time BP SK. If you're just asking about like specific instances of good play though, I'd probably say it was my 2/2 shooting in popcorn mafia to finish the game for town. Honorable mentions go to my play in Eor's Lost Mafia where I think I pretty much nailed all the scum straight on the head before I died, my SK play in Food Court Mafia where I almost pulled it out but got kinda screwed (IMO) in endgame and my decision to intercept myself and thus, stop Riddle's incoming vig kill on me and kill him instead in FFVII mafia.

Why does it seem that most of the vets aren't active any more?

I imagine they have stories very similar to mine. RL changes and peoples' priorities change. Personally, I love playing mafia on SWF too much to ever really completely quit playing (at least for now), but for other people other things get in the way and mafia does loose its novelty after awhile, and for some people a drastically changed community is a turn off and makes it hard to stay interested in games and such. I just know that my personal reason for not being as active anymore is RL johns plain and simple. I'm a lot busier now than I was in HS, and as such I have less time for mafia. Like I said I imagine this applies at least somewhat for the other vets, but I really don't have that good of an idea.



If you could pick a roster for a mafia game (that you're modding/playing), and which alignments they'd be, how would you choose?

Hmmm, if selecting roles to players manually were standard practice, as opposed to randomizing roles, I'd probably do a few things. For one, I'm make sure that the town had at least once experienced or strong player. I feel like the town needs more strong players in order to succeed than the mafia does, since I really feel like even one good scum player can really carry a scumteam, but one good town player cannot do this nearly as effectively, especially considering it is far more likely for a strong town player to be eliminated early on than an antitown player. I'd probably also make sure not to give especially powerful, swingy, or difficult roles to brand new or exceptionally weak players so as to preserve game balance relative to the strength of each faction and what should be expected from them reasonably. This whole concept is kind of problematic though, because you can balanced games totally differently is you're assigning roles than you can if you randomize them, because role assignment allows for far more swingy roles to be placed into a game for balance's sake since you can be sure that say, a critical town PR to the game's balance goes to a player who can handle it and use it well. People need to take things like this into consideration when balancing their games if you assign roles randomly (which you should honestly, because mod meta really shouldn't be a part of the game), because if your game is balanced just off of the strength of a few roles, or a lot of power is concentrated in the hands of a few roles, you run this risk of your game's entire balance being destroyed if a weak or new player who doesn't really understand how to use it properly get's eliminated early or simply doesn't use the powers given to him as intended.
frozenflame751 (1:35:47 PM):
done

If I were to run that LOTR adventure game idea, which character would you want?

Believe it or not I really don't have a particular favorite LOTR character, except for like Gandalf but I imagine he wouldn't be a playable character in such a game due to all the probably god-modding and what have you. I think I could have fun playing almost any character. I think a good part of the fun is not really having a choice as to who you are and having to learn how to play the role your character fills and adapt your playstyle to your character's strengths and weaknesses.
frozenflame751 (1:41:15 PM):
done

Do you like puppies?

I love puppies, they're my ideal pet. I plan on getting one once I have my own place, however far off that may be haha.
frozenflame751 (1:45:22 PM):

OH NOES. You have been ordered to ring up all the newbies to play mafia with you. Of course, you still want to win. Them knowing you are good, would follow you and would take your words to heart. List 2-3 Points that would help their game immensely, thus helping you win your game with the majority of them. So if there was a newbie you haven't played nor read, you cannot give him pointers, and cannot enlist him in your team!

Hmmm, ok so I think the gist of this question is if I was in a game full of newbies and they were guaranteed to follow 2-3 points of my advice throughout the game, what would I tell them? I'm hoping that's what it is anyway lol. But yeah uh, I'd tell them to make sure they read EVERY post and not to skim, to make sure they play in a manner that is cognizant of any PR they might have (i.e. making sure not to attract too much attention to oneself or uneccesarily reveal role information prematurely), and of course, to read CRITICALLY, and make sure they try to understand the intent behind players' posts before they reach conclusions about who is town and who is scum.

Why are you like KevinM in playstyle when it comes to dealing with [J]?

Uhhh, I'm not sure I understand lol. I really don't think I play like KevinM when dealing with J, but uh, if I do and you think I don't interact with you [J] enough or like tend to contribute less or something, it's probably because I don't like to respond to AtE other than bash it, or I'm kind of put off by huge floods of activity, and when I fall behind I tend to skim what super belligerant posters say and boil it down to the meat and bones of everything they've discussed or contended. So yeah if it feels like I'm abridging what you [J] say when I respond to it, it's probably because of those things.

Which ancient [vet] would you NK on N0 so you wouldn't have to deal with them? Which n00b?

i don't think I've ever played with him (at least not from a game's start to end) but I'd probably NK EE N1 just because of the way he plays. Crazy meticulous, super active, full of walls of posts. Takes too much time and effort to deal with people who scumhunt and make cases like that, and when not responding to big cases and stuff like that in full can often spell your doom, there's no reason to let it continue. Even beyond that, even if someone has terrible, easy to respond to cases, if they're big or come at you often, it's hard to not draw a lot of attention to yourself and prevent yourself from being over scrutinized, which is a bad position for scum. By this logic, people like J (who would be my likely "noob" choice) and Omni would also be good picks, but of course, I'd use their D1 play as a gauge to see just how belligerant they're being probably and decide whether or not its too much to let fly.

Who do you personally recognize as good players?

A lot of people, and for a lot of different reasons. From the old school group there's KevBro, Macman, Eor, Tom, EE, ligolski, Ronike, Marshy, Wikipedia, Mediocre, mentosman, thedocsalive, and Rockin that I can think of off the top of my head. From the newer crowd I'd say Gheb, Omni, Adum, OS, are pretty consistent, strong players. Steel and Xiivi were pretty decent from what I saw of them but they don't really play much these days. I'd say Tandora, Cello, J, Zen, Swiss, MetaKirby, Nich, vanderzant, have all done some impressive stuff and have some distinct strengths that I really respect. Idk, it's hard to just call a player "good" or "bad" or just compare players side by side because everyone has different play styles and can do good things in very different ways.

What is your worst game? Both alignments

Town: Pokemafia Mafia: Scum Wars Independant: The Lonely Island Mafia. I had a really lame side win role in TLI though, and some of us should know what it was that really put me off and kinda stop trying in Scum Wars lol.


Could you give some general thoughts on the 13 player BIM set-up Gheb ran as opposed to the larger set up you ran for BIM:2?

I'd love to actually, but unfortunately I can't really make any comments on Gheb's version of the game until I read through it. As you know BIM balancing and such is something I have particular interest in so I plan to read through BIM3 soon and think about how balanced it is relative to my BIM2 setup, and basically figure out if his approach was the best way to down size it. However, I really can't say much atm, sorry! I'll contact you once I get the read done.

Did you work on the set up and where do you think they differed in terms of how they played out?

I didn't work on Gheb's setup at all. That's all his own creation. Again, I can't comment on how they differed in terms of how they played out because I didn't read all of BIM3, so I don't have the info necessary to make that comparison.
frozenflame751 (2:35:56 PM):
done

Speaking specifically about vets, if you could change things about other peoples' playstyles, who would you adjust and what would you change?

Tom: Stay active and stop replacing out of stuff lol
Marshy: Exist and play games
EE: Be more concise with your points and don't write mega essays unless absolutely necessary
Ronike: Don't let people emotionally compromise you. Keep a clear head and don't be spiteful and tunnel people
KevinM: Explain your though processes a little bit more sometimes. Let me see some of your genius. =P
Macman: Do a little of Toms suggestion and a little of Kevin's

that's pretty much it, I don't really think people need to change they're playstyle much, at least for the vets that is. Part of what I like about playing with the vets is their tried and true, consistent and unique playstyle that they bring to each game.

No change for Rockin? Does that mean you approve of his playstyle, as well as him mishooting people as vig?

I haven't played enough with you quite yet to have a firm grasp on what I like/don't like about your playstyle so, yeah, you can keep doin' what you're doin' for now. Mishooting people as vig isn't the end of the world, just get better at scumhunting. =P Plus, it's better to mishoot and at least kill off dead weight/scummy townies and get flip info than to have no ****ing balls and twiddle your thumbs all game and be useless. Keep shootin' with confidence yo. =D

NOTE: See guys? It's not my fault I shot while restricted on SpiderMafia and my reasoning for shooting OS (as well as probably others) in BIM Mafia

What do you think a moderator can do to make his game more enjoyable?

The number one most important thing is to balance your game. Personally, if I feel like the setup cheated me, tricked me, or otherwise made what I thought were viable strategies totally useless, I don't enjoy the game. Be creative with your flavour but don't go overboard. Be active in your game, and make things convenient for your players, like providing vote counts and regular intervals (e.g. once every 40 posts or so) so that the players don't have to worry about that stuff and can focus on the game. Just remember that as a mod, it's your job to serve the players and make your game as easy to play and enjoyable for them as possible. It's not their job just to provide you with entertainment. Oh, and don't use unconventional stupid side win roles that people can just get a "win" with and then exit the game or share a win with another faction (e.g. my role from TLI mafia, lynchers in games with high claim propensity, etc.). Never use ****ing jesters they destory mafia metagame. Don't use any type of indy role where reaching one's wincon doesn't put value on manipulating and controlling lynches (this is why I find warlocks acceptable, but only as long as they require a number of correct guesses that fits the size of the game to make winning as a warlock just as difficult as an SK, abudctor, or similar solo indy).

What are your favorite roles to play as?

Well, anything bulletproof should be pretty obvious as a top choice hahaha. Outside of that though I really like roles that really reward good strategy, planning, and acquiring information by reading players properly. For example, I like being Cop because, well, it's a really great tool to get extra "flips" that I need and help me use those alignments to either nail other scum or build coalitions of people I can trust and want to be able to, however, I like Mason Recruiter even more, because it essentially does what a cop does, except you get a WAY better reward for accurately reading fellow townies, since you confirm them as town AND yourself, get to talk outside the thread, etc. but you are also punished SERVELY for reading someone wrong (since normally, a misrecruit kills everyone in the masonry). That's the type of strategic value I like. Vig kinda goes along the same lines, and is awesome because you can just thin the herd and do away with distracting players etc.

What scum roles do you like?


I love the janitor role. It really rewards scum for reading PRs well, and I think really enhances the metagame of any setup by introducing a healthy sense of skepticism to any role claim after the jan. goes off. I'm also a really big fan of mafia doctors in big setups with multiple killing roles outside of the mafia faction (i.e. SK, vig, arsonist, etc.) because I find it better than say, just giving the mafia a BP person or a godfather or something because again, it rewards good prediction by the scum team and allows them to adjust to punish a predictable town. I also really liked the hexer/interceptor roles that were in Tom's FFVII game because again, they reward scum for predicting what town is going to do. Roleblocker is also just such a good fundamental role that I have to mention it. Again, its a role that punishes predictability. I pretty much love any role that isn't guaranteed to give you benefits even if you just use it blindly, and can also be exectionally powerful with the right info and really rewards smart play.


What the **** is wrong with Ryker?

*shrug* I don't have any personal beef with him, I just don't appreciate deliberate trolling, nor do I think anyone should take pride in their ability to troll others in what is otherwise a pretty tight, accepting, relaxed, and enjoyable community. I just don't have much respect for people who are proud of their ability to troll people and see that as something "cool" or "funny" in an otherwise serious context, so that's really the only type of behavior from him that I didn't like. Other than that he's fine, though he is quite bold. =P
frozenflame751 (4:31:18 PM):
done

Hi there! What do you plan on doing with your life through college/life ?

Hey! Hmmm, well while I'm in college I'm just trying ot have a good time with my amazing friends, enjoy the various clubs and activities I partake in, mantain a good GPA, and ultimately graduate and hopefully get into a good law school. I want to be a lawyer of some sort, though I haven't really figured out specifically what kind of specialization I'm interested in. I'd like to try and go back to Japan at some point for an extended period of time, perhaps even become a resident for some time. Idk though, it really depends on how much I continue to develop my Japanese skills, what level of JLPT I can pass this or next summer, and if I can find a way to incorporate it into my career pursuits. I'm hoping a particular internship opportunity I have this summer works out, because I may be able to network with some people/companies that are relevant to both my legal and japanese interests. That's all up in the air though hahah. That's pretty much the general plan for now, I'm very much a "live by the day" type of guy, so I don't have too much else planned lol.

do you still enjoy playing mafia? if so do you enjoy it as much as you used to?

Of course, I wouldn't still be signing up for games and playing in them if I didn't enjoy the game, an dI certainly wouldn't be spending my Tuesday nights playing IRL with my friends. I don't really think my passion for the game has changed much at all. Mafia and I have a very cyclical relationship lol. I'll play it a lot for some amount of time and then either have lots of fun while doing so and prolong that enjoyment and passion and continue high levels of activity and play in multiple games, etc., or I'll play poorly or be discouraged/turned off by either bad setups, poor play by others, disagreeable situations, etc. and go into kind of a low activity slump. Then, after taking a break for sometime, I'll want to play again and start jumping into games again and the cycle starts over. I think that's pretty much why I've been able to stick with it for so long. I just don't burn myself out. If I didn't pace myself like I do, or take breaks when I really needed to, I'm sure I'd have come to hate the game or give up on it entirely at some point. But yeah, I don't really have nearly as much time to devote to the game anymore, which can sometimes come off as a loss of passion for the game, but ultimately I still like the game for what it is just as much as I always have, and still love the thrill of playing in closed setups, learning creative ideas for balancing games, seeing new and creative roles, and ultimately just watching the game evolve over time in our community here.

pb[have you had any experiences in mafia games that left a serious impact on how you viewed the game or how you played, that taught you lessons and improved your play as a result? if so what were they?[/b]

Pokemafia was kind of a wake up call to me that made me realize that the community really had changed its ideals as far as activity is concerned (even if I disagree with those ideals) and I'd like to think made me slightly more active than I was prior. My argument with Cello in Newbie 3 reinforced my dislike for extensive meta cases, and only strengthened my resolve to maintain a consistent playstyle regardless of alignment and role so that meta cases would have little to no grounding when applied to me. I'm pretty confident I've accomplished this in forum mafia and is actually something I'm working really hard to achieve in my IRL play. Scum wars mafia made me realize just how important scum's control over their NK is to fundamental mafia play and somewhat altered my balancing perspective for the better I think. The original Dgames mafia (Avril-con one) taught me just how damning a focused town scope can be when it stays on you forever regardless of alignment and that always being subject to scrutiny (or at least putting yourself in that position) is a strategically poor position, and that I needed to get better at not letting myself just fall under it. Bear and fish mafia taught me that I need to get better at discerning how to read busses and how to better look for faux scum hunting from indies. Soul Calibur mafia taught me to place greater emphasis on Occum's razor and to be less paranoid in non-crucial scenarios. Any game that ever had a kingmaker scenario or potential kingmaker scenario taught me how NOT to let those scenarios happen in games and thus, made me a better mod. That's really all I can think of at the moment but I'm sure there are plenty of other things I learned from specific games that I just cant match up at the moment. I'm sure if you asked me about a specific game I could tell you what I took out of it haha.

how was your day today? howve you been?

Today's been goin' pretty well so far. Woke up with no hangover despite some good ol' partyin' last night (always a pleasant surprise XD), had lunch with a good friend of mine, and then went to debate practice at 2. Debate went pretty well, we debated the motion "This House would not allow mothers to discriminate their choice of sperm donors based on ethnicity." Me and my partner got placed on opposition side and we did pretty well I think. I had some time management issues in my speech (spent too much time on rebuttal, went about 45 seconds over where I should have transitioned into constructive material, I do that a lot >_<) but other than that it went well. Now I'm just chillaxin' with Rockin here and will likely be off to dinner with some friends later + partying after. In general though I've been fine, though busy. Just been kinda juggling a lot with classwork, clubs, summer internship/job plans, and of course trying to finally get Starcraft underway (which I feel like **** for being so slow on, sorry folks and please bear with me >_<). I'd be in much better spirits though if you were around more often bro! =D

if you could meet and chill with 5 dgamers irl who would they be and why?

Hmmm, I'm gonna exclude people I've already met and chilled with for this question as well as those I will very likely meet at some point like Brockin here, because well, I've already done it or probably will meet (again for some) with them at Zenith as long as that doesn't fall through hahaha. I'd probably want to meet you [marshy], Tom, OS, Gheb, and Swiss. Marshy and Tom because they're vetbros and just seem like chill mo****as, OS because I remember him saying that his online persona is really different than how he is IRL, so I'm kind of interested to see what he's like in person, Gheb because I feel like he'd be fun to smash and chill with, even if he is an ******* and calls us free =P, and Swiss because he's just a perculiar fellow and I wonder how closely his RL personality matches his personality here. But trust me, I'd be ****ing so pumped if I could hang out with all the people I have already met and likely will meet plus those five hahaha

Who ***** you harder in Melee? KevinM or Macman?

Mac's Falco > KevBro's Fox > Mac's Fox. I'm terrible against good Falco's ;_;

What was it like playing your first adventure game? What transferred over from mafia? What was new and exciting?

It was pretty exciting. The Thing was just a straight up well constructed, easy to understand, and relatively straight forward adventure game. I had never really played in a player driven text based adventure game like it before, so I was really excited to see how things would work out, just how expansive and detailed the "world" would be, and basically how everyone else would play their part in the game. The Thing was pretty much designed to share a lot with mafia, what with the Thing being able to become clones of people and infiltrate the group etc. etc., so I mean scum hunting was a pretty common theme in a sense but not in the same way you scum hunt in mafia. You still had to have that healthy skepticism and suspicion of everyone (perhaps even more so than a mafia game) but what was different was the freedom to remove people you didn't necessarily trust without the permission of others, and the fact that you could do so much, in real time, all alone in complete privacy or with the knowledge of only a few people. In mafia, almost all of your actions are subject to public scrutiny, but in The Thing is was cool to be able to break away and further your own agenda, get the one up on everyone else, and really better act in a self-preserving manner than you can in mafia, where you life is admittedly more expendable. I think that's really a key different too, was the fact that dying in The Thing, meant missing out on such a huge game full of what was bound to be exciting twists and turns. Death in The Thing had a looming finality to it that doesn't exist for me in mafia, since once you're out of one game, you can just hop right into another. So yeah, the whole increased prioritization of self-preservation made the game more intense, but just in general having so much freedom to move about, use your wit, tools, and environment to get the upper hand, but also have a world that wasn't overbearingly expansive made for a really great experience.

In Eor's "The Thing", you killed Clark (camo-man) and Bennett (marthmaster or something like that). Both were human. How did you feel when it became increasingly obvious that they weren't going to reanimate as Things, and were in fact human? Was this just like misfiring as a vigilante in mafia, or was it a different experience somehow, given the adventure game format? What was all that like?

Well I was just like "****, I ****ed up. Ooops. =/" I felt bad for pretty much robbing them of their ability to conitnue enjoying the game, but well, that was part of the game ya know? I didn't trust them and obviously didn't want to keep people I didn't trust around. With fewer people to worry about, survival would be much easier especially if we were all competing for resources and what not. Though having them alive could have potentially help all of us non-Things from the base combat the Thing itself in the long run and maybe even overcome the angry Russian duo, at the time I don't feel like my calculus was poor. It felt kind of like misfiring as a vig in mafia, but not really. In mafia when I misfire as a vig, usually the person I choose was a distraction anyway, or otherwise scummy enough/inactive enough to deserve the kill, so I don't really feel as bad and obviously I know that they can always go play another mafia game. In The Thing, I felt way worse because I know the finality of the kill, and that I had basically robbed them of the full experience of The Thing since it was a unique opportunity to plan in it. But though I did feel worse about it, and though I don't really feel like Camo-man really deserved it (Bennett def. did though IIRC), I knew that it was just part of the game, and with the increased emphasis on self-preservation in the game I knew that it was a rational (though admittedly hasty) decision.

In Eor's "The Thing", you held like glue to the Vevski Brothers, played by Scav and I (EE). Me? Scav and me? Whatever. How did you feel when you found out we were bad guys that were going to kill you at the first opportunity? What was that like? Was it different from when you are positive someone is town and they flip scum in a mafia game?

Nah, it wasn't really like having an almost "certain" town read on someone and having them ultimately be scum. It that scenario, I know that there is a distinct faction opposing me and what their end goal is. In mafia, the factions tend to be much clearer, and as such, I would have had far more reason and opportunity to be suspicious of such a person, and work toward removing them if I deemed them to be scummy or dangerous. In mafia, in that scenario where I just have a severe misread, I can very clearly credit the player with good play for being able to trick me, and discredit myself for allowing it to happen. What happened in The Thing with th Vevski brothers I don't really think matches that scenario at all. For one, physical resistance to the two of them, alone, would have been suicide. I really didn't have much of a choice OTHER than to cooperate them and the DID help significantly in combating the Thing. At the time, I really didn't have any option more reasonable than cooperating with them, so I don't really feel like I was tricked or duped at all. I simply made the most rational call and it ended up being that my saviors were also my demise. I really didn't have any reason suspect that they wanted to eradicate everything in the base, and even if I did, again, I didn't really have the means to resist them, nor would it have been a good choice to refuse their help. I also figured that being able to speak Russian was supposed to have some sort of impact on the game, and that getting the Russians to join us and help us out was what that was intended for, so I A.) Didn't expect to be betrayed, since I though the whole challenge was just to get them to trust me and cooperate me and B.) I didn't see why it would be a reasonable decision for Russian soldiers fighting a common alien enemy to exterminate their only contact in a base of foreigners. =/ Yeah, it sucked that it happened, but honestly, there wasn't much I couldn't have done to remedy the situation, or even reasonably suspect that I NEEDED to do something to protect myself from them hahaha.

What happened to Starcraft?

It'll start soon, don't worry. There were a couple issues with the roster what with a few people being signed up mistakenly and a few dropping out, but yeah, I'm just tweaking a few things and it'll be good to go soon. Ideally I should be able to get role PMs out by the end of the weekend but I can't guarantee it. Please don't hate me. ;_; I'm hoping the setup and the game itself will be good enough to be worth the wait. Apologies though to everyone waiting patiently.

hahaha hell yes. I ****in approve

Are there any roles that should be used more often in Mafia setups that you'd like to see?

Not really any in particular, but just in general mods should focus on including roles that require the player to acquire some sort of knowledge or understanding in order to make the role useful. Roles that just give people free boons or powerful information with little to no risk or cost I'm not a huge fan of. Make the players work to make their role effective, and reward them for smart play and good reads and punish them for mindless use of powers. That's how roles in general should be designed IMO. Really, it's not really roles that I'd like to see that matters, but roles I DON'T want to see. Like, don't use ****ty side-win independent roles, don't use unlynchable mafia members, don't use revivers, don't use jesters, lynchers, typical **** that is broken and lame, and don't overcentralize games or make them too swingy by focusing all the power in the hands of a few people. Don't use roles that punish the town for lynching correctly, or at all undermine the lynching process. Don't **** with the mafias night kill ability. Stuff like that. I could go on and on but I think that covers the general idea.


Are there any Mafia players you'd like to see play more often?

The vets in general. I love playing with people that I haven't played with in a long time. I could list a ton of people I wish would come back and play but it'd be kinda pointless. Anyone who's part of our community but doesn't play in games often (or at all) should just play more, plain and simple. =D

Thank you so much for your time. Any last words you'd like to say?

No problem man, it was a blast doing this. Keep on livin' vets, keep on growin' new guys, stay classy Dgames, and stay fierce Rockin. =P