Can someone teach me how to not be a detriment to the town?

I am on my phone so I don't have the quick link, but go back to my M7 thread and read my OP as well as the reference threads I listed for new players. After that, you can look through some previous games if you want.

Yours was M6 bo. This one is M7.

There's a PE thread somewhere, gold, that outlines the basics.

http://webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?threadID=1129840

There's also this new invention called Google.

tl:dr
Don't lurk
Don't be dumb. (Last game a townie tried to convince us he wasn't scum by saying he was scum last game and that it's unlikely for someone to be scum two games in a row.)
You'll get the hang of it pretty quick.

Vash, I'm drunk to the point that I can't feel my legs. Thanks.

yay bo

Maniac.

This should be Mafia 8 just to confuse things further.

I think the plan is for this to be M 3.75.

The other thing which is important to do is *not* let yourself be swayed too much by people you think are smart and have a handle on the game. The scum really do know a lot more about the actual game state and may appear to be better players/good townies when they are anything but.

Also, don't listen to bullshit from people who claim to be experts at this game. There is no one right style of play. Those who insist otherwise are peddling snake oil and setting themselves up for this game.

Jeff is right on his first point. He is wrong on his second point. Play better this time, Jeff. Please.

There aren't right styles of play, but your play has to be conducive to the general strategy of your faction, and if you are town and your fellow townies have no fucking clue what you're saying and you don't put any convincing evidence up against anyone all while repeatedly and intentionally annoying the living bajeezus out of everyone, you're not going to last long and you will become a liability to your faction regardless of which side you draw.

Anyone want to link the previous games?

Going from my live mafia experience, it's true about styles of play being very different from the top players. It's not what style of play you use that's most important, it's being able to use it effectively. Some people will analyse analyse analyse and ask 1000 questions. If they can do this and come to good results (which some people did) - great. I hated that and never used it, preferring to go off interactions and reactions, and that got me a lot more success. Other people couldn't read that, though.

1. Maniac - confirmed
2. bo_sox48 - confirmed Yankees fan
3. goldfinger0303 - confirmed
4. phil_a_s - confirmed to be a complete tool
5. ghug - confirmed
6. Mintyboy4 - Confirmed
7. captainmeme - confirmed
8. thdfrance-confirmed
9. tvrocks - confirmed
10. uclabb - confirmed
11. Fluminator - confirmed to be foolish with his priorities
12. Jeff Kuta -- Vanilla townie, 100% guaranteed! (tm)
13. OB_Gyn_Kenobi - Confirmed
14. WardenDresden - Confirmed
15. RagingIke297 - Confirmed
16. Chaqa - confirmed
17. DeathLlama9 - confirmed cop
18. Yoyoyozo- confirmed badass
19. guak - confirmed SK

Let's do this

I had a tough transition from live games to this format of Mafia, in that I was unable to read unspoken communication. In person you can see body position, hear tone of voice, assess eye contact, etc. Here you have to be much more attuned to subtle clues in posts. It's really challenging to locate them.

PREVIOUS MAFIA THREADS AND REFERENCE POINTS

M6 - threadID=1203168
We skipped M5, don't know why.
M4 - threadID=1153331
M3.5 - threadID=1143397
M3 - threadID=1142133
M2 - threadID=1129589
M1 - threadID=1116382

General Mafia Discussion - threadID=1126828
Mafia How-To (new players read thoroughly) - threadID=1129840

M7 Sign Up Thread - threadID=1209600

And M5, which was the most recent mafia game (out of order on purpose).

threadID=1217792

Okay everyone is confirmed. I will send out a reminder tonight of the start of the game. Also, since we are 1 over the cap (18) I'm going to not be a dick and let all of you play. After all, it helps the town with a powerful mafia (and buffed town as well).

Exactly, HR. Some people are *looking* for a certain type of play and certain type of communication. If your style is different, it'll throw them off their game.

And then they'll whine like little bitches if things don't go right for them.

By live games, I didn't mean FTF, OB. I meant chatroom based, in a live fashion, with games taking on average 30-40 minutes. As compared to forum based, like this.

Though there are indeed still significant differences.

We skipped M5 for comedy.

You have the time go back and analyze here, though, HR. You can get your gut feeling from reactions and such, and if you're good at it, you can depend on it, but then you have to go back and get evidence because you have the time to do it. Unless you can so successfully bait someone into exposing themselves to enough people to get them lynched without compiling evidence, you just have to go back and grab what you can and build a coherent, reason-based case.

We didn't skip M5, you did. I found it.

Oh you have to do that in live mafia as well, bo. It's just that in forum-mafia, people have time to think about their reactions and plan accordingly, which is why I've generally never enjoyed it as much as live mafia. If you ask someone a difficult question in forum mafia, they can come back with a good response after half an hour of thought.

If they freeze like that in live mafia, you've got them by the balls.

And your advantage here is that you have just as much time to go back, cherry pick every little thing, and compile it into a comprehensible case as they do to plan out their reaction. If you notice someone online, posting away, and then just magically stopping when you pose your magical question, then you've got them by the balls too, so you go back, build your case, and take care of it once they post their perfectly planned reaction.