I feel as if I'm almost obliged to post in this and having the perspective of someone who comes from a very different Mafia/WW foundation would probably be helpful.
+1 Confirm
Before I go any further there really needs to be a clearer distinction between 'veteranism' and reputation. Veteranism is where one considers everything that a "vet" says to be correct because they are a vet. Reputation is a completely different matter and the line between the two seems to be blurred right now. Someone might have a reputation for being a good player - that should inspire respect and/or fear depending on your faction but should not mean that you are obliged to agree with everything that they say.
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So what do I have to say about Beta Anon? First of all, props to cabd for putting the effort into hosting it. Props to all of the players who put their necks on the line in a very new way.
I'm biased, but it doesn't seem like our Wolf Team is getting as much credit as it should be. No, Anon games do not make it easier for the wolves in any way. What did we have in our favour?
> Closed Setup. While always an advantage, it is only small.
> No Background Reads. People couldn't do background searches on playstyles because of anonymity. As we saw, I made no effort to hide that I was Sableye, which shows how much I care about using past plays as hard evidence for a player having a certain role.
> Day Talk. This is potentially a great advantage but is useless in the hands of bad players.
What did the Town have in their favour?
> No Wolf Roleblocker. Plus plus everywhere.
> Seer + Priest + Backups. Follow the Cop everywhere to win.
> No Background Reads. We Wolves couldn't (if we wanted to) do background reads on how particular people played certain roles.
> Night Updates. As far as I could tell, there were no negatives for the Town in the Night Updates. The only minuses were for the Wolves. I had my name revealed both times I took a kill.
> Closed Setup. This is also a small advantage for Town as Wolves did not know if we were dealing with Seer+Priest only or with other PRs.
>Priest didn't RB
For a moment I'm going to take the perspective of someone who knows the setup and watches the game from outside. The Wolves are at a clear disadvantage. If the Town plays a purely theoretical game, Wolves lose.
Back to the game, the Wolves have two main advantages on Day 1 and Night 1. The Closed Setup (an advantage which will eventually become a Town Advantage on Day 2) and the fact that we can talk during the Day.
I'll break off from my analysis at this point to say that I could not possibly have asked for a better Wolf Team. I am not a person who is a particularly avid Wolf player and I thoroughly dislike having to rely on teammates who could potentially kill me off even if I played perfectly, often through no fault of their own. These teammates, though, renewed my faith in team play in an otherwise solo game. Ninetales-Vysekun has a play style which (although I despise it to no end!:lol
complements well with mine. Marshtomp-SS7 also has a play style which I absolutely hate but it works!:lol: And if it works, I can't really criticise it. Vysekun has the great ability to completely change the topic without really trying, and that helped us a lot. SS7 flies under the radar pretty easily and is always a secure and reliable team player. And then there's me. I kinda just rage at people a bit and tell them not to role reveal when they have no votes on them.
From the word go we were talking all the time. At times we submitted our kill after everyone else had submitted roles. During the Day someone always had something new and interesting to say. This sort of synergy wins games and we proved that it does.
Wolves did not necessarily win this game alone. Town did most of our work, particularly on Day 1. Jigglypuff-Akane didn't make it easy for herself. Crobat-darkwing was simply begging to be lynched Day 1 and Steelix-KP made Day 2 autopilot by accidentally hammering Crobat, riding on the back of all the pressure I had put onto Crobat.
Psychologically we had already won.
This brings to light 3 points which determine whether a game is won or lost:
1. Player Skill
2. Momentum
3. Game Theory
Player Skill is a biggie, of course. The wolves played a more skilled game in terms of tactics than the town and thusly we whitewashed the Town. But what really determines player skill? In my opinion, the ability to control momentum and knowledge of Game Theory.
We wolves won this game because of our huge momentum advantage over the town. Losing the Seer was bad luck for the town, but we turned it into momentum by pushing through the town's confusion. Ninetales-Vysekun was particularly important here, since changing the topic of discussion shifts momentum into our favour. We only lost a little momentum on Day 3 when Jiggly threw a case against me. After I replied and Jiggly apparently disappeared, that momentum was passively recovered.
Game Theory. Oooooh wow. I notice that on the 'Gym and on 6P this is almost completely absent and not without reason - there are always crazy new roles and factions which throw any type of orthodox theory out the window. However, this also removes much of the strategic element of the game and replaces it with "who gets the best role wins". In Beta Anon Day 1 I took the effort to discredit any possible role claims from Crobat so that if they did come, they would not be believed. This paid off. If Crobat had a better grasp of earlygame theory he may have claimed earlier and requested "Follow the Cop", potentially leading to our certain loss if he pulled it off. Lategame LYLO theory also played a significant part in our win. The Town didn't know the number of wolves and so should not have been putting votes on players with such a low lynch count. We merely quick hammered.
So no, I don't agree that Anon makes the game easier for wolves. I also don't agree that Anon itself removes reputation advantages although for this player pool it appeared that it did so. Every game, no matter what style, will eventually boil down to how the players play the game. When it comes down to it, gaming is all about the game. We played a far superior game - even cabd, the host, could only find a moot theory point and active lurking as the only scum tells for the entire wolf crew.
+1 Confirm
Once again, credit must go to my team who eliminated all speed bumps in that game.
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Back to the 'Gym, I have three main criticisms:
> Game Size
> Roles
> Flavour Text
TL;DR?: Gaming. It's all about the game.
