Fine. I’ll bother to defend myself. I’ll get into a semantic discussion of humor under a deadline situation.
This is a game. It is supposed to be fun. I thought that I had the opportunity to do something which I believed would be obviously funny. I actually was afraid my joke was *too* obvious to be an effective April Fool’s joke. And, in humor, timing is everything. I figured the very next post would be someone saying “lol”. (Indeed, I almost wondered whether MeMe was “playing along” in [196], with the outside chance that she was trying to encourage someone to cast a vote using such dubious reasoning. I disregarded those possibilities after the deadline was imposed.) So I included a post’s worth of content in with the joke to give all readers a chance to wonder “wait, could he possibility be serious?”. (And also because I did have content to post, and didn’t want the flow of the game to be disrupted for an April Fool’s prank. Which it seems to have been.)
I still have a very hard time believing that MeMe believes that I was in the slightest way serious in claiming. First of all, it had generally been agreed by numerous players *including myself* that Thenardier was a likely antitown character. Maybe I chose Thenardier because I could think of no other claim which would be so obviously antitown? For the joke doesn’t work without someone obvious?
Second, the “detailed role mechanics” I gave myself clearly indicate that I was deliberately claiming an antitown character! Paraphrased, the abilities are to send a criminal gang after a targeted character (who happens to be the night 1 victim), and to show up as mafia when investigates, and to win when there was no town left. A by-the-book mafia role. Again, I was actually worried that it would be too obvious a prank- and had I spelled it out with less detailed claim, it would have been.
Third, why on earth would I just jump out unprompted and admit to being Thenardier if I were actually him? What purpose would it possibly have?
And as for “confusion”- what about it was confusing? MeMe, you’re the only person who seems to have admitted to any confusion, so would you like to elaborate? I think it’s straightforward. I feel that what I posted *on April 1* should have been obviously been a joke, which would run its course over the next few posts, and then after the laughter receded on 4/2 we’d get back to the game. I feel that MeMe has had to torturously consider some unlikely hypothetical situations to work this into a nefarious ploy. This paragraph in particular:
MeMe [204] wrote:<snip>In my opinion, no to all of the above. I think this is a simple case of EmpTyger forgetting his earlier post. If he remembered what he'd said, why leave it to someone else to find the contradiction...thereby making it necessary for someone to vote him and make the joke for him? Seems he's banking an awful lot on someone else's detective skills. And what if everyone had just bought the claim without a blink? He would have been in the uncomfortable position of having to say..."um, hey -- that was a joke back there that nobody got. I'm not really Thenardier. Heh." You can disagree with me, Bob -- but buying it as a joke without giving it a second glance while disparaging the intelligence of someone who chooses to take every post seriously is extremely questionable for a pro-town player.<snip>
Basically, I would have had to
1) forgotten a repeated conclusion- made at one point by myself.
2) assuming that, in a game of mafia, a game of *deduction*, people won’t use their deductive skills. (You’re wondering why I didn’t spell out the punchline? Because I felt- and still feel- it was unnecessary and made for more effective a joke if I didn’t.)
3) have some nefarious motive for doing this. The only one I can see is providing amusement. For the record, I think it was so funny that it was worth doing. I hope it doesn’t cost the game.
MeMe [204] wrote:<snip>And what if everyone had just bought the claim without a blink?<snip>
I would have been most disappointed in you.
I mean, when Taco Bell bought the Liberty Bell to balance the budget, I don’t think they were worried about people accepting it "without a blink".
bob:
I do want to say that I appreciate your defending me, but, in fairness, you did seem to stray a bit over the line in attacking MeMe.
vikingfan:
Could you clarify why you are voting for me?
LML:
I was not as concerned about bob, even though he had two extended absences: one he announced beforehand and during both he wasn’t active in other threads. I don’t really consider that kind of math for determining lurking- I don’t consider when you were posting, but rather when you *weren’t*. Timing is everything, as they say. I felt your silences were occurring at particularly harmful points for the town. I also feel (at still do) that while you address certain suspicions you deliberately are ignoring others.
However, I’ll admit I’m finding it harder to justify a vote on you. You could have used the “distraction” created by MeMe’s obsession over the April Fool’s to stray from substantive material, and yet you didn’t. I may regret this on Wed., if not Day 2, but
Unvote: LoudmouthLee
.
MeMe:
MeMe [204] wrote:<snip>Would any good player (which EmpTyger definitely is)<snip>
I accept your compliment of my skill. This is only my third game online, and even if it’s stated amid an accusation, I admit I feel a little honored by your estimation of me. Thank you.
Having said that,
Vote: MeMe
. You seem to be too good a player to be basing your vote on the logic you are using. Particularly since this conveniently distracting from my calling attention to you in [195] with this semantic analysis of a joke.
And also:
Since I feel there may be a good chance of my not surviving, I’ll reveal the observation I hinted at at the end of [195] while there may still be time to do something about it.
vikingfan confirmed that Eponine and Cosette exist. I found it odd that Cosette came forward while Eponine didn’t. In [183] I explained why I felt that 1 of {Enjolras, Marius, Cosette, Eponine} might be mafia. At the time I was thinking Cosette was likely antitown, partially based on LML’s behavior and partially since I felt coming forward was not the correct action for the situation.
In my April Fool's claim I omitted one detail otherwise typical for a mafia- I did not name any fellow mafia members. I did not for the same reason I did not announce this observation: because I realized that the most likely fellow mafia with Thernardier would be Eponine. And, as indicated elsewhere, I thought it best to not want discourage a potential antitown away from a potentially incriminating claim.
But I observed one statement:
MeMe [188] wrote:<snip>Stoofer's plan could only work IF the scum are roles that are generally considered innocent <snip> (e.g., if Stoofer thinks his role tells him that, say, Fantine and Eponine are scum).<snip>
Eponine? Aside from the second most prominent member of the Thenardier clan, she draws Marius into the barricade. She might very well be innocent, but I’d hardly label her so obviously not mafia. However, I thought at the time that MeMe might just be trying to draw out Eponine.
Since we have decided not to claim further today, and I can't be confident of surviving until tomorrow, and am currently suspicious of MeMe for other reasons, I have decided to present these observations.
