Which is more powerful/useful?: Cop or Doctor

[Blackberry]

What do you think? I'm a newbie here, so I don't know if someone has asked this before. But what are your opinions on which one is stronger/(more of an advantage to the town)?

~ Blackberry

[Someone]

Good question. I have a feeling that it's the cop...but I'll withhold my vote for now so I don't look like a fool.

[warpdragon]

It depends on the size of the town and the number of scum and the number of kills.

[Axelrod]

Well I'd vote Cop. Seems like a slam-dunk to me. Best thing a Doc can do is randomly stop a mafia kill--or

protect

the Cop once they know who it is. And the reason they want to protect the Cop is because the Cop will win the game for the town if given enough time.

[BabyJesus]

Vig should be an option....

[Stewie]

well, it's his poll and he gives you the options. he wants to know from only cop and doc.

I have to say that they are both equally important. While the cop can win the game, the doc has to be alive to give the doc enough time to do some work. Without the doc, there's little the cop can do.

[Aelyn]

I voted cop, mostly because I tend to play minis and so considered the question "Which would I rather be without?" to which the answer seemed like an obvious "the doc" since cop investigations are often vital midgame in minis.

[Dasquian]

I have to fairly quickly plump for "cop" too. In most games, a doc doesn't actually prevent many kills and gets killed the night after they're outed (though, of course, their mere existence affects the dynamics enough to protect the most important roles).

The cop more often than not actually does catch mafia, or prevents bad lynches from taking place. Even without a doctor they can usually come out on Day 3 or even 2 with significant information.

[Thesp]

Cops. Period. They can confirm people making it much more difficult for the mafia to win.

[Dragon Phoenix]

With cops there is always the issue of sanity of course, otherwise my answer would be cop as well. Taking sanity variations into account,. I'm not sure. Both are far more valuable than a vig though. IMHO of course.

[Yggdrasil]

I would probably say cop as well. Since most games don't have open set ups, the possibility of a doc can function almost just as well as a real doc, since it may deter the mafia from making their optimal kill anyway.

[Coron]

There is only one answer in my opinion, cop.

[Yosarian2]

Yeah, I recently played a newbie game with a doc but no cop, and let me say that without a cop, or some other GG power role, doc is not very useful, at least in a game that size. In order to buy the town another day, to give them another chance to lynch scum, a doc has to save two people in a newbie or any game that starts with an odd number of townies, and it's very rare for that to happen. A cop without a doc can usually at least catch one scum or confirm a few townies.

[Telamon]

Cop is strictly better than a doctor if those are the only two roles in the game. It doesn't matter how large the game is or how many scum are left. I've done some simulations that back this up, but it's complicated so just take my word for it.

[Mr Stoofer]

I've never been in a game when I've thought: "I wish the doc was still alive/we had a doc in the first place."

I have often thought "I wish we had a cop/the cop was still alive".

[mlaker]

Cops are definetely better. The doctor have the time ends up just protecting the cop anyway.

[Jentsu]

The cop, by far. While the doc is strong, the doc's biggest job is to protect the cop.

[mathcam]

Ditto DP. The value of the cop that most people are emphasizing mostly apply only if the cop is sane, and better yet if the cop knows himself to be same, and better yet if the town knows that any cop in the game is sane. Without knowledge of sanity, a cop can often be as much a liability as a boon. On the other hand, a doc is extremely rarely (though, admittedly, possibly) a detriment to the town. They have their downsides as well, though...they're much more likely to be lynched upon claiming than a cop is, for the simple reason that it's harder for them to verify themselves. While this reasoning applies to the generic townie role, there's something about a doc claim that brings out skepticism.

Short answer: Probably cop in the long run, but it's nowhere near as definite as people seem to think.

Cam

[saulres]

Duh. Cop of course.

Those of you who actually voted doctor -- could you explain why?

[Kagami]

The answer is cop pretty much always, unless your mod considers godfather a reasonable role.

Doc protection itself is generally weak. The threat of doc protection can have a significant impact on who gets killed, though, which has some value.

[Tierce]

Duh. Cop of course.

Those of you who actually voted doctor -- could you explain why?

You realize you are asking this question of people who posted in a

2005

thread, right? And that

nine years ago

, Cop sanities were used much more often and resulted in an overall higher value of Doctor over Cop due to Cops being unreliable?

Because nowadays the answer is (still) obvious, but trying to get explanations out of users who posted in this thread nine years ago might not be the most sensible thing.

[zoraster]

what a weird necro.

[xRECKONERx]

the fuck

[Aronis]

Duh. Cop of course.

Those of you who actually voted doctor -- could you explain why?

Yeah, voting Doc makes no sense at all. Def deserves an explanation.

[saulres]

You realize you are asking this question of people who posted in a 2005 thread, right?

Why yes, yes I did

And that nine years ago, Cop sanities were used much more often and resulted in an overall higher value of Doctor over Cop due to Cops being unreliable?

Now

that

is interesting. I did not know that. Is there a history of the usage of Cops on this site?

That's a history of "the usage of Cops on this site", not "a history of the usage of Cops" on this site.