Why does everyone random vote at the start of a game?

[SpamWise]

Well?

[petroleumjelly]

Because it's difficult to vote D1 for non-random reasons without giving away your role? *shrug*

[Turbovolver]

Check out my games 8)

I don't like random voting.

[Tamuz]

I just plain don't like mayonaise. Thats why I random vote.

Oh, and to save stoofer the effort

vote:Spamwise

[Mr Stoofer]

[VisMaior]

Its tradition. You are free to design game mechanics that can deal woth the problem of day1. I did so in Summit, and it worked. NOT.

[Cogito Ergo Sum]

Indeed. Day 1 tends to be a problem, because there is usually hardly any info. Random voting is a means to try and get the game started for real. It is an attempt to make things happen, to give people something to talk about. It doesn't always work, but it can work.

If one person says they're not going to put a random vote, that can actually be helpful, as it can lead to discussion. If nobody random voted however, the game could stall quite quickly.

[Flying Dutchman]

The original purpose of Random Votes was to get the day started: If everybody votes truly random, someone is likely to end up with 2 or 3 votes. That person will have to post a (Mostly CrapLogic) defence why he/she isn't scum, and people will respond to that. In other words, there is some behaviour to analyze, and something to keep the discussion going.

However, Random votes are almost never truly random. A cop will often 'random' vote his target if he found it to be guilty, and scum/mason groups will usually not vote each other randomly. (Or they will, to attempt to hide the connection!). Anyway, a good player can tell a lot from people's 'random' votes.

(The problem is that most players are hesistant to put a second or third vote up when random voting, so they 'randomly' happen to vote for someone who has no votes yet. A lot of games have this problem: Everybody will end up with exactly 1 vote, and the whole purpose of random voting is eliminated!)

[PookyTheMagicalBear]

Because MeMe and her Elephants stole all the peanuts at the Candy Store.

[Turbovolver]

However, Random votes are almost never truly random. A cop will often 'random' vote his target if he found it to be guilty, and scum/mason groups will usually not vote each other randomly. (Or they will, to attempt to hide the connection!). Anyway, a good player can tell a lot from people's 'random' votes.

But how can you tell whether the scum/masons were the type to random vote their partner or avoid random voting their partner?

I think it's pretty impossible to learn something from random votes, except perhaps in the cop case.

Vote: Flying Dutchman

for that little spiel.

FOS: Turbovolver

for killing the joke.

[rajrhcpfreak]

i dont random vote.

i vote for people who vote for me (OMGUS)

or i make up crap logic untill a person looks like scum.

then i nail 2 out of the 3 of you and then i am lynched for being so good.

[Glork]

I don't random vote. I arbitrarily vote.



EDIT: I'm such a nerd.

[Fritzler]

However, Random votes are almost never truly random. A cop will often 'random' vote his target if he found it to be guilty, and scum/mason groups will usually not vote each other randomly. (Or they will, to attempt to hide the connection!). Anyway, a good player can tell a lot from people's 'random' votes.

This is the biggest issue. If one or two people randomly vote a cops guilty, a cop can also vote them, allowing a bandwagon, discussion, and lynching of scum.

[LoudmouthLee]

Or, some people out themselves in the first post of the game. Unintentionally, albiet, I perfer to NOT random vote ever.

[Mr. Flay]

Ahhh, the eternal topic... check out this thread from September 2005 and this kinda-related one from August and this thread too from May, all just last year!

::edit::

And this one from all the way back in late 2003, saying it's an eternal question and can never be satisfactorily solved!

[rajrhcpfreak]

thats why you need people like me to bump the old topics so we wont have so many multiple topics going on.

[BabyJesus]

This is why everyone shoudl keep lists. It makes who to vote for Day one so much easier.

[Orbiting]

I do it for a number of reasons. If I'm town, I do it because I don't have any information, and one vote's as good as another. If I'm scum, I do it so that people will think that I don't have any information, and so on.

Although, I rarely vote completely at random. I prefer to vote for people for arbitrary and meaningless reasons like that they were scum in the last game, or that they were the last to confirm, or that they have too much leetspeak in their username.

[Fiasco]

Or, some people out themselves in the first post of the game.

On the other hand, sometimes scum victimize innocents based on their first post. So the argument goes both ways, really.

[Yosarian2]

An inital random vote, or an initial choice to not random vote (I random vote about half the time) can give information, and so can when a person chooses to remove their initial random vote.

Lately, I've sometimes been semi-random voting in my second or third post of the game, instead of my first post, because I seem to get more interesting reactions that way.

[PolarBoy]

Back when someone tried to abolish random voting, I went and made an awesome wiki article about it. Unfortunately the wiki was moved shortly after, and the last back-up was before I made that article, so I haven't reconstructed it yet.

I still stand by my view that the wiki is a better way to preserve information about consensus or lasting controversy than bumping old discussion threads. I just don't have the time to go write all the articles I'd like to write.

[LoudmouthLee]

Or, some people out themselves in the first post of the game.

On the other hand, sometimes scum victimize innocents based on their first post. So the argument goes both ways, really.

Or, you should really keep ongoing game discussion to the thread. Please alert the mod. I was talking about a Newbie game in which Fritzler was modding. Newbie #193. Fritzler will corrobarate this.

[Fritzler]

Or, some people out themselves in the first post of the game.

On the other hand, sometimes scum victimize innocents based on their first post. So the argument goes both ways, really.

Or, you should really keep ongoing game discussion to the thread. Please alert the mod. I was talking about a Newbie game in which Fritzler was modding. Newbie #193. Fritzler will corrobarate this.

Damn straight, to quote pie, "LML = mafia god"

Seriously, on his first post, he caught turbovolver, who made a scummy comment in post one (his "random" vote), and made enough noise to catch the other scum. One of the more damn impressive things I've ever seen. So if random votes let people like lml catch scum, then I'm all for them.

[Fiasco]

Oh! Please pretend that never happened, then. Sorry. I'm sure you can see why I took it to be a reference to you-know-what.

[LoudmouthLee]

(nods) Don't want you getting in trouble.