Yeah, I think I’m ready to post this, so here goes. Sorry for the length.
So, the way ModeShifter enters the thread is intriguing, because it looks like he is trying way too hard to look comfortable. He attempts to engage with people, asks them how they are doing, standard “nice guy” stuff. Which doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it comes across as rather strange and forced. His response to Alice is especially telling in my eyes; he seems annoyed that nobody responded to his interaction attempts, which comes across as “why is this not working.” At the same time, the emoji he added at the end (which I was unable to quote) seems to suggest that he doesn’t actually care… but since it’s at the very end, it also looks fake. I… don’t think a villager in this position would really care. All of this looks like a forced way to interact with people early and get into a comfortable position, then a little bit of frustration that it isn’t going his way.
This declaration is intriguing, considering how little direction ModeShifter’s play has. Throughout the game, he has mostly been sheeping other players, but I will get to that.
This is the first post in his ISO which really pinged me when I initially read it. The scumclaim aside, this feels like an oddly weak way to handle Apprentice. The question he asks Apprentice is an obvious joke, but it comes across like he wants to back off immediately. “Oh, are you scum? Well, I’m scum. Haha… yeah, I’m joking.” That kinda thing. He doesn’t want Apprentice to get the wrong idea, as if afraid of antagonizing people. Aside from this fact alone being weird, the post looks so forced. It’s like ModeShifter is forcing himself to appear as a laid-back presence, as a villager who just wants to be nice and talk to people, but this meticulous and careful approach sticks out like a sore thumb.
[quote=“Surge, post:119, topic:81726, full:true”]
This post doesn’t really mean much, but ModeShifter’s first attempt to engage in something beyond asking people how they are doing and meming is… an attempt to rolefish, kind of. He’s not accusing Derps of rolefishing, which is what Derps’ post could easily be perceived as. Instead, ModeShifter asks a question which sounds surprisingly friendly. It’s like he doesn’t really mind the idea of people claiming their speed, and wants to figure out if Derps’ role relies on ITAs. This is really weird. A really strange focus to have as a villager.
Scumclaiming for the second time. At some point, it stops being funny and it stops sounding like a joke. ModeShifter is close to crossing that line here.
My initial accusation. He seems a little surprised and unnerved that I’m seriously suspecting him, and giving reasons for my suspicion. Notice his tone shift. Instead of being friendly with me, he seems hesitant to do so. And afterward, he continues to utilize his shifted tone.
I don’t think anyone liked this post, and there are good reasons why nobody would like it. First, it does not actually say anything about Marshal’s alignment. No stance is being taken. Second, it’s his first attempt to engage in reads, and this is what he came up with? It’s next to useless. Third, his tone is slightly different here. He doesn’t come across as trying hard to be nice, he’s coming across as someone who attempts to provide useful insights. Except a villager in his position most likely wouldn’t bother to try too hard. A villager would probably just target someone they actually have something meaningful to say about instead of writing a random, intelligent-sounding post like this which actually means nothing.
If that’s what you’re doing, and you’re a villager, then I’m sorry. I’m just seeing many, many signs of you being a wolf so far, and I’ve barely gotten through nineteen posts you’ve made so far.
[quote=“Surge, post:229, topic:81726”]
After my initial suspicion (and suspicion from other players), ModeShifter attempts to engage in discussion with other players. However, he’s extremely cautious while doing this, which is yet another change in his behavior. Instead of trying hard to be nice, he’s trying hard to be agreeable, and he also comes across as defensive. ModeShifter is overexplaining himself about the things he writes at this point. Whenever he writes a post that could be perceived as going against the norm / consensus, he almost apologizes for it immediately, which is really odd. (The post about “who’s core PoE?” and everything that follows.)
So far, I see plenty of proof that ModeShifter’s play is greatly dependent on what the people around him read him as. When nobody has a read on him, he tries to be friendly to everyone. When suspicion begins to arise, he takes a much more careful approach after a brief period of frustration. And at this point of the ISO, he’s trying really hard to be agreeable and to back out of everything he says if others disagree. This is a really strange progression to have if he’s a villager. He cares too much about others’ perception of him too early. He seems overly concerned about his position, and being self-conscious is a commonly known scumtell.
Needless to say, at this point, he seems extremely likely to be a wolf.
ModeShifter’s handling of Chloe is also strange, which is why I asked him this question to begin with. He softdefends her by saying that he doesn’t see anything about her posts that could be perceived as uncomfortable. Which is fine, I suppose, because people have different opinions (it’s still strange considering what Chloe said about appearing scummy on purpose – how and why would ModeShifter “miss it?”), but when I ask him about what his read is, he says that he thinks she’s a null read. It’s like he’s afraid of actually calling her town. He is ready to softly defend her by expressing a lack of understanding of Marshal’s suspicion, but when it comes to actively defending her by calling her town, he just labels her as a null read.
So the question is, why is he soft defending a null read? Shouldn’t he be trying to get more information about Chloe? If somebody suspects your null read, maybe there’s some truth to it. Instead, ModeShifter softdefends her by default despite not really having a read on her himself at that point. I think it displays a wolfy point of view when handling a slot you have TMI about. You want to defend the slot, because you think it’ll make you (or them) look better (most of the time), but when it comes to reasons for it, you can get caught because you don’t actually have any. Which might be why he just said she was null. It doesn’t really suit the mindset he should’ve had. Softdefending someone generally means you think they might be town. But he just said “null.” Which is not only a copout – it also doesn’t fit at all.
Back to his “overly friendly” attitude. He is inviting people to vote him without actually trying to improve. Again, he’s so agreeable here, and he’s almost agreeing with people who suspect him, which is tantamount to knowing he’s either scummy or just scum. And that is a good example of self-awareness, which typically comes from scum. In this specific case, I consider it suspicious mostly because he already did something similar before. He scumclaimed twice. Now he is responding to people’s suspicions about him by inviting them to vote him. He’s either a villager who passively accepts being scummy, or he’s a wolf who feels like agreeing with everyone will make them go away, instead of just confronting them head-on.
Considering his earlier tone and behavior shift in response to people’s perception of him, I’m inclined to believe it’s the latter, and that it is a conscious strategy.
I called this read fake before, and I am still calling it fake now. All Derps did was quote a post I wrote about him offsite, and for some unbelievable reason, ModeShifter calls Derps town because of it. Why would a wolf not do this? Why would a villager do this? He doesn’t actually have an explanation. When he feels some pressure to explain it, he uses another person’s explanation instead of writing one himself!
And he also sounds like he wants to appear like someone who doesn’t care… which is inconsistent with his earlier tone and behavior. He clearly cares about others’ perception of him.
And here he proves my point. He does care. He explains his… explanation and defends himself near-immediately. This point of view is consistent with “defensive and self-conscious ModeShifter” which I described earlier. It’s not consistent with “oh I’ll use another’s explanation, I don’t have any idea why I have this read and I also don’t care.” Which means that his comment, which I bolded earlier, was almost definitely fake.
From that point forward, ModeShifter’s game has no direction. He is just piggybacking off of other people and doing whatever the thread desires, mostly. When he does do something the others aren’t doing, it doesn’t sound like he actually wants this, if that makes sense. There’s a lack of conviction, like in the post addressed to Gorta, and the vote on Vader (which he explains immediately after casting it – again, showing strong signs of self-consciousness).
This time, piggybacking off of me. It would theoretically be fine to just sheep, but he adds an explanation here too. Continued self-consciousness and focus on other people’s perception, but no direction with his pushes. He’s not trying to solve the game, he’s just concentrated on his position within the thread.
ModeShifter wants to come across like a nice guy who’s being helpful. However, that also means he has no direction of his own. He feels the need to overexplain every single one of his actions, and when he does do something that looks proactive (like the vote on Vader), it’s either quite safe (voting a 0-poster is completely NAI and will not create enemies for you) or it comes across as a joke more than anything serious (the gorta thing). And in both cases, he also doesn’t actually sound like he believes what he’s saying.
This is strangely inconsistent, because of how frequently he’s been providing explanations and excuses, even if nobody asked for them. It looks like posturing.
I could keep going, since I’m only about 40 posts in, but I just see more of the same later on, and this case is long enough as it is. Hopefully, this is sufficient to bury this guy and move on to the night phase? I’m fine with a couple of other votes, but I wrote a whole case on this guy and I saw very little that would make me think he’s town. Which means that from my point of view, he’s the safest possible vote and a player who’s super likely to flip red.
