A View on Cops

History

Original Publication: February 17, 2011 by Mastin

Made by Mastin. Initial draft formed from Newbie 1048, specifically, post 314. Was then Generalized as a MD article.

Article

Cops need to use their investigations better. Far too many cops just investigate one of the more scummy players in the game. This is a waste of that power, because the player's likely to be lynched, anyway. If they were scum, you wasted your investigation just to confirm your suspicions. If they are town, you wasted your investigation on someone who is about to be lynched, and either 1: have to let them die, or 2: claim to save them.

"So what do you expect us to do, investigate our strongest town reads? :rolleyes:" Not quite, but close. It's not investigating null players, either, although that tends to work fairly well. Basically, all three strategies DO work, just in different ways, yet I feel generalizing any of the three to be the best option would be a bad idea.

No, what needs to happen is different from that. Because, there's one key fact you have to remember about when you investigate a player:

You're not just investigating a player to see their alignment. Your investigation determines their influence in the future of the game, what part they will play. If you hit scum, their part is "dead, auto-lynched". (Well, presumably, anyway.) When you get innocent, however, you've cemented them as being a town player, and the town has to live with that. Said town player will be forever pro-town, barring special circumstances (strong reason to suspect godfather, strong reason to believe in a not-sane cop, etc., which are generally appearing less and less often).

And that means they'll forever hold that special spot, and will have an influence over the town that will never disappear. If you, say, investigate a Village Idiot, find they're innocent, and they survive to lylo...would you want them to be the hammering vote? I don't know about you, but I'd much prefer that if I were fortunate enough to have a confirmed town player alive in lylo, they actually be competent.

An investigation is not just something to use in order to find alignment. It's a tool to determine who the town leaders will be. Who do towns listen to? I could be wrong, but in order, I believe it generally is "Roles, Confirmed Innocents, Pro-Town-Looking-Players". Ideally, anyway. If your Confirmed Innocent is not a strong player, they lose the potential to lead that a better player would be able to exploit.

You're not looking for innocent or guilty when you're a cop. You're looking at the future of the town. You don't want someone who is easily manipulated and/or has a difficult time getting reads to be confirmed town. They have a very high chance of blowing it, of mislynching when the time comes for them to step up and give their insight as confirmed town. (Or, worse, they don't step up at all and remain weak, effectively wasting their potential.)

Who you investigate should not be someone who you necessarily think is scum. It shouldn't be someone you necessarily think is town, either.

Who you should investigate is who you think should get the job done, when it comes to a worst-case scenario. Where you are dead and have no further investigations, where you got an innocent instead of the guilty most cops hope for. (In truth, getting an innocent can be just--if not potentially more helpful--than a guilty, but there are very few who acknowledge this.) Would you want your innocents to be VIs, or good players who make sense, get the town to follow them naturally, keep open minds, analyze the situation carefully, etc.?

This does indeed mean that players who look town by this logic would get investigated more often, but do keep in mind other factors. -How likely are they to die before you reveal your results? If it's too high, don't do it. -How much difference would investigating them make to their play? If it greatly improves, it's definitely worth it, if it doesn't (or even gets worse due to being confirmed and exploiting the natural benefits thereof negatively--stuff like lurking, putting no effort into the game, etc.), then you need to look elsewhere.

Basic summary is that you don't want to necessarily look at the most scummy, or most town, or most neutral, player. Best-case scenario, you catch scum with those. Worst-case scenario, though, and your choice becomes the person who will define the future of the game, who--as long as they live--will be in that position to direct the town, and you want them to direct the town in the correct way, for them to nail the scum, even if you yourself could not.

"Cops should investigate competent players who are not obviously Town or obviously scum."---Vi's summary of the above.

(All that said, getting a guilty certainly is good, of course--especially if it's on someone nobody was really that suspicious of; how many players here have lost a game they were dominating due to a last-second cop claim screwing them over? *raises hand* :P)