.5

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by nyuguy

Very well deserved win Bambi! I've tried (with Daniel) to get you to win a game before, and failed

As far as the drama free part of this game, I'm not so sure Brendan. It was a bit unfair and catty that 6 people were able to shut out everyone from even playing. Because you figured out in early weeks (because of being in an alliance with people who had power and having access to their lists) how the game was scored, the rest of us had no chance. Why even bother playing. Each week was perfectly designed by you six, and there was no way to break that mold. I knew that very early on and I kept playing in respect to Jahim, but I and others, felt completely hopeless and cheated of playing. I was REALLY looking forward to figuring out the mystery with everyone, but wasn't even given the chance. After week 2, we should've just went to a final 6. That's just my opinion.

Well first off, I never said this game was drama free. I said that the six of us that worked behind the scenes were able to do so in harmony - and that dynamic was in opposition to the dynamics of the show that inspired this game. I know that there was drama in this game and there always is when some people are doing well and others are not.

If not my fault that we were able to figure things out and you weren't. You had the exact same chance to figure out the mystery, so how did we rob you of that? And I'm certainly not going to apologize for forming an alliance because everyone in the game had the opportunity to form one as well. Alliances are not something that us six invented for this game, they happen in every game and they start early and they always exclude people. We happened to form an alliance and we all trusted each other even when how the game was worked was still a mystery.

Lots of what happened early on was just luck on our part. We all did put Catt first in round one just based on a hunch, but when we did that for Stepan in the second round, Kungfu ended up as Superior instead, so that means that people outside of our alliance gave him that power. We were still just guessing about things until the fourth week came around and there was enough history to compare notes, we figured out the Superior and Ascendents role and we were able to finally take control.

But had three people not been ejected from the game for inactivity, there would have still been more people outside the alliance that could have formed a group against us. So it's not really fair to just blame us for playing a good game. Nobody cheated you of playing this game, we just played a better game this time. But everyone in the alliance with me has lost games in the past because of a large alliance that they were not part of and while it sucks, it's just part of the way games are played. In fact, you should know that firsthand...

I seem to remember that in another game of mystery called Sidekicks, there was a large group of people that formed an alliance because of who people were RANDOMLY assigned. I think that was more of an unfair alliance that cheated people of their chance to play because the people that were assigned "popular" sidekicks had nothing to do with that decision and when they were targeted and booted by the "unpopular" alliance, it was because of something they could not have changed. Once that unpopular alliance was formed, the populars did not stand a chance at winning but I never heard you complain about that. Of course, that's because you were part of the unpopular alliance and you were playing a good game. In fact, you won that game. And you did so by forming a large alliance with people that shared information and coordinated their efforts to get people not in that alliance out of the game.

In the end, you played a good game then and a not so good one this time around, but to bash those of us that did play a good game this time just for doing something that you yourself have done in past games is kinda unfair.

[nyuguy]

There is a huge difference here. Sidekicks, nobody knew who anybody was, and the "unpopulars" were not always in control. Also, there were so many "unpopulars" that it was complete luck for me to make it that far in that game. I didn't really strategize that much there. I just logically made lists and hoped.

The difference here is that once the alliance was formed, there was no way for anyone else to figure out the secret. I agree, the beginning was a bit luck for you guys, but the only way to know the secret was to see and analyze the Superior's list. Something nobody but you 6 had the chance to do. So once that happened, the game became boring and pointless (Jahim saw that by ending it early )

I'm not begrudging the alliance for forming. But I do feel cheated from doing what the point of the game was - to figure out the scoring. I never had the chance to do that. That's all I'm saying.

[Daniel]

Congrats Bambi, well done!

I see nothing wrong with that alliance, but honestly I did feel the same as nyu while playing the game. It was nearly impossible for anyone else to really do anything and in addition I didn't like how some were treated behind the scenes. People were lied to and there were quite a few fake alliances. It was just frustrating, especially when a six person alliance is in full control that sort of stuff feels unnecessary, but it's all part of the game and I understand that. Just how I felt while playing though. You six were the smartest, figured it out, and deserved the win

Thanks for the game Jahim!

[Acfan]

Congrats Bambi, and thanks for another interesting and mysterious game Jahim.

My random partner was Peter and we aligned. I was shocked when Bambi or Stepan took him out sometime after I was out, because I thought we had also aligned with them. Only after that part did I realized people might not have been honest with us from the start I wish I was delegated to fake side-alliance at least at the start, and not discarded so fast . Good game by everyone though!

[kungfuhippie]

Congratulations Bambi and thanks for an interesting game Jahim.

Forming an alliance is a really common thing to do - I was approached by Catt, I think and it ended up that I was in a bigger alliance than I thought I was in at first, but it was, as Brendan stated, a loyal and highly functional one. The thing is, nobody really knew exactly what the game was about in the beginning - that was the point of the game, the mystery. When we formed the alliance we didn't know that we would be able to control the direction of the game as well as we did. That was where luck came in - just being in a united, loyal group gave us a big advantage, as it turned out.
Being on the outs when a dominant alliance is controlling things sucks; we've all been there. I won't cop to being any more mean or catty than any other dominant alliance in any other game though. We didn't know what power the alliance would give us nor did we know that other opposing alliances wouldn't be formed.
The mechanics of the game were original and mostly, I guess, untested. Nobody, including Jahim it seems, could have predicted the outcome. Our alliance was not started with any malice or desire to take the fun out of the game, we just did what is commonly done in any game - get some people together to try to work towards a mutual benefit.

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by Daniel

Congrats Bambi, well done!

I see nothing wrong with that alliance, but honestly I did feel the same as nyu while playing the game. It was nearly impossible for anyone else to really do anything and in addition I didn't like how some were treated behind the scenes. People were lied to and there were quite a few fake alliances. It was just frustrating, especially when a six person alliance is in full control that sort of stuff feels unnecessary, but it's all part of the game and I understand that. Just how I felt while playing though. You six were the smartest, figured it out, and deserved the win

Thanks for the game Jahim!

It's common when you are in an alliance to tell people outside of it that you don't have one. If we had all been honest about the alliance during the game, then it would have been used against us. So some of us did make side deals and lie about things for the sake of keeping the alliance safe and undetected. Again, that's not uncommon in games so I don't think any of us should have to apologize for that. Sorry that so many of you had such a bad experience, we were only trying to play the game and nothing was done out of spite.

[Catt]

Congratulations Bambi!! I am really glad you won.

We had a great alliance and I am glad to have been a part of it.

Thanks for the game Jahim!!!

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by Brendan

It's common when you are in an alliance to tell people outside of it that you don't have one. If we had all been honest about the alliance during the game, then it would have been used against us. So some of us did make side deals and lie about things for the sake of keeping the alliance safe and undetected. Again, that's not uncommon in games so I don't think any of us should have to apologize for that. Sorry that so many of you had such a bad experience, we were only trying to play the game and nothing was done out of spite.

Well, I am not asking anyone to apologize, you played the game, you played it well. I just stated how some of this made me feel when playing the game. I get that some of the lying to people outside the alliance is necessary, however, in this particular case some of it felt unnecessary to me. Of course you tell people you don't have one => necessary. When people approach you while you're in an alliance, you lie about having one. Doesn't bother me. Forming all that fake stuff when you already have such a big alliance and a lot of power in the game => felt unnecessary to me. It was just a little frustrating, even when it was obvious that the alliance proposal was full of lies XD

[Bambi]

Thank you for the everybody who helped me win this, even though I still don't know how I did. Even though the alliance might have understood how this game worked, I still don't.

I am very grateful to have been in the alliance I was in.

Also, I am sorry to any body I actually eliminated, I honestly tried not to have to be in that position.

And Jahim, it was a fun game, even though I didn't know what I was really doing. Always look forward to your games!!

[Acfan]

I really don't know how things went down after my one round , but as an outsider, yeah, it feels pretty straight and fair. I think it was smart to have created a huge alliance in a game where power is in controlling a list. Dunno about the fake alliance stuff except my own, but I think the divide and conquer strategy was a good one for a game that you don't necessarily can predict at the start. Again, awesome job by the alliance, and I would love to hear some of the other behind the scenes things. No hard feelings from me just in case anyone thought that from my other post. Was just voicing some after game thoughts and how much I wish I was allowed to play a bit longer.