Mafia is NOT a game where "The best bet is to just not play at all"!!! If town doesn't play, then the mafia controls every action in the game. The best bet is actually to play as often as possible.
Pushing for claims is literally how we get behaviour. Otherwise the game would just be everyone says they're town then we random lynch.
Way to completely misunderstand my point. I'm not saying we shouldn't ever push for claims. What I am saying is that pushes have to be based on actual behavioral reads and deductive reasoning (PoE). If you just push someone out the gate because they're not good at playing scum, that's no better than just picking someone at random to claim. I hope we can at least agree that that's a terrible strategy.
I said that the best bet is to not play at all in reference to real life casino games specifically. They WILL always win in the long run. I realized this myself when I was younger and would play simulated Blackjack (no real money involved). Even when I played the mathematically best way, my money would still slowly dwindle. Casinos get you addicted to losing money, which is why running one is the most immoral way you can legally make money in this country. This is one of my strongest opinions, fight me on it.
Anyway, the point is that it's a losing strategy, and that's why it's a bad meta. Acting like I'm saying that the town should just lollygag and do nothing is either an indication of poor reading comprehension or a deliberate misrepresentation of my argument.
