mchack: but isn't that actually good for town in most cases? the chances of lynching scum are slim compared to town and especially D1 you'll likely won't have a scum pile on anyway so the majority lynch default would actually be helping mafia and not town, wouldn't it? so I'd think if the slackers want at least a chance of lynching scum they better do something because just slacking will kill the highest wagon and that's definitely not a scum wagon (noone busses D1, do they?)
EDIT: ok I think that was too convoluted.
a) majority lynch default should make town more active because there IS going to be a lynch and it's way easier for scum to manipulate the highest wagon to be on a townie than for scum to manipulate a real lynch.
b) majority lynch vs. no lynch as default should make no difference for analyzing D1 wagon as scum wouldn't pile on/ bus on D1 anyway? (yes it's sounds stupid to me now, too sorry :( )
don't really know what I was trying to say but I think it was something along those lines
Not really. No lynch D1 is the worst thing for town, this last game is the best example why.
If town don't lynch D1 all scum need to do is hit one player who is either highly regarded as town or not been particularly active. There NK tells town nothing and they have no flip so no real wagon to analyse.
The last game would have been completely different if SPF or ZFR had been lynched, or cristi. It would have allowed a proper look at the wagons knowing the alignment of the player.
Every death is information, a flip. That is town's most valuable asset to solving the game, so they need to make sure they get as many as possible. There are situations where No Lynch can be beneficial (for example the Mason game the D1 no lynch wasn't all that bad for town, particularly as the two scum teams ended up hitting each other, but that was a very unusual set up) but they are quite rare, and almost always later in the game.
I kind of agree that a majority lynch is better, because it is easier for scum to manipulate. Which means it's also easier for town to catch them doing so. So good players on either side have a chance to really influence the game.
But I don't think it particularly incentivizes people to act before the deadline. You know a lynch will happen, the worst outcome is avoided so people may be more likely to dither and have the game drag to deadline.