Hey Jessica!
It's good to talk to you again, and I have been quite looking forward to the type of question you would come up with. Of course, I am a little surprised by the choice, but perhaps I shouldn't be as you always did seem quite analynical.
Part I
Social 8 & Strategic 7-8
If you will forgive me, am including both here because the 2 really do go hand in hand, and undoubtedlythink I deserved more than a 6 on both of these scores.
There was a hell of a lot of effort put in to dedicating the time writing these messages - essays as some have described them. It was intentional generally, because for me, writing proper messages, especially in a game where people are logging on and off all the time, shows a measure of respect, that I am investing the time and effort in you as a person (not just you, but I mean this generally), and even those that I was lucky to get 2-3 lines from, I would still reply with 2-3 paragraphs. Even if they were not interested in me, I wanted to convey my interest in them, tjhat they were worthy of my time. I was never one to shut down communications with anyone, just in case. Some people obviously do this in games, and when they do it is a huge marker that they hiding something. By always appearing open and willing to talk, and as much as it was feasible to do lso, logging off with virtually everyone owing me a message, is just pure ettiquette, and common sense in a social context. So when come back there is something to go off of.
Also, by writing more, sometimes people would slip and include more than they may have otherwise intended to. Again, this highights how these 2 elements are very much intertwined. But just as every message I wrote was thought out, delibrate and that goes for th content of what I was giving out, but that does not mean I was ignorant of the strategic game going on elsewhere. Naturally I kept a lot of things I needed to myself, and shared what I wanted to share. So if I am being marked down by seemingly out of the loop strategically, I would dispute that.
For example, at F8 where Mother & I had already devised what we had wanted to have happen that round, long, long before having discussed it with you, you had hinted to having had a 5th willing to vote. Now, like I say, I knew what Mother was doing, and that she was who you were referring to, but I had to play dumb, in order to mask the extent of the relationship Mother & I had. So if you felt as though you were the bridge that was going to get us voting on the same page, then that was fine by me. Again, following the Alice vote, you had mentioned wanting to team up with Mother & I, and again I said, well, she was your fifth and maybe you have a stronger strategival bond with her than I do, so maybe make the approach... yada yada. Of course Mother not being around all that much meant that there were delays and was abe to work with those delays 'until I heard from Mother' etc. But again, it highlights my point, that I was intentioally decieving you about the closeness of the tie between Mother & I for those reasons.
First off, it would make you feel as you were the esentiual element, and that is always importnat. Make people feel special, that my game relied upon them, more than their game relied upon me, so it opens those opportunities. Indeed, there is a reason why so many people in thsi game went off to the Jury seriously pissed at me, because perhaps I had gotten closer to them and that they felt more betrayed when ultimately I did turn around and cut throats. Like was the case with Alice.
Secondly, if people put their finger on Mother and I as a duo, it would bring unwanted attention in our direction.
Ok, so that doesn't entirely account for the average jury management, but it does speak both to the social game I played tha oopened those opportunities, which in turm afforded me to be as ruthless as I was at times.
The results of the Survey just before the merge again highlight how social I was. Even if those self same set of results did make me change course in what I needed to have happen in the game thereafter, even on the surface, with you looking from the other tribe, and seeing those results, think that would have given you some heads up that there was at least one serious social contender on Sulaco.
Oh, and I do understand your point about a vastly superior social tribe often being ravaged pre-merge. I have been on the wrong side of these in the past, and in actual fact, always feel playing at my best in those types of situations, as there is a freedom there to just go hard. Just as Alice, TX & yourself did.
But I digress...
Back to this. Having such messages as I used does allow some details to remain obscured, to hide some things, feed other things. After having such a prominant target on my back coming into the merge and carried throughout I was always conscious of trying to hide a substantial portion of my strategic game, lest people again realized what sort of threat i could be to their game. but like I say, there was a purpose for every single message written and evety detail that I included, be it about my life what was going on in RL, or game.
The other eements of my strategic game naturally I did keep concealed to some degree from you, because always in the back of my mind is, yes, there is a an opportunity to go to the end with you, and if I was forced into that position I would like to think I could have done so. Would have had no shot of winning, and would really have been a a glorified also-ran, rather than a contender. I admit I was quite rusty coming into this game, and the slip with the vote at the merge was indicative of this.
It is only naturla after such a long time of not having played one of these that there would be some rust, and it is only the rust that brings it down to a 7-8-ish rather than a solid 8 or higher.
Was this the best strategic game I could have played from start to finish? No. I ahd flashes throughout and there were times when let others take the reigns, such as Babydoll at the merge. And even strategy sometimes is not always about the short game, getting through one vote, but the long game. No doubt however, from the F8 onwards, when it came time to take control, without ever appearing to on the surface, I think I definitely got into my groove, for certain. It was a point I had long earmarked as being key, and Yes, Mother being an ally helped, but its not as if I was doing things which was not in my best interests either, you know? I was not doing things to further someone else's game to th detriment of my own at that point.
One thing I would agree with you though is that the scores are deservedly very much on par with one another. I thnk both deserve higher than the 6 you awarded, but that they do deserve the same/similiar grade, because, to me, they are not mutually exclusive. These go hand in hand entirely and for me to be successful it is absoutely essential that they have to be intertwined.Because I have one major flaw to my game which means I will never be a true triple threat player.
Challenge: 2-3
Honestly, I am lucky to even give myself a 3, but can see why you woulf have such a low impression of my challenge game.
That said, I attempted every single challenge, bar one, even right through the pre-merge when others were content to sit out. I could easily have done the same, but always put my hand up to make sure it was done and no penalties incurred. And even when the sum contribution to those wins actually meant the team score woul d sometimes have been better without me, at least I was contribuing, if only to avoid our tribe being DQ'd, whihc, believe it or not, almost happened a couple of times. The shapes one from pre-merge for instance, I scored -17.
Of course, wasn't all complete failures, but hardly noticeable successes. And, along with TX did win that first challenge o f the game... for being social. Who knew, huh?
If I could do challenges better I would. I am just not equipped that way. But that does not mean I dont try. The final Immunity Challenge for instance, I spent nearly 7hrs working on that. There are 3 pages in my mission thread dedicated to attempts to solve that puzzle and the binary code. Obviously I was sending messages during this time, but I was still always working on it. I just could not get it. So that if nothing else, I deserve at least a 2 for effort, than it will ever be for ability.
We all say that Survivor, the challenge aspect is the least important, and only accounts for about 10% of the actual time spent playing the game. That ratio is till about right even in ORG's, IMO. At its heart. Survivor is a social game, first and foremost. It is those that fail at the social that then need to depend on challenges to survive. How many immunity wins has Sandra Diaz-Twine claimed? How many times has she won Survivor? Rest my case.
It is not about the battles all the time. It's about the war.
As for your second question
Xena
Social 7
Strategic 3
Challenges 5
Social this is the best that can be said for Xena, and know it takes all types and different things float different boats. But as much as I would try to stay on good terms with Xena there was always a lot of animosity coming through from her, and I don't think there is any chance I would be sitting here if she was not compelled to have me sitting here. And I do know this perception is not one I am alone in seeing either. As for the relative parity of her strategic one, apart from coming out on top of the Cherry vote, and her attempt to get a split happening at the merge (lol), there was very little left to what she did that was not entirely predictable. The complete clusterf*ck they made of the F8 shows this in all its glory, both in terms of the actual result, but the build also. She may call it open and ethical, which it wasn't always, lets be honest. Bottom line though is, if someone is entirely predictable, that is a perfect person to keep in the game, because you always anticipate what they are going to do.
Mother
Social 3-4 (personally, I would rate her higher with me, but looking across the board, think that is about fair)
Strategic 8
Challenge 5
I think your analysis of Mother is pretty spot on, give or take. Mother's social game was clearly were weak point with a lot of people. And a lot of people simply didn't give her the time of day from how they referred to her with me. And it was clear that she was ostracised from a lot of happenings, apart from what was deemed necessary by circumstance. Her getting closer to the other orig Sulaco after the renegade split, but still was not in many people's long term plans, aside from, out of necessity. But Mother was always in mine, so naturally I got to experience a different side of Mother. She is very funny, yet even still sometimes it only amounted to 1 msg a day, to comapre notes and touch base. But it was always worth it. But simpy by the fact she was not around as much did leave this as a clear deficiency. Strategically, think we did combine very well, discussed a lot of different scenarios throughout the course of the game, so I do have a pretty good read on her strategic game.
Question 3
Socially
9 - Alice & Jessica
8 - Mother, Alice & Jessica
8 - Babydoll
Think these are the benchmarks.
Think both yourself and Alice deserve the nod here, as you both played great social games. Firstly to survive Nostromo, and secondly, to be able to be as flexible as you were through the first half of the merge could only be done if your social game was good enough to allow the strategic one to do its thing also. If either of you had come across as complete poison, (and the same can be said of Cameron & T-X also), then I think there would have been far less of a chance of that working as well as you did in concert and playing both sides against each other, keeping yourselfs in tact. The reaosn I highlight this is becaise of the way that social and strategic are intertwined, and as you may have read, I spent a good amount of time outlining the case why. but individually was great to have you both to ta;l with also, even though I may noit be as colourful as some people, you always came across as engaging, intelligent and got more than the odd chuckle. It helps when there are shared interests crtainly, and although it was only discovered relatively late on, talking travel with Alice was a real treat, as it was something that noone else I asked about expressed that much of an interesrt in, and it is such a huge passion of mine.
Mother has already been discussed, and as the person whose strategic game I probabaly have the most insight into would definitely rate her high. Once again, your own strategic game was very impressive, as we all witnessed - switching vote at the merge, playing one side against the other at the Cherry vote, then flipping it the other way on Babydol/Kaylee, and back again, with me on Nox. These were all very impressive, but the problem being by being so impressive, it made it impossible to ever shake the target you had as it only got bigger ans bigger as the numbers got fewer, whihc meant it was always going to be virtually impossible for either Alice or yourself to get to the end. TX was still good, and not to diminish her at all, but the pair of Alice & yourself always struck me as being a cut above.
Your vote is yours to do with as you please, of course. And I respect you too much to say, vote for me, because I am the bomb and the others are complete crap. Because it is not true. We all have qualities that will appeal. For my own case, of playing the middle, it was necessary to work both with you, but at the same time to know if I had any chance you had to go also. That did not make it any easier, and you being so active and attentive did definitly keep me on my toes.
As for challenges, it is hard to always judge these, as the results were often hidden, but Babydoll certainly set the benchmark here, so far as Saluco were concerned, and deserves kudos for leading the charge, especially pre-merge, in Saluco gaining such an upperhand in the balance of things. Nox also is a shout here, as she claimed a few clues that were impossible for her to deny having so this means she definitely helped carry the tribe at that point, but it has to be my girl, Babydoll that deserves the top spot here.
Your tribe's skills gave you an advantage at the merge, and how much did you contribute to that? Challenge skills become a disadvantage over time of course, as lesser challenge competitors look to use it as an excuse to target the people who have carried them to the comfortable place they now stand on. Food for thought.
