The townies could have won. Because of the ability of TheNorthSea, the game wouldn't have ended in a Mafia Victory if it had been him and stevey because TheNorthSea could get a majority vote against stevey via his power thereby voting out the last Mafia member and preventing stevey from making a hit. He chose not to.
I just want to put this out there that I did figure this out early this morning. I hope people aren't too upset about it, but I chose not to give myself the win because I felt that Hypotheliciously deserved the win over me just crowning myself the winner. I know that it might seem out of nowhere, especially because I came back to win and redeem the earlier games that I was in. Once the oohhboy vote switch happened, and I knew that Insano probably wouldn't make it to the end with me, I decided to give Hypo the respect win. If Insano couldn't be part of the surviving winners, I didn't think I earned the title. If it wasn't for Insano's investigations, I never would've targeted Lucario in time to earn the win anyway.
From the beginning, I tried to play my role using stealth. I placed a vote on me first round to help put me in the clear from any suspicion that I was Babe. Since Stevey hadn't shown up, I tended to take his vote when at all possible as not to earn the ire from other players.
That changed when Spak was voted out. I thought for certain Insano was mafia. All the signs pointed to it in my mind, and I even had my vote ready to go towards him and take him out that round. Hypo and I had been part of an alliance since after the first round, and when he switched his vote for Spak (who I also suspected), I reversed gears and voted Spak last minute. I figured I outed myself as Babe with that role, but I thought Lucario was a townie (oh how wrong I was), and didn't want a vote slip by that I didn't have control over. That was probably my biggest mistake, yet neither Hypo or I knew it at the time, but it ended up being the right move.
After Mop_it_up was killed between rounds, we were chatting about the game in the nintemple chat. We weren't talking strategy or anything, but we were lamenting that the game seemed a bit subdued with little action going on (round 3 had been a bit dull, with no one throwing accusations out against anyone). So I took it upon myself to add some excitement to the game and lay out everything I had on Insano to take out my perceived mafia threat.
About an hour later, Insano PM's me and basically said "Hey dummy, I'm the detective. You're babe the pig. Take out the real threat, Hypo, as he's the killer." I believed him instantly, because I always kept it in the back of my mind that a detective would use his strategies. Well, that threw a wrench in all my plans. My huge post incriminated our detective, and people were starting to vote for him. Then, to complicate matters, I had told Hypo that I was babe in the previous round, because he and I were actively trying to figure out who was in the mafia and I thought I could trust him.
Now I had to 1) save Insano from the damage I had done. 2) Not tip off Hypo that I knew he was the killer and meet my demise. 3) Figure out who the heck were the mafia members, after all, it couldn't be Stevey, right???
So I removed my vote without telling Hypo why, and start plotting how I could save Insano. Little did I know that the wheels were in motion to get this started, as Hypo outed himself as the killer and made himself a mercenary.
I was planning on going with Insano in trying to get rid of Hypo, but given how few players were left, we knew we had to be right about every target we made once Hypo was out. Instead of following through with our plans, we formed a new alliance with Hypo, revealed Insano's role, and decided to work together to take out the remaining mafia members.
While I had little to suspect with lolmonade, if I had to pick between saving a townie or the detective, I needed to save Insano. With lolmonade and nickmitch gone, our alliance figured out who was the doctor, and who remained in the mafia.
Sadly, it all kind of fell apart after that. It's a shame. I think Insano played an incredible game, and definitely deserved to win over me. Despite my thorough investigations and strategies, I kept picking the wrong people out as mafia. I have to hand it to Lucario, he played a great, low key game, especially after losing all of his teammates in the first round. He could've won, but it just didn't work out for him in the end.
As for Stevey, I understand why Khush placed him in the game. Honestly, having an inactive player the entire game threw a fun wrinkle into the game. This was the other reason I chose not to vote Hypo out in the last round. What if I had, and Stevey decided to sign on and claim the victory by killing me between rounds. It was a long shot, but given my luck, it would've happened.
So I understand if some of the players are annoyed I didn't go for the winning vote. But I thought Hypo played a very entertaining game and always found ways to turn disadvantages around in his favor. As for feedback, I appreciated the longer days for the times I couldn't get on my computer. I think they make sense when you have a ton of players, but maybe once you reach around round 5 it's okay to make them 24 hour rounds. And I kind of missed seeing the dead thread. I'd always read it when I was playing the old mafia games, even if I was still in the game.