Thursday, December 17, 2009

Proposal: Fixing the universe

Passed 11-4-2.—alethiophile

Adminned at 19 Dec 2009 09:31:58 UTC

If the rule ‘Universe’ exists, then append the following paragraph to it:

The state of the Universe is tracked on a Wiki page called ‘Universe’. If something about the Universe is not stated on the Universe Wiki page, then the relevant data from the Reference Source is considered binding. No change to the state of the Universe that is not reflected on the Universe Wiki page is considered valid. If any Adventurer or the Djinni changes the state of the Universe via any action, then they must edit the Wiki page to reflect the change within 24 hours.

Just to make tracking it explicit.

Comments

NoOneImportant:

17-12-2009 17:16:21 UTC

against

I think that double-negative borked the intent of the rule.

NoOneImportant:

17-12-2009 17:18:13 UTC

Actually, I’m wrong, it is worded correctly. I’m still voting Against, though, as it doesn’t specify which Wiki… and that smells like a scam for someone to only record ‘favorable’ pages on their own Wiki.

Apathetic Lizardman:

17-12-2009 17:24:12 UTC

imperial

Klisz:

17-12-2009 17:36:40 UTC

for  NoOneImportant: It implies the BlogNomic Wiki. The word “Wiki” has always implied the BlogNomic Wiki within BlogNomic.

NoOneImportant:

17-12-2009 17:41:19 UTC

Huh, well, I just proposed adding Wiki to the Glossary.. so, we’ll see.

Josh: Observer he/they

17-12-2009 17:57:54 UTC

for

spikebrennan:

17-12-2009 18:50:46 UTC

against
Needs work.  I would think that the only way to change the Universe would be for the Djinni to grant a Wish—assuming this is the case, then only the Djinni ought to be authorized to edit the content of the Universe page.

“No change to the state of the Universe that is not reflected on the Universe Wiki page is considered valid” could be problematic.  What about ongoing changes to something that are described in the Reference Source?

NoOneImportant:

17-12-2009 19:04:25 UTC

Spike has a point. Let’s say that Wikipedia says that the Hawaiian islands will sink by the year 10,000 AD. What happens if Bucky wishes for the game Universe to be in 11,000 AD instead of 2009?

alethiophile:

17-12-2009 19:31:31 UTC

I think as is the Universe proposal requires that in the absence of explicit changes, the Universe reflects the current state of the RL universe, as described in the Reference Source. If someone wished for the date to be 11,000 AD, then nothing would happen, except a notation that the date is 11,000 AD. If someone wished for all the changes that the Reference Source says would happen between now and 11,000 AD to happen, then the Universe page would simply state that (and hence the Islands would be sunk, in-game). The Core Rules state that the Gamestate can only be changed as per the Ruleset; thus, since as-is the Ruleset only provides for the Universe to be changed via Wishes, and the Universe is Gamestate, no one else can change it. I think that the two clauses ‘the Gamestate may not be altered except as per the Ruleset’ and ‘the Universe [part of Gamestate] is tracked in the Universe Wiki page’ together imply that you can only change the page as per the Ruleset.

Ornithopter:

17-12-2009 23:49:07 UTC

Agreed with alethiophile, which makes time travel weird, since the current President of the US in 11,000 AD is likely to be undefined, and the current President of Cuba is likely to still be Raul Castro.

NoOneImportant:

17-12-2009 23:56:28 UTC

I wonder what happens if someone wishes the game far enough into the future that all matter in the Universe has decayed.

Scaramouche:

18-12-2009 00:02:42 UTC

for

Ornithopter:

18-12-2009 00:58:01 UTC

spikebrennan: What if I pick up something and take it with me to the moon?

TrumanCapote:

18-12-2009 01:42:19 UTC

against

Ornithopter:

18-12-2009 01:43:18 UTC

for
Just realized I hadn’t voted. Oops.

I don’t think ongoing changes can happen in the Universe, since the date is stuck at Dec. 15, 2009. (If nowhere else, the bottom of the “On this day…” box on the front page lists the current date.)

tecslicer:

18-12-2009 02:42:09 UTC

for

Darknight: he/him

18-12-2009 06:01:03 UTC

imperial

Dustin:

18-12-2009 07:02:23 UTC

for

digibomber:

18-12-2009 08:51:10 UTC

for

SingularByte: he/him

18-12-2009 11:52:53 UTC

for

Oze:

18-12-2009 15:57:32 UTC

for

Qwazukee:

18-12-2009 16:29:26 UTC

against

NoOneImportant:

18-12-2009 16:39:26 UTC

for

CoV

NoOneImportant:

18-12-2009 16:40:01 UTC

11-3-2… anyone wanna pile on for quorum?

Hix:

18-12-2009 19:12:32 UTC

against