Tuesday, May 31, 2022

At the Pnyx

Of the eleven non-Emperor players of the game right now, seven have made no proposals since the dynasty started two weeks ago, two of those being longer-term players who unintentionally idled out having also neglected to cast any votes either. Two others have only made one proposal each. Why aren’t players - old and new - engaging with the Nomic rule amendment side of the game at the moment?

Have we fallen into the trap of having a dynasty feel enough like a boardgame that players assume it must be fair and balanced and that they can win that game on its own merits, irrespective of how its rules might be changed by themselves or their opponents? Or is something more fundamental happening here?

posted by Kevan at 31 May 2022 12:28:00 UTC Comments (5)

Comments

Josh: Observer he/they

31-05-2022 23:33:04 UTC

I like how this has elicited no response.

I think that the problem is not anything to do with the game or the mechanics, tbh.

wdtefv: hu/hum

31-05-2022 23:48:21 UTC

bro i’m just a dumbass it ain’t that deep

wdtefv: hu/hum

01-06-2022 00:09:07 UTC

i know this isnt votable but at the same time i gotta go against here cuz
1) its funny, and
2) in the name of Poseidon i honestly dont see where we coulda gotten “people dont wanna engage w/ this dynasty” from “people are engaging more with the blog and the game mechanics than the nomic and the meta mechanics”

even if youre the one making the lion’s share of proposals i feel like we have a good flow going w people engaging in the game and maybe we get past these things in time?

i have no clue what the problem is. but i think we have a good game here, so far.

Kevan: he/him

01-06-2022 08:44:55 UTC

We have a game, but it isn’t much of a Nomic, is all. As Peter Suber says in the sidebar, “Nomic is a game in which changing the rules is a move.” If most players aren’t ever making that move, then there may be some misunderstanding of what a Nomic is, or what proposals are for.

Nomic is like a board game which has a very powerful deck of “rule change” cards, where playing one may (with care or with luck) advance your position in the game, or make your mark on it creatively. If most players are seeing those cards as unnecessary and choosing not to draw them or play them, then not only are they not really playing Nomic, but they’re very likely to lose to the players who are.

We may have drifted into a zone where proposals are seen as having to be serious game design ideas. But they can and should be simple gameplay tweaks as well (“Insurance is too expensive, reduce its cost to 3 Money”, “multiple Baronries don’t seem fair, limit them to one per player”), or briefly-stated ideas for things you’d enjoy seeing in the game or the narrative (“one player is secretly the traitor”, “Atlantis may be at war with each foreign power”) that others can build on.

Gozherd:

03-06-2022 09:54:13 UTC

Speaking for myself only, I think it’s just a lot more effort to make proposals than to read them and vote, and I’m still getting a feel for how the games go.

I don’t know if it has anything to do with the dynasty. I doubt it’d be much different in any other dynasty, but maybe so. I will try to stick around and find out.

I hope to propose more and more over time. I am not very concerned about winning yet.