BlogNomic: The First Dynasty of Derrick

Kudos to Cuddlebeam who really gave me a hard time mid-game when we were both trying to propose in our favour after failing to team up. I was certain you would win at that point and even missed a crate from lack of motivation.

(you or PineTreeQ or whoever you had teamed up with)

Aye, wp you too man

Congratulations!

As far as I’m concerned, this dynasty was a counter-example to Old Man Murray’s famous Crate Review System:

http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/39.html

“Games can be rated and compared based on the shortest amount of time it takes a player to reach the first crate, which represents the point where the developers ran out of ideas.  This number is measured in seconds and is called “Start to Crate” or “StC”.  The smaller the StC, the worse the game.”

(For those not familiar with Old Man Murray, it was a game review site written by the guys who later wrote the Portal Games amongst other achievements)

Also, Diabecko was always a low-Alertness player so screeeeew the notion that having “advantages” or “big numbers” or whatever is significant (early to midgame), because they’re all frills. F r i l l s. What happens later on matters way more. On the positive side, this also means that people can join later into the dynasty more comfortably, because early “advantages” mean not much.

The Fibreboard proposal into the Black Market proposals were key to winning the game imo. And they were both heavily context-based (ie. based on the frills they could grab on at the time).

The final victory is still based on the core mechanic of who got the best items and who is best placed in the queue. I used the bird to protect myself, the gas mask to sell items without dying etc. and Pokes nearly won because they were first and got interesting items like the rod or the dropped money. The alertness, the items and their effects largely influenced the outcome, so I wouldn’t call them frills.

Ok it’s not so much who got the best items but what I meant is the items as such did make the game and ultimately decided who got to bid, so getting them was important, just as finding a strategic place in the queue.

The dropped money was deliberate by me though, to try to trigger the stalemate.

But yes, it does contribute to some degree. I’d still argue that frills play a big role though, as a corollary of “Fool’s Gold”; because our “wealth” depends on context and how the flow of proposals (and the interests of the people who make them) will change that.

Your strategic place in queue was CREATED by proposals made in self-interest. Your massive supply of fiberboard was created by samzeman who wanted to make their own low-Alertness worth more, and the Black Market was created by me to benefit you specifically (because you had a massive supply of fiberboard and I wanted to ally you).

They’re only “frills” if proposals pass later on in the dynasty to make the early advantages irrelevant.

So basically, it’s not like the proposals and the game are these impersonal entities and you find a position in it, the game is shaped by what people want and what they can get away with via various veils and excuses.

@Card: Yes, exactly so. The “frills” idea is more like whatever early “wealth” you have is in a limbo. Your stuff could be really good. Or not. Who knows? It’s all up to what’s proposed later on.

[Diabecko] Yep.

[Cuddlebeam] Ironically you gave us a frills speech while voting proto-Fibreboard through and calling it a “frill”. Game-changing mechanics aren’t always obvious at the time.

There’s definitely a curve - I suppose the surest Nomic tactic is to ride it slightly ahead of the midpoint, rather than sprinting into the outliers of “big numbers” which will turn into Fool’s Gold by morning. Players usually try to break up any obvious midpoints and force people to jump one way or the other, though, and that’s where the gameplay starts.

@Kevan: Yes, very much so. And it was a frill I deliberately made into such a game-winning mechanic. Before the Black Market, having so much Fibreboard was worthless. But, as always, everything is up to the proposals later on.

[Kevan] I missed that reference :)

Whatever the next theme, we need a “Frills” stat that gets augmented in the most obscure ways :D.

@Kevan: “There’s definitely a curve (...)

YES, I CAME TO THE SAME CONCLUSION!

I posted it a while ago in fact in my currently totally derpy guide thing: https://wiki.blognomic.com/index.php?title=WIP_Guide_Thing

“Hoarding” (fat numbers) vs “Huddling” (being similar to everyone else)

I should finish that guide sometime lol. I want to make it less “technical”.

Interesting guide indeed.

LOL This is totally off-subject but I just realised the “Table of Contents” keyword is defined as:

“The Governmenty of section headings that is generated by the MediaWiki software for most pages in the wiki.”

(obviously a by-product of the change from Director to Governement)

(was searching the rules for some specifics related to dynasty changes)

tfw waiting for AA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBlFHuCzPgY

I can’t wait to see the new theme.

Tru

(yep, I understand that feeling)

A new Dynasty is cooking in the oven. Something a bit different might come out.