Thursday, December 15, 2005

Meta thoughts

This really should be more annotated, but I am going to make the (rather silly) assumption that you all have been reading the comments of every post since the new dynasty started.

First point: Many of the new players came when I posted to an IRC channel full of computer science students that a new dynasty had just started. That means Saurik, Danopato, and AgentHH specifically. I consider this a good thing, because they are genuinely intelligent and interesting people.

Second point: Saurik mentioned previously that he thought we were mimicking California’s proposal system. I’ve been thinking about what the difference between that and, say, Congress’ ways of proposing laws are, and I think the main difference is that in Congress Congressmen show the proposal to each-other BEFORE putting the proposal up for vote. To fix that could we perhaps set up an IRC channel to be used by blognomic Protagonists?

Third point: I’m assuming that people here have played at the very least Dungeons & Dragons. In that game there exists a middle ground between rule and flavor text: suggestions by the game designers for standards of conduct to be adhered to by the players. An example of this would be if a player elects to make his character a “cleric” class. Clerics worship a deity, from which they draw all their power through the process of prayer, and adhere to that deity’s code of ethics. If a cleric would like to deviate from the norm as defined by their deity, they had better have a good reason or risk losing all their powers. This is the kind of text I was going for in the ill-fated proposal “Disco Inferno”, and I think it is a generally good thing that our little text adventure should strive for; it adds spirit and purpose to the game.

Please respond with any thoughts,
Salamander

posted by Salamander at 15 Dec 2005 04:22:57 UTC Comments (6)

Comments

Saurik:

15-12-2005 04:31:58 UTC

What is your response to 75th’s comments about using the Wiki as the staging ground for Proposals, and then posting blog posts here that refer to them and having conversations?

The problem I see with an IRC channel is that it drastically hurts people who aren’t playing constantly (and even though currently I am, I don’t want to feel _forced_ to by the game). As it currently stands I don’t feel bad to, for instance, sleep. ;P

Seventy-Fifth Trombone:

15-12-2005 04:44:26 UTC

Italicized text in the Ruleset can be either flavor text or suggestions by the Proposer.  It can be anything, in fact, that doesn’t dictate gameplay.  (And even if it tries to, it doesn’t.)

And yes, the Wiki can be used for drafting to anyone’s heart’s content.  And I mean, anyone who wants to can set up an IRC channel, too, I suppose.  But I don’t think much of anyone will like the idea of using IRC officially or commonly.

Cayvie:

15-12-2005 08:00:35 UTC

read the history of the game

the first dynasty of satyreyes in particular

Salamander:

15-12-2005 08:32:41 UTC

Cayvie: Thanks for the help, perhaps you are thinking about a specific post?

Rodney:

15-12-2005 17:56:58 UTC

I haven’t played D&D, and aren’t going to in the future. This is a nomic with rather “Hard” rules, such that people obey the letter of the law, rather than it’s spirit. That’s why Disco Inferno has so many against votes.

Salamander:

16-12-2005 00:36:55 UTC

Rodney: Nomics such as Agora nomic did just fine with “spirit of the law” rather than letter. Letter causes too many problems. Looking at my current side bar I see that my Location is “The Fortress of Cheese”.. if rules fed off of the current “Location” field in the GNDT then we would right now have an exploit..