spoon-discuss: Re: spoon-business: Heat Death of the Nomic

["Donald Whytock" <dwhytock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2/28/02 at 1:51 AM Rob Speer wrote:

>Since I am afraid that thomehow, in the future, the Clock may get turned
>off and become impothible to turn on again, or some other disathter along
>those lines might occur, I propose:
>
>__Nomic Revival__
>{{
>
>Create a rule with a Chutzpah of 3:
>__Nomic Revival__
>{{
>
>  In any 21-day span of time, there must be at least one opportunity to
>  change the ruleset. It is not necessary that the ruleset actually
>  change as a result of this opportunity, only that there was a
>  plausible way for it to change. [[For example, a proposal that is
>  voted down counts as an opportunity.]]
>
>  If such an opportunity would not otherwise exist, then on the 18th day
>  without opportunities to change the ruleset, the Administrator shall
>  release an Extra Ballot containing any proposals recognized since the
>  previous Ballot. Proposals on this Ballot may be voted on as usual in
>  the 72 hours following its release, and then proposals which pass,
>  according to normal voting rules, are implemented.
>
>  If the Extra Ballot still does not create an opportunity to change the
>  rules [[ for example, if it is impossible to make proposals ]], then
>  on the 21st day the Administrator shall change the game state in the
>  way e deems best.
>
>}}
>}}
>
>[[ Yeth, thath right. There are no references to ndays or nweeks in
>thith proposal. ]]
>--
>Rob Thpeer

First off, there's an awful lot of un-lisped text in this...:)

Secondly, why not just call such a situation an emergency and invoke r0?  I myself would prefer that to leaving it solely to the Administrator to decide what to do.  You may THINK that what the Administrator will do is turn the Clock back on, but that ain't what it says; this gives him limitless power.  This is not to say that I distrust Mr. A or fail to love him as a long-lost brother; the concern simply has to be voiced.

Third...as the game progresses in its complexity, the effort required to administrate it will only continue to grow.  This will involve either additional programming or additional gruntwork.  Therefore, one of three circumstances will very likely come up:

- The length of a nweek will increase, or there will be pauses between nweeks, in order to allow Mr. A to catch up on his coding; or

- The length of a nweek will increase, or there will be pauses between nweeks, in order to allow Mr. A to catch up on his gruntwork; or

- Mr. A will go bugfuck.

Having myself brushed against such an experience as the third possibility in the past, I would not wish it on anyone -- not Mr. A, who would be experiencing it, and not the Players, who would be inconvenienced by it.  Assuming we are trying to avoid the third possibility, it's possible that the 21-day limit would eventually be hit.

To crystallize: Needs thought.

						Glotmorf