Glotmorf on 8 Jul 2003 03:44:01 -0000


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Re: [spoon-discuss] Games Magazine


On 7/7/03 at 5:01 PM Rob Speer wrote:

>On Sun, Jul 06, 2003 at 10:12:27PM -0400, Glotmorf wrote:
>> Hey guys...we made Games Magazine!  The September 2003 issue features an
>article on self-modifying games ("Meta-Gaming 101"), and B Nomic got two
>paragraphs on page 8.  No player names were mentioned, but, hey, we know
>who we are...
>
>Neat! Could you quote the two paragraphs?

Certainly.  The subsection began,

"Nearly every game discussed thus far, no matter how successful on its own, owes a debt to Nomic, a rule-changing game that has spawned hundreds of variations over the past two decades."

Three paragraphs of Suberism, then,

"B Nomic, for instance, includes one 2,000-word-long rule that introduces Gremlins to the game; it includes definitions of 10 types of Gremlins, how to count them, and how they hide. (Games of Nomic, which Suber pronounces with a long 'o,' as in 'gnome,' typically acquire individual names such as B Nomic, Garden Nomic, Terra Nomic, and EcoNomic -- if not prior to play, then during the game itself as a proposed rule.)

"Another B Nomic rule, in its entirety, reads, 'There exist objects called T-shirts.  T-shirts may have text on them.  T-shirts may only be modified as described in the rules.'  Why introduce Gremlins or T-shirts to the game?  Because you can.  'When I make the powers for Rumble, the cards for Dvorak, or the rules for a game of Nomic, it personalizes the game for me,' says Ben Wray. 'The game can develop a host of inside jokes only my friends and I will get, or whatever bizarre theme we desire, whereas every game of Monopoly is pretty much going to be about real estate.'"

Silly boy...he never played Nomopoly.  Which, okay, was about real estate, but it was also about, um, vandalism, among other things...

And of course we no longer have a 2,000-word-long rule about Gremlins, now do we?

						Glotmorf

-----
The Ivory Mini-Tower: a blog study in Social Technology.
http://ix.1sound.com/ivoryminitower

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