Subject: The State of the Nomic (long)

From: "Windrant" <windrant@n...>
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 15:01:07 -0500

State of the Nomic Address

Fellow Nomicsylvanians! Our Nomic is now a year old! (February 27th marks
the first email sent on the distribution list.) I think we should
congratulate ourselves on sticking to it for this long. A lot of Nomics on
the net don’t survive as long as we have. This accomplishment shows the
determination and loyalty of players. I commend you all!

As we look to the future we should take a moment and analyze what our
current weakness are and how we can turn them into strengths. From the
perspective of Speaker I see a few things that perhaps isn’t as clearly
visible as a player. For one, our new players are not as active as the
original players. I define the new players as people that have joined the
game after our first 3 months. We need to get these players into the game
more fully. I realize that in order for those players to participate more
there needs to be more incentive to play.

Some time ago I introduced a proposal that would grant a point bonus for new
players joining the game. The new players would receive a number of points
to give them “on-ramp” to play. A new player would stand a fighting chance
of winning. The proposal was defeated. The counter argument at the time
was that current players who did not have a lot points would feel slighted
if someone joined and received a point bonus that would place the new player
above the current player. The sad truth, revealed months down the line, is
that new players (those entering play this month) do not stand the slightest
chance of winning. Faced with the probability of never winning, new players
(I would imagine) are not participating as much as watching until the scores
reset and then “giving it their all.” Is this the truth? Only our new
players can say for sure! Please tell us!

Is this the only reason new players are hesitant? No, I don’t think so.
Another reason is that Nomic is tough game to join. Nothing in popular
culture prepares a person for Nomic. You don’t play these types of games on
the playground at school. You don’t see Parker Brothers put out a
commercial version of Nomic. You don’t see this type of game played on TV
sitcoms. A new player comes to this game with no preconceived notion of
what Nomic and no conceptual framework on how to play. It is a tough thing
to learn. Think about when you started this game… did you have the
slightest idea what you were getting yourself into? I doubt it. I know
that when I started Our Nomic I didn’t really understand the game or what a
huge amount of time I would invest in it.

In sum, we need a better way of educating new players about Nomic and Our
Nomic in particular. I have introduced a proposal that created a mentoring
system. This system has worked only with limited success. Every time a new
player joins I ask for volunteers and I almost never have a response. I end
up forcing someone to teach someone else Nomic. That situation never works.
Never. Devon was rewarded for creating a document that aids new players in
understanding the game. We need more of that type of initiative! Maybe the
mentoring system isn’t the answer to helping new players join. Maybe you
have a better solution? Please share you idea with us!

One of our strengths, as I see it, is the close family feeling. This
feeling came from the fact that the original players were all friends of
mine. We started as a group of people that may not of known each other but
at least knew me. And I brought the group together. Now that we are truly
an open Nomic, accepting players from all over the world, we run the risk of
turning into a group of strangers. I don’t mean that we won’t know
everybody on the list… that is bound to happen anyway. I mean more the fact
that the old timers will purposely not interact with the new players. Old
timers should make every effort to take the new players in as friends. I
don’t think that this game is anywhere near as exciting when people don’t
pick light-hearted fun at each other. Light-hearted fun becomes flame wars
and serious violence inducing threats when people can’t relate as friends.
I would like to see more proposals that help us get to know each other and
help to get talking to each other. I know that you must have ideas about
that! Write up some proposals or a proposition! Let us know how you think
this Nomic should be!

As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Adirondacks, our
participation levels will again begin to drop. I want to enter our Summer
Recess confident that we again join our words and thoughts into this game
and into our share universe with the falling leaves. This game isn’t My
Nomic, I hoped and dreamed that would be more than that. I wished that it
would become Our Nomic.

Write those proposals. Write those email notes stating your ideas about
what we are and what we should be. Vote. Do these things and you become
more than yourself; you become one of us.

Thank you for a great year and I hope it will be many more that I have the
honor of your friendship and companionship.

Humbly,
Chuck Henry
The First Speaker of Our Nomic

---

From: "JRicker" <joejava@d...>
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 19:24:36 -0500

----- Original Message -----
: Is this the only reason new players are hesitant? No, I don’t think
so.
: Another reason is that Nomic is tough game to join. Nothing in
popular
: culture prepares a person for Nomic. You don’t play these types of
games on
: the playground at school. You don’t see Parker Brothers put out a
: commercial version of Nomic. You don’t see this type of game played
on TV
: sitcoms. A new player comes to this game with no preconceived notion
of
: what Nomic and no conceptual framework on how to play. It is a tough
thing
: to learn. Think about when you started this game… did you have the
: slightest idea what you were getting yourself into? I doubt it. I
know
: that when I started Our Nomic I didn’t really understand the game or
what a
: huge amount of time I would invest in it.

[Snipped alot of comentary]

Being one of those new players -- at least I assume so, this is the
first e-mail I've received from the list other than talking a little
with Windrant -- just wanted to add my two cents.

One of the first nomic games I got involved with is Ackanomic. For
those who missed Acka (some on its demise in a moment) it was a very
long running game with a massive ruleset. Nomics can be challenging
especially for someone who has never played before. The paradox is, the
Nomics that are the best to learn from, as an example of what a nomic
can become, are also the long running games that are the most difficult
to get into. The beginning nomics with small rulesets offer alot of
oppurtunity for a new player but for someone who may not understand the
scope of these rules, doing alot of grunt work to shape the ruleset into
something may not be very appealing.

The one thing I enjoyed about Acka, even though I never had a great deal
of time to dig into the ruleset are the small things that kept me
interested. A player didn't have to submit proposals to get ahead in
the game. There were many other ways to go about obtaining win
conditions. Some of these were sub-games that got you points.

Ok I'm going to digress in a small anecdote. When about a week into
joining Ackanomic, about the only thing I understood how to do was to
convert money into objects. Each player had a cash total (Ackans) and
started with $100. You convert by public action an amount of cash into
an object with a description. The object didn't do anything necessarily
but could be given or traded or turned back into cash when needed. Very
symbolic.

There were also groups and organizations and one of these groups was
called the Klingons. After watching the message threads between this
group for a little while, I made my first action whereby I created an
object for $50 into the Sword of Kahless with a nice little description.
For those who aren't familiar with Star Trek, the Sword of Kahless is
the equivalent of the christian true cross. So of course the members of
group Klingon had to have it! :)

Since I wouldn't give it up, I was challenged to a duel. Someone
volunteered to be my second. A very fluent person, his challenge
acceptance speech was hysterical. All I remember is the last line he
said to the Klingons: "Your mother was a tribble and your father smelt
of Romulans."

So the duel took place. According to duel rules, I picked the weapons
which was what subgame we should play. The winner would win the duel.
I picked the game Virus. We played a few rounds and I won out in the
end.

Anyhow the point of all this is that Acka dragged me in whether I wanted
to play or not :) I probably made three proposals the whole time I
played but the amount of social interaction that the game had plus the
sub-games that were easy to get into, I stuck around and had a great
time. You should enjoy the time you spend with a nomic and if you are
lucky forging friendships that last long after the final proposal is
submitted.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Acka split into two
sides: Those who thought the rules were to large and those who thought
they were fine. The game was split into two groups: Fat Acka and Thin
Acka. But in the end alot of feelings were hurt and both sides lost
good players and after it was all over both games disappeared.

Well thats about all I have to say for now. Have to go approve some
proposals for my own game [BLATANT PLUG: Nomopoly III:
http://www.justthefaqs.org/nomopoly/]. I hope with my joining I might
be able to help you in your pursuits.

Thanks
Joel

---

From: smartgamer <sgamer@s...>
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 20:09:13 -0600

Speaking of new players, I joined yesterday.
Make a note in the official ledgers! ;-)

And with it, my first proposal.

Under the rules SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LOBBYIST,
and 303 (Debate Rule), I'm opening for debate, this proposal:

Pop Goes Your Points

I propose that the final paragraph of Rule 326: The Holy Hand
Grenade Of Antioch be deleted and the following text appended:

"At such time that the last HHGA (Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch) detonates,
(2) more players are randomly chosen to recieve a Grenade with the fuse
setting
being determined from the equation '3+d6', which is RPG notation for 'three
plus
the roll of a six-sided die.' Note that the parenthesies have no special
meaning around the
number. They are used to make it easier to note what happens in the next
statement.
Finally, the most recent number in parenthesies is incremented by one; if
this number is already
five, the text from the word FINALLYon to the end is deleted."

[This results in more and more Grenades being tossed into play. The rule
looked like fun, so I had
to do SOMETHING to it!]

[Please excuse the fact that I have probably broken Spivac several times.
Someone fix it...
please]

--Adam Norberg