Nomic

While researching for ideas and inspiration regarding capstone, Jon Ippolito sent me a link that talked about the game Nomic. Nomic is a game invented in 1982 by Peter Suber, and is essentially a game where proposing and voting on rule changes is the game itself. It begins with a simple, yet flexible set of rules (which are all able to be modified and/or removed if the players elect to do such a thing), and the simple goal of reaching 100 points. Everything, including the goal, is able to be changed, but the players must propose the change and vote on it. And actually, even the whole voting part is not immune to being changed--if the players elect a new way for rules to be added or modified (such as a dictatorship, instead of a democracy, for example), then that new way takes effect. There's even a rule that demands that the rules be followed, and if players vote away that rule, then they must suffer the consequences that result from their action.

I'm interested in testing out Nomic with a few people sometime, so I can see how people behave in such a setting. In some ways, Nomic is similar to my "Anarchy MUD" idea, such as the notion that the players have total control over the game's mechanics. However, my current idea is more like a Nomic that starts with almost no rules (but at the same time, there is also no goal to be achieved, and no way to "win"). Also, everyone has equal power, and there's nothing preventing a 4-month old veteran character from being deleted by some random bloke who just happens to try out the game for the first time. As a result, things can get very messy. I am currently thinking of ways to implement "levels" of admin rights, so that people that somehow "earn" higher levels of admin are able to do more, or at least have more power over what they do (for example, perhaps a new character can't outright "ban" someone, but can grant "admin points" to other people, and those people can do the same back. Positive points allows admins to go up in levels, and negative points force them down levels. The higher level you are, the more points you can grant/remove. If you're at a sufficiently negative number, you are deleted. So in this way, a high-level admin can auto-ban a new character, whereas a new character can't immediately ban a higher character, unless he got help from others who want to get rid of him. Higher level characters would also have more control over the game world itself, such as perhaps being able to create/destroy more rooms/items/monsters per day than other admins. Etc., etc., blah, blah, you get the picture). Maybe I can work out some way to do it after studying how the game Nomic is played. And maybe I might even think up a "goal" for Anarchy MUD, of some sort (although simply trying to achieve a high level of admin might be goal enough).

If anyone is interested in testing out Nomic with me sometime, we can try to work out something.