Computer-Free is the Way to Be

This week, Jon gave the class the challenge to reimagine our current capstone ideas so that they do not use any "typical" new media (ie., no computers, Internet, videos, etc.).


Envisioning "Anarchy MUD" without typical new media would probably result in a complex, Nomic-style board game. In fact, the game itself would not be too far off from Nomic; basically, instead of focusing on changing the rules of the game itself, it focuses on changing the game itself: adding , editing, and removing rooms, items, monsters, and other players. And unlike Nomic, voting won't occur--during each person's turn, he/she would either add something to the board, or edit/delete something already on the board (or another player). At the end of each person's turn, everyone else would either approve or disapprove of that player's action (or do neither, if he/she chooses). For each approved vote, that player gains one point, and for each disapprove, that players loses a point. Some actions would require the player to have a certain number of points before he/she is able to perform it, such as possibly needing ten points before removing another person from the game, or perhaps needing a certain amount of points before being able to add/modify/remove more than one thing per turn. Some actions would have penalties, such as losing many points after removing a player. Players who have been removed from the game may come back as a new player, with no points; likewise, anyone else can join the game at any time with no points as well. As my current plans with "Anarchy MUD" don't actually have a way for a player to win, the same would apply for this game. The players can devise their own way to "win", if they so choose, or they can just play until everyone is bored (or angry with each other).

I think the computer-free version of Anarchy MUD would be almost as effective as the normal version, and perhaps even more so for some aspects of the game. Some issues would need to be addressed in regards to items/rooms/monsters that players create, and what kind of game impact each would have, but not being confined by computer code opens up the possibilities for what these things can do. For example, someone might decide to make a Wand of Player Deletion, which would allow him to remove other players on his turn at will if he uses it--everyone might disapprove of it, causing the player a lot of point loss, but likewise the next player might consider destroying the new item to prevent it from being used in play, so there's a self-balancing aspect to some things. Rooms and monsters would be harder to implement, but with a little thought they might play a role in this game. But come to think about it, they play a miniscule role in the online version as well. Huh. Looks like I would have a bit more to conceptualize.