tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56192509986760447522024-03-12T19:36:30.020-07:00Personal LiberationUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-65734068827780123282014-09-21T15:51:00.002-07:002014-09-21T15:52:40.387-07:00GeoPolitics: the Game (working title) BrainstormLatest brain storm: a game, board/computer variety (worker placement???), that is based in geopolitics, but uses nation-states as background "non-player" characters. The players: non-governmental agencies, mostly w/ commercial interests, such as Disney Corp. or Siemens GmbH, but others may be non-commercial such as Medicines sans Frontier or Harvard University. Each playable group will have their own abilities and ways to score victory points. Each player has a hand of cards which is their "airport" : those influential people in organizations that have significance, if not the cohesion and global reach of those that make the list of playable NGOs, that rub shoulders with your agents.<br />
Starting map variable. Non-Variable Map Portions include: 1) a map of Earth 2) divided into cultural and historically political and linguistic regions 3) with symbols denoting certain key words and phrases that the rules can reference 4) and numerals that denote the default ratings for when such territory is not a part of a major nation-state. <br />
Variable Map Portions: 1) Major nation-state markers 2) that denote a) major nation-state allegiance b) cover default ratings for a non-aligned state. Marker positioning would be determined by dice rolls of 1) a ten-sided die 2) and based on a) a schedule for that specific region or zone, and b) marker state of other regions within the same zone.<br />
Ratings for nation-states and non-aligned regions may include 1) Pliability 2) Taxes 3) Military 4) Wealth.<br />
Players Place (workers) Agents 1) on board, when influencing a non-aligned state, or 2) on a card which represents a minister in the government of one of the major nation-states. 3) Only one agent can be on a location or minister at once, a) thus multiple players may be influencing the same major nation-state, but from different aspects of its government. b) Offices are: i) Executive, ii) Foreign Minister, iii) Military Minister, iv) Finance Minister, and v) Interior Minister.<br />
Government Post Abilities:<br />
1) Executive : a) Replace a minister<br />
2) Foreign Minister: a) Vote for United Nations proposals, b) <br />
3) Military Minister: a) Prosecute war (results dependent on nation-state, e.g. United States places military bases, while Slavic Federation assimilates territory), b) raise or lower Military rating.<br />
4) Finance Minister: a) Raise or lower Taxes rating<br />
5) Interior Minister: a) Raise or lower Pliability rating, b) raise or lower Wealth rating if Taxes rating is higher.<br />
Please, provide feedback in comments. Thank you.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-5803188173317643342014-08-14T05:33:00.001-07:002014-08-14T05:33:06.670-07:00We Need More Science (Fiction), part 1<p dir=ltr>Recently acquired Terra Mystica and have been celebrating it both when in front of me and not like a strong infatuation. If not familiar: it is a board game. What makes it so great is the gameplay; as for the premise, the narrative backdrop, I rewrite it in my head as the struggle of different post-human races a la John C. Wright's Count to a Trillion series. <br>
Meanwhile, I just finished a fantasy novel, the Pilgrims, while Christina is reading the first of Count to a Trillion and find myself criticizing 'Pilgrims for how it isn't 'Trillion. *sigh* What is one to do? One, when one equals moi, makes...<br>
A Science Fiction Inspired Board (Computer) Game</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-11748007506356180352014-06-13T06:05:00.001-07:002014-06-13T06:39:39.753-07:00Culture of Knowledge: Isolation or Not<p dir=ltr>In Neal Stephenson's Anathem the backdrop of the narrative is an institution of scholar monks. This institution has many campuses around the world, each only connecting with the outside world at the same time in specific time intervals. <br>
Imagine a community focused on learning, discovery, and general intellectual persuits separated from cultural shifts and political pressures. But to do so they would need to be self sufficient, producing their food, clothing and shelter. Material resources would need to be grown and mined on the land enclosed.<br>
I don't know that I have ever lived in, or been a part of a focused community, one of a particular reason d'etre. College seemed very focused on being able to get a good paying job or an otherwise pleasant one. Boy Scouts was probably the closest I've experienced. Far from the Amish or other cloistered groups. Have any been self sufficient for even a year at a time?<br>
There is a very strong movement in the opposite direction. Using the Internet to make information freely available. Making universities more accessible and less of a community. And doesn't having an Internet of searchable information make us more intelligent, more capable?<br>
It isn't a matter of possible, humans can push themselves to do extreme things, and dropping out of society happens regularly enough to not be uncanny. But would preserving a language and living without personal possesions and transcribing books and teaching in classrooms with hands on primary sources be good for humanity?<br>
</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-1570684605511349462014-01-27T05:25:00.001-08:002014-06-04T05:47:53.547-07:00The Dystopia of Post Modernism<p dir="ltr">In classic speculative fiction works Metropolis, A Brave New World, and 1984, which inspired THX, Logan's Run, and Vurt, an important element is that the workers, the common people, don't know they are living in a dystopia. In Metropolis the resistance is mollified by Christianity, in Brave New World its sex and drugs, and in 1984 it is safety and comfort. By being duped the people continue to maintain the order the elite wish, presumeably one the commoners may not want themselves. As a mental exercise let's ask ourselves, "are we living in a dystopia?"<br>
First, there is not a single social order, even a single government, for the world, so let me point out I am talking about the United States, and those other countries called "the West" in so much as conditions are significantly analogous. As far as being pacified, the largest passive endeavor has been television watching which doesn't inspire viewers to even move, although it encourages the other major phantom pacifier: consumerism. It has greatly waned, only being taken up by Internet usage, which although diverse, the amount of passive and quasi-passive useage such as videos a few minutes in length to short text often within 140 characters is dominant. This quasi-passive portion is most fascinating because the feeling of interaction and agency allows the user to be social and maintain relationships, however they leave many feeling lonely as they are ranked and compete for attention.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-223341705435515772012-02-20T22:46:00.000-08:002012-02-20T22:47:37.940-08:00Epic or NotA great article on the scaling of rules and designing with gameplay in mind.<br /><br />http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20120220Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-82948738518910112422012-02-15T23:59:00.000-08:002012-02-16T01:04:50.793-08:00Designing for Meaning: When to Stop Laying Ground and Start FractalOk, that is a hideous blog post title. I've been brainstorming all day and finally slowed down now at midnight enough to write. It would probably be nice if I would take more notes along the way. Discipline, damn it, discipline! Let me lay the case study on you before I go all conceptual.<br /><br />Imagine you want to represent something with statistics. But, these statistics are going to be read by people, not machines. Ok, so we are going to work with integers on a limited scale. Check. Also, this is for a game that wishes to evoke meaning. Limit the statistics and encourage the descriptive text. Check.<br /><br />How many statistics?<br /><br />I don't know. I've been asking myself this question for a bit now. Made myself feel good by reading reviews of games that suck. I can imagine a list of six to nine attributes that will be numbered. Numbered so they can interact with dice and therefore help in adjudication when there is conflict. These attributes take the form of verbs, because they are actions that can have varying success. Also there are adjectives to bring in all the color, all the imagination. But what about wealth, fame, and status? I'm wondering about languages known, as well, but I think they could be covered with adjectives in a record keeping sense, like "English-speaker." Probably would only influence die rolls if it was a social situation and the difference between having the adjective "Native English-speaker" and "(non-Native) English-speaker" make a difference.<br /><br />With wealth and maybe even fame it is tempting to imagine a numerical ordinal system for ranked comparison and even power balance. But in this elegant system that I'm chasing like a Platonic ideal numerical designations are only for verbs. Oh, but maybe you might want to have some kind of business or economic contest. Yes, but that would be some kind of verb, like "Deals," which would designate an aptitude and could then be rolled or challenged, not a fairly static measure of wealth or fame. You see, if characters or institutions or whatever are going to have an adjective like "wealthy" will there then be different but comparable adjectives, like "modestly incomed?" And if you do, then how is it in the economy of character creation, where there is a certain number of adjectives initially, to designate the difference between "modestly incomed" and "wealthy?" It doesn't have a rating system, the difference in the game is handled by the players' and storyteller's interpretations. But if those interpretations are going to have any credence by the participants then it shouldn't be that everyone is effectively "wealthy" because there is no non-role playing reason not to be (a more positive way of saying this is, you would be punishing those who want to role play a low social level character), or everyone effectively of the same wealth level because there is no mechanic to illustrate a difference. The rules need to elicit meaning.<br /><br />Here is my yet unplay-tested solution: Status, or Status and Wealth for those settings where you can be a rich unskilled laborer or poor emperor, is designated by a single long adjective (yay for hyphens!) which may "cost" more than one adjective during character creation to balance it. So if no Status adjective is designated by the player the storyteller will bestow some appropriate adjective for Status such as "Serf" or "Cobbler." This character would have X + 1 adjectives, where "X" is the number of adjectives allowed for initial characters, where all X were spent on non-Status designating things and the extra one is the Status, which is evocative of the character concept, but equivalent of a relatively poor person of no significant status in the games imaginary society. Then the next scale up in said society's socio-economic scale would cost one adjective, where the character would have X - 1 adjectives designated for non-Status things, the "X-th" adjective being Status. The next highest in the scale would cost two adjectives, so the character would have a total of X - 1 adjectives, X - 2 for non-Status things, the "X - 1th" the Status. If Wealth is a separate statistic then there is some additional considerations on how many adjectives are available for non-Status, non-Wealth designations, but the concept is the same.<br /><br />Part of what the post title is referring to is the question of how many attributes do you stop with for the base expression before allowing the rest to be expressed in the context and interactions of the game. I imagine in a well designed narrative system what happens after releasing to the permutations of creativity can be expressed graphically as a fractal. On one hand is clutter, over-complexity, and tediousness, on the other is lack of meaning.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-68238076702618092012-01-21T21:24:00.000-08:002014-06-04T05:54:46.324-07:00Monopoly Revised<p dir=ltr>The Boardgame Monopoly has been around awhile, almost a century, and is quite well known, if not widely played anymore. I believe at the heart of its decline in popularity is the fact that it is an anti-social game. Not many people want to take the time to set up the board when they may be eliminated before play concludes. With judgement reserved on the joy of playing Monopoly, I suspect few would disagree that it is not fun to watch. However, there is something to its popularity, so much so that the McDonald's restaurant franchise has licensed the use of the Monopoly imagery for their occasional promotions, which makes it worthy of revision. Something to do with the social nature of the trading of properties, the presence of random threats such as landing on a highly developed property or going to jail, and the idea of improvement with a relatively short time before a return on the investment.</p>
<p dir=ltr>We want everyone to stay in the game, so there is no elimination mechanism. There isn't individual currency piles, but a central bank from which every one is indebted. There is a debt limit which is equal for all players initially, then it increases as properties and improvements are acquired. There is no board, properties are randomly revealed when a player wishes to go to auction. When an auction is triggered the flow of play is interrupted until the property purchased or all players decline to bid. Bidding starts at half the properties unimproved value, bids can be raised by a minimum of one monetary unit and a maximum of fifty and goes around the players to the right (i.e. the opposite of turns). When a player expends funds cash goes from the bank to the player, signifying debt. Player income is represented by cash going back to the bank. Debt greater than current debt capacity sends the player to jail. Being in jail doesn't stop income nor random effects, but does prevent participating in auctions and improving investments. Random effects, think of the Community Chest and Chance cards, are checked for on each turn and happen on a sum of 9 or greater of two six-sided dice. Most of these will be additional costs, such as property tax, zoning infraction fine, building maintenance, et cetera, of course the iconic Get Out of Jail Free, and Go To Jail. Also, effects that modify other parts of the game, such as changing the cost of making improvements or changing the requirements to make improvements would be relevant and much needed spice to the rather dry fines that constitute most random cards in the traditional game. Checking for income happens automatically at the beginning of a turn by a six-sided die roll for each property. Each property will have a rating, modified by improvements, which is a number between 0 and 6 which shows what has to be gotten on a die roll, or lower, to garner income. A rating of 0 will not garner any, a rating of 6 will always garner. Additionally, there will be a corresponding income value which is also modified by improvements and is the amount the player's debt is reduced.</p>
<p dir=ltr>The game ends when the bank is void of all cash. Points are based on positive relationship with the value of assets and an inverse relationship with the amount of debt. Being in jail at the end penalizes points.</p>
<p dir=ltr>© Michael Mosher 2012</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-66194063058795277082011-12-07T13:14:00.000-08:002011-12-07T13:28:12.891-08:00Inspiration WednesdayTaken from <a href="https://jobs.ea.com/search/view.do?id=a0z500000010tywAAA">here</a>:<br /><br /><span style="display: inline; position: relative; z-index: 1; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border: medium none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="inner"><b></b><blockquote><b>What skills does EA look for?</b>?<br /><br />There is no set route to becoming a Game Designer. However, this is not an entry level role. Game development is a highly complex, intensive process which can last two years or more, so the Game Designer must be able to work closely with teams of programmers, artists, project managers, writers, musicians, and many others. The Game Designer usually has a reasonably high level of industry experience and knowledge. EA usually expects to see a portfolio of work, which can take the form of completed game projects or written game design documents and proposals.<br /><br />Game development is a collaborative process involving multi-disciplinary teams. Designers must be able to communicate their vision to artists, programmers, producers, marketing staff, and others involved in the development process, and accept feedback on their work. This involves presenting their ideas both verbally and on paper, for which they need writing and basic visual design and drawing skills. They should also be reasonably fluent in a range of 2D and 3D graphics and animation packages, such as 3D Studio Max or Maya. Good technical knowledge is required, with some programming skills at least at ‘scripting’ level and awareness of the various games platforms and technologies.<br /><br />A common route to becoming a Game Designer is to get experience as a Game Tester and/or in Quality Assurance (QA) department for a games company. This offers a good grounding in the development process, access to software and tools, and insight into the different job roles in development.<br /></blockquote><br /></span><blockquote><span style="display: inline; position: relative; z-index: 1; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border: medium none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="inner">When looking for Game Designers EA values a thorough understanding of gameplay theory. Excellent communication and presentation skills are a must, along with storytelling and narrative development skills. The ideal candidate possesses information design and user interface design skill. They must be able to work both as part of a team and independently. Last but not least, they must display systematic and strategic thinking as well as imagination and creativity.<br /><br />As far as educational background, Game Designers can study a range of subjects, from the sciences and humanities to art and design. There are also a growing number of games-related degree programs and courses available for study, and a degree in this type of program would be a plus. Prospective Game Designers should check the content of courses, particularly the balance between programming, game art, and game design. Designers need basic programming and 3D design skills, and preferably some drawing ability. It’s also very important to have excellent communication and presentation skills.</span></blockquote>Sounds like a road map to me. Quite exciting. I happen to be two degrees of separation away from a game designer who runs figure study drawing meetings. Maybe time for the old "two birds, one stone" trick, eh?<br /><br />Time for more games in education. Here is an example of a pioneer having a lot of fun and a lot of success:<br /><br /><object width="526" height="374"><br /><param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"><br /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><br /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><br /><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><br /><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"><br /><param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talk/stream/2011/Blank/JohnHunter_2011-320k.mp4&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/JohnHunter-2011.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=512&vh=288&ap=0&ti=1127&lang=&introDuration=15330&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=830&adKeys=talk=john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game;year=2011;theme=rethinking_poverty;theme=the_rise_of_collaboration;theme=how_we_learn;theme=master_storytellers;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=design_like_you_give_a_damn;theme=tales_of_invention;event=TED2011;tag=Design;tag=Global+Issues;tag=education;tag=games;tag=government;tag=peace;tag=politics;tag=war;&preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;"><br /><embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgcolor="#ffffff" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talk/stream/2011/Blank/JohnHunter_2011-320k.mp4&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/JohnHunter-2011.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=512&vh=288&ap=0&ti=1127&lang=&introDuration=15330&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=830&adKeys=talk=john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game;year=2011;theme=rethinking_poverty;theme=the_rise_of_collaboration;theme=how_we_learn;theme=master_storytellers;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=design_like_you_give_a_damn;theme=tales_of_invention;event=TED2011;tag=Design;tag=Global+Issues;tag=education;tag=games;tag=government;tag=peace;tag=politics;tag=war;&preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;" width="526" height="374"></embed><br /></object><br /><br />That is it for me, now you share what is inspiring you...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-70866415802297883512011-11-30T13:09:00.000-08:002011-11-30T13:11:35.237-08:00Educational Game Collaboration<div> me: The framework. You'll have to put in the details, as I don't have a schema of your curriculum</div><div> sodijusey: talk about an untapped market</div><div> me: Ok </div><div>We'll collaborate :)</div><div> sodijusey: that's what we could do!!!!</div><div>:)))</div><div>totally</div><div> me: triple chin!</div><div> sodijusey: we'll be RICH!</div><div> me: LOL</div><div>That sounds good :)</div><div> sodijusey: no seriously though</div><div>I've been to English teacher conventions...and you wouldn't believe the market for stuff to sell...</div><div>and games is an untapped market</div><div>if you're serious...I'd love to work on something like that</div><div> me: Yeah, we should definitely collaborate on that.</div><div> sodijusey: over time</div><div> me: I am serious</div><div> sodijusey: I am too</div><div>that would be sooooo cool</div><div>Christina could do the artwork</div><div> me: And it would be good for both public and private schools, so it would be desireable to a wide audience</div><div>Right, got to get her craftiness in there, too </div><div> sodijusey: I was thinking of some of the beautiful cards of Dixit</div><div> me: Ok, done super excited</div><div> sodijusey: :)</div><div> me: Yes, I think DiXit is a great game for your class room, get their creativity flowing</div><div> sodijusey: good thing you're so creative and smart and intelligent and motivated and driven and entrepreneurial and..</div><div>SEXY</div><div> me: You could have a custom DiXit deck where the images capture particular stories</div><div> sodijusey: kissing your sexy parts</div><div>oh that would be interesting....allowing for supplemental plots</div><div> me: So, you read Mice and Men and you have immages of peopel walking along the rail road with the dry hills in the distance</div><div> sodijusey: but familiar characters</div><div> me: The rabbit</div><div>The barn with straw bed</div><div> sodijusey: a gun with blood on it</div><div> me: Right, familiar characters to the story</div><div> sodijusey: </div><div> me: There you go</div><div>That would be great. It is both a game and a visual component to the narrative</div><div> Sent at 10:51 AM on Wednesday</div><div> sodijusey: or an author pack...with a blend of characters, settings, plot artifacts from several of the author's pieces</div><div>what if Othello and Juliet were stuck in an enchanted forest?</div><div> me: Do you think team play, where the whole room is playing the same instantiation is more popular in education circles than small clusters?</div><div> sodijusey: no...I don't think it's really doable that way</div><div>I've never seen a classroom playing one game together unless it was jeopardy or something like that</div><div> me: I mean for games in general, not just a picture card game</div><div> sodijusey: depends on the game, really</div><div> me: Right, that is a system where you need someone to arbitrate, the teacher.</div><div>Sure. But what I'm asking, as a designer, is what would the market prefer.</div><div> sodijusey: I think I would prefer traditional board game choices to be played in smaller groups</div><div> me: Are multiple clusters bad because it requires the teacher to have to explain the same thing five times and is afraid some clusters are going to break down and stop participating?</div><div> sodijusey: Though, I think something whole-class could work as well...</div><div>No...you would explain it once, model it...and then they would play</div><div>if they're all playing the same game</div><div> me: Would you as a teacher be interested in team competitions where they are competing for extra credit points?</div><div> sodijusey: on the other hand...if you had some fantasy role playing game going on...it could involve more people right? How many can it handle?</div><div>yes...students get very competitive over games in the classroom</div><div> me: Well, if you can maintain the pace it can scale very well.</div><div>I guess bragging rights are enough, don't need to bring grade points into it.</div><div> sodijusey: maybe a game where it's the same type of game...but you have 4-5 different "plots" going...the first group to accomplish their task wins.</div><div>like mini paks within the same game</div><div>designed for simultaneous game playing but with a twist in their plots or something like that</div><div> me: Interesting. I like the idea of modules that string into a larger narrative</div><div> sodijusey: but they all have to eventually make it to the castle or something like that</div><div> me: Very cool. I've got my designer brain working overdrive</div><div> sodijusey: </div><div> me: Too bad this is off the record, LOL</div><div>I'll have to copy this text into a document</div><div> sodijusey: I think deciding on an educational objective...a learning target would be beneficial. Then it would help us streamline the type of game...the things they will gain by playing the game...whether it's content, review, creativity, imagination, creative writing boosters, etc.</div><div> me: Yes, I was thinking the same</div><div> sodijusey: for instance, if you were designing a game for American Lit it would look very different than a generic "storytelling" game</div><div>I would want specific content</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-45482929317368281112011-10-30T11:52:00.000-07:002011-10-30T13:55:07.194-07:00Games Detrimental?So I'm at on this high, seeing games all around me, either being played, whether the participants would call it a game or not, or potentially played. I go to the coolest game store I've ever seen, End Game of Oakland, where they not only survive in an urban core, but thrive, going vertical and offering a strong venue for game players. Then I watch <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html">this </a>TED talk by Barry Schwartz where he decries incentives as the proverbial "carrot" in a "carrot/stick" dichotomy tempting leaders and others in fiduciary roles away from the just, right, and good choices.<br /><br />What does this have to do with games? Well, games can change the world, as <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html">Jane McGonigal</a> has thoroughly argued in her book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Broken-Games-Better-Change/dp/1594202850">Reality is Broken</a>, and others cited on this blog have argued similarly. Games do this in primarily two ways, either they provide a simulation of the non-game world, where a problem to be solved resides, which can then be played to find solutions, or non-game life becomes game life to steer us toward better behavior, such as the Prius automobile and the gas mileage display on the windshield encouraging better driving to reduce petroleum based fuel consumption. The latter comes about with incentives. You aren't consuming less petroleum based fuel because doing so is the equivalent of spending money to put carbon dioxide in the air and heavy metals in the water, but because it is exciting to get that short-term confirmation that something you did had an impact on something tangible, in this case the digital display.<br /><br />Are games detrimental? Is there certain places, and certain ways, games shouldn't be?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-41233363425316547572011-10-11T21:13:00.001-07:002011-10-11T21:13:06.761-07:00The Value of Randomness<p>The scenario: the tension has built during the course of the game and you've developed a strategy that is clever and potentially a game changing or finishing one, the moment of execution comes and the result is left to the toss of dice or drawing of completely random cards. The result can be very disappointing and not at all rewarding to those who come up with exciting moves. Do we want to leave such things to complete chance, holding great ideas to the same level as mediocre and even bad ones? </p> <p>Randomness can be a good challenge in a game, for example, when determining your resources, such as who will go first in turn based games, or which tiles will you draw in Settlers of Cataan. It can also be a fun way of determining your obstacles, such as which property will you land on in Monopoly after they have all been purchased or which monster will be revealed in the Adventure Tile System. There are times when randomness provides a challenge because of unpredictability, the lack of information which I've discussed previously, but also the uniqueness of each game, and thus its "re-playability." But these are all very different than the unexpected and the not (directly) controlled nature of another persons decisions. </p> <p>In Chess or International Football, the field and the tools are set before the game begins. The tools being the pieces you'll be using, chess pieces and a football, respectively, and the mental and physical capabilities of the players. Also, the rules are a kind of tool, as well. Some games offer different rules depending on the role, resources, and scenarios the game is experienced by a given player. Yet, these games are exciting because it is unknown exactly how a given player will respond under specific, but yet to be determined, circumstances. In Apples to Apples and DiXit the outcome of your choices is determined by deliberate, but unknowable beforehand, decisions by other players. The rules explain the abstract conditions for winning or the effects of resolved conflicts, such as:</p> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex; "> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there is no legal way to remove it from attack.</span></blockquote> <div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess</a>, October 11, 2011.</div><div><br></div><div>However, the specific scenarios are created and evaluated by the players. Chess rewards strategic thinking because the rules are clear and the outcome of a given move is never in question. Likewise, in Apples to Apples a clever choice of word based on a careful evaluation of the judging player is rewarded because the rules are clear and, although the judge will decide subjectively, that subjective adjudication has internal logic. The same with DiXit where a well laid card based on the psychological assessment of all the players, except the storyteller of that round, will be rewarded because the rules are clear and the internal logic of the other voters.</div> <div><br></div><div>What do you think of randomness in games?</div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-8636928417323902422011-10-08T09:26:00.000-07:002011-10-08T09:30:56.491-07:00Mind GamesDrum roll please...the name for the new website is: <a href="http://purposeful-play.com">purposeful-play.com</a> Thank you all for your feedback and conversations. I am still working on the programming of the site, trying to decide the best way to present it, but the domain name is purchased and associated with my server space. In the course of preparing the site I've realized that my aptitude in some programming isn't where I would like it to be. Which means I can use new knowledge, practice for underused skills, and concrete problems to avail. <br /> <br />What I realized was in my excitement to prepare the site and share not only these blog entries, but other new aspects of the site, that this drive was inadvertently encouraging me to go through motions which would lead to my learning and improving skills. Isn't this the beauty of games? To review my definition for games, "an endeavor which has the goal of overcoming challenges, but the value is primarily in the action, not the outcome." I want my web presence for game design and game-play to be found on <a href="http://purposeful-play.com">purposeful-play.com</a> and I want it to be more than a blog. I could pay someone to do that for me. But, because I have chosen to make it myself, to have total control, I'm finding all this joy in the endeavor itself, and that is propelling me through the challenge of learning new skills. <br /> <br />For a great view of what and how games can and are influencing our behavior watch this video a then tell me what positive things you've gotten from recreation.<br /><br /><object classId="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayerLg44277"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/44277" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/44277" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="382" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" /></object><div style="margin:0;text-align:center;width:480px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:#FF9B00;"><a href="http://www.g4tv.com/games/wii/index" style="color:#FF9B00;" target="_blank">Wii Games</a> - <a href="http://www.g4tv.com/e3-2012/" style="color:#FF9B00;" target="_blank">E3 2012</a> - <a href="http://www.g4tv.com/games/ps3/61899/guitar-hero-5" style="color:#FF9B00;" target="_blank">Guitar Hero 5</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-84760854761165375842011-09-29T05:12:00.000-07:002011-09-29T05:50:40.700-07:00Name of The GameI'm happy to say I'm invigorated and driven to continue with this line of posts about game design and theory, and game playing. What seems most desirable now is to have a website independent, unlike the current situation of using blogspot. The question remains, "what shall the new site be called?"<br /><br />Unfortunately, MichaelAtPlay.com andGameOn.com are taken. PersonalLiberation.com is available, but I'm not sure if I want to use it for this narrow purpose. PuzzlePawn.com is available and I think it has a ring to it, as well as being on topic.<br /><br />I open it to you, Audience. Tell me what you think should go into the name of the new site?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-49453998602308957882011-09-28T07:01:00.001-07:002011-09-28T07:01:14.696-07:00Information Disparity - Using The Edge<p>Some crave surprise and the nuance of subtle novelty. Some appreciate the real life simulation that lack of knowledge provides. For different reasons a lack of information is desirable in games. As we've talked about recently, unknowns make strategizing more difficult and make more prudent decisions most viable, such as rejecting the British monk's due to fear they would cease making payouts, or pre-emptive nuclear attacks.</p> <p>So, what is a good long term strategy in this paradigm? Mitigate risk may be a good baseline, but a viable more aggressive strategy might be to place yourself in a position to benefit when another succumbs to revelation. When deciding a play in American football the best choice is a play you do well that has a high payoff in distance. The second best is the one the opponents don't expect, and therefore are vulnerable to. What your opponents know and what they think is powerful information, as it allows you to maximize exploiting the unknown with the least amount of risk. So, a game that allows for not only a lack of information, which any with randomization does, but also the ability to cultivate information disparity offers more viable strategy options. </p> <p>Now the academic point of view on the last might be that there is only one best option, assuming asymmetric values. However, "in the field" we know information is being gathered in constant, subtle moments. The body language of our competitors across the table can instantly make a change in the calculations.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-74364325930306092192011-09-23T14:31:00.001-07:002011-09-28T07:06:47.303-07:00Options and Moving Parts<p>When making a statistical study you limit the options of possible answers so as to make comparisons easier. There are different degrees of this, but whether cardinal or ordinal, there certainly isn't a free form of organic options, such is human reality. When we think of games we often think of the moves available as categorizable. In American football the players performances may vary extremely, but the rules definitely limit the options of "moves."</p> <p>One way of adding move variability is in making the arbitration mechanism binary or cardinal, but this is just a framework that gives shape to the play field, which is free form. Examples are voting and reputation ranking.</p> <p>One way to simulate human society would be to collect each option, as they are realized, in a relational database, where different options could be ranked under conditions, and still be associated with specific people, times, et cetera.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-21546737898102511202011-09-15T15:14:00.001-07:002011-09-15T15:14:14.940-07:00Information Costs<p>Many games assume the players know all the rules and have an equally universal assessment of the value of all resources. In the board game Monopoly the only unknown is the outcome of dice rolls. The cost of improvements, rent, property, and number of properties per set, is all known so one might assess the value of each pair. The game of Clue, however is all about research costs, the winner is whoever has the lowest. The shortest route and the best recall of the information, suspects and potential murder weapons and the rooms, is going to win, with a slight deviation based on statistical outliers in the form of consistently high dice rolls.</p> <p>In life we could benefit from knowing as much as we can. And we can know almost everything about now and extrapolate a lot about tomorrow. We can be aware of interest rates, average wages per industry and region, property values, stock market trends. We can also know a lot about ourselves. Where are we spending our resources? How much are we putting in to each task and how much are we getting out?</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-42791831325606727052011-09-13T15:29:00.001-07:002011-09-13T15:29:56.469-07:00Game Theory of Romance: Part 1<p>Game theory is a way to map decisions with cost-benefit analysis that takes into account all of the "moves" in each set, and the degree of knowledge of the moves made by others. What does this look like if we apply it to the oldest game, the Game of Love? This is the first in a series that will explore different aspects of this.</p> <p>In the first scenario we will assume this is a relationship between two arbitrarily chosen people, statistically average, and only their moves are of consequence. They are already in a romantic relationship with each other, will it stay that way?</p> <p>Let's say they each get an amount of utility between 1 - 10 from being with the other, variance determined by many minute decisions by that person, their partner, and circumstantial details. If that person is rejected their utility is zero, if it is mutual rejection utility is two, and if they reject the other without being so in return utility is four. Now, due to inertia, the lover will not reject unless utility falls below four, because the rejection value is four, this assuming simultaneous decision making and transparency of intent.</p> <p>If the lover's partner is difficult to understand, poor communications, erratic, then rejection becomes inevitable because the payoff of rejecting, four, is greater than that of mutual rejection and longer you wait the more opportunities to be rejected. Another trait that would increase desire to reject is if the partner places a high discount on future utility, that is, they don't place much value in planning for the future. In that case you have a partner that will get more than four utility from rejecting the lover, as they only see the grief avoided now, not the joy forfeit in the future, thus the risk of being rejected is high and will ultimately be avoided by the lover.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-82930111551672397782011-09-09T05:17:00.001-07:002011-09-28T07:11:29.293-07:00Re Reputation<p>Reputation systems as <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDMQxQEwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fviewer%3Fa%3Dv%26q%3Dcache%3AdHJdvkjbA34J%3Aebusiness.mit.edu%2Fresearch%2Fpapers%2F102_Dellarocas_eBay.pdf%2Beconomic%2Breputation%2Bsystem%26hl%3Den%26gl%3Dus%26pid%3Dbl%26srcid%3DADGEESjfLTUXaEZtKvVd-jjO5E84ZfqCnMl_LmQb68gJR0kLY5ua5iwIbcvXj2or70i2UdxrOfnFo701Lvz1S9kgX9u9M0mx24z2U99o33w1u53BroMKEsKyfC74tag5fWaGPM0zF-AW%26sig%3DAHIEtbQBcdW2ThlqsOtY6mkTcWEoc2ZwMw&rct=j&q=economic%20reputation%20system&ei=6g1qTpuGCuqosQKs1_GOBg&http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifusg=AFQjCNGB5MWfEKgqTbeOBj2pH6L0r1prlA&sig2=_34N4f985tZ6Z4bB0Yt5Fw&cad=rja">economic</a> and <a href="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011531.html">business</a> models have been spreading in popularity over the past decade or two as the idea has gone the usual route from academia, to science fiction and environmentalists, and then the business community. I've been fascinated with it for some time, going away and coming back, and I feel another attack of love sickness coming on.</p> <p>Real quick topic warmer, Amazon.com is regarded as having the most successful and earliest contemporary, read Internet age, manifestations via their consumer sales. However, this ranking is limited to what they sell. Google, with search voting, the "+1" option, allows seamless reputation voting of everything networked.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-51932436905171108672011-09-04T13:59:00.000-07:002011-09-04T14:11:40.217-07:00Ideas and PatentsI have two fairly solid ideas that need to be codified and then at least one of them submitted for patent approval. Worst part of all of that, if there is a bad side, is not feeling free to share my enthusiasm completely due to needing to protect my intellectual capital from unscrupulous opportunists. Expressing my excitement means a lot to me, those feelings are largely the positive reinforcement for my creativity.
<br />
<br />The one that is most ready for marketing and being patented will be getting its own website soon where the potential fruits can be trumpeted and donations be solicited. I'm going to work the environmentalism angle on this and try to get a decent starting capital without exposing myself to much personal financial risk.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-22268032060481334522011-08-08T05:38:00.001-07:002011-08-08T05:38:42.330-07:00Mental Puzzles and Present-ness<div id=":5c" class="ii gt"><div id=":5d"><p>On this blog I have written much about large trends and movements in society itself, but not as much about very present, human-scale issues. Turning one's focus back to the here and now is exactly what this entry is about. You'll hear the wise talk about being present, that is: not fixating on the past and not fretting about the unknown future. That is the goal of the following method, but also being spatially present, as well. If there is something happening, or you believe it to be happening, right now but not in your immediate situation, then it is something to be avoided along with the past and future. If somewhere a deal for ten thousand shares in Google is taking place, but not where you are, it would be best your thoughts turned away from it.</p> <p>Imagine your mental landscape as a maze. The dead-ends are the fears, delusions, obsessions, and insecurities which can derail and dominate our energies. In the middle are your values, ethical and aesthetic. We might cite our values when in a dead-end in some intellectual grooming to excuse our choices, but not until we dig our way out from the maze's depths can we be our mental identity.</p> <p>Our journey for a healthy mental state doesn't end there. We can only be the maze center for a moment before we reflect, therefore we must choose quickly to re-focus our attention outward. In our model of the mental landscape the maze is two dimensional and can be seen superimposed upon our bodies. When we are focused internally the orientation is a plane that doesn't intersect the sense organs; imagine the maze starting in your frontal lobes and slanted down through the torso. When we get to, and become, the maze's center we can reorient the mental landscape to intersect the eyes, the skin, let it drift down to touch the nose and tongue, and experience the here and now. Sometimes we don't like where we are, but if that opinion is to mean something we have to live it.</p> </div></div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-4687364176775180452011-07-13T04:33:00.001-07:002011-07-13T04:33:47.874-07:00Cyclic Pressures and Shipping<p>First, my apologies for the absence and thank-you for reading.</p> <p>In this depression consumers are pulling back on the "extra." One example is the speed of items shipped. Many online ordering services offer a discounted, often free, shipping option which takes the most amount if time to arrive. This most modest option often employs the US Postal Service in the United States.</p> <p>It would be interesting to know how the percent of online derived business for private porters has been effected. Likewise, how has the US Postal Services position as "shipper of last resort" effected the national revenue at a time of financial austerity.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-39403762490363569492011-05-13T04:39:00.000-07:002011-05-13T10:00:45.299-07:00Transportation CostsThe price of gasoline more than four dollars a gallon in the United States, we've seen this before, it fluctuates. What if four dollars a gallon wasn't an extreme high, but the average? I'm thinking right now about the suburbs and the exburbs, those in the most remote parts of the metropolitan zones. The people who own those houses will use a time share instead of buying the vacation home, will be using discount services like Priceline and air miles more frequently, generally looking for more opportunities to save without curtailing their lifestyles; they will succeed because the percentage of their expenses transportation costs comprise is small. <div><br></div><div>Those who don't own houses in the suburbs will have to take more drastic measures. Some of which I imagine being a popular strategy is reducing travelling distances and using public transportation. As most of these people don't live in the suburbs, and even less will with four dollars a gallon average prices, working in the suburbs will have high utility penalties. The restaurants, grocers, and hospitality services will need to pay more to maintain, while those small businesses, the non-chain versions in the urban centers, will be able to compete in the labor market at lower prices. There may be a rebirth of urban industry, one that will have to coexist with contemporary pollution and health standards.</div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-48958271113004528392011-05-02T14:49:00.001-07:002011-05-02T14:49:10.732-07:00The Beauty of Nothing<p>I've been noticing a strong commonality between Existentialism and Buddhism. In both systems of thought the present is held as the goal and the rest is how to get there and deal with it. One method Buddhism suggests is to be still, in body and mind, but especially mind. <br> Some have said that this act of not acting is alien to Western people, but I disagree. At least since the television has become a common appliance this has been true. It could be that television is so popular because of a desire for stillness, but television doesn't create a file environment for introspection, which can be intimidating. Stillness, then, can help us grow, so it is more productive than passively brainwashing ourselves. Something to consider the next time you want to relax.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-4020610091515224722011-04-14T05:26:00.001-07:002011-04-14T05:26:52.015-07:00Qualitative Survey of Motorists - Thursday, April 14, 2011<p>Vast majority, approximately over ninety percent, were single occupied vehicles.<br> Well over half were driven by women.<br> When passengers were present, all were women.<br> The number of drivers of Negro descent were approximately on par with cohort's ratio of the United States population.<br> The number of passengers of Negro descent were over par with cohort's ratio of United States population.</p> <p>The survey was conducted on the Eastbound motor vehicles on Morse Road in Columbus, Ohio from 8:00 - 8:10 A.M.<br> </p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5619250998676044752.post-66115012789985212062011-04-11T05:23:00.001-07:002011-04-11T05:23:12.453-07:00(Sports) Philosophy of Mind<p>Most team games have the goal of taking the ball away, and keeping it, from the opposing players. This is an incentive to reduce the participation, thus the fun, of competitors. It encourages team work on one side, but doesn't foster inclusion and rapport across the field. <br> As a side note for all the traditional business network builders: Golf is passive-aggressive, the players engage through the turf.<br> For a cooperative competition look for games where everyone gets a turn, or at least there is an incentive to give other players an opportunity to participate. Examples include tennis and role playing.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0