Round 3
(ended)
Turn 20040202
2006-11-19
15:17 CST

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State of the Nomic Archive

SN-003
Turn: 20040126
Executive: JediSquid

> - JediSquid is the Executive and owes us a State of the Nomic Address this turn

Really? Okay, let's see if I can do this impromptu...

Well, this certainly has been an interesting term. I suppose I should start with the Coup (the first one). I'm sure most of you know all about this, but this is for future generations.

This really starts during the previous Executive election. pitboss posted a draft to the RFC that provided a free rule change (passed regardless of any vote) for all players who voted for that proposal. I read this once, and was terrified. I thought this would most certainly send Nomicron into swirling cataclysmic doom. The only was to stop this was Executive Veto. But, I wasn't sure I would have that position when The Coup would come up to vote, since pitboss had also declared his candidacy. His intent was obvious.

I wasn't planning on running for a third term (hoping to set a two-term precedent like George Washington), but I felt the call of duty to protect this game we know and love. If pitboss was leader of the Revolution, I would be the leader of the Counter-Revolution! After an embarrassing comment by pitboss, we changed our name to The Establishment - I really should pay more attention in history class.

I realized that the future of Nomicron had come down to this single Executive vote. If pitboss won, he would let the Coup pass. If I won, I would veto it. I lost a lot of sleep over this.

Meanwhile, pitboss had altered his RFC to provide safeguards to worried players. I realized that the Coup would help, not hinder, Nomicron, but I could not muster up enough confidence to change my position. I had already declared that I was adamantly opposed to The Coup, and I felt to change positions would be to betray my supporters. I kept silent, and vetoed the proposal.

The next turn provided me my opportunity to switch. pitboss re-proposed an identical proposal, as well as two tweaks to increase the cost of an Executive veto to an outrageous amount. I realized that pitboss could keep proposing the Coup until eternity, and my point account would be drained. In a post entitled 'The Executive Sighs' (I always have had a flair for the dramatic), I joined The Coup, breaking the 6-6 deadlock.

But it was only the beginning. Shortly after the Coup had begun, I was approached by Catesby who asked if I was interested in joining a four-person bloc who could use the Coup for something '...more interesting' as Catesby put it. The plan was to take the Coup to the next level, forming the Tetrarchy of myself, Catesby, Jef, and pitboss, to hopefully repair the multiplying holes in our ruleset.

Unfortunately, the game took a bizarre twist. A chain or RFJ's (which I haven't been able to follow - much too mind-bending for me) judged that the Coup never existed, and neither had the Executive, Trophies, and some number of other things. That seemed to be the end of things, until more RFJ's switched things back. I'm still not sure whether the Tetrarchs, The Coup, and some number of chickens still exist or not. I suppose we'll find out eventually.

That said, I think we've all realized the shortcomings and holes in our ruleset. What I recommend (if the round doesn't end anyway) is someway to switch to Convention mode without the round ending, or some sort of 'Emergency Button' we can push to help us out it times like these. I wish I could give a follow-up to this, but I have a feeling this is the last State of the Nomic for this round.

Wow. I think I got it all. I hope you like it (and I hope I didn't miss any typos).

SN-102
Turn: 20031229
Executive: JediSquid

Ahh ? another Executive term, another attempt at winning. I'm talking about Rubric's attempt, of course. It was a ploy that had never been attempted before in Nomicron, surprisingly. The old 'anything unregulated is permitted' trick. Rubric was a new player at the time, as well, and it reminded me of Modnar's six-day win in Round Two. There was a fierce debate that followed, and I must congratulate Rubric on his relentless debating tactics.

There were some other, less dramatic attempts as well. My favorite was the player who decided to call himself 'The Rules', in hopes of a phrase like, 'The Rules may specify a means of winning'. This try was less showy and much less successful.

In addition to attempts at winning, during this term I saw rise to a new social aspect of the game. Every week, as the proposals for the turn were distributed, players would give their opinions on each proposal in a reply to the Public Forum. While this is a small thing, it is also very important. It shows that we have players who are very dedicated to this game and are willing to devote a lot of time to it. I, for one, salute you. This trend also gave rise to another new idea - an RFC for current proposals. As I understand it, this is currently in the works and should be available sometime next year. This is a grand step forward for debate and discussion of proposals, something that sometimes gets forgotten in the midst of other game activities.

Now, onto a completely different subject. I would like to share with you my theory on nomic games. There are two types of nomic players - Creators and Tinkers. Creators are those that come up with new ideas. They submit proposals that aren't always perfect, but contain the general essence of their idea. The Tinkers are the ones who fix these ideas as to avoid loopholes, connect these ideas to others, or take ideas to the next level. These two groups are symbiotic, and the game couldn't survive without both of them. For example, a game with only Creators would have lots of good ideas, but the game would slowly collapse under the weight of many loopholes. A game with only Tinkers, on the other hand, would never get anywhere because the Tinkers would have nothing to work with. That said, nomic games consist of alternating phases, Createphase and Tinkphase, where each group does what they do best. Take, for example, our current Round 3. Early in the round, there were a large number of new ideas, like Spells, the Grid, Nomichess, Sludge, and Greed, to name most of them. That was our Createphase. Now we are in the Tinkphase. We've figured out that some of our original ideas haven't worked as well as we thought they would, and we're also fixing glaring holes in the ruleset we never noticed before.

This Tinkphase, in combination with the holiday season, as slowed down our game considerably. Note, for example, the total of four proposals this turn. I am not saying this is a bad thing, it's just part of the way things work. However, after we fix all of our problems, the game will speed up once again as we enter our second Createphase. I predict this will happen no later than the end of March.

None of this has been researched, or proven, but I think we can all see that these alternating phases are an important part of our game. Happy New Year to everyone! Let's usher in turn 20040105 with a bang!

SN-101
Turn: 20031124
Executive: JediSquid

I took some time to look at the archives for Round Two yesterday, and I realized just how much this game has changed since I first joined nearly a year ago. I can remember when there were only two or three proposals a week, and when the new big thing was Referenda. Players and personalities have come and gone, and sometimes it seems like I know some players here better then people I see every day in class. We use the phrase 'Nomic is a game of changing the rules', but sometimes we forget how much it can actually change. This was partly the reason I created State of the Nomic - to provide a basic way for us to record our history.

Fortunately, I was not required to use my veto power this turn, as players were not making selfish moves for power as some of us have seen before. This past term, we saw a slew of RFJ's and Appeals, and we worked to fix our current judicial system. New Organizations were created, and several players exploited a loophole in the Organization Point Account rule that allowed them to transfer non-existent points to themselves. Surprisingly, no one went far enough as to actually end the game by this method, which proves to us all that we want this current round to continue for much longer. We also experienced some confusion over what happens when Rules concerning subgames become Poems, and I think we reached a consensus, although I'm not entirely sure.

Concerning subgames, I think the new currency, Tokens, will serve to provide a method for playing our current subgames and future ones without affecting players' points. While, in the past, players were usually opposed to new currencies (Crons in Round One come to mind), I think almost everyone saw the usefulness of having a separate subgame currency. Sludge, on the other hand, which has existed since the beginning of the round, has yet to show any purpose except to call players 'pink' or 'blue', which I haven't seen very much of.

I also want to comment on one of Catesby's last Prom Queen postings, in which he outlined his ideas for 'immortal' and 'mortal' rules to help with the transition between rounds. While I hope the end of the round is not near (although we came dangerously close), I think this is an ingenious idea and we should support it.

As I said at the beginning of my term, my platform has always been entertainment. We play games because they are fun, and we stop playing them when they are no longer fun. Let's make this game as entertaining as possible for as long as possible.

Happy Thanksgiving for those in the United States! For those outside of the United States, Happy Thursday!