Re: New word game based on multiversal cosmology
I've just posted a page called Notes on MultiVerses that explains some of the links between structures in the game and the kinds of thing talked about on Everything. This might be appealing if you looked at the rules to the word game a couple of weeks ago, shrugged, and wondered why it was on topic. http://www.ludism.org/tinfoil/NotesOnMultiVerses Regards, Ron Hale-Evans On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 4:13 AM, Vlad Tanasescu vla...@gmail.com wrote: No opinion yet (it is in my to read list) but I find the idea fascinating and wanted to post the actual link to the game rules: http://ludism.org/tinfoil/MultiVerses Regards Vlad On Apr 5, 10:58 pm, Ron Hale-Evans r...@ludism.org wrote: Hi all, Over the weekend, I posted the rules to a word game (stay with me here) that I have been working on for a couple of years, called MultiVerses. While nowhere near a *simulation* game, the *theme* is multiversal cosmology as espoused by various sources such as Russell Standish's book The Theory of Nothing, Greg Egan's book Permutation City, and this list. Players compete to create high-scoring multiverses, which are collections of words that score by having high Kolmogorov complexity -- which is represented by the number of laws or rules each universe, or line of words, in that multiverse implements -- and high measure, represented by the number of functionally-identical universes in a given multiverse. Terms like Kolmogorov complexity and measure are not mentioned in the rules, and you can play MultiVerses without knowing anything about them, but they were in my mind throughout the game design process. Again, this game is not a simulation, so for example, measure is not complex, but a small integer. However, I hope the game is fun and will also introduce people to this kind of cosmology. I am extremely interested to hear what people on everything-list make of this, whether you have enjoyed playing the game or just reading the rules, or if you have some feedback on ways the game can be improved. Regards, Ron H-E -- Ron Hale-Evans ... r...@ludism.org ...http://ron.ludism.org/... Mind Performance Hacks book:http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101534/ The proteiform graph itself is a polyhedron of scripture. (Finnegans Wake 107:08) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Everything List group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. -- Ron Hale-Evans ... r...@ludism.org ... http://ludism.org/tinfoil ... (206) 201-1768 Mind Performance Hacks book: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101534/ The proteiform graph itself is a polyhedron of scripture. (Finnegans Wake 107:08) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Everything List group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
Re: New word game based on multiversal cosmology
On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 1:38 PM, Sami Perttu sami.per...@gmail.com wrote: Definitely on-topic and it seems like a very interesting game, I'd like to try it some time. Thanks, Sami. But it's hard to give useful feedback without playtesting it. It's been playtested quite a bit. At this point I'd consider you to be /playing/ it. :) The scoring rules are critical - how did you settle on multiplying everything together? Maybe it's the only simple choice that makes sense. The short answer is that it's more fun, and generates universes and multiverses that are more what I wanted out of the game. Several other schemes were tried and abandoned. For example, scoring by adding the lines of a universe together led to universes that were single long lines in practice, because a line with 15 words scored as well as one that was 5+5+5 words, and was easier to maintain. If you multiply lines together, however, the latter universe has a base score of 125 points, which is much higher than 15, and this principle leads to more well-rounded, fun, and interesting universes. Similarly, multiplying universes together leads to players developing well-rounded multiverses, just as multiplying lines leads to their developing well-rounded universes. Finally, multiplying by complexity rather than adding it as a bonus encourages players to treat complexity as an integral part of the game and pay close attention to the number of rules they have, rather than simply focusing on adding as many words as possible. I think you'd get more comments if you included a sample annotated game with the rules. Thanks. You may be right, and this may be something I'll get around to, but probably not soon. I had hoped that the sample universe and set of sample laws provided would be enough to get people who had never played the game started. I hope you do give MultiVerses a try. I know that you've probably never played one of my games before, and of course it doesn't come in a colorful box with the name of a famous game designer on it. By way of credentials, I'll just state that I'm dedicated to open culture gaming (hence the lack of fancy box) and I've won a couple of small game design contests. Also, my games tend to be novel and experimental because I'm not trying to sell to a mass market audience. The day Reiner Knizia or Wolfgang Kramer designs a game about multiversal cosmology is the day I'll have to look for a new artform. :) Thanks for your comments. Ron -- Ron Hale-Evans ... r...@ludism.org ... http://ludism.org/tinfoil ... (206) 201-1768 Mind Performance Hacks book: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101534/ The proteiform graph itself is a polyhedron of scripture. (Finnegans Wake 107:08) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Everything List group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
Re: New word game based on multiversal cosmology
Wow, I had no idea I had neglected to post a link to the rules. Thanks, Vlad. I hope you enjoy the game. Ron On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 4:13 AM, Vlad Tanasescu vla...@gmail.com wrote: No opinion yet (it is in my to read list) but I find the idea fascinating and wanted to post the actual link to the game rules: http://ludism.org/tinfoil/MultiVerses Regards Vlad On Apr 5, 10:58 pm, Ron Hale-Evans r...@ludism.org wrote: Hi all, Over the weekend, I posted the rules to a word game (stay with me here) that I have been working on for a couple of years, called MultiVerses. While nowhere near a *simulation* game, the *theme* is multiversal cosmology as espoused by various sources such as Russell Standish's book The Theory of Nothing, Greg Egan's book Permutation City, and this list. Players compete to create high-scoring multiverses, which are collections of words that score by having high Kolmogorov complexity -- which is represented by the number of laws or rules each universe, or line of words, in that multiverse implements -- and high measure, represented by the number of functionally-identical universes in a given multiverse. Terms like Kolmogorov complexity and measure are not mentioned in the rules, and you can play MultiVerses without knowing anything about them, but they were in my mind throughout the game design process. Again, this game is not a simulation, so for example, measure is not complex, but a small integer. However, I hope the game is fun and will also introduce people to this kind of cosmology. I am extremely interested to hear what people on everything-list make of this, whether you have enjoyed playing the game or just reading the rules, or if you have some feedback on ways the game can be improved. Regards, Ron H-E -- Ron Hale-Evans ... r...@ludism.org ...http://ron.ludism.org/... Mind Performance Hacks book:http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101534/ The proteiform graph itself is a polyhedron of scripture. (Finnegans Wake 107:08) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Everything List group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. -- Ron Hale-Evans ... r...@ludism.org ... http://ron.ludism.org/ ... (206) 201-1768 Mind Performance Hacks book: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101534/ The proteiform graph itself is a polyhedron of scripture. (Finnegans Wake 107:08) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Everything List group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
Quantum Suicide as a video game
This is extremely gratifying. Readers of Greg Egan's novel Quarantine would also like this. http://msm.grumpybumpers.com/?p=20 -- Ron Hale-Evans ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] ... http://ron.ludism.org/ ... (206) 201-1768 Mind Performance Hacks book: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/ Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/ (revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower wine has bucked the kick on poor won man) --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Everything List group. To post to this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Fermi Paradox and measure
Hi all, Long-time listener, first-time caller. My favourite answer to the Fermi Paradox has been that the aliens are using nearly-perfect compression or encryption for their radio signals (if they're using radio), and that's why all we can detect is noise. However, tonight another answer occurred to me. What if we're living in a finite simulation? (Yes, I know we might be living in more than one at the same time.) Supposing this simulation has a physical substrate, and we're not in a Permutation City scenario, then the substrate must be finite and therefore so must the simulation. Maybe there are only enough computing resources to simulate the Earth and environs. We don't see any aliens because none are being simulated. Why just the Earth and environs? Well, a finite simulation has to stop _somewhere_. Maybe planet-sized simulations have a high measure because they're just the right size for some purpose. I'm again reminded of _Permutation City_ with the Autoverse that was really just Planet Lambert and its surrounds. Has this solution to the Fermi Paradox been thought of before? Thoughts? Ron H-E -- Ron Hale-Evans ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] ... http://ron.ludism.org/ Mind Performance Hacks book: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/ Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/ (revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower wine has bucked the kick on poor won man) --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Everything List group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
