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No Name Nomic
NO NAME NOMIC is a newsletter and discussion list about the game Nomic. Never heard of it? Neither had I when I went to look at the Web site and newsletter. Normally when we think of on-line gaming, we think of strategy games, shoot and kick 'ems. Nomic is not one of these. It is a game of higher order logic and the ability to work through rule-sets. It was created by a gentleman named Peter Suber and first introduced in Scientific American, in fact.

To give you an idea of how different this "game" is from your normal conception of computer games, let me share with you a part of the FAQ at No Name Nomic:

"2. What is Nomic?

"Asking the question 'What is Nomic?' is like asking the question 'What is a hacker?' or 'What is Zen?' - people tend to get all mystical and cryptic, and you end up with no real idea at all. :)

"Nomic is a game, and it is a lot of FUN! Unlike most games, the rules of nomic are not written in stone. In fact, the object of the game is to make changes to the rules of the game. Players start off following some "initial rule-set", which dictates how the rules can be changed. Once a rule change has been made, players then follow this new rule set. Most importantly, the rules about how rule changes are made can themselves be changed!

"This is where it tends to get mystical, because as a result of these rule changes, the game you are playing will change from moment to moment. The nature of the rule changing mechanism might change from democratic to capitalist, to totalitarian, to whatever. Or the ability to change the rules might be removed entirely - perhaps the game will turn into chess, or tag, or snap. The future of the game is entirely in the hands of the players.

"In the words of Nomic's author:
"Nomic is a game in which changing the rules is a move. In that respect it differs from almost every other game. The primary activity of Nomic is proposing changes in the rules, debating the wisdom of changing them in that way, voting on the changes, deciding what can and cannot be done afterwards, and doing it. Even this core of the game, of course, can be changed. --Peter Suber, How to Play Nomic

"Most nomic enthusiasts seem to enjoy playing nomic in order to experience the possibilities of different kinds of lawmaking processes, and also to exercise their ingenuity in trying to discover loopholes in the rules which give unusual results - mostly to the benefit of the player. (This is called 'scamming', and is lots of fun! :)

"In my commentary on the game I distinguish 'procedural' from 'substantive' games. In substantive games, players play to earn points and win. In procedural games, they try to tie the rules into knots, either for the logical fun of it or in order to win by paradox rather than by points. -- Peter Suber

"For the record, Nomic was conceived and designed by Peter Suber, and first published in Douglas Hofstadter's column 'Metamagical Themas' in Scientific American in 1982, and later in Hofstadter's book, by the same name. Peter revised the rules and published them in his own book, 'The Paradox of Self Amendment' in 1990. See section 11 below, for references.

"NOTE: The section on Nomic from the Paradox of Self Amendment is now online.

"Take a look at Peter Suber's Nomic web page at: http://www.earlham.edu/suber/nomic.htm..."

I spent a lot to time delving into the suggested links and the archived discussion here. I was intrigued by a game that was based on logical, yet multiply-generated, constant change. Check it out.

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