Round One
January 13, 2003 - April 9, 2003
Contents
Ascension Address
When BlogNomic began, it had no Emperor rule or Dynasty structure - this initial Round (which didn't even know it was a Round) had no Ascension Address, and began as a straightforward unthemed Nomic.
Players
Adam, Ben, Craig, Don, Erik, Kevan, Kosta, Lyndse, Mikey, Myke, Noelle, OA, Ole, RavenBlack, Xylen.
(bold = admin)
Final Ruleset
Proposals of Interest
Until the First Dynasty of Est, each player was required to maintain a weblog outside of BlogNomic. Weblogs were a major part of BlogNomic in its initial incarnation. Players were encouraged to post regularly.
- Kick the Idle (Kevan, 1/13/03) removed any player who failed to update their own blog for a full week
- Iconic Clarity (RavenBlack, 1/13/03) allowed the use of "appropriate icons" when casting votes of FOR and AGAINST
- Time Out (RavenBlack, 1/13/03) said that if three proposals timed out in a row, any players who had failed to vote on them were removed from the roster
- Data Tracking (Kevan, 1/13/03) introduced the GNDT, a tracking tool which had been used for a few other small Nomics previously.
- KISS (Ole, 1/13/03) capped the rule count at three times the number of players
- Obligatory Positive Reinforcement (Ben 1/14/03) The precursor to Gold, Lead, Power, Life Force, etc. Initially, points were simply a score for the game; Ben later successfully proposed that points be used for money or an equivalent, and they could be transferred to other players at will.
- Arbitrary Alliteration (RavenBlack 1/14/03; Later Glittering Prizes Kevan 1/23/03) Each player was given points for using Alliteration in their own weblogs on Sunday; this later became encouragement to make posts in Haiku or other unusual forms, and the Sunday restriction was changed to once each week.
- The Corrections (Kevan, 1/15/03) allowed admins to correct typos in the ruleset
- Default Voting (RavenBlack 1/15/03) made player votes default to FOR
- Shut Up, RavenBlack! (RavenBlack 1/15/03) limited players to two proposals per day; this became two pending a few days later
- Clarity Again (RavenBlack 1/16/03) created a small glossary rule to clarify some terminology, such as what a "day" is considered to be
- For Services Rendered (Ben 1/17/03) allowed players to give points to each other
- Karmarama (Kevan 1/17/03) created player Karma ratings which other players could modify to rate "good or bad Blog entries, or behaviour within the game", at a rate of ten Karma per day
- (This list of significant dynastic events is currently incomplete.)
- First Government Proposal (Erik, 2/5/03) Didn't pass, but an interesting one. Created two political parties based on points and karma, and suggested a way to become "Dictator."
- The Gameboard (Erik, 2/12/03) Put a game board in the ruleset, which was later moved to another location (now obsolete). The gameboard lasted for quite a long time.
Ascension
After a while, several players seemed to dislike the lack of victory condition, and general agreement favored a fresh start. Myke had the highest point total, and with a donation of 33 points by Kevan, reached 1200, the total suggested in the Dynasty proposal (4/7/03 by Myke, Enacted by Kevan 4/8/03).
Essentially, victory was awarded to the player with the most points, by majority vote, and the concept of Dynasties was created.
Commentary
Myke, the first Emperor of Blognomic, writes:
- Well, Round One... was I think the best. I'm not all about the extremely complex parts of a Nomic, and I preferred it much more when it was simpler. Also, Round One was incredibly rooted in our Blogs, which is a quality that seems to have passed out of BlogNomic. (I noticed the proposal to get rid of daily post points.... was saddened.) Kevan's Kaleidoscope spin-off game might be good as a record, as it is a simplified version of Round One.
- Another thing worth mentioning would be that the original RuleSet was kept in BlogNomic itself (as the first entry) and only later on was it moved to the TWiki site. The GameBoard was another side-game that was hosted on TWiki, that might also be noteworthy. Unfortunately, it wasn't really put together well, and repeated attempts to link it to Blogs failed, and it was disbanded. In GameBoard history, the first scam of it, when 2 players (Don and... Erik maybe?) got online and traded turns back and forth (before an establishment of stricter turn-rules) and grabbed the entire board... began heated discussions about the nature of a Nomic, and that the true winner was one who was able to bend the definitions of the rules taken literally and find the scam. I'm not proud to say that I voted with the "thought behind the rule" mindset rather than the "letter of the law" side. Ah, well.
Credits
History submitted by Damanor.
