The Twenty-Second Dynasty of Josh

9 March - 26 April 2024

Ascension Address

As any good sequel should, I’m going to stick to the formula that worked the last time: no narrative pre-amble, just an acknowledgement that Spring is here, in the Northern hemisphere at least, and so it’s a good time to go outside and take in the beauty of the world.
I’m very open to seeing what direction proposals take, but I’m especially interested in proposals that encourage real-world interactions with other players - including in person where players are geolocated.
Change the term Vassal to Seeker and Sovereign to Observer. Activate the Building Block Everyone’s Playing and Low-Player mode; deactivate all other Building Blocks. Change the Public Tracking page to “Photo Gallery”.

Players

The following players were active at the beginning of this Dynasty: Brendan, Clucky, JonathanDark, Josh, Kevan, naught, pokes, Snisbo

The following players were active at the end of this Dynasty: 4st, JonathanDark, Josh, Juniper.ohyegods, Kevan, NadNavillus, Xebec

The following players were active at other points during the dynasty:

Gameplay summary

As of April 13th: Players take photos of the world, with their name and the Merriam Webster Word of the Day written in shot to prove that they took the photo that day. They each have secret criteria for what they want photos to contain (eg. "taken at night") and score points for any photos that match it. Players can gain bonus upgrades for certain types of shot (eg. "contains the name of another player"), which allow them to post photos more regularly.

To win the game, players have to attain four out of five awards (eg. "have 200 points" or "guess another player's criteria").

Final Ruleset

Ruleset 224

Gamestate

Photo Gallery

Posts of Interest

Snap Happy (Josh) - Re-proposed the basic mechanic of The Eighteenth Dynasty of Kevan, adding the wrinkle that photos woud be assessed against a mixture of public and private criteria. Criteria were later tightened to only include elements visible in the photograph itself. Seekers could also have individual criteria, although this was never used.
All Points East (Josh) - Photos generated Score based on the Crtieria that they met. Also set out that Snaps could only be posted on according to a Development Interval, initially 5 days.
Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe (Clucky) - Seekers could Guess each others' Criteria. This would become on of the Victory awards but was only successfully done twice, one of which was a snipe.
Mise en Abyme (Brendan) - Turned on the No Cooprations building block, which was the source of controversy throughout the dynasty.
It's Impolite To Be Trite (JonathanDark) - For a while, there was a list of words whose inclusion in a Private Criterion would lead to that Criterion being unable to score. It was repealed, but only after repealing was it discovered that it had, surprisingly, been effective.
Half-Satisfied (pokes) - Amended Criteria satisfaction such that Criteria scored when either satisfed or unsatisfied, but for the obverse total, encouraging Criteria that were balanced in their assessment. Runaway Games are No Fun (Clucky) further ammended this mechanic to force Criteria to refresh after they had scored a certain number of times.
Hunter/Seeker (Josh) - A bounty system whereby Development Intervals could be reduced, allowing for more frequent posting of Snaps. monomethyl-p-aminophenol hemisulfate (Josh), This Is Not A Place Of Honour (Kevan), and The Bench Acknowledges (Josh) each added to the Upgrade Benchmarks available.
Paper Trail (JonathanDark) - DoVs had to be accompanied by a full log of all Private Criteria used in the dynasty.
Catching Up With The Photos (chiiika) - Allowed new-joining players to catch up quickly.
Abstraction (Josh) - The victory mechanic for the dynasty. Players could attain Awards through a variety of approached. First to 5 (later brought down to 4) wins. Philosophical Opposites (JonathanDark) and Freeze Frame (Kevan) each added to or amended the Awards available.
Into the Light (Nadnavillus) - Forced players to declare their Private Criteria when changing them. Exposed at least one ongoing scam that would not otherwise have come to light.
An attempt was made to remove subjectivity from Criteria formation and scoring. This prompted some formalised subjectivity, alongside some failed attempts to enlist idle Seekers or use AI tools. Aesthetic choices were required to carry a few words of reaosning.
Aesthetically Out of Order (Clucky) - Provoked a discussion about the limits of sportsmanship in a game that had established a principle of no cooperation. That conversation continued in Skipping Stones.

Core Proposals

Expecting the Unexpected (Kevan) - Made the wording of No Cooperations a little more restrictive.
Idle Cooperative (Josh) - Amended No Cooperations again.
The Table's Edge (Kevan) - Further amended No Cooperations, this time to establish that proposing and voting culd never be considered cooperation.
Mento Fresh (Josh) - No Cooperations again, this time ensuring that mentorship did not count as cooperation.
Cooperative Emperor Style (JonathanDark) - Enshrined Imperial Styles in the rulset.
Get The Laminator (Kevan) - Corrected a long-standing misapprehension in the ruleset by mandating that all wiki pages called by the ruleset were themselves gamestate.