Talk:Pangaia World Game

The Game is made to add order without imposing order: like Nature allows seeds to drop anywhere, but it still isn't total chaos. Try it.

Ideally, the game should be printed on nice resume paper.

The game should be sized to fit on 2 8x11" pages. I don't think you can get it down to one page, but it would be ideal.

Yes, that's the <Anonymous> grin in the first paragraph in the second section.

Game Master Notes[edit source]

You want the Game extremely accessible, so anyone walking into the space can participate. Simply writing an idea anonymously on a piece of paper is excellent! For the game to work well, you’re going to want some hippies. They provide the best creative spirit and outdoor adventure energy. Definitely coven of D&D Gamers. Nurture them into your space. Techies and hard-core nerds. These are very good. Bicycle nazis: Yes. Hopefully, you’ll have a PhD leading...

Supplies and Setup (in order of priority)[edit source]

Board: Dark cork is best. At least 6ft tall and 8ft wide. Trust me, you weren’t using your walls nearly as well. It will always be useful to your space, so take the risk and get it.
Game Rules: Print above instructions on high-quality resumé paper and tack it to the Board. You can hand-write “Welcome to the Game!” (e.g.) to lend your own personal invitation as GM, if you want. If you wish, you can print out the “Curious onlookers” page and mount it off-board, just under the GM score. It’s for business and government types.
Markers or colored pencils. For writing on game pieces. In an ideal game you’d have personal stamps for everyone, that they could carve themselves to vote with, with their own ink color that exactly matches their chosen writing color. Perhaps this can be done for a mature, advanced game. Stick with perfect rainbow colors and save black for anonymous players.. Players can write anonymously in black.
Item pieces: Pieces of white paper, cut into small pieces approximately 3.5” in size. Triangular is ideal, but you’ll need a special shop to cut that. The pieces can be different sizes, so people can pick what they need rather than constrain idea-generation.
Player nodes should be circular. Circular paper: not so easy to acquire. Probably, people will have to cut out their own. They shouldn’t have borders. People can decorate them based on the game colors to indicate affiliation. If you can find a way to make large number of circular pieces, you’ll be a superstar.
Governance nodes: pick a solid color that heralds your space (like school colors) and is different from the TAG paper. Gift wrapping paper might be good. Secure a good quantity for the task. Do not place the paper near the Board, but give to your space Administrator and explain how they can use it to query the members of the space to create ad hoc governance.
TAG nodes: Polygons of 5+ sides. A silver-paint marker would be good for these. Use pieces in different, solid colors for different Tags. Early use of these can start the trend of color-use. Ideally, TAGs have as many sides as there are votes on it and more color depth as more pieces get associated with it. Their color should be on all the nodes they represent. Player who created the node should keep their signature on the back.
BOTQ pieces: Fluroescent paper to stand out. Solicitous.
Tacks for pinning stuff to the board. A neutral color might be ideal if you have a diversity of colored markers.
History Bin, for holding used nodes.
Thread for linking nodes. I don’t know if this will actually work on paper, limited to 2d. it’s really for a 3d software version. You might find that there’s just an subconscious “chaotic attractor” missing and if you just found the right TAG, the two pieces would gravitate towards it, helping the whole Board.
GM endorsement stickers or stamp: Use these for GM “votes”. Such can be placed directly on BOTQ items, for example. Let the predominant color be gray-black.
Priming the Game: Post a few BOTQs to get some action started. Cut out some player pieces for those you want to invite into the Game first. They get to collect a credit as soon as they claim it. Seed some TAGS to suggest direction ("Woodworking", "Metalworking", "Plastics").

It doesn’t have to all be perfect, but the closer you follow this, the more it will enhance the self-organizing capability of the Game.

Processes[edit source]

Ensure proper use of game currency. Note players who have a big mismatch between the tally on the back of their piece vs. the stickyvotes on the front. They may either be cheating or they’re an underappreciated user.
Re-arrange pieces using the gravity model. Positions on the Board are not meant to confer any particular axis or orientation. But, the number of votes on idea pieces counts towards mass. The number of votes on the front of player pieces count as reputation (=mass*polarity). Polarity is a special value (+/-1) that you keep to yourself and determines whether linked pieces attract (+) or repel (-). You determine polarity value based on whether they’re moving towards or away from the End Goal. Re-arrange the nodes when no one is looking to accurately reflect the Cosmos.
Stellar evolution. Ideally, idea Node radius expands in proportion to # of votes (incl. glommed pieces which show support) until they go supernova (see below). Player pieces should expand with # of completed projects. You can re-create nodes on larger paper pieces whose # of vertices = the # of glomed pieces. This should tend towards a regular polygon; however, pieces which were against the idea should create a concavity, whose depth is proportional to level of disdain (like little Atari asteroids). Glommed pieces should be transferred to the rear of your new piece for anyone who wants to see the detail and to clean things up. Votes should be tallied and the number written in a circle at a corner of the new piece, ideally with dominant vote-colors. Keep a tally for yourself for each glom item you clean up (the GM “work score”). Put that near but off-board. Supernova: Ultimately, a game piece that has completed it’s lifetime for the game (transformed into a completed project or a beloved member who has departed the Game) collapses, leaving only a small engraved, rectangular metal badge (the “collapsed star”). Such a fragment should remain somewhere forever on the Board as a piece of hackerspace history. Earlier-stage events just go “nova”, under In-Board Dynamics--the people are the energy expanding. In any event, put original piece(s) in the history file until other players are ready to remove it rather than delete all the subtle, handwritten histories.
Scrapbook: Clean History bin now and then, to see what’s there and that important pieces aren’t getting discarded. Save significant pieces for a hackerspace scrapbook.
Managing Tags. You can “vote” from the perspective of the tags with their special color. Such “tagging” should blend in with player-votes. A node can have more than one tag. Votes from others shouldn’t really be put on pieces after turned into TAGS, but shwag like fluorescent stickydots, can. Curate TAGS towards perfection, like brand logos. Yearn for single-word tags that pack potency. When the TAG gets too vague, separate into two or more pieces with different names.
Endorsements: Attach your own special flair (GM sticker) to Player pieces for highlighting understated or underappreciated pieces. You may want to print these, specially (“GM`s endorsement”).
Create Schwag: This is fun. When player flair from completed BOTQ activities gets excessive, make special level schwag (aka “badges”): [Custodian: level 5] means the player has completed cleanup Tasks five times. [Renegade: level 10] has completed 10 quests. These badges should be equal in schwag-significance (special metal work, perhaps) to the bling they’re replacing.
Police the Board: Just a general duty, a minimum of control is good, but removing outdated items is good.
Tasks:. This is a good category for the Pixies to get things done in the hackerspace. Try not to offer credits, except as s/he's accumulated from governance nodes (which remember are real, redeemable currency-value), try something more creative.
Quests: Your other great duty. A compelling quest stretches people’s comfort zone and moves the Game closer to the End Goal: a greater, balanced economy. Put your endorsement sticker on these, so new player’s find the good stuff.
And finally: This is the Quest for you as GM: [create great quests: hugs]. For that, you’ll have to know your group and know your own comfort level. A good GM knows where the law should be broken and where it can be bent. I must leave that to your imagination, but encourage you to read “Hack the Law” on wiki.hackerspaces.org. Cheers! :^)

Experimental: Leveling[edit source]

Level 1: after they post their first idea OR voted on another's item, have a player name piece. Level 2: have created a TAG, joined a Project that has gone nova, Level 3: have create a item that has gone nova, fulfilled a quest (with others is fine) Level 4: have finished a project and it has gone supernova leaving behind a memorable game piece. Led Level 5: have led a quest. Level 6: have created a BOTQ piece.

...just some ideas...

Miscellanea[edit source]

Credit to MIT Assassin`s Guild, hippies, the “Gaia hypothesis”, and Buckminster Fuller (“World Peace Game”) for idea inspiration.

Use of this Game: Hackerspaces are free to use this Game for non-commercial use. If you want to adapt this for other uses, please contact me. This document is a pretty close specification for a software version http://github.com/thePastor/Pangaia. Invite me to be GM at your space and we’ll launch the new economic paradigm into supernova! No salary required.

This part can be posted for the directors to see what's going on:

Explanation of the Board to curious onlookers:

Angular white pieces are items in-formation: ideas that may or may not make it to becoming full-fledged projects. You can vote for pieces that you like, yourself, with the anonymous color. If you want, you can even post an event or idea of your own.
Colored polygons with silver-painted names are tags--grouping of other pieces. The rounder the piece, the more mature it is. The bigger it is, the more popular. You can find their color on other pieces, showing kinship and affiliation.
Circular white pieces are Players. Players who have done a lot of things have various schwag hanging from them like Badges of Honor.
Each foil ball is a project that successfully completed. Metal engraved badges are those balls or players whose lifecycle of stellar evolution has completed. Some day they may be “harvested” by some alien race.
Fluorescent pieces or pennants are BOTQs: Bounties, Offers, Tasks, or Quests that have posted. The ones with stickers have been endorsed by the Game Master (or GM).