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--- Forwarded mail from richard@genome.wi.mit.edu (Richard Resnick) >From daemon Sun Feb 12 16:55:54 1995 Received: from genome.wi.mit.edu (genome.wi.mit.edu [18.157.0.135]) by fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (8.6.8/8.6.6) with SMTP id QAA63687 for <gl8f@fermi.clas.virginia.edu>; Sun, 12 Feb 1995 16:55:53 -0500 Received: by genome.wi.mit.edu (5.57/1.1.4/8Aug94) id AA26208; Sun, 12 Feb 95 16:55:50 -0500 Date: Sun, 12 Feb 95 16:55:50 -0500 From: richard@genome.wi.mit.edu (Richard Resnick) Message-Id: <9502122155.AA26208@genome.wi.mit.edu> To: gl8f@fermi.clas.virginia.edu Subject: META-GAME Rules Status: OR /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~ \ | Meta-Game: Introduction | | | \_____________________________________________________________________\_/ | / Implemented by Richard Resnick / / richard@genome.wi.mit.edu / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What is Meta-Game? Meta-Game is a game played by any number of people. Initially, the game is virtually rule-less, and the players develop rules as they go along, based on a set of three meta-rules. This game has many similarities to the game NOMIC. What is the flow of the game? In the beginning, there were only the meta-rules: 1. All players have the right to PROPOSE rules, and DISCUSS proposed rules in the game-forum. 2. All players have the right to VOTE in private on proposed rules. 3. A PROPOSAL becomes a LAW when 1/2 or more of the voting players agree that it should. LAWs must be followed by whomever is required by LAW to follow them. There were also a number of implementational rules: 1. All game-play must be officiated by the implementor, Richard Resnick, via internet email. Therefore, all email is directed towards him, and he will disperse information automatically, either daily or weekly, depending on the nature of the information (see below). (See ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTOR, below, for his address.) 2. There are four allowable types of email, delineated by four legal subject lines in correspondence with Richard: PROPOSAL DISCUSSION VOTE GENERAL These four allowable types of email are discussed below. There was also the meta-flow of the game. This is described in detail in the sections below, but here is a weekly synopsis: o All PROPOSALS are due by Tuesday, mignight, EST. o Any PROPOSALS received by the deadline are mailed to all players on Wednesday morning. o All VOTES on the PROPOSALS received on Wednesday morning are due by the following Tuesday, at midnight, EST. PROPOSALS for the following week are also due at this time, as explained above. o DISCUSSIONs can be mailed to the Implementor at any time. All DISCUSSIONs received by 5pm on any given day will be compiled and sent out to all players. DISCUSSIONS received after 5pm will be sent out the following day. o GENERAL discussion with the Implementor can take place at the leisure of the Implementor and the player in question. The Implementor will generally be able to respond within 2 to 3 hours of receiving a letter from a player. PROPOSALs: Since the object of the game is undefined at the start of the game, it seems clear that players will want to create an object of the game (as well as rules for aspiring towards such an object). All game-changing rules are called LAWs, and all LAWs take effect according to meta-rule #3, above. In order to enact a LAW, one must first put forth a PROPOSAL. To put forth a PROPOSAL, send an email message to the Implementor, with subject line "PROPOSAL" (no quotes). The format of the body of the letter must be as follows: PLAYER_NUM: <your player_number> PASSWORD: <your password> START <proposal> END As an example, if I were a player interested in making a PROPOSAL, I would send a letter to the Implementor, with subject line "PROPOSAL" (no quotes), whose body looked as follows: PLAYER_NUM: 1 PASSWORD: qwerty START I, Richard Resnick, propose that all future proposals require a 2/3 majority to be passed into law. END All PROPOSALs must be received by the Implementor by midnight Tuesday (EST). On Wednesday morning, the list of received PROPOSALs for the week will be sent out to all players. Any PROPOSAL put forth by any other means other than the means described above is not an official PROPOSAL, and will not be voted on by the players. DISCUSSIONs: It is not enough to vote on PROPOSALs that are drafted by faceless players. DISCUSSION is a valuable aspect of deciding whether or not to vote for PROPOSALs, and so the ability to have a DISCUSSION forum is available. In order to speak at the DISCUSSION forum, send an email message to the Implementor, with subject line "DISCUSSION" (no quotes). The format of the body of the letter must be: PLAYER_NUM: <your player_number> PASSWORD: <your password> RELATED_PROPOSAL: <proposal number> {<proposal number>} RELATED_LAW: <law number> {<law number>} START <Your words> END Thus, if I wanted to make a statement for all to hear, I would send a letter to the Implementor, with subject line "DISCUSSION" (no quotes), whose body might be: PLAYER_NUM: 1 PASSWORD: qwerty RELATED_PROPOSAL: 1 47 RELATED_LAW: 4 START I wholeheartedly disagree with Richard Resnick's proposal to increase the amount of votes needed to enact LAWs to 2/3 of the voting body. Join me in voting against such a proposal. It is obvious by Richard's tone and lack of compassion that he is a dishonest bloodhound player, only interested in his own silly ends. END This would mean that the DISCUSSION was in reference to two PROPOSALs, PROPOSAL 1 and PROPOSAL 47. The DISCUSSION would also be related to LAW 4. All RELATED tags (RELATED_PROPOSAL, RELATED_LAW, et al?) are _optional_. DISCUSSION letters received by the Implementor before 5pm on any game day will be sent out at 5pm, to all players. DISCUSSION letters are legal on any game day. Any DISCUSSION letter not received by the Implementor by 5pm will be sent to all players on the FOLLOWING day. VOTEs: After having PROPOSEd new rules and DISCUSSed them, it becomes time to vote. All PROPOSALs are due on Tuesday at midnight. Wednesday morning, The Implementor will mail out the list of active PROPOSALs to VOTE on. All votes are to be received via email to the Implementor, by the following Tuesday at midnight. Results of VOTEs will be sent out the following morning. Thus, the life cycle of a PROPOSAL is approximately one week long, from submission to VOTE counting. The list of active PROPOSALs which is sent out to each player will contain each PROPOSAL, plus the name of the player who submitted the proposal, plus a unique number identifying the proposal. In order to VOTE on the list of PROPOSALS, send an email message to the Implementor with the subject line of "VOTE" (no quotes), whose body is as follows: PLAYER_NUM: <your player_number> PASSWORD: <your password> START <unique number> : <y|n|a> . . . END Thus, if I were voting on two PROPOSALs whose unique numbers were 137 and 139, the body of my voting letter would be: PLAYER_NUM: 1 PASSWORD: qwerty START 137 : y 139 : n END A 'y' means that you vote in favour of a proposal. An 'n' implies that you vote against a proposal. An 'a' means that you abstained from voting. If you do not list a certain PROPOSAL in your VOTE letter that was on the active PROPOSAL list, you will be assumed to have abstained from voting on that issue. If you do not send a VOTE letter by the deadline, it will be assumed that you abstained from voting on all of the active PROPOSALs of the week. Any VOTE letter which can not be parsed by the Implementor's mail server will forfeit the player's right to VOTE for the week, unless it can be shown that the error was not directly linked to a mistake made by the player. GENERAL: There will be times when players will wish to converse with the Implementor at a non-official level. Whenever this is the case, the player in question should write to the Implementor, with subject line "GENERAL" (no quotes). No parser will be written for these messages, but it is the request of the Implementor that the format of these letters will be: PLAYER_NUM: <your player_number> PASSWORD: <your password> RELATED_PROPOSAL: <proposal number> {<proposal number>} RELATED_DISCUSSION: <discussion number> {<discussion number>} RELATED_LAW: <law number> {<law number>} START <Your words> END Note again that the RELATED_PROPOSAL and the RELATED_LAW tags are optional. The Implementor will respond at his leisure, usually within 2 to 3 hours if the message is received during normal business hours. ERROR CHECKING: If the parsers written by the Implementor are unable to parse your letter, it will be returned to you with a brief description of why the letter was imparsable. Any letter not received because of imparsability will be considered to have not been sent. Thus, if your votes are imparasable because you neglected to follow the VOTE letter format (for instance), the letter will be returned to you. If you do not resend the letter in the correct format by the deadline, you will be treated in all respects as though you never sent a VOTE letter in for that week. If a letter is imparsable due to a bug in my parse code or some other reason that can reasonably be ascribed to me, no penalties will be forced on the player in question. GAME REPORTING: Every week, you will be mailed a report of the game as it progresses. This report is as of yet undefined, since the game will change as it goes along. In the beginning at least, this report will include a list of the all the active players, the active PROPOSALs, and the LAWs in effect. If the game takes a radical change in objectives, this report might be a map of territory, a bank statement, a list of commodities, a monopoly board, or what have you. REGISTERING TO PLAY: Send an email letter to the Implementor. The subject line must be 'REGISTRATION' (no quotes). In the body of the email letter, include the following: PLAYER_NAME: <your name (doesn't have to be your real name)> PASSWORD: <your desired password> EMAIL: <your internet email address> So, if I were registering to play Meta-Game, I would send a letter to myself, with subject line 'REGISTRATION, whose body looked like: PLAYER_NAME: Implementor PASSWORD: qwerty EMAIL: richard@genome.wi.mit.edu You will receive a letter back confirming your registration and outlining starting dates. QUESTIONS: If you have any questions at all about the game, send a letter to the Implementor with subject line "GENERAL". No parser runs on this list of messages, and I as the Implementor will read and respond to all such messages. ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTOR: This game is run by Richard Resnick, a software engineer/roboticist at MIT's Genetic Laboratory, The Whitehead Institute. His duties there include robotics, software engineering for UNIX and Macintosh based genetics labs, and algorithm design. He is hopeful that he will eventually become a full-fledged Ph.D. student at MIT. His address on the internet, and the place where all Meta_game correspondence should be sent to, is: richard@genome.wi.mit.edu ====================================================================== --- End of forwarded message from richard@genome.wi.mit.edu (Richard Resnick) 
