Nomic is a game in which the rules of the game include mechanisms for the players to change those rules, usually through a system of democratic voting. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... See also Portal:Law The stela of King Hammurabi depicts the god Shamash revealing a code of laws to the king. ... Democracy is a form of government under which the power to alter the laws and structures of government lies, ultimately, with the citizenry. ...

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, the creator of Nomic, The Paradox of Self-Amendment, Appendix 3, p. 362.

"Nomic" actually refers to a large number of games based on the initial ruleset laid out by Peter Suber in his book The Paradox of Self-Amendment. (The ruleset was actually first published in Douglas Hofstadter's column Metamagical Themas in Scientific American in 1982, which discussed Suber's upcoming book, which wasn't actually published until years later.) The game is in some ways modeled on modern government systems, and demonstrates that any rule-changing system can get into a situation in which the laws are contradictory or insufficient to determine what is legal. Because the game models (and exposes conceptual questions about) a legal system and the problems of legal interpretation, it is named after νόμος (nomos), Greek for "law". (See also nomos.) Peter Suber at the Berlin 4 Conference in Golm, germany Peter Suber (born November 8, 1951) is the creator of the game Nomic and a leader in the open access movement. ... Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American academic. ... Metamagical Themas is an eclectic collection of articles written for Scientific American during the early 1980s by Douglas Hofstadter, and published together as a book in 1985 by Basic Books (ISBN 0465045669) . The subject matter of the articles is loosely woven about themes in philosophy, creativity, artificial intelligence and important... Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published monthly since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... See also Portal:Law The stela of King Hammurabi depicts the god Shamash revealing a code of laws to the king. ... Nomos (plural: Nomoi) can refer to: the prefectures of Greece, the administrative division immediately below the peripheries of Greece (Greek: νομός, νομοί) the subdivisions of Ancient Egypt, see Nome (subnational division) law (Greek: νόμος, νόμοι). It is the origin of the suffix -onomy. ...

While the victory condition in Suber's initial ruleset is the accumulation of 100 points by the roll of a die, he once said that "this rule is deliberately boring so that players will quickly amend it to please themselves." Players can change the rules to such a degree that points can become irrelevant in favor of a true currency, or make victory an unimportant concern. Any rule in the game, including the rules specifying the criteria for winning and even the rule that rules must be obeyed, can be changed. Any loophole in the ruleset, however, may allow the first player to discover it the chance to pull a "scam" and modify the rules to win the game. Complicating this process is the fact that Suber's initial ruleset allows for the appointment of Judges to preside over issues of rule interpretation. Look up Victory on Wiktionary, the free dictionary A Victory is a win. ... In a game the score refers to the amount of points achieved by a player or team. ... Look up die in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A judge or justice is an official who presides over a court. ...

Gameplay

The game can be played face-to-face with as many written notes as are required, or through any of a number of Internet media (usually an archived mailing list).

Initially, gameplay occurs in clockwise order, with each player taking a turn. In that turn, they propose a change in rules that all the other players vote on, and then roll a die to determine the number of points they add to their score. If this rule change is passed, it comes into effect at the end of their round. Any rule can be changed with varying degrees of difficulty, including the core rules of the game itself. As such, the gameplay as mentioned in this section may quickly change. Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems, especially formal games. ... A clockwise motion is one that proceeds like the clocks hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top. ... Score can mean one of several things: Look up score in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... CORE may refer to: The Congress of Racial Equality in the USA. The Coordinated Online Register of Electors in the United Kingdom. ...

Rules are divided up into two types: mutable and immutable. The main difference between these is that immutable rules must be changed into mutable rules (called transmuting) before they can be modified or removed. Immutable rules also take precedence over mutable ones. A rule change may be:

• the addition of a new mutable rule
• an amendment to a mutable rule
• the repeal of a mutable rule
• the transmutation of a rule from mutable to immutable
• or the transmutation of a rule from immutable to mutable

Alternative starting rulesets exist for Internet and mail games, wherein gameplay occurs in alphabetical order by surname, and points added to the score are based on the success of a proposed rule changed rather than random dice rolls. A British pillar box (or post box, mail box [U.S.]). The postal system is a system by which written documents typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages containing other matter, are delivered to destinations around the world. ... A family name, or surname, is that part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ...

Variants

Not only can almost every aspect of the rules be altered in some way over the course of a game of Nomic, but myriad variants also exist: some that have themes, begin with a single rule, or begin with a dictator instead of a democratic process to validate rules. Others combine Nomic with an existing game (such as Monopoly, Chess, or in one humorously paradoxical attempt, Mornington Crescent). There is even a version in which the players are games of Nomic themselves. Even more unusual variants include a ruleset in which the rules are hidden from players' view, and a game which, instead of allowing voting on rules, splits into two sub-games, one with the rule, and one without it. Dictator was the title of a magistrate in ancient Rome appointed by the Senate to rule the state in times of emergency. ... Monopoly is one of the best-selling commercial board games in the world. ... Chess is an abstract strategy board game for two players. ... The Mornington Crescent tube station, the games namesake Mornington Crescent is a game created and popularized by the BBC Radio 4 programme Im Sorry I Havent a Clue (ISIHAC). ...

One spin-off of a now-defunct Nomic (Nomic World) is the Fantasy Rules Committee, which adds every legal rule submitted by a player to the ruleset until no more rules are possible. Then, all the "fantasy rules" are repealed and the game begins again. A spin-off (or spinoff) is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one such as a new company formed from a university research group. ... This article is about law in society. ...

Maybe the most famous, though fictional, Nomic game is Calvinball, played by Calvin, the main character in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Listen to this article (3 parts) · (info) Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3 This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2006-01-29, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Listen to this article (3 parts) · (info) Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3 This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2006-01-29, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

Notes

Internet Nomic games in English sometimes use Spivak pronouns, so that the rules can refer to indefinite players easily without using "he or she". The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Spivak pronouns are new terms proposed to serve as gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronouns in English (see gender-neutral pronouns). ...

Games of Nomic sometimes last for a very long time - Agora has been going on continuously ever since 1993. According to [1], "Agora itself was started following the collapse of another Nomic, Nomic World, which was the first known MUD-based Nomic." In computer gaming, a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon or Domain or Dimension) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games and social instant messaging chat rooms. ...

The longevity of Nomic games can pose a serious problem: after a certain point, the sets of rules by which Nomics operate can grow so complex that current players do not fully understand them and prospective players are deterred from joining. One currently-active game, BlogNomic gets around this problem by dividing the game into "dynasties"; every time someone wins, a new dynasty begins, and all the rules except a privileged few are repealed. This keeps the game relatively simple and accessible. Nomicron is similar in that it has rounds--when a player wins a round, a convention is started to plan for the next round. Several rounds experimented with an alternate form of ruleset made up of books and pages. // For other uses, see Dynasty (disambiguation). ... A repeal is the removal or reversal of a law. ...

Another facet of Nomic games is the way in which the implementation of the rules affects the way the game of Nomic itself works. ThermoNomic, for example, has a ruleset in which rule changes are carefully considered before implementation, and rules are rarely introduced which provide loopholes for the players to exploit. B Nomic, by contrast, was once described by one of its players as "The equivalent of throwing logical hand grenades". ... A WWII-era MkIIA1 pineapple fragmentation hand grenade A hand grenade is a small hand-held bomb designed to be thrown by hand. ...

This is essentially part of the differentiation between Procedural games, where the aim (acknowledged or otherwise) is to tie the entire ruleset into a paradoxical condition, and Substantive games, which try to avoid paradox and reward winning by achieving certain goals, such as attaining so many points. Procedural, as an adjective, refers to the concept of procedure. ... In grammar, a substantive is either: a noun substantive, now also called simply noun; or a verb substantive, which is a verb like English be when expressing existence (in contrast to use as a copula). ...

While Nomic is traditionally capitalized as the proper name of the game it describes, it has also sometimes been used in a more informal way as a lowercased generic term, "nomic", referring to anything with Nomic-like characteristics, including games where the rules may be changed during play as well as non-gaming situations where it can be alleged that "rules lawyers" are tinkering with the process used to amend rules and policies (in an organization or community) in a manner akin to a game of Nomic. A derogatory slang term. ...

Online play

The game of Nomic is particularly suited to being played online, where all proposals and rules can be shared in web pages or email archives for ease of reference.

The Nomic Wiki at nomic.net contains a list of active online Nomics.

See also

• Mao
• Bartok
• Dvorak
• Fluxx
• Calvin Ball
• 21
• 1000 Blank White Cards
• Mornington Crescent

Mao (also sometimes called Mü, Chairman, Dictator, Bjorn, Maul or Maui or, in Mongolia, Mangarti) is a card game that is popular among hackers. ... The game of Bartok, also known by a number of other names, such as Wartoke, Warthog, Bartog, Last One Standing, or Bong 98, is a card game that is often also a drinking game. ... The Dvorak Card Game is a customizable card game. ... Fluxx is a card game, played with a specially-designed 84-card deck. ... Listen to this article (3 parts) · (info) Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3 This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2006-01-29, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... This article is about a drinking game. ... 1000 Blank White Cards is a party game played with cards in which the deck is created as part of the game. ... The Mornington Crescent tube station, the games namesake Mornington Crescent is a game created and popularized by the BBC Radio 4 programme Im Sorry I Havent a Clue (ISIHAC). ...

External links

• The original initial ruleset, as created by Peter Suber
• nomic.net contains a Nomic Wiki, the Nomic FAQ, a Nomic Bulletin Board, links to Internet Nomics, a large archive of dead games, and a variety of other resources.
• The Nomic page of Peter Suber, among other things, contains a list of Nomic games past and present.
• A Nomic thesis on the "Mousetrap", published by a player of Agora demonstrates the complicated legal, cultural, and psychological elements of Nomic.