Glossary of Terms Used

[Graphhiker]

Hi All,

Well, I'll be blunt and say I fell/tripped over all of you nice people
and propelled myself into this groovy (yes, I'm a real retro 60's kid)
STOCKADE project. My background is not, software or graphics; but
rather, politics. However, as I have trawled/nosied through the
discussions, I realised that there are terms that I have no idea of
what they mean and how they are used. What seems to be commonly known
on some platforms, are totally unknown to the rest of the world. So,
I thought if I put a glossary of terms I'll be using; then at least
people will understand/conceptualise the ideas being put forward.

Yes?

PLAYERS
For me, I'd like to view my ideas of players from a socio-political
platform to determine the good/bad and the outright ugly; that is,

LIBERALISM: What I earn in my bag belongs to me. In other words,
each to their own. If I earn as much as I can, then it belongs to me
and no others

Example: Lone players
Moguls
Individual sports players (athletics, shooting, etc)


COMMUNISM: Lots use the manifesto as a template; but, the basic
mechanics of communism, is levelling the playing field and team
effort, rather than each to their own. They must all work together to
get to the end goal.

Example: Team players
Firemen
Team sports players (Rugby, AFL, Netball, etc)


NEPATISM: This is a goodie. It's about players granting favours to
their relatives in business and is best summed up;

Example: Mafia Bosses
Corporations

CRONYISM: Ever heard the phase, "ya bunch of cronies!" well it means
that you (as the head of a group) appoint your long standing friend
regardless of their qualifications. For example, the Indo's are
famous for their cronyisms when Suharto was in power.

And so for me when I look at my players, these are the fundamental
terms I use to define who is where on the ladder.

Now, can someone define for me;

GM and Mechanics and how these terms are used?

Cheers!
Bev.

[Andrew Smith]

You have an interesting take on some of these terms, and I'm interested to see how it pans out in your game.  It looks like your game will have an implied political critique embedded in there.

I don't see much of a difference between your Cronyism and your Nepotism.  What's the difference and how does each contribute to your game?

For game design, though, it's worth making the distinction between Players and Characters.  What the player does is not what the character does, and vice versa.  In my gaming past (I've long since repented of it) my characters were just my personality with a different skill list and with no consequences.  So it was just Andrew, but with a gun and the freedom to use violence to solve problems.  This disturbed everyone.  ;o)

It's a good distinction to make.  The players will guide their characters in such a way as to make a satisfying story, satisfying to that player, at least.  It might be terrible for the character, but satisfying to the player.

The GM is the Game Master, a more generic term than Dungeon Master because not every game has a dungeon.  It's also often changed from game to game. I've seen Referee, Dealer and Bartender (extra points for those who know which game this was).

And mechanics (although I prefer the much more elegant and accurate mechanism*) is how your game facilitates the fiction.  Your player might say, "I thrust my sword through his chest!"  Your game's mechanisms are then used to determine if this declared intent was successful, or how successful it was.  You might use dice, or cards, or a player vote, or some other mechanism.  It's another way to think of the rules of the game.  In Monopoly, for example, the opportunity for trade is represented by the mechanism of the pawn moving around the board as a consequence of a dice roll.

* I'm not a graphic designer either.  My professional background is in engineering.

-- 
Andrew
Philosophy and Politics - http://divinetrauma.blogspot.com
Indie Tabletop Games - http://tabletopmanifesto.blogspot.com
The Stockade - http://stockade.wordpress.com

2009/9/29 Graphhiker <mcg...@ecomtel.com.au>

[Ken Finlayson]

Hi Bev,

You talk about viewing players through a political prism, which is an
interesting and distinctive approach. I don't know whether this is
just something you do personally (categorising the way different
people play games), or whether this is going to be a part of your game
SOCIETY. If it's got something to do with your game, I have some
thoughts (below). If not, you are awesome and please ignore the rest
of this message.

Okay - if the politics of players/characters is a feature of game play
in SOCIETY, then...

- Consider using different labels.
For example, "liberal" and "liberalism" to a US reader won't evoke the
same idea as you describe. (Frankly, I'm not even sure my idea of
"liberalism" equals yours, but that could just be because I've never
studied politics.) Example two, communism is not the only political
philosophy centred on societal team effort.

My suggestion is that if the important distinction is between
individual focus and group focus (rather than two specific political
theories), you should use different labels.

- Do the labels combine?
That is, are the four categories mutually exclusive, or are they
separate axes which can be combined? (A bit like the alignment system
from D&D, if you're familar with that.) I mean, I can imagine
cronyistic (?) liberalism, nepotistic communism, and so on. (As well
as versions based on merit, or some other distinction.)

Cheers,
Ken

[Graphhiker]

Hi Ken,
Welcome along for the ride (I'm still not sure I wanna ride this; but,
I'm gunna have a go at least).

In essence, I agree with you and the labelling. I kind of think it's
relative and important as the designer; however, I want the people
gaming to figure out who they need to do the tasks... (seriously, I
have no idea how that's going to happen at the present)

Politics is a nasty piece of tricks that people/groups have
strategised over the centuries. And explosive at times. However, for
me and my weany game, it's about using the root of politics as a
hammer to nail down the players. The great thing for me and politics
is there is literally 100s of different political people with
different views and the trick for me was to determine the root nature
of people to get them onto the playing platform

Admittedly and from my hazy memory (before I had kids and they
destroyed what few cells I had left); liberalism has at least 9 main
subcategories to its agenda. But the one I'm talking about is the
Thomas Hobbes (individualism) that was pinched/nicked and tweaked by
Thomas Locke (even though he was British) to heavily influence the
American Declaration of Independence. So, liberalism in its roots are
generally/globally defined. The Americans will know liberalism just
as much as the rest of the world.

And for me, I have to somehow intially arm up my player from the
dressing/cloak room in a liberal context so that I'm going to end up
with a one eyed bugger who is solarity, bruitish, poor, desperate and
work as a loner (intelligence level 7, strength - 25)

Then my next player in the dressing room, is from a communistic past.
Before Marx and Engels came onto the scene, communism was alive and
well. It's base component, was indeed, working as a team. Levelling
the playing field. All working towards one cause. In this case, the
state. And so for me again, I have to somehow intially arm up my 2nd
player from the dressing room and I'm going to end up with this player
having the initiative to work in a team to get things done more
quickly (intelligence level - 25, strength - 3)

Essentially, if/when the stages are complete, then skill rewards are
given to go onto the next stage.

Does this make sense? Or am I totally off track here?

Oh hey, in the last couple of days I've thought that wouldn't it be
bloody great to have someone finish my game and got to a portal and
morph into the Dirty Princess, Seige or Concierge (as an example)
game.....

I have NO BLOODY IDEA, if that's even possible.
:)

Cheers!
Bev.

[Nathan]

Bev,
GM stands for game master (as Andrew mentioned above) and in pen-and-
paper (or "tabletop") games it is their job to guide or facilitate the
other players through the story or adventure. They might present
challenges for the characters to overcome and portray any characters
that are not under direct control of the players.

I am sensing from some things that you have said that SOCIETY is a
computer game (please correct me if I am wrong). Many of the games
being discussed here a more traditional pen-and-paper roleplaying
games or boardgames. We did have someone pitch an idea for a
"platformer" style computer game at the Game Design Roundtable but I
don't think they have joined this group yet. I am excited to help you
continue to develop and publish your game, but just wanted to clarify
things at this point, so as to avoid any possible confusion on
anyone's part. Now, if I have got this all upside down and back to
front, just ignore me!

I am not going to enter into any discussion of politics or religion...

[Andrew Smith]

Wimp!

-- 
Andrew
Philosophy and Politics - http://divinetrauma.blogspot.com
Indie Tabletop Games - http://tabletopmanifesto.blogspot.com
The Stockade - http://stockade.wordpress.com

2009/10/1 Nathan <herebe...@gmail.com>

[Graphhiker]

Hello hello out there!!!
:)
Well, I just called into say hello again. Being a Mum on the run, has
it's moments. Thank goodness it won't be long until christmas so I can
give the car a rest from it's Mum's Taxi voluntary services!!!

Well, thanks for the terms and references. This journey has been a
gass for me.

To answer: Yes, SOCIETY will end up at a computer game, thanks to my
very nosey blister/sister, who is a graphic artist. But for me, the
task is to get the game onto paper, first. The draft is now done. I
wrote my heart out, then had to cut the guts out of it and it's
looking very trim now. However, I still haven't gotten over the void
of climate changes being the essence of how the game turns from one
frontier to another.

Oh well, I have exactly 7 minutes left for my cuppa tea then I must
away and get the children (aka, monsters in cute suits) from school
and hope I only terrorise only a few cars with my utterly terrible
driving skills...

Cheers!
:)

Bev.

PS: No, it's not upside down Nathan. You nailed it. It's just me.
My life is always upside down and takes a while for me to put it
upright again!