Reading more and more and

Reading more and more and obsessively more about Nomic, the game where each move changes its own rules.

One of the really interesting bits that I can't stop thinking about is in this article: Breaking the Rules. This was actually written as a thesis in a certain game of Nomic which had rules on how to earn a Degree. Anyway, there is the paradox of authority in any game.

It is a legal move in any game to leave the game.

Most games encourage play, and discourage not playing. Just like how there's a law against suicide. The game of life discourages taking your life. However, it is silly for obvious reasons... if you're suicidal, the last thing you care about is breaking the rules, in fact, it is most likely the rules themselves that brought you to that state in the first place.

The essay talks about two different kinds of rule-breaking: the kind where those who break the rules are required to take back their illegal move and make a legal move in its place (therefore game resumes as if the illegal move never happened). And there are non-retractable rules where you are penalized for breaking the rule somehow, most likely in order to encourage legal play from then on. The illegal move, however, will be on your permanent record as a play that took place. This type of game tries to internalize the whole world outside of the game as well... essentially saying, even when you try to break the rules or leave the game, you are still in the game! The Game Omnipresent.

In our legal world, we understand that most laws have geographical boundaries. It's illegal to drink when you're 18 in the US, but it's okay if you're in Mexico. Do the rules of Earth apply to people on the moon?

If you break a rule that is set in a particular geographical area, and you are caught, there is most likely another rule of that area that says that you have to be punished. What if you broke that rule, and refused to be punished? Well, the government has a worse punishment for you if you're caught. Every broken rule encourages the game to bring you back in and make you pay. The strange thing is that they would rather continue to have you in the game than let you escape the game. One of the worst penalties, however, is to be kicked out of the game: exile, or even worse, death. It's not okay to leave on your own, but if you're really bad, you'll be kicked out. The game proclaims full control.

Some rules, when broken, cause an irreversible change in the game, that can't be taken back. Because there is essentially no way to retract your move, and you have influenced the game in an illegal and most likely harmful manner, there need to be very strict rules that border on the absurd to discourage any but the most ruthless and masochistic players from making them.

These are unpardonable plays, sins, and moves. They, by definition, are the most hostile and threatening events in any game.

The final comment I have to make relates to how a game should not even be allowed to make rules for what to do when people break rules. For, isn't it silly to assume that any rule could prevent a rule from being broken? That type of meta-rule should only exist in the game that lives outside of the game you're currently playing. That's the only way to ensure that, should you exist this sub-game, there's still a larger game that penalizes people who exit that sub-game. You may have exited the sub-game but you still have to pay in the larger game's context. And yet this does not solve the problem, for what happens to you when you refuse to participate in any game whatsoever? There is no super-game that can rule over you if you have forsaken rules themselves. Ultimately, this means there is no penalty for doing so, and that's the unforgettable fear of every player in every game that you participate in. For if you recognize that the whole thing is a sham, your belief could bring down the whole deck of cards. But of course, since none of us is brave enough to renounce all games and rules (who wants to step off into chaos and nothingness?), we'll all continue to play as if that were not an option.