User blog:Hohmannart/Good Morning

Good morning
I have a few ideas right now about the first game to launch here, but I want to scratch out a few notes first about what I think gaming could look like on this site in general.

Design Philosophy
First of all this should be fun. This whole wiki is a game and I have tried to organize it in a way so that different people with different tastes might find their own enjoyment in it. I see games being played out on in-world pages through the form of stories and narratives, and meta-game pages in the forms of encyclopedia articles annotating those in-world articles.

My own project here is to establish an idiom with a focus on process. This wiki is an exploration of speculative fiction writing games in theory and practice, and the Community Encyclopedia basically reflects my idea of that. The Games are an experimental laboratory, and the Encyclopedia is where to put the research and results.

Good Gaming
The life of Historical Abstractions going forward is largely determined by the players, and likewise the quality of the games here will be set by that standard. But by Good Gaming, I actually mean to answer "What kinds of fiction is ok here?" The short answer is that Historical Abstractions should focus on Speculative Fiction.

Speculative Fiction is an umbrella term with many meanings, but on this site should be used to mean: "establishing a fantasy world and investigating that world through written observation about life there". The two key words in the definition are "fantasy" and "observation", game narratives should reflect the subjectivity of the world and meta-game articles should reflect consensus of its objectivity.

The Historical Abstractions wiki should be a wild topography of fantasy The point is to build new fantasies here and to learn about the process, and for this reason Games should not be derivations of existing properties.However, new games based on pre-existing Historical Abstractions prompts will be allowed as would games based on world history concepts such as mythologies and religions.

A Note on Prompts
What makes a good prompt? Right now the only other rule on prompts is that they be under 500 words, but that they may link to the Community Encyclopedia. I believe with the right mix of concept embedding and defining accronyms through the Encyclopedia, writing prompts could turn into its own kind of little formal game. This is an idea thats very incomplete now, but basically one accronym could equal one word. I dont know, maybe 500 words will be enough.

Worlds on Historical Abstractions are not required to be traditional high fantasy/science fiction worlds. Perhaps you have always wanted to know what life is really like for a society of angels dancing a pinhead, or what is happening on just one block in a made up city. Perhaps schools of fish talk about amongst themselves. Or do you want to make up an imaginary cartoon or sitcom? While the first game I'm going to launch will be a science fiction setting, I really want to think outside the box on this.

Any ways, I have written enough, and its time for breakfast.

HohmannART