from Hacker News

Nomic: "...a game in which changing the rules is a move."

by elimisteve on 4/24/10, 10:03 AM with 29 comments

  • by lambda on 4/24/10, 4:16 PM

    Ah, I remember playing Nomic obsessively online back when I was in high-school. I was the webmaster (or "Secretary of Truth") who inflicted the painful red color scheme on MacroNomic: http://www.nomic.net/deadgames/macronomic/

  • by njl on 4/24/10, 2:29 PM

    When I taught high school, nomic was the day-before-vacation time waster in my CS classes. I think we actually had a winner once in the couple of dozen times we played, but the kids had fun. They sat around arguing about logic, which was a very easy sell to my administration.

  • by milkshakes on 4/24/10, 3:24 PM

    For those with a shorter attention span, there's an addictive card game in which changing the rules is a move: http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Fluxx/

  • by davidalln on 4/24/10, 12:24 PM

    This sounds a lot like the semi-popular college game 1000 Blank White Cards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000_Blank_White_Cards)

  • by div on 4/24/10, 9:50 PM

    This brought back fond memories of calvinball http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Calvinball

  • by saurabh on 4/24/10, 11:02 AM

    Haven't read about it before but sounds interesting.

  • by jsomers on 4/24/10, 3:30 PM

    Hofstadter wrote about this in a column for Scientific American. The article appears in his collection, "Metamagical Themas," and Google Books has most of it here: http://books.google.com/books?id=o8jzWF7rD6oC&dq=metamag....

  • by chokma on 4/24/10, 3:37 PM

    Nomic is a fascinating game.

    For those about to try it in school: You should probably add a fixed rule about not ending class prematurely and going outside to play (my students needed a rather long time to come up with this loop hole). But it was an interesting hour which served as an introduction to the 10 commandments.

  • by mkramlich on 4/24/10, 7:39 PM

    Fluxx. highly recommend for hackers. same spirit as Nomic but MUCH simpler and easier to learn and play. And fast.

  • by pw0ncakes on 4/24/10, 1:14 PM

    Sounds really cool. I wish I could find a group to play this with. Any takers in NYC?

    In other news, all these numbered rules made me think of Rule #34. I lost.