Let's Play A Game

Rather than complain about what I don't have, because we know how much of a greedy asshole I can be, I thought I would donate my time and energy to building something not pyramid scheme related.

So, let's play a game. I call it "Totem". It's a very open ended game with no complex mechanics or Proofs of Anything. All there is a group of people, a simple set of rules, and a totem. Totem is a social and creative open-ended game.

A game that can be crafted into anything

First you start with a "totem". This is ideally an account with no prior power, responsibility, or history. You select one person to manage this account which is called the totem. This person essentially manages the game depending on the rules of game. They publish and provide users access to the meta-structure of the game. They are the keeper of the rules.

Next are the rules. The rules simply list out requirements for players to be players and provide structure to changing the rules as time goes on. These rules should also clarify the relationship between the totem and the players. I'll go through a set of rules I thought up in the shower recently. Different totems can use different sets of rules as each totem oversees an individual game.

Lastly and more importantly are the players. Within the rules they explore the boundaries and create whatever they want within those boundaries and their imaginations. And upon agreement amongst the group of players, they can change the rules of the game.

So let's look at an example rule set to see how a game like this might start:

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Totem

Totem meta rules:

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1. The person that controls the totem must behave according to the rules as determined by the players and the beginning of the game.
2. The person that controls the totem has no say on votes on rule changes.
3. The person that controls the totem can dissolve the totem at any time.
4. The person that controls the totem may relinquish control of the totem to another person. The rules apply to the updated statuses of both players.
5. The person that control the totem must decline all rewards.

Totem game rules:

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1. Any player has to delegate power to the totem in order to participate in voting on rule changes.
2. The maximum amount of effective delegated power is 5 STEEM.
3. The voting weight is the square of the effective delegated power.
4. There will be a maximum of one rule change per day. This rule change will be called a proposal. The proposal must offer a new rule and will be voted upon via a binary Yes / No vote. The majority decision based on voting weight will be adopted.
5. The totem is only permitted two operations. The first is to publish proposals so that users can vote on them and the second is to publish the results of the proposal once the voting period expires.
6. Any player is free to leave the game at any time by removing their delegation from the totem.

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So, there's a very open ended framework of some simple rules for an example game of totem. Note that games don't have to follow any of these rules. As long as there is an acting totem and a way to keep track of rules and players, that's really all that you need.

However, you might be thinking to yourself that this sounds more like governance than an actual game. But that's because you're taking this whole infrastructure thing too seriously. Consider the game of Totem to be a simple framework in which games could be implemented inside of.

You could convince the group to build a better bid bot (please don't), you could force players to randomly flag people or themselves (also probably not recommended), you could add theming and create additional resources to implement interesting fantasy games. You could also use the framework to put on top of existing games to cater to crowd participation. The collective imagination of the player base is the limit.

But these are just my preliminary thoughts. Feel free to add yours.