MEETING NOTES Followup, October 16, 2001: Geoff's Email
Dear all,
Our homework was to gather ideas about points. Here is my list of ways in which points could be assigned.
1. No Points - the simplest model is to have no points at all. This does not mean that the game might not have winners. One could have winning conditions that do not involve points. (The first successful challenger wins the game, for example.)
2. Machine Assigned Points - Ways in which the server could assign points.
2.1 Text Points - points assigned for textual creation
2.1.1 Based on the quantity of words input by user.
2.1.2 Based on the number of some other textual element like
sentence, paragraph, question .... It is possible that different
types of elements might be assigned different point values.
2.1.3 Based on certain patterns that appear in the text. For example
one could take away points for the use of certain words like
"hermeneutics" or "halibut". :-)
2.2 Link Points - points assigned for links
2.2.1 Based on number of links. Player gets points for every time
she/he links to some text by another person.
2.2.2 Based on links coming in. Player gets points for every link
into text they authored.
2.3 Turn Points
2.3.1 Based on completion of turn or turn-related activities. Thus a
player could get points just for continuing to play.
2.3.2 Chance points based on an internal process that randomly
assigns points for various reasons. "Senior scholar dies and leaves
her library to you - you win 50 points!"
3. Human Assigned Points - Ways in which players could assign points.
3.1 Wizard Points - points assigned by a player with special status. The wizard could assign points to moves or players for what ever reasons they want. Alternatively the wizard could be forced to assign points at given moments in the game. The system would guide the wizard.
3.2 Lurker Points - points assigned by players with a status as not a mover, but as a watcher/lurker. They could assign points to moves.
3.3 Player Points - points assigned by players to each other.
3.3.1 Player Self-Assigned Points - when each player makes a move they could assign themselves points based on how brilliant they think the move is. They would have to justify the assignation of points and could be challenged on their self-assessment.
3.3.2 Player Other-Assigned Points - when each player makes a move other players get the chance to assign points to it. Players could be forced to assign points (or lose them in some way). Thus part of playing is assigning points to others.
3.3.3 Voting - At certain points in the game we could have a "Peer Review Process" where players are presented with moves that they then vote on.
3.3.4 Challenges - Challenges would have features of 3.3.3 - when a challenge happens then the game stops, everyone has to vote for or against the challenger. Depending on how the vote goes then points are assigned and the game state is reset.
Yours, Geoffrey Rockwell