About a Pig

[robotnik2004]

Modesty shall not prevent me from noting that my game design General Mud, which I whinged for validation on discreetly mentioned back in November, won the coveted "High Ronnie" for the last round of Ron Edwards' eponymous game designing contest. Here is the link to Ron's very flattering feedback.

Until about three-quarters through, I figured it was merely a dialogue-based homage to Animal Farm, but it's not. Can the Soviet survive? Is the General's ascendancy a long-term curse to its downfall? Are bourgeois notions, in moderation, compatible with a secure economy? This should be taught and played in history classes.

I was especially pleased by that final line.

(I'm going to get even more immodest now and assert that there are actually some parallels between General Mud and neelk's terrific-looking Court of the Empress. But Neel being Neel and me being me, his design is elegant, cruel, and sexy, while mine is convoluted, twitchy, and mostly about a pig.)

Comments

[peaseblossom.livejournal.com]

Hey, congratulations! You probably already know that it's not exactly my type of game, but it's very cool nonetheless.

[neelk]

First, congratulations!

Rereading General Mud, after having looked at Emily's link on consensus-based meetings, reminded me of Jonathan Walton's posts about the middle ground and how communities of practice form. That's kind of convoluted, but that's how you all have given me the idea for the most frightening idea for a horror game I can possibly imagine. You can think of Stalin and his inner circle as forming a really effective community of practice, where the practices they were engaged in were horrible and evil: they formed a learning community discovering how to really effectively engage in repression, tyranny and genocide. So, the ultimate horror rpg would be one where the players, by playing it, teach themselves and each other how to do just that. "Play this game, and you'll be a worse human being!"

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

Um...there's something wrong with a game that is mostly about a pig? ;)

[allegedly.livejournal.com]

Cheers!

[foogie.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!

[sneech515.livejournal.com]

That's great! When will General Mud XP be ready?