On Wed, 19 Jun 2013, Charles Walker wrote: > On 19 Jun 2013, at 20:12, Kerim Aydin <ke...@u.washington.edu> wrote: > > Heh. Was thinking about it just now, I personally classify players by > > era: > > > > 1. Nomic World (to 1993); > > 2. Agora but departed pre-2001 (when I joined, maybe Murphy has more > > eras here); > > Is this era based on your perspective, or did a large number of players leave > before 2001?
My perspective entirely. By the registrar's report, there were many players between 1993-2001 that I never knew except by name/rumor, and I can't say if there are "eras" in that time period. > > 3. Massive Economic System (1999-2002); > > 4. Interregnum (2003-2006); > > 5. Massive Contract System (2007-2010); > > 6. Second Interregnum (2011-present). > > > Do you think of an interregnum as characterised by a lack of activity, or > just a lack of stability? Or is it just the lack of a 'massive system'? Mainly lack of a single coherent system that was central to all play for a long time. Which also might translate as 'stability', too: there were systems during the first interregnum (cards comes to mind) but none lasted more than a year or so. Some of these started or ended abruptly (e.g. Zephram's CFJs on playerhood starting the contract era) and some petered out (the 'massive economic system' just sort of petered out before it was repealed). > I'd love to hear players' views on what causes these eras (if you don't > think they are just arbitrary labels), Style of play is one thing. Check out the transition around Jan 2007 here: http://zenith.homelinux.net/cotc/case_count.php It would be cool to plot enactments/repeals like this... omd have you made plots like this from your database? > rather what makes a particular > system stable enough to make it last that long. Does Agora simply create new > things that interest it and repeal things that bore it, or is there something > deeper there? It's a mystery for me. I don't know what made the first Cards successful and the second one die. Dunno why some economic system worked and some didn't. Proposal manipulation to more chambers than 1 or 2 seems to always flounder. Dunno why! > Any ideas, anyone? High hopes for Yaks! I'd let it stabilize a bit before adding massively to it (i.e. maybe add more good things to buy/sell, but not tacking major major additional systems on yet). -G.
