Re: Let's nip this problem in the bud.

["James K Droscha" <jdroscha@...>]

--- In piecepack@yahoogroups.com, "Electronicwaffle" 
<electronicwaffle@y...> wrote:

> a fairly uncommon (in terms of popularity) dice concept is now 
> before the community.

The first time I encountered this mechanic was in a book of mazes 
(published in the 80s) which included a couple "dice mazes" where the 
player "walks" a die around a printed grid of die faces.  Pretty cool.

> All of this being said. How should we adress contest submissions by 
> two (or even more) Authors that are virtually the same? What do 
> other members think?  [...SNIP...]
> I think we should let James come 
> up with rules for solving this conflict, as it is his gaming 
> system.  

Whoa, there.  I appreciate the thought, but it doesn't work that 
way.  I designed the piecepack, but I do not consider it "mine" in 
any way, shape or form.  I am happy to make recommendations alongside 
others, but the piecepack is public domain, and folks can do what 
they like with it.  I'm all for fewer rules in life (and in games, 
actually).

So, my opinion is that if another designer happens to submit a 
similar game for the competition, then such is life.  We can both 
have a good laugh and an electronic pat on each other's back that we 
arrived in a similar place independently, since the flavor of the 
competitions is good-natured.  (Once the skins design tourney gets 
sponsored by Pepsi, though, I'll beat you all down to win a dream 
vacation package, suckas!)

When I see someone make good use of an idea I had in a published game 
(which I design also), it is a moment of joy for me, because it means:
1) I had an idea good enough that another designer also thought it up 
and liked it.
2) Now I don't have to bother developing and finishing the idea, 
which prematurely pops it off the stack leaving me a tiny bit freer 
to pursue all the other ideas on the stack.

> few solitaire games for piecepack out now. (Aside from Tharg, 
> I can't think of anyothers).

Tula (http://www.piecepack.org/rules/Tula.pdf) is another solitaire 
game, and is sort of Shanghai meets Uno.  Knight of the New Moon (in 
the Rulesets in Progress folder of the Files section) is also 
solitaire, but is still in beta.

And that actually brings up a point that I suspect more likely to 
cause a problem.  Knight of the New Moon qualifies for the current 
competition, but since it is already "public" beta, it already has my 
named firmly attached.  As folks have requested anonymity for 
rulesets entered in the competitions, would that disqualify it?  
Clearly, there is an understanding that games already published on 
the piecepack.org site should not be entered, but public beta seems 
like a gray area.  Opinions?

(No worries at this point, as I have another game that I wrote 
specifically for the competition, but a potential situation in 
future.)

Cheers,
James