games

There are a few games that I've been wanting to play for quite some time. The first is a set of games that were developed for university classrooms simulating a historical period. A list of these games. I would primarily be interested in The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C. or Confucianism and the Succession Crisis of the Wanli Emperor, 1587 . I think such a simulation would be quite fun as well as intriguing.

The other is a game I first read about in Douglas Hofstadters's Metamagical Themas a few years ago. The game is called Nomic and it is a self-amending game. Here is the description taken from the previous link:

Nomic is a game in which changing the rules is a move. In that respect it differs from almost every other game. The primary activity of Nomic is proposing changes in the rules, debating the wisdom of changing them in that way, voting on the changes, deciding what can and cannot be done afterwards, and doing it. Even this core of the game, of course, can be changed. (Peter Suber, The Paradox of Self-Amendment, Appendix 3, p. 362)

I don't know when I will ever have an opportunity to play these games, the first set due to them restricted to certain universities, and the second due to a lack of finding folks who would be willing to play. Maybe some day.