Comments on: Cruel 2 B Kind: the friendly assassin http://www.starchamber.com/2006/09/cruel-2-b-kind-the-friendly-assassin.html Ned Gulley's Blog. Resident buzzwords: synthetic biology, ambient displays, swarm robotics, wise crowds. Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:17:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Ned http://www.starchamber.com/2006/09/cruel-2-b-kind-the-friendly-assassin.html#comment-964 Ned Thu, 28 Sep 2006 04:39:03 +0000 http://starchamber.com/?p=1318#comment-964 For those of you following this conversation, I should point out that the Jane McG in the comments above is Jane McGonigal, the co-creator of Cruel 2 B Kind and principal of avantgame.com. For those of you following this conversation, I should point out that the Jane McG in the comments above is Jane McGonigal, the co-creator of Cruel 2 B Kind and principal of avantgame.com.

]]> By: JMike http://www.starchamber.com/2006/09/cruel-2-b-kind-the-friendly-assassin.html#comment-963 JMike Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:22:16 +0000 http://starchamber.com/?p=1318#comment-963 Will: You might be able to find a set of rules from the MIT Assassins' Guild out there on the web somewhere. The MIT guild chose the tack that a college campus environment allows you plenty of opportunity to kill your rivals without any witnesses. This argument may only really apply when there are other dynamics in the game that encourage players to go exploring in little-traveled corners of campus; a straightforward "circle game" may require a wrinkle in the rules that allows for a single non-player witness or some such thing. Variations abound. If you really want your game to be a "killer" game, then dangit, you should be out there killing people :) Jane: I've been caricaturized in the MIT Guild as a frothing-at-the-mouth "back in my day we ran people down in the dark hallways at 3am and gunned them down in a hail of discs <i>and we liked it</i> " creaky old timer. So be it. My main assertion about sappiness is a little heavy-handed, but stems from the implied claim that a game that calls itself "Assassin", or something deriving from that, really ought to involve running your opponent down and killing him. Or cleverly out-maneuvering him and killing him with well-executed surprise. Hilarity doesn't seem to have much room there. I've done plenty of live action gaming that didn't pretend to anything "assassin" like, and I've usually enjoyed it. Hence my belief that something really good will come from this confluence of flash mobs (thanks for slipping that term in there) and live action gaming that claims to assassin-ness. We could dive a little deeper into the question. Are the "killing with kindness" mechanics just a bit of hilarity? Or an attempt to reach out to the flash mob crowd that might not otherwise play in an assassin-style game? Or a conscious attempt at subversion of assassin-style gaming? (We'll kill the assassin-style game through the kindness of "killing with kindness" style games.) I'm not sure. It was probably innocent, but it's fun to speculate. An awful lot of people seem to really dislike the fact that assassin gaming involves killing people. --JMike Will:

You might be able to find a set of rules from the MIT Assassins’ Guild out there on the web somewhere. The MIT guild chose the tack that a college campus environment allows you plenty of opportunity to kill your rivals without any witnesses.

This argument may only really apply when there are other dynamics in the game that encourage players to go exploring in little-traveled corners of campus; a straightforward “circle game” may require a wrinkle in the rules that allows for a single non-player witness or some such thing. Variations abound. If you really want your game to be a “killer” game, then dangit, you should be out there killing people :)

Jane:

I’ve been caricaturized in the MIT Guild as a frothing-at-the-mouth “back in my day we ran people down in the dark hallways at 3am and gunned them down in a hail of discs and we liked it ” creaky old timer. So be it. My main assertion about sappiness is a little heavy-handed, but stems from the implied claim that a game that calls itself “Assassin”, or something deriving from that, really ought to involve running your opponent down and killing him. Or cleverly out-maneuvering him and killing him with well-executed surprise. Hilarity doesn’t seem to have much room there.

I’ve done plenty of live action gaming that didn’t pretend to anything “assassin” like, and I’ve usually enjoyed it. Hence my belief that something really good will come from this confluence of flash mobs (thanks for slipping that term in there) and live action gaming that claims to assassin-ness.

We could dive a little deeper into the question. Are the “killing with kindness” mechanics just a bit of hilarity? Or an attempt to reach out to the flash mob crowd that might not otherwise play in an assassin-style game? Or a conscious attempt at subversion of assassin-style gaming? (We’ll kill the assassin-style game through the kindness of “killing with kindness” style games.) I’m not sure. It was probably innocent, but it’s fun to speculate. An awful lot of people seem to really dislike the fact that assassin gaming involves killing people.

–JMike

]]> By: Jane McG http://www.starchamber.com/2006/09/cruel-2-b-kind-the-friendly-assassin.html#comment-962 Jane McG Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:07:49 +0000 http://starchamber.com/?p=1318#comment-962 You'd be surprised how utterly un-sappy this game is when it's actually played out. The gameplay mechanics aren't watered down at all-- the strategies of many teams were ingenious, the attacks exciting, the defenses hilarious, and moreover the pleasure of being part of a larger group (same pleasure as was experienced in the flash mobs) is not to be underestimated. Also, the fantasy of killing other people with weapons is not a fantasy shared by all gamers. To replace fake guns fantasy with a different interactive core mechanic doesn't water it down-- it opens the game up to a much wider audience. If we believe in the benefits of play, for creating community, for taking back public spaces, for supporting meaningful engagement, etc., that's a crucial step to take. You’d be surprised how utterly un-sappy this game is when it’s actually played out. The gameplay mechanics aren’t watered down at all– the strategies of many teams were ingenious, the attacks exciting, the defenses hilarious, and moreover the pleasure of being part of a larger group (same pleasure as was experienced in the flash mobs) is not to be underestimated. Also, the fantasy of killing other people with weapons is not a fantasy shared by all gamers. To replace fake guns fantasy with a different interactive core mechanic doesn’t water it down– it opens the game up to a much wider audience. If we believe in the benefits of play, for creating community, for taking back public spaces, for supporting meaningful engagement, etc., that’s a crucial step to take.

]]> By: Will Gulley http://www.starchamber.com/2006/09/cruel-2-b-kind-the-friendly-assassin.html#comment-961 Will Gulley Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:56:07 +0000 http://starchamber.com/?p=1318#comment-961 Hey Ned, It's a strange coincidence, but I'm the current organizer of an Assassin game at Warren Wilson College. We've been trying to deal with witnesses, and this may just be the way to do it. Thank you dear uncle. Hey Ned,
It’s a strange coincidence, but I’m the current organizer of an Assassin game at Warren Wilson College. We’ve been trying to deal with witnesses, and this may just be the way to do it. Thank you dear uncle.

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