Nick Novitski on October 1, 2009 at 12:13 pm said:
You’ve given us a worrisome obligation: what could we possibly give you in return for such a gift?
J_L on October 2, 2009 at 7:35 am said:
Alas, I missed my target! My comment for WTF&WTF is tomorrow’s page: Project Capsystem.
Jenna on October 2, 2009 at 11:53 am said:
Was it fun?
Nick Novitski on October 2, 2009 at 8:38 pm said:
We all agreed that we had fun and would play it again, and even might! There were dreams within dreams and shadows within shadows. J_L and I had long and joyous discussion afterwards about the utility of gifts. I think he came around to my position (pro) later. I wrote slightly more here.
philomory on October 2, 2009 at 11:14 pm said:
Jenna, you amaze and astound me, and I cannot help but say, though it may sound presumptuous, that I adore you for it. There are others, I think, who would say the same thing. This document combines such a robust intellectualism with such a giddy, crazy absurdity, it really defies description. The best I can try, is to say it’s like Nomic crossed with Calvinball. It frankly more or less embodies everything I think I know about Zen, and it reminds me of Hofstadter and Hodgman, both of whom I’ve been reading lately. It may not be as beautiful as Nobilis, or as poignant as Hitherby, but has a brilliance and ingenuity all its own.
I suspect I will have a hard time going to sleep tonight, knowing that I have yet to read the TLDR supplement, to say nothing of Creatures, Clothed in Strangeness, which likewise still awaits me.
I realize that I am being rather effusive here, and sometimes I feel that I should not gush so much, for risk of making you feel as if you are beholden to your audience; that given our grand expectations of your work, you are somehow beholden to deliver on those expectations in the future. This is not so – it is your audience who owes *you* a debt. I only hope, with my words, to somehow convey the gratitude I feel for the work you have given us thus far.
Goodnight, with great respect,
– Adam
(P.S. I assure you, as I write this, I am not drunk – merely enthused. WTF, indeed.)
philomory on October 2, 2009 at 11:34 pm said:
(Addendum: In addition to Hofstadter, Hodgman, Nomic, Calvinball and Zen, I am reminded of the fantastically odd, flawed but thoroughly interesting console game Baroque)
Requiem on October 5, 2009 at 8:18 am said:
*_*
The forecast is for Mornington Crescent, backing Nomic-by-northwest, with scattered outbreaks of Nobilis and wei wu wei (for values of ‘wei’ that include ‘playing a roleplaying game’).
I think that I will need to run the game inside another game, because if I induce a game of WTF without explaining what I am doing and the players include people who have not read the book then I will accidentally be playing the cardless Chairman’s Game (which I find undesirable), and in order to explain what I am doing I believe I need to be a Fatalist already.
Nick Novitski on October 6, 2009 at 1:16 pm said:
Have you given any thought to selling it as well as giving it a free release, as with (IIRC) the first Peculiar Book? I have certainly happily paid money for games worth less than this one. Getting it for free is beginning to make me feel uncomfortable.
Jenna on October 9, 2009 at 11:43 am said:
There is a donate button for people who wish to pay for this release. There is a possibility that with enough actual play / feedback-based changes / art & editing / other changes, a print release will come later. I released Unlikely Flowerings with a paid version so that funds could accumulate in an account that I wouldn’t tap when I ran out of food or whatever towards buying art and layout for a second release of the same. At some point I may do the same for Creatures. Since I’m not sure WTF would sell well in print or enhanced PDF form, I’m more interested in having people enjoy it, and then eating and buying shampoo and the like, with setting aside funds to improve it a distant third priority. From an ideological perspective I’m not super-interested in gatekeeping that people-enjoying-it to money, regardless of the ratio; my only real concern is that by not charging for stuff, I’m risking making people value it less.
Best wishes,
Jenna
