“All reality is a game. Physics at its most fundamental, the very fabric of our universe, results directly from the interaction of certain fairly simple rules, and chance; the same description may be applied to the best, most elefant and both intellectually and aesthetically satisfying games. By being unknowable, by resulting from events which, at the sub-atomic level, cannot be fully predicted, the future remains malleable, and retains the possibility of change, the hope of coming to prevail; victory, to use an unfashionable word. In this, the future is a game; time is one of the rules. Generally, all the best mechanistic games – those which can be played in any sense “perfectly”, such as a grid, Prallian scope, ‘nkraytle, chess, Farnic dimensions – can be traced to civilizations lacking a realistic view of the universe (let alone the reality). They are also, I might add, invariably pre-machine-sentience societies.
The very first-rank games acknowledge the element of chance, even if they rightly restrict raw luck. To attempt to construct a game on any other lines, no matter how complicated and subtle the rules are, and regardless of the scale and differentiation of the playing volume and the variety of the powers and attributes of the pieces, is inevitably to shackle oneself to a conspectus which is not merely socially but techno-philosophically lagging several ages behind our own. As a historical exercise it might have some value, As a work of the intellect, it’s just a waste of time. If you want to make something old-fashioned, why not build a wooden sailing boat, or a steam engine? They’re just as complicated and demanding as a mechanistic game, and you’ll keep fit at the same time.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games*
In most lands, arguments in Wonderplace Alpha are resolved by swordfighting to the death**. However, Earth, being backward in this as in so many things, frowns upon this practice.
Now, there aren’t a lot of arguments or ‘challenges’ that need to happen in Wonderplace Alpha. Many–most, perhaps–enjoy the entire weekend without participating in the story underneath. Like any big story shared with thousands of people, it’s really made up more of what happens when you’re in a special place engaged in magic, and less about trying to rival whatever your local bards or psychic podcasts are singing about this week.
But if you do get into a situation where you need to ask a question of someone who won’t talk, or change a piece of the story and make it your own, or any time when you want to interact in-game with other game elements and you aren’t sure if you ‘should’ win, you need:
- A referee
- A clear idea of what you want to ask for
- Everyone who should be present (if you’re doing something involving someone else, they’re generally going to need to be there, unless it’s behind their back.
- And a challenge ball. A “challenge ball” is a small, cheap object which is used to try to alter the Wonderplace reality around you. Historically, we never know how many challenge balls to provide each year. That makes things terrif–er, interesting.
(Most of the time you’re interacting with any game or immersive elements, you’ll be near a staff member who can referee, sometimes in your encounter with them.)
All you need to do is explain your intention to the referee, and hand them your challenge ball. They’ll take the challenge ball whether or not you win, and listen to your explanation. If they’re refereeing, they’ll make the decision between two players.
So an encounter might be of this variety.
YOU: I say that, on the night of the murder, I was actually nowhere near the city where she was brutally slain ten years ago.
REFEREE: Well, in real life, none of us were here ten years ago. But if that was true, it would change the whole story we just heard about this place. What’s your better story?”
Not everyone likes to do storytelling in the middle of their weekends. And if we want to have a story you can actually mold, that does mean it’s not going to be a “start, problem, solution, end” story, as if you were trapped inside it. It’s a “This happened, then we did this, then we did that, then this happened and all these things happened”. That’s not a story with a specific start and end for the weekend; but it’s a story you can take home afterwards.
* Or possibly ‘to the pain’.
** Have you read “The Player Of Games”? Whether or not you know the rest of Iain M. Banks’ “Culture” series, ‘Games’ is an intense tractor-beam of slow-building obsession. I don’t know what I would do if I were a slightly superhuman games expert, playing a game so large an entire species built itself around that game. I don’t think I have the courage to try to write it. But Mr. Banks did.