Sunday, June 17, 2012

A Pointless Theoretical Exercise

Teams are picked arbitrarily, through the spinning of a wheel which has 12 subdivisions- 6 black, and 6 white, in equal proportion. Throughout the wheel, each of the 12 subdivisions has an arbitrary "character" or "fictional persona" for any given team member to play, and should their spin land them on a subdivision with a  particular character description on it, they must become that description and pretend the description on the wheel neatly encapsulates the essence of who they are as a human being.

One portion of the wheel may read "fascist right wing ideologue" or "bomber of abortion clinics", another may read "crusader for womens' rights." The only common denominator here is that some players will be united in color (black or white), although all are united in that they are living beings and thus share all of the qualities that define "life". For the sake of game play, the white team must convince themselves that they are completely good and that their opponents on the black team are charlatans, frauds, and evil shitheads. And vice versa, with the black team.

The goal of the player is to lose his or her self completely in an arbitrarily defined identity given to them based upon chance, or hazard- which is to say, the spinning of the wheel. You have no choice but to spin the wheel. Beyond this, game play proceeds with the black team against the white team, and takes place on a checkerboard composed of "white" squares and "black" squares, as in a common game of chess.

The catch is that each player decides, arbitrarily, what type of movement is fair for their pieces and the ways in which the movements of the game work. Should a team member of the opposing team disagree upon what constitutes a valid move in a game whose rules are invented by the players as the game progresses, that player must then declare "Shenanigans" and the two must fight about the matter until it is resolved- Possibly, and most preferably, to the death.

Game play ends when one side has completely exterminated the other, and conflict ceases.

You have no choice but to play.
"Soon... Some day very soon, we will look upon what we have created, and we will spit upon the dirt we used to mold you into the clay of the earth, and we will change the valence and we will wipe this place clean."
- Mr. Gray

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