Post by Logg in When the Messages Began comments

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Hi, I'm a bit confused at how to lose.

"The goal, the hope, is that at the end of the year,
after 12 messages have been sent and received, the two
parties will agree to meet."

This goal is not written on just one of the players, but on both.

It seems like both players should just give coordinates in their introductions to immediately win?

None of the 6 objectives of the Sender seem to conflict with the objectives of the Receiver, which means they can always be trusted. The Sender's writing prompt also suggests that they always have resources ("absolutely"), but "need people".

My criticism is that this seems to be more of a seed for a series of collaborative writing prompts than a game that can be lost.

Law of Names Media3 years ago(+1)

“My criticism is that this seems to be more of a seed for a series of collaborative writing prompts than a game that can be lost.“

That’s exactly right. This isn’t a game where one’s goal is to win, as in “complete a condition by the time you’re finished playing it.” It’s a collaborative story-telling (well, writing) game. The win condition is that both players are pleased with how the story turns out.

The goal is to creative a cool narrative in the letters. Whether or not Sender or Receiver can be trusted is entirely up to the characters— there aren’t conflicts built in, because the players aren’t in opposition. You’re building the story together.

Logg3 years ago (1 edit)

Okay, that's cool lol. Might try it some time, just was confused cause I thought it was a more traditional type of game. If you're aware of any publicly accessible stories that have been created off this prompt, I'm probably more interested in reading than writing.

itch.io

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