The "We Cool?" Play Protocol
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:49 am
"We cool FE/RUS?" You know the drill. It's the most common drill and most folks' default play style, not to mention the best choice IMO for 2 or 3 person games. It is the "We cool?" diplomatic/play protocol. If it wasn't for 'cool', things would not get so hot. Here is a description and account of its pros and cons.
'We Cool?" is mostly about the following:
1. Commitment to a story of the game that basically involves being at peace and farming while waiting for the cards get big enough for a series of "clean" kills and a satisfying culmination. Important elements of the plot include pathing, ironically behaving like one is engaged in a peaceful activity (like when two opposing sides in a battle pause for a cigarette break), and the clean/competent end game.
2. Engaging in a bunch of 'hopefully' mutual acts of consideration, like burning or moving armies to get out of an opponent's way, leaving opponents' poorly defended income unchallenged, and generally acting "as if" the game has a certain necessary structure and trajectory.
3. Not half-killing, not killing a satellite, mostly not killing humans before bots. In short, not doing anything that isn't consistent with the accepted narrative of waiting peacefully for the cards to get big enough.
4. (implicit). Because this protocol is most common, if you are not complying with its parameters, you may feel an oppressive weight of pushback or even direct retaliation.
Pros
a. It does reasonable well at tempering certain intrinsic flaws in a game like Lux. People need to feel like the have an equal chance, but sometimes the draw is uneven or dice are no good. If we are all peaceful and accommodating, we all more or less have a chance at the lead in the end game.
b. It can be more friendly if everyone in the room does it well.
c. It's good for 2 or 3 person games since the preliminary rounds are not that interesting anyway. It gets everyone to the end game, where a raucous good time can often be had.
Cons
a. Bullying/Hazing. "We Cool?" can be a quasi-fascist system in the guise of a harmless hippie platitude. It bears a striking resemblance to caricatures (and even actual reality) of fraternity culture. Failure to commit to the default plot generates serious blowback from some players. Like "crazy" serious. Verbal abuse, griefing, trolling, etc. Of course, this might be a con for any protocol that came to be dominant or most common.
b. Not easy to understand. 'Be cool' is underspecified, not written down, informally enforced, and sometimes not very consistent with the actual rules of the game. Not good for newbies, which is very bad for game growth and a healthy number of players.
c. Prone to conflict/instability. Compared to the "love story" protocol, it's a recipe for disappointment and at a higher level. People get mad, they get sorry, they get bitter. Feuds and reports. Complaints. This is because the basic story is hard to specify and much more subject to variability in interpretation, creating almost certain violations of players' subjective expectations. I am not sure "we cool?" could have developed without chat and without a certain ranking structure in the early years of Lux. With "We Cool?" you definitely have to be sorry at least sometimes.
'We Cool?" is mostly about the following:
1. Commitment to a story of the game that basically involves being at peace and farming while waiting for the cards get big enough for a series of "clean" kills and a satisfying culmination. Important elements of the plot include pathing, ironically behaving like one is engaged in a peaceful activity (like when two opposing sides in a battle pause for a cigarette break), and the clean/competent end game.
2. Engaging in a bunch of 'hopefully' mutual acts of consideration, like burning or moving armies to get out of an opponent's way, leaving opponents' poorly defended income unchallenged, and generally acting "as if" the game has a certain necessary structure and trajectory.
3. Not half-killing, not killing a satellite, mostly not killing humans before bots. In short, not doing anything that isn't consistent with the accepted narrative of waiting peacefully for the cards to get big enough.
4. (implicit). Because this protocol is most common, if you are not complying with its parameters, you may feel an oppressive weight of pushback or even direct retaliation.
Pros
a. It does reasonable well at tempering certain intrinsic flaws in a game like Lux. People need to feel like the have an equal chance, but sometimes the draw is uneven or dice are no good. If we are all peaceful and accommodating, we all more or less have a chance at the lead in the end game.
b. It can be more friendly if everyone in the room does it well.
c. It's good for 2 or 3 person games since the preliminary rounds are not that interesting anyway. It gets everyone to the end game, where a raucous good time can often be had.
Cons
a. Bullying/Hazing. "We Cool?" can be a quasi-fascist system in the guise of a harmless hippie platitude. It bears a striking resemblance to caricatures (and even actual reality) of fraternity culture. Failure to commit to the default plot generates serious blowback from some players. Like "crazy" serious. Verbal abuse, griefing, trolling, etc. Of course, this might be a con for any protocol that came to be dominant or most common.
b. Not easy to understand. 'Be cool' is underspecified, not written down, informally enforced, and sometimes not very consistent with the actual rules of the game. Not good for newbies, which is very bad for game growth and a healthy number of players.
c. Prone to conflict/instability. Compared to the "love story" protocol, it's a recipe for disappointment and at a higher level. People get mad, they get sorry, they get bitter. Feuds and reports. Complaints. This is because the basic story is hard to specify and much more subject to variability in interpretation, creating almost certain violations of players' subjective expectations. I am not sure "we cool?" could have developed without chat and without a certain ranking structure in the early years of Lux. With "We Cool?" you definitely have to be sorry at least sometimes.