posted
In the "Why do Women Like Men?" thread I mentioned that my 'wrong guy' character is a golfer. That's not quite true. He lives in the future and plays a sport with many golf-like characteristics, but it's not golf.
I'm working out the rules now, and I thought this group might like to toss around some ideas.
The sport must have a clear scoring system rather than having judges award points. No synchronized swimming or figure skating. Not even Battlebots.
The sport must be very expensive. Only the wealthy can afford the equipment (or whatever it takes) to play.
The sport must be a man-vs-nature thing, like golf. This character must be able to play alone and get exactly the same score he would have if oppoments were present.
To help me build my rules, I am looking for examples of both types of sports. So far I've come up with polo and race driving as my expensive sports. Golf and bowling are my man-vs-nature sports.
A few games are close enough to man-vs-nature that I can consider them. Darts, for instance.
posted
Are you looking for examples of very expensive man vs. nature sports, or are you looking for ideas?
Bobsledding, sailing yachts, and climbing Mt Everest are all examples of expensive man vs. nature sports. On the other hand, climbing Mt.Everest is probably the only one that would still be expensive in your Utopian future, and that's really a one time affair.
Big game hunting, perhaps. The twist is that all the animals are genetically engineered replications of long extinct predators (Jurassic Park meets...?). Better yet, the animals are near human intelligence. Or how about this? You get to hunt down a clone of...yourself! The Sixth Day, that was the reference that I was looking for.
So you're not into killing things (even for a charater that's supposed to be kind of a jerk)? How about solar sail navigation (borrowing from the sailing yacht idea) around the inner solar system? You could have races, or you could try doing stunts. The best sailing would be inside the orbit of Mercury, giving the sport that little hint of danger, but you also gather scientific data as part of the sport (biathlon meets...wildlife photographer, which wouldn't be a bad idea for a humane big game hunt).
And what about the oldest sport of they all...I'd better not go there
posted
Okay, when I said "And what about the oldest sport of they all...I'd better not go there," I didn't mean that there were no other possibilities.
Everyone is postin on that "what makes art great" thread, but no one is posting here, in total creative freedom land. Am I the only one that thinks that a little perverse? Since I double posted the other thread, I figured I might as well come over here and respond to my own post here too. I like this subject better anyway (you were all supposed to have learned what makes art great in school anyway ).
How about human powered flight contests? At some level of technology, that could take off as a real sport. Of better yet, human powered dogfighting (I always like that element of mano a mano combat--which sort of undermines the whole man vs. nature thing, but hey!).
Or what if buiding the tallest building in the world got to be the kind of thing only the personally wealthy bothered with (at a certain height, there tends to be no compelling economic advantage to building any taller). And you can make the standard "compensation" jokes, too.
How about Lunar Golf? Oh sure, anyone can afford a trip to the moon, but can they afford the satillite network needed to keep track of the ball? Hmmm, that could probably be provided as a service by the club...which means members only--exclusive!
Deep Sea fishing comes to mind, with the futuristic twist that you actually go deep to fish. That's just the hunting thing underwater, though. So many good sports are just hunting at heart
Come on, I can't bounce ideas off myself! Well, I can, but you know how it is.
posted
Thanks, Survivor. All your suggestions are useful.
Lunar Golf is exactly what I originally had in mind. But Alan Shepard did that already, so now I'm trying to stretch my imagination and make something even better.
Yacht racing is a good expensive sport, so is solar yacht racing. They have a concrete scoring system, unlike climbing Mount Everest.
But solar yacht racing has two drawbacks: 1) It's been done before in SF stories. 2) It's too hard to lie about your score. Anyone with a telescope could keep track of your progress. You could still cheat, say by smuggling special equipment aboard your yacht, but you couldn't lie about your score.
I'm trying to build an honor-based sport. Imagine a bowling league in which participants keep track of their own bowing average, or a golf league where participants keep track of their own handicap. Suppose I have never picked up a golf club in my life, yet I can be matched against Tiger Woods simply by lying about my handicap. That's the sport this character plays.
I need the honor component so readers can observe this character's secret dishonor.
posted
I'm not coming up with any specific ideas right now, but I'll start by listing some vague sportish trends:
1. Speed sports: the whole goal is doing it fastest. These have no honor system (unless your guy has found a way to mess with time), because time is easily observable and measurable--and not easily manipulated.
2. Precision sports: like golf, these sports are easier to manipulate, because precision is a bit more vague. But it's ultimately measurable...hmmm...I'm thinking of basketball, golf, polo...what else? Are there any precision sports that don't involve getting the ball in the hole? How about ski tricks/ snowboarding/ rifle shooting?
3. Courage sports: basically impossible to score concretely. These are like hunting, extreme sports?
4. Strength sports: measure physical fitness or ability. Most team sports fit in this category. But they're easily cheatable, and easily measured. You might want to invent a strength sport that can be done alone.
5. Intellectual sports: would chess be considered a sport? These ones would be winnable only if the person playing is smart enough and creative enough. This poses potential for your sport--but it almost seems to require an opponent. You said you wanted something your guy can do himself. Hmmm...
I think I'll have to go for precision sports. Golf is good because you can play it alone (in concept) and be your own only witness.
Fishing and hunting are actually very good examples, too. Big game hunting would be an excellent model of and expensive man-vs-nature sport, but fishing has a slightly better "scoring" system which makes it more prone to lies and exaggerations.
But, of course, for those sports I would need to create some sort of prey. Hmmm.
posted
i can just imagine the fish stories. take a picture of a minnow, super-impose (is that the right term?) a tiny human picture for perspective, and show it off. if they're not impressed, then tell them about the one that got away. lol.
How about solo expedition? The basic premise is that you go out entirely solo, no safty net, no radio, just what you can carry on your back. See how many miles you can hike, what peaks you can climb, or just how long you can stay out living off the land. Since to actually do this on Earth would require a healthy patch of wilderness that wasn't being used by anyone else, then it carries the expensive part easily. Since you have objective goals to carry out, maybe challenges like building a seaworthy boat or stormproof shelter (seaworthy/stormproofness to be tested objectively afterwards) or whatnot, it can be totally objective.
And since, as part of the sport, no one is watching, you can cheat if you just don't get the point.
The point of the sport is supposed to be that the individual sportsman genuinely wishes to pit himself (or herself, it seems like a pretty equal opportunity sport) against nature without relying on any of the advantages of "Utopia" (like technology, social intervention, friends, etc.).
You can also play on other planets (or in extraplanetary environments, though that will of course require some technology). But reserving a big enough chunk of Earth's suface would be the most expensive, and most "back to nature"y way to do it.
posted
Yeah, Survivor. That's a pretty good idea. But I don't want the sport to be normally a solo sport. Normally it's a social sport, like billiards or darts. But if you wanted to, you could play it alone and get exactly the same score, like golf or bowling.
Right now I'm toying with a zero-G space golf thing. The sport part is cool, but with the spacesuits it still feels too uncomfortable to me. I want the sport to give pleasure to its players via the instant gratification of scoring, not make them miserable by cooping them up in spacesuits. I'm still working on it.
posted
Doc, could you do something in space that's analogous to golf?
If the point of golf is to be able to hit a small projectile in such a way that it crosses a great distance and arrives in a target just large enough to contain it, couldn't you have something similar with different equipment?
The above description seems to fit target shooting, though you don't have to swing your arms and twist your body to hit the projectile.
Could you come up with something that involves a similar kind of eye-hand coordination, along with muscle power to increase distance, in order to reach a very small target?
If multiple attempts are allowed, with the more attempts you make meaning the lower your points, I think you'd have something that would work the way you want it to--without it actually having to be golf, per se.
posted
Okay, but how expensive do you want it to be, and more importantly, how prestigious. To be specific, wherein lies the cachet?
Is it just that the sport is expensive, and having a high score demonstrates great wealth (by the way, the idea of having significant material inequities in your Utopia sort of undermines the ideal of everyone being happy and well adjusted...unless you have a really advanced pychiatric medical establishment that doesn't bother with niceties like consent and so forth making sure that everyone stays well adjusted--but that's why they call it a Utopia rather than an Allotopia), or is it that attaining a high score takes real discipline and skill, or does it express some other virtue? And is the score really important, or is it only important to people that just don't get the point? If the score is really important, then why is it really important? What are the benefits of having a high score?
Golf in space is still just golf, a game that pretty much appeals to golfers (who happen to be wealthy as a class, so golf does okay). Tiger Woods vastly expanded the golf audience just by being young, black/Asian American, and good looking (Adam Sandler did the same, at least in a work of fiction, by being, well...a demented ex-hockey player).
Anyway, how about Ringsledding? You take a light spacecraft, perhaps with a special drive that relies on gravetic/magnetic potentials or something, and you navigate all the way around Saturn through the rings. If you try it in the opposite direction, it becomes so isanely dangerous that you have to rely on skimming the wakes left by the larger chunks to have any chance at all! Or you could go in the direction of the rong, only you have to use the ring itself for reaction mass and only have a fixed energy supply.
It could be a spectator sport, but enthusiasts would also do it alone. Also, cheating would be a simple matter of illegally modifying your sled without getting caught.
Kathleen, I am trying to include eye-hand coordination, strength, and judgement. I am trying to make the sport as unmechanical as possible, relying on the participant's body and brain as much as possible.
I have several good golf-like ideas for this game. The problem is that they all involve space suits. I want the sport to be luxurious and comfortable, like golf.
Survivor, the wealth aspect is thus: simply playing this sport signifies some degree of wealth, like SCCA racing (where the drivers generally own their race cars). Having a high score does not necessarily demonstrate wealth, as the richest people in the world might be lousy players.
But a high score gives my character a certain type of popularity that he craves. My character wants to play with the Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Arnold Palmer of this sport. He doesn't care about winning, in fact he expects to lose badly. He just loves to be able to say "I was golfing with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer this morning. Jack told the funniest joke about a travelling android and a Martian's daughter . . ."
Secretly, this character has contempt for the sport. He hates playing it. He never practices, but he plays alone all the time. When he plays alone he comes back with a great score, good enough to play with the big boys. But whenever he plays in front of actual witnesses he gets a lousy score.
The culture of this sport prizes honor and integrity. The other players suspect my character cheats, but they would never say so out loud. Such an accusation would be undignified. It would change the culture of the sport. So they just tolerate this character and hope some day he gets tired of the charade and finds something new.
posted
Why not take one of those golf-like ideas that involve space suits, and put it inside specially designed areas in space stations? Inclusion of air and exclusion of gravity would be a simple matter, and the areas could be as big as you need them to be.
Shasta
*edit* not to mention climate control...
[This message has been edited by DragynGide (edited November 25, 2002).]
posted
That's my current thinking, Shasta. But simply setting it in a space station isn't enough to make it a sport for the wealthy. One of the keys to building my utopia is that enormous space stations are inexpensive to build, so ample living space is cheap enough for anyone to afford.
I could create an exclusive space station, like a country club. I could put it in a highly desireable place, like an Earth-moon LaGrange point. But then I have to figure out a reason why you can't play this sport in just any old space station. What makes this station special? The obvious answer is some gravitational peculiarity, but I'd like to consider some not-so-obvious answers. For example, maybe the country-club space station is transparent.
I'm picturing a rotating cylinder 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers in diameter (like A.C. Clarke's Rama). It's got a comfortable environment, but the hull is totally transparent. Imagine 1/10th G golf, on a curved floor, with stars gliding by beneath your feet. Astro Golf would be pretty freaky!
Or maybe the space station is a 20 kilometer sphere and it doesn't rotate. What game could you play on a zero G field/court/course the size of the Death Star? I'm thinking 3-D Polo, where participants chase the ball on "bicycles" that have propellers instead of wheels. It would be a great sport for some other character, but not this character. Unfortunately, you could not play Sky-Cycle Polo alone.
This is fun. I've got some great ideas, now I just need to melt them together into something reaqders will understand.
posted
Okay, I've got to bring up the comparative aspect of wealth again, because you mentioned that in your Utopia, space stations are comparatively cheap.
At that level of universal material wealth, why not go with something a bit more...refined? It could be (maybe even should be) that in Utopia the kind of social status that we associate with wealth is instead associated with a certain type of intellectual or moral "refinement", which is determined by participation in certain types of social activities. So really, this guy cheats just to belong to a social group that he really doesn't belong with. Get what I'm saying?
Is this Utopia supposed to be in the far future, or what? How is it maintained, particularly if there are no vigorous measures to deter cheating (all forms of cheating being inherently fatal to Utopias)? If there are sufficiently vigorous measures to deter cheating...well, what this guy is doing is more than just dangerous (I define "vigorous measures" a little by that statement).
I realize that I'm not even talking about the sport at all anymore. Just got to say that space golf (or any varient of golf) seems a bit effete to me. A real man vs. nature sport shouldn't take place inside a controlled environment (since then it is "man vs. controlled environment). That's just my opinion, though. The idea of relative wealth in a materially ultra wealthy Utopia is a significant problem, though, as is the idea of cheating in any 'genuine' Utopia (I didn't think that you were serious about this being a Utopian society before, since much of the storyline just makes no sense in that context...maybe you should just have it be an ultra wealthy society).
posted
Well, Survivor, this is getting a bit off the topic. The other thread you started is a good place to discuss utopian visions, but I'll discuss this sport in terms of my vision if you like.
This is, after all, just a game. The consequences aren't that dire. The guy does not cheat when he plays against other players, all he does is lie about his score when he plays alone. The point is that he's insincere. He could be really good at the game if he worked hard at it. But he doesn't really love the game. He just loves rubbing elbows with Tiger Woods.
I'm building a utipia that is tolerant of minor character flaws. Annoying people like this guy are an important part of my milieu. If everyone were exactly the same then life would be boring. Everyone in the world would hate their lives, and I certainly couldn't write any stories.
posted
question: why do all of your ideas involve spacesuits? do you want your sport to take place in a location with low/no g's (or however you write that...), a location on a foreign planet with a deficient atmosphere (air content and/or pressure), etc.? i think if we knew where you're picturing it, we could help you more.
idea: what about a sport that required you to shoot multiple moving objects in a gravity-free room given a certain amount of time/shots? you need physical strength and agility to control your vector and intelligence to calculate-on-the-fly what angle the objects (and yourself) will bounce off the walls at given their current direction. its very relaxing (i imagine) to free-float (even more relaxing if there wasn't a time limit). the room would have to be built to certain specs and include a device regulated by...whomever regulates the sport...that releases the targets (maybe the space station is a "country club" that payed top dollar to be able to install this device--the common public could make their own playing rooms, but they wouldn't be professional, they wouldn't have the device). and the weapon (could be merely an object that releases a light beam of just the right frequency for the targets to react and be "hit") could be expensive as well. just an idea.
The ideas don't have to involve spacesuits, or even space. I only want to create a sport with an elite feel . . . a game for the rich. Instead it might involve expensive genetically engineered animals, or some other exotic tech.
[This message has been edited by Doc Brown (edited December 03, 2002).]
How about this? The sport is like golf, but it instead of 18 holes, you have 180? So the course is a huge, rambling park, with wild animals and whatnot and the rules don't permit leaving until the game is over. Make the ball a bit heavier, so it takes something more like a long handled sledgehammer (made of the most technically advanced materials of course) than a golf club.
I'm suggesting this mostly because it occurs to me that what you really want is just golf, but more expensive. Taking a huge chunk of the landscape in a desireable locale is always going to be expensive, and this way the sport has a little bit of "back to nature" appeal and everything. I realize that I'm borrowing from my "solo expedition" idea here, but this could be done as a party with no trouble.
Ring sledding still sounds good to me, and in fact, extreme bobsledding works just as well. What you do is take a mountain and build a really huge bobsled track, like fifty miles long (not in a straight line, of course). The track is designed so that ideally the sleds could reach speeds in excess of a hundred miles an hour and go through corners at over 5 g and all that other extreme nonsense. There would be events, and rich guys could use the track to go on solo runs.
posted
Doc, how many ideas are you pursuing for your book? Your utopia, alone, will have multiple ideas. Then you have the richman's sport, the romance and why the heroine is drawn to the antagonist. While I admire your efforts into developing a realistic and human story, I should warn you how these ideas will grow into a juggernaut of confusion and chaos.
Posts: 47 | Registered: Nov 2002
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I've already developed my scenic master plot (as described in Jack M. Bickham's Scene and Structure, a cousin of OSC's Characters and Viewpoint). The sport will barely get mentioned in the book. No game will ever be depicted. However, I want detailed notes on the rules of the game so I can sprinkle this character's speech with some slang.
I have room for one line where someone mentions this character's insincere tactics for rubbing elbows with the masters of the game. That line should contribute to the reader's attitude about him. It has no other function.
The romance is important, since one of my science-fiction sideplots revolves around it. The romance will bridge my main "how can humans keep themselves from being unhappy?" question with one of the science fiction technological goodies I'm dropping into the story.
[This message has been edited by Doc Brown (edited December 03, 2002).]
posted
{gasp} you aren't going to show a game?? not even going to give a few rules?? just a few bits of the sport's jargon here and there??
{breaths in and out, in and out} much better.
if you can pull that off without confusing the reader, you will be my hero. (along with the other Doc Brown--i love those movies!) but i have to ask, if the sport _itself_ plays only a minor part, why not just use golf?
posted
Thanks for your concern, Cosmi, but I'm not worried. Luke Skywalker was able to mention hunting Womp Rats, and we got the reference without actually seeing one. Captain Kirk was able to mention Klingon Aphrodisiacs, and we got the message without seeing Klingon reproductive acts.
In both of those cases, the casual mention of some part of their culture told us a little bit about the character who was speaking. This is exactly what I am trying to achieve.
I want to work out the details of this game so I can maintain consistency. If it's going to take place in a big space station at the Earth-Moon L-4 point, for example, I need to know that this bit of interplanetary realestate contains my "golf course." Thus the L-4 point will probably also contain other facilities for the rich, and traffic to and from the L-4 point will consist of luxury yachts or expensive sports spaceships. If the game requires a robotic "caddy" as big as a house, then certain characters in my miliue will often be accompanied by house-sized robots. The implications go on and on.
posted
You are right, Survivor. I will use this sport for quite a bit. But my readers may see as little as one line, plus some sport-oriented slang, in this book. My one line comment was in reference to Shadow-x's "Juggernaut of confusion and chaos" comment.
I have a second book planned, in which I will explore this sport further.
FWIW I have already invented two other games which will both be explored in greater detail in this book. I think I've got a good handle on them already. I only asked for some discussion of this man-vs-nature sport because I don't golf myself.
I guess the question I'm really asking is this: What makes golf fun for golfers? What makes bowling fun for bowlers?
I want the sport I invent to have the same magic ingredient(s) that make golf and bowling fun. This thread has given me some excellent example of sports, but I'm still a little confused about what makes golf fun.
posted
Oh, give me a break! First you don't know why women would like men (sexually, I mean) and now you don't know why anyone would even play the sport you're inventing?
People that are really dedicated to a particular sport play it for a number of reasons.
1....
No, wait, I'm going to turn the question around on you.
Think of some structured activity that you think is fun. Ask yourself, "Why do I find this activity fun?" Pick another structured activity that you find fun. Repeat the question.
Just for the record, I would love to golf (just as I enjoy bowling), but most of the opportunities to do so involve just the sort of excruciating social interaction that I prefer to avoid.
posted
My word, Survivor, one week or so posting to this forum and you have so much knowledge of my personal life?!?
You poor man.
Coming from a family of politicos and golf players, I can assure you that golf held not half the attraction for the players as the wheeling and dealing that went on during the game.
Which I would suspect makes it (golf)a pretty handy sport for Doc's story about just what do people do when they have a lot of time on their hands . . . ?
posted
Sorry, I wasn't replying to your post (well, maybe just a little with my comment about "just the sort of excruciating social interaction that I prefer to avoid").
But don't count on my not having detailed knowledge of your personal life (just for the record, I don't know anything about Hope's social life). I can learn a lot about some people from a single post (what about me? Do you all know lots and lots about me? Me me me me me! ).
Ahem, to clarify....
Doc,
Oh, give me a break! First you don't know why women would like men (sexually, I mean) and now you don't know why anyone would even play the sport you're inventing?
People that are really dedicated....[see above post for remainder of missive]
posted
Thank you for the clarification, Survivor. So much for multi-tasking this evening.
However! It does get a trifle confusing when different threads are strung together! It took a minute to remember that this all started with a different thread related to "why the heroine would ever like this guy" - which I'm not sure ever got resolved but led to lots of interesting discussion.
Come to think of it, it also seems to tie in to the utopia question which was on my mind anyhow -
Exactly what does one do in a world where one really doesn't have to do anything and is this really an ideal world? Seems a powerful dream for many (but then, I keep hearing how retirement pales after a while.) IF everyone is so well cared for, there wouldn't really be "volunteer" needs - I guess folks would just have to cause trouble. People can't play all the time can they? And if work is fun, then is it really work?
And golf seems to be a place for causing "civilised" trouble. As it were. Hmm.And is "causing" trouble enough conflict to hold interest - especially since it seems like the society is so closely monitored, no individual member could ever really get into much trouble?
So, I guess I am wondering, Doc, if the sport is not so much about "the sport" as it is about offering the place for conflict/climax/resolution and character development?
My theory is that golf gives a quick sense of accomplishment. You pursue a goal of putting a ball in a hole. Even if you are a bad golfer, you will achieve your goal within a few minutes, then you start on your next goal. For the entire body and the entire brain, golf is a rapid-fire, instant-gratification machine.
But I'm not sure if golfers see it that way.
Based on that theory, I'm designing my game to allow players to progress toward a series of goals in a similar fashion. But I'm not quite in the heads of my players. I don't believe that they will think to themselves: "Wow, today's game sure gave me a lot of goal-achievement gratification in a short amount of time!"
posted
Of course not. Because (as you have mentioned before) when we gratify our instinctive desires, we usually aren't consciously aware of them. When you're satisfying your "goal-achievement gratification" instinct, you think "hey, this is fun!" And when you are no longer satisfying it, you think "hmmm, I'm not having fun now."
But of course, there are other desires being satisfied than the physical instinct to carry out a successful feedback directed task. There is the desire to become more physically adept. So while a golfer may not have had a lot of "fun" on the course, because he was trying so hard, the signs of improvement in his game would be a source of satisfaction. There is also the desire to gain a better social position. So a player might feel good about having impressed the other players. There is also the desire for sex. So a player might feel good about having spotted and impressed an attractive potential mate.
Anyway, do you have a favorite sport, one that you find "fun" to play?
posted
I don't think the game will be about landing the ball in the hole.
I think the game will be much more subtle than that.
I.e., I might perform poorly as a player, but is that just a cover-up to kick some booty later? It's a lot more fun to underuse skill to draw out the opponent first - adds to the shock value when you decide to play up to par - Or do I use the "poor player" technique to score points in political power plays? Keep 'em focused on how well they are doing - perhaps they will win a side bet off of the game - while the real motivation is about some policy or political movement . . .
I prefer pool anyhow - anyroom in your book, Doc, for some 8-ball?
posted
Survivor, I've never really enjoyed any competitive sport. My favorite sports are bicycling (not racing) and spelunking. I am using these experiences to design the other sports I described earlier.
I've never golfed, but I've experienced the "progress toward a goal" gratification by playing video games.
HopeSprings, that's the seed of a great idea! Imagine 3-D billiards, in a giant zero G room, with basketballs! After the "break" the balls would never stop moving! The whole field of play would be totally dynamic!
Now take it a step farther - the player is also bouncing around the room! rather than taking turns, any time you can reach a ball you can give it a shove, but you're body will push off in the opposite direction. This could be a really fun game!
This is almost perfect for my purposes. The only problem is that two people on the course would interfere with each other. A solo player could not be expected to get the same score playing the course that he would get against an opponent.
All I have to do is work out that one, final bug . . .
posted
Glad you like the idea, Doc - for good descriptions of punch drunk bodies rebounding off one another, just check out the local tavern at 1:30 a.m.
I don't know who/what moves more erratically - the balls or the people.
posted
The balls would too stop moving eventually unless there was no atmosphere in the room and the walls and balls were both perfectly elastic.
Doc, are you even a man? I despise competition and I still like competitive sports.
Anyway, you are right. Your sport has to be objectively scored rather than "competitive". You can solve that problem for the nullo billiards by having only one player at a time in each room (you could have other players in other rooms, all competing for a time score (or sequentially in the same room).
It would lack a lot of the "hobnobbing" element of golf, though (in golf, you virtually can't avoid social interation with whoever you're playing with, whereas in this game, social interaction would be nearly impossible during play--aside from shouts of "Booyah!" and "Smack!").
posted
Survivor, I know most of the rules to baseball and soccer. That's about it. Basketball, football, and hockey move too fast for me to enjoy them. I've never been able to tell who has the ball. I've never tried to play any of them, though as I said I do keep myself in shape by bicycling.
If this brings my manhood into question, then perhaps you and I should have a conversation about automobiles.
When I said: "After the 'break' the balls would never stop moving!" I meant during the course of the game, not the entire period until the heat death of the Universe.
Your solution is the obvious one, Survivor. But I hope to go beyond the obvious and figure out a way to include real-time hob-nobbing in this game. It will be tricky, but worth the effort.
I do hope to show this game being played in my second book. I envision a social interaction scene very much like the second dance scene in the BBC film version of Pride and Prejudice. Have you seen it? It's an ingenious scene in which the participants in a very complex Georgian era dance have an argument while dancing. A masterpiece scene befitting a masterpiece book.
Now it's time for me to demonstate my mental telepathy: I can tell that Survivor is questioning my manhood again, right this very moment.
posted
Well, maybe locker room talk...yeah, like hanging out in the sauna after a tough game (if the sport is that athletic, and it sounds like it should be).
Anyway, as long as you like baseball and soccer, I guess your manhood is doing okay...maybe
But if you want them to be conversing while playing...headphones and mikes? I dunno, sounds difficult to me (of course, doing those complicated little fairy dances while trying to "argue" the way Darcy and Elizabeth do it was probably difficult too).
By the way, I didn't like the BBC version. I felt that the actor that played Darcy looked like a petulant little pretty boy who deserved an ***kicking (though he was too sulky for it to do him any good). Darcy should be austre, unemotive...you know bmanly!
why can't the players take turns? while one is taking their turn, the others could be rebounding their way to an advantageous position for their next shot (might require some sort of walls that are grab-able...). it would encourage players to take their turn quickly (of course, it really wouldn't matter how long they took if there were more than a couple people playing, but anyway) and the winning player would be the one who got their color balls in the pockets first, same as pool. (does billiards=pool, i've always been confused on that...) just an idea. good luck with your sport.
posted
Cosmi, it would not be impossible for the players to take turns. It would just reduce the action level and make the game less exciting to describe.
Of course, I might be able to make patience a prized part of the culture without detracting from the game. Maybe. Let me think.
Two to four players are bouncing around in a huge zero-G room with 36 basketballs or volleyballs. The players have to achieve some "goal" to score, either attacking one goal and defending another (as in basketball or soccer) or getting their own balls to fall into one or more common goals (as in billiards or golf) or by being the last to touch a ball before it goes into one or more common goals (vague elements of volleyball).
I'll eliminate the third idea because of the scoring complexity for balls that enter the goal(s) after collisions with other balls. It would be possible to write such rules, but too difficult to describe them in the midst of a fast paced story.
The second idea intrigues me. Suppose the rules state that you can touch opponent balls at any time, but can only touch your own ball when it's your turn? That would make an interesting game! But then playing alone would be different from playing against one, two, or three opponents.
posted
I don't want to be the damper on spirits here, but what the heck . . . is the scenario beginning to remind anyone of anything else relating to null gravity games? "Remember, the gate is down."
Just a thought.
There is too much original thought here to get trapped in what's been done already.
However, it's unavoidable. OSC set the standard. Any atheletic competiton set in zero gravity will invite comparison to Ender's Game, just as any action story about a spy will invite comparison to James Bond.
And I'm not married to zero gravity. In a society with people spread across the solar system, zero G will be accessible to everyone. However, a sport set in a particular light gravity, such as 0.2 G, would be more exclusive. If there is no practical purpose for building a 0.2 G environment, then it would only be built for an impractical purpose. Snobby games are eminently impractical.
I can scarcely believe this discussion has gone on for so long. I really just wanted to know what it's like to play golf! Thanks for all the wonderful input.
posted
Uh, sorry about that...I just thought it was a topic with real creative potential (you notice how all my topics turn out lame pretty quickly?).
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
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so now I'm trying to stretch my imagination and make something even better.
