Peter Suber, Nomic

Nomic
A Game of Self-Amendment
Peter Suber, Philosophy Department, Earlham College

Nomic is a game I invented in 1982. It's a game in which changing the rules is a move. The Initial Set of rules does little more than regulate the rule-changing process. While most of its initial rules are procedural in this sense, it does have one substantive rule (on how to earn points toward winning); but this rule is deliberately boring so that players will quickly amend it to please themselves. The Initial Set of rules, some commentary by me, and some reflections by Douglas Hofstadter, were published in Hofstadter's "Metamagical Themas" column in Scientific American in June of 1982. It was quickly translated into many European and Asian languages. Games were regularly played, and kicked off, the ARPANET, the Defense Department network which sired the Internet. Nomic has been used to stimulate artistic creativity, simulate the circulation of money, structure group therapy sessions, train managers, and to teach public speaking, legal reasoning, and legislative drafting. Nomic games have sent ambassadors to other Nomic games, formed federations, and played Meta-Nomic. Nomic games have experienced revolution, oppressive coups, and the restoration of popular sovereignty. Above all, Nomic has been fun for thousands of players around the world. For me, it was intended to illustrate and embody the thesis of my book, The Paradox of Self-Amendment, that a legal "rule of change" such as a constitutional amendment clause may apply to itself and authorize its own amendment. (Nomic is the third appendix of the book.)
Here is the game and some preliminaries from The Paradox of Self-Amendment:

Introduction to Nomic
How to Play Nomic
Initial Set of Rules

Here are three Nomic sites which do a wonderful job organizing the Nomic scene. Visit them to get a sense of what Nomic is and where it's going.

Nomic Bulletin Board. The best Nomic discussion forum. From Doug Chatham.
The Nomic Ring Home Page. If you're a player, or a curious newcomer, take the tour. If you maintain a Nomic page, consider joining. From Steven Swiniarski. Here's another site for the same ring.
Nomic Wiki. A compendium of Nomic information, games, and tools, all editable by users. This mutability makes it very Nomiconomic. From Malcolm Ryan. In addition to miscellaneous information, it contains two very helpful sub-pages:

Nomic FAQ. Clear and thorough.
Net Nomic Database. A registry of web-based Nomic games. New games may sign themselves up with a web-based form. It's now the best place to go to learn about ongoing Nomic games on the internet. Rich Holmes has created an alternate interface and an updated alternate interface to this database.

Here are some of the other Nomic pages on the web. Most are games. I once tried to keep track of which are ongoing and which will accept new players, but Malcolm Ryan's Net Nomic Database now does this much better than I could. So I will slowly phase out my annotations with this information. I encourage players seeking games to check Malcolm's database.

A Nomic. A game by email.
Ackanomic. A long-standing email game. Another URL. Part of Internomic.
Ackanomic Party Chess. A Chess-Nomic blend. From Uri Bruck. Also see Nomic Chess and Fourplay.
Agora Nomic. One of the oldest continuing games. From Chuck Carroll. Also see Don Blaheta's Agora Nomic page and Michael Norrish's Agora Nomic page. Steven Swiniarski also has an Agora page. Part of Internomic.
Aight. A Nomic card game. From Alex Fink.
Ancient Mystical Order Nomic Crucis. Secret society Nomic. From Geoffrey B. Cain.
Autonomic. Players have personal rules as well as group rules. From Jay Campbell.
Axiom Nomic. An "unwinable" game using a variant initial set. From Tom Mueller.
Berserker Nomic. A game at Iowa State University. From Joel Uckelman.
BiNomic. A game and meta-game combined.
Blind Nomic. From Gepetto.
BoardNomic. From John-Martin Lotz.
Caltech Nomic. Web site of a FTF game.
CharNomic. Web site of a completed game. From Harry Culpan.
Chiark Nomic. An email game.
Collaborative Computing. Term paper by Suresh Madhu on the use of Nomic in groupware programming. For a CS course at the University of New Mexico.
Common Law Nomic. "This Nomic explores whether a Nomic with a broad, general 'constitution' can develop a common law tradition, where judges explicitly make law when rendering decisions. This is opposed to the more common civil law tradition found most other Nomics, where judges, in theory, merely follow the law without creating new law."
Communist Nomic. This game is the successor to Imperial Nomic.
CUGC Nomic Games. From the Columbia University Games Club.
The Cult of Nomic. A self-modifying form of worship.
The Curvature of the Earth is Overwhelmed by Local Noise Nomic. Archive of a finished game.
deNomic. From Ole Anderson.
DocNomic. A variation on Imperial Nomic. From Rich Holmes.
DragaNomic. A variation on Nomic and Dungeons and Dragons.
Dvorak. A Nomic card game. From Kevan Davis.
EcoNomic. A game using Nomic to simulate a working economy.
Eleusis Nomic. Rules that blend Nomic with Eleusis, a great game by Robert Abbott. From Joel Ricker.
Engle Matrix Games. Nomic-like games invented by Chris Engle and played for fun, for therapy sessions, and for teaching creative writing.
Fantasy Rules Committee. A long-running Nomic variation.
Fantasy War Games Design Project. Uses a Nomic-like structure to govern the evolution of war games.
FNomic. A French Nomic game. From Jean-Christophe Brenier.
Formal Nomic. Essays by Gerard Vreeswijk. This site seems to have disappeared without a trace. Can anyone help relocate it? Meantime see Vreeswijk's essay, Formalizing Nomic.
Fourplay. A variation on both Nomic and Chess. Also see Ackanomic Party Chess and Nomic Chess.
Future Nomic. From Greg Ritter. Archive of a finished game.
Garden Nomic. Archive of a finished game.
Genomic. A Nomic based on genetic and memetic processes. From Kevan Davis.
Gnomic. Article about a Nomic game at the University of Waterloo in the student newspaper. The link to the game itself is dead.
Gnomic. Not the same as the previous entry. A game played on a discussion board.
Gnomic Nomic. In German.
GNomic. Apparently the archive of a finished game. From Dan Marsh. This game also had a Yahoo discussion list.
GRINomic. A German Nomic game. From Thomas Hirsch.
IgNomic. An email game. From Bryan Derksen.
Imperial Nomic. From Jean-Christophe Brenier. In French. Another URL, apparently for the same game. For the U.S. games that go under the same name, see World Imperial Nomic, below.
InterNomic. From Malenkai. A Nomic game in which the players are other Nomic games.
Japanese Nomic. Requires a Japanese-enabled browser.
Jinx_Tigr's Nomic. A simplified rule-set.
Legacy. A Nomic-inspired game using music. Anonymous.
MacroNomic. Outgrowth of MicroNomic. Part of Internomic.
Kautz Nomic. From Manfred Kautz. In German. Jump to the Nomic page. Willing to start an online game.
Malenkai's Introduction toNomic. Description and links from Randy Hall.
Mega-Ultra Plus. A Nomic game, not a vitamin supplement. From Donovan.
Michael's Nomic page. From Michael Norrish.
MicroNomic II. Non-voting member of Internomic.
Minic. Apparently a finished game.
Minty Nomic. From J.
Misty's Nomic. From Misty.
Moderated Nomic. An email game.
Mornington Nomic. British variant blending Nomic with the radio game, Mornington Crescent. From Kevan Davis.
Murphy's Introduction to Nomic. Description and links from Ed Murphy.
N_omic. Also see this unofficial but more up-to-date page. A game from Jon Grimm
NeoNomicon. An email game. From Mikael Johansson.
Net Waste of Time Nomic. An email game. From Michael Farebrother.
New Rishonnomic. From Klaus Herrmanns. Dan has a separate New Rishnomic page. The Local of Koljiana has its own page. Part of Internomic.
.Nomic. An game that uses alt.games.nomic for its announcements. From Graeme Jefferis.
Nomic. Douglas Hofstadter's original article on Nomic (from Scientific American, June 1982), trafnslated into German.
Nomic. An introduction to the game, in German, from Thomas Voigtmann.
Nomic!. A newer, email game. From Mike Lugo.
Nomic.net. Joel Uckelman bought this domain name and is using it to host Nomic games and useful Nomic tools.
Nomic at Horizon. Moderated by Jim Callahan.
Nomic-Game on WWW. Apparently a dormant game.
NomiCam. An game from Cambridge University. From Jack Rudd. Now there is also a NomiCam2.
NomicICQ. A game using the internet paging service.
Nomic Chess. A Nomic variation on chess, or chess variation on Nomic. From David Howe. Also see Ackanomic Party Chess and Fourplay.
Nomic im Klokken. A German Nomic game. From Stefan Heyd.
Nomic in French. My introduction to Nomic, and the iniitial set of rules, translated into French by Jean-Christophe Brenier.
Nomic in Swedish. The initial rules plus an invitation to join an email game.
Nomiclature. An ongoing game that accepts new players. From Mark Simpson.
Nomic mit Tens. Apparently a finished game. From Dan Marsh.
Nomic MUD. Archive of a finished game. The same game is remembered at Michael Norrish's Nomic World page. This game gave birth to the Fantasy Rules Committee and was succeeded by Agora Nomic.
The Nomic Page. From Geoff Wong.
Nomic: The Masquerade. A variation on Imperial Nomic and Vampire: The Masquerade. Anonymous.
Nomic Rule Sets. A compendium of Initial Rule Sets, for study and comment. Part of Malcolm Ryan's NomicWiki.
No Name Nomic. A Nomic game played on an email discussion forum.
Nomopoly I. From Brian Tivol. Archive of a finished game.
Nomopoly II. From Brian Tivol.
Nomopoly III. From Joel Ricker.
NPP Nomic. Anonymous.
Omeganomic. From Brex.
Our Nomic. From Chuck Henry.
OxNomic. Nomic at Oxford University. From Terry Boon. The Oxford game is at a separate site.
Palermo Nomic. From Carlos A. Peña. Used for teaching law at Universidad de Palermo, Buenos Aires. Now there is also a Palermo Nomic 2.
PandeNomic. From Adam Dray. An email game.
Paranomic. Archive of a finished game. From David Kenning.
The People's Republic of MacroNomic. From Lambda.
Phish-Nomic. From William Fretts-Saxton.
Pnomic. The ruleset of a finished game. From Dan Marsh.
Pokey Nomic Page. From Ed McGuire. This site hosts several email games.
Pokey 2. From Ed McGuire. Uses a minimal initial set of rules.
Polish Nomic. If you read Polish, visit the site for more details.
Polynomic. A game played on a threaded discussion board.
Prism BBS Nomic. From Michael Murphy.
Pumpkin Patch Nomic. Part of Internomic.
Pure Nomic. A variation with a minimal set of initial rules. From Jake.
Radio Free Nomic. Maintained by the Speaker, Uncle Psychosis. Also see the RFN Rebellion page.
RepoNomic. "Quasi-Republican Nomic, as opposed to Communist and Fascist styles." From Geiger.
Rishonomic. A long-running game.
Royal Assasination Nomic. An email game.
Rules for N. A simplified rule-set.
Self-Modifying Games Centre. Nomic and its variants. From Lisa Dusseault.
Shattered World. A long-running MUD using Nomic to govern social interactions.
Simplex Nomic. A game that is "dead" but "technically running". From Jeff Reinecke.
SocialNomic. A game played on an eGroups discussion forum.
SloNomic. From Craig Brunson.
Solitaire Nomic. Rule-set for a solitaire variation. From Doug Chatham.
Svenska Kommitten för Kreativt Kaos. A Swedish Nomic, played on an eGroup discussion forum. From J. Blomberg.
Swedish Nomic. If you read Swedish, visit the site for more details.
Swedish Version of Nomic. The initial rules in Swedish. From Andreas Kähäri.
Tabula Nomic. From Michael Norrish. Apparently a dormant game.
Terra Nomic. Archive of a finished game.
Three Rivers Nomic. From Carrie Schutrick.
Thring Nomic. A long-running game. Accepts new players. Part of Internomic.
Unanomic. Archive of a finished game.
The United Nomics Project. From Jason Orendorf. An effort to connect the many Nomics on the internet.
The Unplugged Nomic Game at Stack. An email game.
Utopia. A game whose rules aspire to be utopian.
Valparaiso Nomic game. This link is dead, but I leave it up in case it revives. Meantime, see Michael Norrish's description of this game.
WikiNomic. Nomic played on a Wiki. From Malcolm Ryan. This has spawned an unusual descendant called Wikit, a graphical ball game in which all the rules are mutable.
World Imperial Nomic Association. The home-page of the fascist variation on the theme. Contains links to the many completed Imperial Nomic games archived on the web.
Yahoo Nomic Page.
You Don't Know (Bluesmobile Nomic). From Berry Renken. Part of Internomic.

Unfortunately, I'm too busy with other projects, including other web pages, to update this page as often as I'd like. But I do update it when I can and I'm always happy to hear about new Nomic sites. May I suggest that all game sites register with Malcolm Ryan's Net Nomic Database? This will help players discover which games are ongoing and which games will accept new players.
On usenet, Nomic announcements and discussions are posted chiefly to rec.games.abstract and somewhat less often to rec.games.pbm. There are two Nomic-specific newsgroups, alt.games.nomic, and alt.games.nomic.unomic, but many sites do not receive them; consequently, the traffic in them is so sparse that Nomic comments are usually outnumbered by spams. For a spam-free Nomic discussion, use Doug Chatham's Nomic Bulletin Board.

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