I was mostly referring to how the reasoning had to deal a gradually accreting set of rules, each one constructed in the service of narrative (that is, fun) instead of being a realistic constraint. I really did mean Calvinball.
Calvinball is temporally inconsistent; it's been a while since I read DN but I don't remember any of the later rules making me think 'if only Light had known that rule, he would totally have owned his opponents!' Most of the later rules seemed to just be clarifications and hole-fixing.
The Open Thread posted at the beginning of the month has gotten really, really big, so I've gone ahead and made another one. Post your new discussions here!
This thread is for the discussion of Less Wrong topics that have not appeared in recent posts. If a discussion gets unwieldy, celebrate by turning it into a top-level post.