John_Maxwell_IV comments on SotW: Check Consequentialism - Less Wrong

38 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 March 2012 01:35AM

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Comment author: Matt_Simpson 24 March 2012 01:40:48AM 2 points [-]

It occurs to me that games with some significant strategic component might be useful for priming the "but what consequences does it have?" response. I'm thinking of games like Magic: the Gathering, Settlers of Catan, Risk, etc. (I'm sure the board game aficionados will have better examples than I). I say this because of personal experience with Magic players - as they get better at magic, they tend to get better at life. Well, some of them do. The others perhaps compartmentalize too much, so maybe this won't help with everyone.

In any case, my model for what would work is a relatively easy social game that allows a non-trivial number of actions with unclear consequences... unless you stop to think about them. Magic would be perfect... if it wasn't so complicated and if fantasy tropes didn't turn off a large segment of the population. Ideally the game would be something you create instead of something your subjects/clients may have played before.

I have no ideas for the actual game, but maybe this sparks someone else's imagination.

Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 24 March 2012 04:41:22AM 0 points [-]

Lost Cities might work, if you took your time and tried to make the optimal play every move. I think you can make it work with playing cards.