The system here is largely an after-the-fact attempt to rationalize particular themes in the card game, privileging simple and “interesting” themes. To the extent the rationalization resonates, I think it’s for reasons like: People associate “white” with goodness and Christian imagery (even though quite a bit of the unusual character of Christianity has historically been its blueness). If black is then treated as the “anti-white” color, then it gets both the opposite set of virtues (personal ambition, etc.) and the opposite set of associations (death, darkness, corruption, etc.).
Rebellious punk/goth/etc. seems about right. Cf. most versions of Satanism, Slytherin, etc.
I’m still super curious about the process you used to distinguish color patterns in the game that are “mere mechanics” from color patterns in the game that are “useful for a larger motivational ontology”.
Could you maybe talk about how you sift the ontology using the idea that “White and blue have more than their fair share of flying creatures while green tends to have few flying creatures but many counters to flying” as an example?
Is there a such a thing as a “way to be wrong” here? If so, how do you notice that you are more or less wrong in this domain?
Is flying just a game mechanic or is it a symbol (perhaps for “openness to new experience”) or is there some orthogonal issue to pay attention to that is much more important?
The system here is largely an after-the-fact attempt to rationalize particular themes in the card game, privileging simple and “interesting” themes. To the extent the rationalization resonates, I think it’s for reasons like: People associate “white” with goodness and Christian imagery (even though quite a bit of the unusual character of Christianity has historically been its blueness). If black is then treated as the “anti-white” color, then it gets both the opposite set of virtues (personal ambition, etc.) and the opposite set of associations (death, darkness, corruption, etc.).
Rebellious punk/goth/etc. seems about right. Cf. most versions of Satanism, Slytherin, etc.
Loren ipsum
I’m still super curious about the process you used to distinguish color patterns in the game that are “mere mechanics” from color patterns in the game that are “useful for a larger motivational ontology”.
Could you maybe talk about how you sift the ontology using the idea that “White and blue have more than their fair share of flying creatures while green tends to have few flying creatures but many counters to flying” as an example?
Is there a such a thing as a “way to be wrong” here? If so, how do you notice that you are more or less wrong in this domain?
Is flying just a game mechanic or is it a symbol (perhaps for “openness to new experience”) or is there some orthogonal issue to pay attention to that is much more important?