That’s...not the strategy I would choose for playtesting multiple versions of a game. Consider
I think you misunderstood, I wouldn’t write the manual this way after publishing for a broad audience. It’s just fine for developers. But there are also some other reasons that stuff is less relevant:
It’s a game about choosing whatever rules make the most sense. Mainly setting laws, rather than game rules, but the mindset transfers.
Everyone has complete information, and players are generally cooperatively striving towards mutual understanding (rather than away from it), so everyone’s assumptions about the game rules are visible, if there’s a difference in interpretation, you’ll notice it in peoples’ choices and you’re usually going to want to bring it up.
Speaking as a developer, I would rather have a complete worked-out example as a baseline for my modifications than a box of loose parts.
I do not think that the designer mindset of unilaterally specifying neutral rules to provide a good experience for all players is especially similar to the negotiator mindset of trying to make the deal that will score you the most points.
I haven’t played Optimal Weave yet, but my player model predicts that a nontrivial fraction of players are going to try to trick each other during their first game. Also I don’t think any hidden info or trickery is required in order for rule disagreements to become an issue.
I think you misunderstood, I wouldn’t write the manual this way after publishing for a broad audience. It’s just fine for developers. But there are also some other reasons that stuff is less relevant:
It’s a game about choosing whatever rules make the most sense. Mainly setting laws, rather than game rules, but the mindset transfers.
Everyone has complete information, and players are generally cooperatively striving towards mutual understanding (rather than away from it), so everyone’s assumptions about the game rules are visible, if there’s a difference in interpretation, you’ll notice it in peoples’ choices and you’re usually going to want to bring it up.
Speaking as a developer, I would rather have a complete worked-out example as a baseline for my modifications than a box of loose parts.
I do not think that the designer mindset of unilaterally specifying neutral rules to provide a good experience for all players is especially similar to the negotiator mindset of trying to make the deal that will score you the most points.
I haven’t played Optimal Weave yet, but my player model predicts that a nontrivial fraction of players are going to try to trick each other during their first game. Also I don’t think any hidden info or trickery is required in order for rule disagreements to become an issue.