Yesterday's problem is solved (?) in the game of Nomic, the point of which is to make changes to the rules of the very game you're playing--initially at the mercy of a vote, and later by whatever rules the players establish for rule-making. This is not the game-ized BWC that I'm hoping for, but an instructive experiment all the same. Nomic is a totally cerebral game that depends on nuances of language akin to what lawyers exploit/endure. BWC has a visual dimension, and adding a "competitive" dimension need not bring nitpicking and loophole hunting as well.

What, if anything, makes Nomic "work"? It is easy to add rules that increase or decrease a player's score whenever some event occurs. But this leads to a linear kind of play where each player just wants to hit those "score buttons." More interesting board games and card games have "position," and the value of a position is up for debate. This is what makes games playable and fun, rather than simply "solvable."

So: how to create an initial game that is open enough to allow vast creativity, but structured enough to make sure that the "rules" that get created interact in an interesting way? How to force players to play with each other, rather than alone? Any ideas?