You're at home, browsing the web. There's this really silly cat video where the cat walks on a laptop keyboard and ends up reading some guy's emails. Suddenly, you realize you haven't scanned your emails in a long time. I mean, that's understandable, right? No one sends email these days. Today, however, was clearly special, since a good old junk mail was waiting for you at your account.
What the heck? The thought of someone sending you this useless chain letter humors you, but, for the most part, leaves you confused. You feel like, since this junk is so rare, you've been transported back to the 00's for some reason. Nostalgia, you suppose, but... wait! What's that AOL icon doing there? And wait, why are you using Hotmail all of a sudden? Seems like you really are in the 00's now!
You flex your fingers. Well, if it's come to that, you may as well return the favor and send some junk of your own!
ALTERNATIVELY...
You're a lone amoeba, looking to reproduce in this big, grey world. Compared to those cool kids who have their gang and ignore public signs, you can't really do anything. What's worse, you know that reproducing hurts! A lot! It splits you apart. Considering the circumstances, though, you'll be happy to do it anyway. You know it's for a greater cause. Yadda yadda yadda, you start multiplying! How exciting.
What am I really doing here?Playing a really quick forum game! As the backstory suggests, this game is about exponential growth! Starting off with three people, those three people will choose two other people to take their place in the game's next round. The next round, those six other people will choose a total of twelve new people. And so on, and so on, until the mod (that's me!) collapses. Nah, actually, that's what the time limit is for - a week should be a good place to stop before things go out of hand. Plus, it won't actually be a perfectly exponential growth rate - it's all up to the recipients if they want to continue the chain or not!
See, in this game, there is no list of players. Anyone can be roped into playing, and any one of you guys could rope them into it. You gotta admit, that is cool.
How do I play?Here is how things will go down, in order:
- Forumgoers check the thread and read this post! They imagine a game that starts with three people, and how that game would progress over the week - which people end up in the chain and when. They make a post in this thread with a list of people they think will be at the end of the chain, those receiving an email right before the game ends. The goal should be to make the most accurate list possible. More info on this later.
- The game starts on Monday, with three people in the player list. Those three people are randomized out of the group of people who posted lists in the thread before the game started.
- From then on, every 24 hours, people on the player list can send a message to two people who aren't on the player list. They don't have to send two messages. In fact, they don't have to send any messages. If they want to send one, though, they have to send me a copy of it too, or else I won't know about it! The message could contain any random nonsense that does or doesn't fit with the flavor of the game. (Note that different players can end up messaging the same person unwittingly. All that happens is that the excess messages are "wasted". Too bad.)
- We reach Monday of the next week and the game ends, with 7 rounds total. Anyone who got sent a message on the 7th round is officially "at the end of the chain".
- Whoever has the most accurate list, compared to the end-of-chain list, wins. I use ALGORITHMS that look up how many times a pick has shown up on everyone else's list, and reward the rarer correct picks, meaning uncommon usernames are more valuable if they end up at the end of the chain. Hint hint, you can influence the game yourself, so compose your list wisely with that in mind. The maximum size of a list is 15 names. You have no reason not to give me 15, but you don't have to.
- That's it! Everyone talks about how much fun this was and how there should be a sequel in the future.
Capiche?Feel free to clarify things and ask questions, find loopholes, whatever, since I haven't really playtested this before. This is original game do not steal. Oh, and spread the word. The more people post lists, the better. You don't REALLY have to commit any of your free time for this, so nothing's stopping you. Go wild! Also, it would make things way more fun if people follow the thread and post in it while the game is going on, even if they aren't in that particular round, which is actually pretty likely, so. Let's have fun and spam everyone's inbox.
