Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

[Jody Chandler <windblownhermit@xxxxxxxxx>]

As a tangent off of that article, which is nice, I always sort of disliked the use of the Zen Buddhism as the theme for this game, even though I love the game itself.  1) The way koans work in the game doesn't bear much resemblance to the actual use and purpose of  Zen koans.  2) As someone who is genuinely interested in Buddhism and highly respectful of the search for genuine enlightenment, I find it a little uncomfortable for a game mechanic to put me in the role of a Zen disciple, especially given point 1. I think exploitation is probably too strong a word, but maybe flippancy is the feeling I always get. 

--- On Sat, 4/2/11, Jeff Zeitlin <icehouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Jeff Zeitlin <icehouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Icehouse] [Zendo] Rule clarification [Mondo]
To: "Icehouse Discussion List" <icehouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Saturday, April 2, 2011, 10:52 AM

On Sat, 2 Apr 2011 09:27:23 -0400, Buddha Buck <blaisepascal@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


>B) When you play a mondo because you are ready to make a guess, use it to
>try to falsify your theory rather than an easy confirmation it.  If your
>koan is an easy confirmation of an incorrect theory, you will find out it's
>incorrect by guessing, rather than mondoing, and you will have to spend a
>stone and inform the rest of the players of your incorrect theory.

After reading the above paragraph, I dimly remembered reading something
about Zendo and the Scientific Method, so I went through my LiveJournal,
where I'd recalled linking to it, and googled as well, and found it on
BoardGameGeek:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/154012/zendo-as-a-tool-for-teaching-the-scientific-method
(via Google) or http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1363713#1363713
(via freetrav.livejournal.com).  The point that Buck made above was also
made in that article by the author, and is an important one, both as a
Zendo playing strategy and as a guide to "doing science".

And I agree with the author of the article (from a comment later in the
discussion) that it would be a good idea to retheme Zendo and market a
"boxed" set as an educational game.

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