(8) Quo Vadis, Gringo?

Coup vadis, Senator? For all your plotting, get understanding. While you're trying to evade capture by the Philippine police, don't try and evade logic.

With this, I'm challenging you to improve play in your own Game of C. For the challenge, I want you to read a book, play a game, read a paper.

Quo Vadis is a book on Christian and courtly lives written by a Polish Nobel Prize winner. It is for those who love high office but hate high crimes. It can be profitably read by anyone who loves change.

Quo Vadis is a game on political management by the Dean of computer game designers who happens to be a German. It is for those who like to be always in control. It can be delightfully played by 3 to 5 players who love company. A coup is a game. You'll love this game.

The Messiah is an online article but is really a mental game. I know because it was the one who designed it. It is for those who want to save their country from iniquity. It can be played by anyone and alone.

More.

(1) Quo Vadis is a book first published in 1896 in Poland (Amazon.com/). It is a famous novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz, a Polish writer, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. It is one of the best-selling novels of all time. But watch out: The hero of the story, Marcus, a Patrician in Nero’s court, is converted from decadence (corruption) to Christianity by a lady believer, Lygia. When Rome sinks deeper into the mud of her own immorality, in desperation and/or madness, Nero burns Rome and blames the Christians. The book describes the last days of the Roman Empire. It reminds you of the present days.

(2) Quo Vadis is a computer game devised by Reiner Knizia and published by Hans Im Gluck, for those who want always to be at the top. This is a Game of Control. You are in the Roman Senate. You have 8 Senators with you. You work out the committees; you can advance only if you control the spaces in a committee. That calls for any or all of these Cs: compromise, collaboration, charging, concord, cooperation, concurrence, contribution, collection, connection, containment. You have to cut deals with one another in order to advance. Bob Rossney (gamecabinet.com/) describes it: It's a game of being clever. You can get shut out if you are not paying attention. You can be tempted with short-term gains that force you to defer long-term ones. I say: Coup is your last gambit, not the first.

(3) The Messiah Phenomenon is an article I have written for and has just been published by the American Chronicle. I wrote it with you in mind.

8 April 2006