This is gamelessly silly and I stand by it: my rejected submission to the NY Academy of Talent Showcase
“Furry Rabbits Rolling in Daisies,” by my mom.
Instead of person vs. person it’s team vs. team. Each team consists of 16 people, each with the ability to control only one chess piece.
The game is played remotely, with each team’s members separated from each other. Each player has a computer and a big red button. When it’s a team’s turn to move, the first person to hit his button gets dibs on moving his piece that turn. If someone’s piece is unable to move because it’s blocked in, they can’t hit the button.
Each player on the winning team gets $1 million regardless of whether his piece was captured.
Each player with an un-captured piece at the end of the game gets $10,000 regardless of whether his team won.
I don’t know how this would work out, but I’m sure it’d be interesting. I know this basic idea (small personal reward vs. large group reward in cooperative tasks) has been explored before, but applying it to chess would make for a really interesting spectator sport.
Note: For the players controlling the kings, there’s no dilemma! Altruism and egoism synthesize perfectly. Ah, if only we were all Chess Kings!
This idea is absolutely mesmerizing.
The financial aspect may not be applicable, but a game played in this fashion could in fact happen, the logistics could be organized- particularly if we tried it via email (and accepted that the game would be played at a slower pace than real time).
32 people email a ‘chessmaster’ who randomly assigns each piece to a player. The chessmaster BCC’s each team when it is their turn, to ensure that the identities of the teammates are never revealed to eachother, and the first player to email back gets to move their piece. In each email the chessmaster includes an image of the updated board. There is a certain percentage of honor system adherence necessary for this- players agree not to discuss the game with their friends/fellow players- but otherwise I think it would work. In fact I want to try it. 33 total people would need to be involved- the players and an administrator.
The strategic aspects of this idea are extraordinarily interesting and I could talk about them at length, but for now I am gonna daydream about making this happen. Benjamin, let’s talk.
Chewbin Peanut.
(composed by Jessica Stickles)
One of my all-time favorite UCBComedy originals.
From one of my NYU psychology textbooks.
(btw, take a two-day break from tumblr and all of a sudden your tumblarity’s at 11. what a rippo!)
This is my mom’s creation. There’s a family tradition of saying “rabbit rabbit rabbit!” at the start of a new month. So she emailed this to me. Love it.
A while back I submitted a packet of one panel cartoons to several publishing syndicates; this is (a rough draft of) one of them.
this is probably the best drawing I’ve done of myself. From an elaborate customized birthday card for my friend Katie, 2004.
this was a character in a stop motion short I never made. If there was one thing I could change from my college experience: more animation classes.
