Chain World conceptual game conceived as a religion

While in the mass game market, someone sees stagnation and monotony, independent developers are hitting the edge. They come up with games that do not look like anything. Moreover, they create concepts that are generally difficult to call games.

Wired magazine has published a great article about the American indie developer Jason Rohrer and his game experiment called Chain World . This Minecraft mod became the winner of the last Game Design Challenge competition, not for beautiful graphics, but for a crazy idea.

The idea is as follows. Chain World exists in a single copy on a single USB flash drive. For the player, there are strict rules that are similar to the biblical commandments. The game can not be copied to another media or make a copy. After the death of the virtual character, the player must transfer the flash drive to another player (suicide is allowed). It is forbidden to leave marks or text messages in the game for future players. It is forbidden to tell anyone what the player has seen or done in the game. It is forbidden to play the second time.

Theoretically, Chain World lives forever, is passed from person to person and in time can turn into something completely unpredictable. If you fantasize, then in the future this flash drive may have some attributes characteristic of religious symbols: it is unique and exists in a single copy, surrounded by mystery, mysticism and complete secrecy, obeys the commandments.
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Jason Rohrer created Chain World for the Game Design Challenge indie game contest, which took place on March 4, 2011 in San Francisco. The essence of the competition was precisely to make the most unusual video game with the most unexpected rules. Each developer had six weeks for the project and 15 minutes for a presentation for the audience. The one who received the most applause won. The motto of this competition was “More than Jesus,” that is, the creation of a game of religion.

Several well-known game designers have already signed up for the Chain World flash drive, including Will Wright. These apostles professionals will be able to modify the game world, which was originally created by God, James Rohrer.

Many serious consultants offer to introduce game mechanics in various spheres of human activity, including politics, business and corporate culture (they say, if each client counts karma or accumulative points, then he will receive a powerful incentive for action). But the most complete apologists of this theory consider game mechanics not just a useful device in business, but a hidden engine of human civilization, a self-contained thing. If you make a rating of such "fanatics", then Jason Rohrer may take first place in it. His most famous game, the simulator of the life of Passage , lasts exactly five minutes and contains in itself the whole life of a person. However, Passage was the most famous game of Jason before the advent of Chain World, which is a project of another level.

This is just a demonstration of the concept, that is, a demonstration of what properties the games of the future can possess. From a technical point of view, there is nothing special about Chain World, it's just a Minecraft mod with a set of scripts. But for some reason, there is a strange feeling that this flash drive is some kind of news from the future that hints at something.