Gigalith cancels Moderate Forum Game: gone insane.
Sorry, peeps, but for personal reasons I've having to stop this now. :( For my 3+ readers, have a long winded explanation:
When I started this, I had no idea how much energy and time it would use up. It can literally take hours to write updates. If that was all that was going on in my life, fine, but I've got other projects I'm working on. One of those projects has an incoming deadline. I found I really don't have the time.
By the way, though the exact specific way this turned out contributed to the problem, it wouldn't have changed things if it was some other way. I intended this to go off the rails, because really, why wait?
Secondly, --this may sound bizarre--, I don't believe in this. I'm not meaning that I lack belief in the factuality of this online collaborative creative fiction exercise. I'm meaning that I don't share the worldview that this game would seemly support: Strong AI, weak AI, the universe as program, the universe as programmable, transhumanism, etc. This gets into personal reasons, which I have neither the space nor the desire to discuss here. Simply said, I've never been fully comfortable moderating this.
"But Gigalith!" You say. "Why did you start this forum game in the first place if you disagreed with the philosophical underpinnings with which you started it?"
I answer: It seemed a good idea at the time. INTERNET SHRUG.
See, there's a thing with expectations. The name, "API of the Gods", implies you're going to be programming the universe, which implies the universe is a computer. And if I were to go all up in the middle of game and say "BY THE WAY GUYS THIS UNIVERSE IS ACTUALLY BETTER DESCRIBED BY HYLEMORPHIC DUALISM THAN COMPUTATIONAL MECHANISM", it'd troll everyone, including me. With a title like "API of the Gods", I expect Gods trying to program each other out of the Universe-Computer, not sudden discussions of final and formal causes! On the other hand, if I didn't pull a bait and switch, as I concluded I shouldn't, then I'm stuck moderating something I feel uncomfortable with.
By the way, the 1 Hiero/MB thing? Balance reasons. Seriously. Even ignoring my inherent dislike of AI whatnot, without it, any intelligence-type demigods are going to steamroller any other kind of demigod. Looking back, if I put, say, negative energy in the standard divkit, then I think you could get relativity shenanigans for personal slow-mo, but at that point what meaning do standard mortals have? You'd might as well set the game on Mars.
Also, this was probably going to happen anyway, even if we didn't start with an intelligence god, simply because we'd assemble a semi-full divkit eventually from conquering/trading with everybody.
Finally, and most simply, I have too much pressure in my life, and this is one of those things that gets the cut. That's the long and the short of it.
So, thanks for the wild ride, everyone, such as it was, and sorry it had to be cut short. If anyone wants to pick up the torch, or try a simpler version, they have my blessing.