Theos-Talk Archives (April 1994 Message tl00023)

regarding Chris Moyer's CD-Rom/Theosophy Game concept
by Daniel Hampson 

I'm a MultiMedia Instructional Designer/Cartoonist,
with experience in creating curriculum games for
adults. From that perspective, let me throw out a
few things....

Before we get into the characters, play parameters,
world levels, animations, sounds, etc, etc, we must
symbolize and visualize the Theosophical database.
For every game there is an invisible, underlying
structure. Let's see what that is for "The Theosophy
Game". That shouldn't be too hard, because wherever
you have deceit, there is a game already in play, with
a specific structure and procedures.

HPB herself said that all her words could be put into
a few pages of geometry. That means that all her
linear data is really non-sequential. It also means
that she suffered greatly putting her thoughts into
words, as we all do. She also admitted to lying when
it was "necessary", so during the linear to geometric
translation the lies must be trapped and weeded out.

Hidden beneath her words are her own thought forms
which were mixed with the thought forms of "Masters"
(either real or imagined) and either understood or
misunderstood. (Here's another sorting operation
and several other levels of play).

There are certain universal mathematical/geometric
themes that run through any rational work. Seven,
ten and twelve are popular and they make specific
2D and 3D shapes. That's handy because the codes
for the shapes have already been written. So we
don't have to start from scratch.

Seven is musically diatonic and a spiral.  Ten is pentatonic and
dodecahedral.  Twelve is chromatic, the perfect union of three and
four, and is the "Vector Equilibrium".  (They can all be connected).

HPB's interpretations of Master thoughts should fit into one of these
three structures or into a fourth, miscellaneous group, to be defined
later.  (So will the words/thoughts in most any other book based on the
Table of Contents and the Index - The Contents are linear, the Index is
alphabetical.  Both are arbitrary.)

The play grid will be defined through this process and any connections
(and lack of) will be perceived.

So, what have we got so far?
1. An interconnected play grid of 7, 10, 12 and misc.
2. The level of HPB's words.
     2a. Other peoples interpretations of her words.
     2b. Other concepts connected to interpretations.
3. The level of HPB's thoughts (unwritten, non-verbal).
4. The level(s) of the Masters' thoughts (higher?).
5. The level of the player's thoughts (lower?).
6. HPB herself and her supporting characters.
7. Enemy characters.
8. Master characters.
9. Connecting concepts, characters and games.
10. The Mysteries of the Ages.

This is a game of thought, not of action. Things
appear and disappear rather than blowing up.
To add a little adventure maybe we should add
the Earthly dimension of the geographic travels
of the main characters, ala Carmen SanDiego, mixed
with their romantic intrigues, ala Liesure Suit Larry.
(Maybe we should just animate K. Paul Johnson's next
book on CD-Rom.)

Whatever shape it takes, I'd like to help visualize it.
I think that just a cross-referenced CD-Rom database
should be constructed first, though.