This year\u2019s Hugo ballot has a (one-year-only) Best Video Game category. I had heard of (but not played) most of the nominated games, but was curious about one in particular that I had never heard of: Blaseball.<\/p>\r\n
Turns out that it\u2019s a free, web-based \u201cabsurdist [\u2026] take on fantasy baseball,\u201d in which you bet imaginary money on imaginary sports teams with names like the Houston Spies, the Seattle Garages, and the Atlantis Georgias. (And player names like Anathema Elemefayo, Quantum Flahwah, Cravel Gesundheit, and Anastasia Isarobot.) And you also vote on things that change the game over time, such as \u201cnew rules ranging in absurdity from adding a fifth base to redistributing the best players from the best teams,\u201d or giving the players extra limbs.<\/p>\r\n
And other stuff happens besides the games:<\/p>\r\n
\r\nOver the course of [the first] eleven seasons, a story unfolded: forbidden knowledge was accessed, players were incinerated by rogue umpires, the dead were revived, and all of Blaseball banded together to fight against a giant peanut god that threatened to destroy everything.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
And there\u2019s also a vast amount of not-necessarily-canon fan lore and fan activity.<\/p>\r\n
The whole thing sounds potentially like a lot of fun, but also potentially like a huge time sink, and I do not need another hobby. But if you want an overview of what Blaseball is and what\u2019s happened so far, an IGN article<\/a> (whence I got the quotes above) seems to me to be pretty good.<\/p>\r\n