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Hello, all. I have added some clarity to the rules information, simplified some language, and created a "Philosophy of play" section for the cognitive benefits of playing Zendo. This last section is most important, as the critical thinking skills that the game builds are probably the most prominent reason the game continues to be played to this day.
See the designer's
Zendo design history for more information.— Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Asgardiator (
talk •
contribs) 07:10, 10 September 2015
User:Spshublanked the rules sections last June for being "copyrighted rules". Searching for fragments of that original version, all I can find are some Wikipedia mirrors (including some
Books LLC publications which I took at first glance to be Looney Labs books, but which, no, are just Wikipedia content).
First they removed also since they are the rules on top of the copyright issue. As [Wikipedia:WikiProject Board and table games#Structure|complete rules are not to be including]] in WP game articles as "
Wikipedia is not an instruction manual.". That fl108 page at the copyright.gov website is not the law and copyright laws protect against
Derivative work being made with out permission of the copyright holder. Rewriting the rules to the game in your own words is derivative of the original work, thus a copyright violation. Else, I could just rewrite The Lord of Rings (or other famous works) in my own words to cash in with out much effort. The copyright.gov website is a website of the Library of Congress
which indicates "Materials published on Library of Congress websites are intended for reference use only. They are not legal advice, and may not represent the official opinion of the United States Government."
Spshu (
talk)
14:17, 21 January 2016 (UTC)reply
Does the WikiProject draw a line anywhere on which games to give rules for, and which not? It reads to me as if it's talking more about complex commercial boardgames (eg.
Settlers of Catan) where including scrupulously full rules about setup and gameplay would be excessive. Wikipedia seems happy to give full rules for games like
chess and
poker, and it feels appropriate to do so. I'd say Zendo fell at the chess/poker end of that, being a simple game whose rules are freely available online. But perhaps the line is generally drawn at "game which also had a commercial version". --
McGeddon (
talk)
17:25, 21 January 2016 (UTC)reply
No, there wasn't an exception give about rules. Per Wikipedia:Other stuff exists|Other stuff exists]], just because there are full rules for chess and poker is not a reason for Zendo to have them. That just means editors have not been ignoring WP guidelines/policies.
Spshu (
talk)
20:45, 21 January 2016 (UTC)reply