Nomic:Game 2005-04-02:Whether placing a piece is a move

From Carls wiki

All rise.

Hello, it's me again, your favourite judge. It seems that we have a troublemaker in relation to our new board. And we don't like troublemakers, do we now?

Ok, so here's the situation: Johan had placed two pieces on the board, one WhatAFly on the location RabbitFoot, and one Parasite on the location WhatAFly. (I think this is an attempt by the troublemaker to deceive us into thinking that he had placed a piece on another piece, but this is of course not the case, most of all because WhatAFly is just a type name and there can be several pieces of that kind. Anyway.) Now, is placing two pieces in sequence a legal action on the board? Well, it turns out it depends.

Is placing a piece a move or not?

According to r309, it is illegal to make two moves in a row. Also, according to r309, a move is an action on a piece. So is placing a piece a move?

I can see reasons for judging both ways in this case. Placing a piece could be said to be an action on the piece (even though it's not yet on the board) and thus a move. On the other hand, one could reason that since the piece "comes into existence" by the player's placing it on the board, it could not count as a move, but as something more fundamental, an action on the board, or something.

However, I prefer to read the spirit of the law in this case, and not the letter. What we have is clearly a troublemaker who wishes nothing but to test the limits of the game and the patience of the court. There's no reason for me not to be harsh here just to set a fine example.

Also, imagine what happened if I ruled piece placing as not being a move. Suddenly it would be allowed for a player to place a thousand pieces in sequence without waiting for the others, thus perhaps gaining an unfair advantage. Play would be practically impossible except in spaces ruling against this behaviour. The law text the same player may not make two moves in a row was actually made to prevent these situations.

Therefore I rule that Johan's second piece be removed from the board ASAP and that 5 points be deducted from his score for stirring up all this trouble.

Thank you. Court dismissed.