Paranoia XP “goes gold,” ships for Gen Con

That’s the top story, but it isn’t the real story. The press release at Greg Costikyan’s site only looks like a press release – it’s actually a handy executive summary of the various ways in which the Paranoia XP dev team used the Internet to strengthen their game before it was even released. “Fans of the game contributed enthusiastically via blog, wiki, and online forum. They wrote text, debated rules, proofread, ran statistical analyses, and even wrote a computer simulator to test the game’s paper-and-pencil rules. […] ‘I think Allen [Varney] is onto something here–at least for artforms that are collaborative in nature, such as games and possibly film, there’s a lot to be said for tapping the collective talents of the fan base, as filtered by a professional.’ ” New rule: if you can’t get at least a dozen online strangers that excited about your game before it comes out, you’re making the wrong game.