Comments for page "Design Theory"

Re: Deterministic to Random

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:59:04 +0000

Chess vs Rock, Paper, Scissors
John, you raise an interesting question of what randomness is, and if hidden information imparts some randomness to a game. The common versions of chess have no hidden information. Players alternate turns and can see the state of the board and pieces before, during, and after each piece is moved. Paper, scissors, rock has hidden information: each turn, you do not know what your opponent is doing on that turn, as both play simultaneously. The best ["mixed"] strategy is to play each about 1/3 of the time [from what I just recently read, anyhow]. This is a statistical strategy, different than the strategy used in chess, and indicative of possible randomness in the system. Or would you argue that there is hidden information in chess: the opponent's reply to your move, and it also introduces some seeming randomness into the game, considering that chess openings are statistically based. This would come somewhat close to saying that sequential and simultaneous movement games are the same, I suspect.
Joe

(no title)

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:19:08 +0000

There is a range that starts at Deterministic and ends at Random.

A deterministic game has no random elements and requires only the choices of the player to resolve the conflicts in the game. Chess (aside from colour choice) and rock, paper, scissors are deterministic games.

A random game is a game where the winner is determined exclusively by chance and have no player choices. Cutting a deck for high card and High Roll is an example of such a game (players roll dice and the highest wins)

Most games lay in the middle.

There is a maxim of game design that states that bad players will play longer if the game is closer to Random and good players will play longer if a game is deterministic. The reverse is that good players will tend to stop playing games that are too random and bad players will stop playing games that are too deterministic. There is a sweet spot, somewhere in the middle, that allows bad players to occasionally win through luck (which the good player can accept) and the good player can normally win through skill.