Category: games

New Scientist reports that Jonathan Schaeffer has proven Checkers to end in a draw if neither player makes a mistake.

The crucial part of Schaeffer’s computer proof involved playing out every possible endgame involving fewer than 10 pieces. The result is an endgame database of 39 trillion positions. By contrast, there are only 19 different opening moves in draughts. Schaeffer’s proof shows that each of these leads to a draw in the endgame database, providing neither player makes a mistake.

Schaeffer was able to get his result by searching only a subset of board positions rather than all of them, since some of them can be considered equivalent. He carried out a mere 10¹⁴ calculations to complete the proof in under two decades. “This pushes the envelope as far as artificial intelligence is concerned,” he says.

To sum it up: If we were only a little smarter, Checkers would be just as boring as Tic Tac Toe.

Thanks to Henrik Bennetsen for the heads up.

Pretty irresistible really.

I was skeptical at GDC because it looked like all the cool stuff (throwing yourself in the air etc..) just might be the same on every user-generated level. But it looks open enough that players will be able to create very new and surprising things.

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Postings are coming a bit slow here – it’s summer.

This looks like a big one: Nintendo has announced WiiWare, online distribution of new Wii games for developers.

OK, but the real news is this:

Fils-Aime told us that while Nintendo, as the retailer, would itself determine the appropriate pricing for each game on a per-title bases, the games themselves would not be vetted by Nintendo. Instead, Nintendo would only check the games for bugs and compatibility, with developers and publishers responsible for securing an E for Everyone, E10+ for Everyone 10 or older, T for Teen or M for Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

Let’s wait for the exact details to come in, but so far it looks like we may be seeing the first hole in the fence around the current consoles: The possibility that anyone can publish a console game without platform owner approval.

Was it inevitable? I am sure CD- and DVD-player manufacturers know that the variety of content is a boon to business, not a threat, and now a console manufacturer is coming around.

How will the submissions process work? How will they distribute dev kits?

What will happen with XNA now?

(Posting this after everybody else.)

Julian Dibbell’s new article at the New York Times on Chinese Gold Farmer.

As already Roger Caillois was on to, professionalization raises the basic question, Is it still a game?

And, apparently, yes, sort of.

It is hard, in any case, for Zhou to say where the line between work and play falls in a gold farmer’s daily routines. “I am here the full 12 hours every day,” he told me, offhandedly killing a passing deer with a single crushing blow. “It’s not all work. But there’s not a big difference between play and work.”

I turned to Wang Huachen, who remained intent on manipulating an arsenal of combat spells, and asked again how it was possible that in these circumstances anybody could, as he put it, “have sometimes a playful attitude”?

He didn’t even look up from his screen. “I cannot explain,” he said. “It just feels that way.”

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As a video game theorist, I can sympathize with the line of reasoning. I get similar questions on occasion:

Q: Are games still fun when you are studying them professionally?

A: Yes.

Some games have actually become more fun. When playing a game that really isn’t that good, I can think about more interesting theoretical perspectives on the game. On the other hand, I do rely on a continuing supply of quirky games. Where would we be without Rhythm Tengoku?

It’s extremely hard to take the current commotion about Resistance Fall of Man seriously.

The Church of England is outraged that Resistance Fall of Man features a location with likeness to the Manchester Cathedral, Tony Blair is asked to comment, and the church would be willing to calm down for a price.

Something is seriously wrong – everybody seems to basically understand the difference between fiction and non-fiction, but when it comes to video games, otherwise intelligent people will happily short-circuit and claim that a sci-fi game “encourages people to have guns battles in the building“.

The part about encouragement comes from the bishop of Manchester, and it raises the question whether he personally felt very encouraged to engage in gun battles after playing the game? I think he needs to step forward on this issue: Did he feel a strong urge towards real gun violence that he could only barely control?

Or is it rather a sort of interpretation-by-proxy along the following lines: All these weird people who play video games must surely feel encouraged to engage in gun battles in the cathedral. (Though I have no basis for this assumption whatsoever. Please send money.)

How can you not desperately want to own this game?

Wired article on Soviet Era arcade games.

I mean – old, broken, mysterious arcade games I have never played, very exciting. On my wish list.

These days, I am quite fascinated with the idea of studying the development of a genre, game type, or game series over the years. It just hasn’t been done much (seems we have mostly been doing the very big picture or general musings on a single game), and the payoff from studying details is often surprisingly high. (To see the world in a grain of sand.)

Via GameSetWatch, here’s Blogging Ultima, where CageBlogger has been playing his way through the Ultima series since February.

From the introduction:

Welcome to what will presumably be a long-running Ultima blog. The purpose is to blog the experience of playing the now-defunct Ultima series by Origin Systems (plus a few other names here and there) from beginning to end. I will be including all the non-remake spin-offs that I am aware of, under the theory of “If I’m gonna do it, might as well go all the way.” I am not blogging as if I am a character in the game, or giving reviews. I’m going to write about the process of playing, the annoying things, the fun things, and the assorted mental musings that arise from any long-term activity.

Details are good.