[Brian,
Tuesday January 25, 2005 at 4:03pm]
Why Geeky Game Theory Interests me
The last post is interesting to few gamers; but I'm one of them. But it comes down to: why play games?
Social enjoyment counts for something, but system analysis interests me (and, I suspect, anyone still reading). The game presents a puzzle, with actual opponents as the engine of opposition. Solving a jigsaw puzzle (or solitaire, or those iron rings puzzles) may be interseting once, but a well done game provides repeat plays.
Ideally, a game's mechanisms should appear obvious (and easy to explain), while the underlying system remains hidden, full of unexpected avenues with plenty of places to explore. Given a game worth exploring, It's no surprise that I go exploring.
The original rules of golf (back many hundreds of years) included the gentleman's agreement that forbid practicing. Right now many gamers want to discover a game's strategies on their own (and I can't argue with that emotion); personally, after a few games I'm ready to go to the driving range to work some issues out.
P.S. My golf game sucks. So I don't play.