Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary

From: gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)

Date: Thu, 01 Jul 1993 23:00:39 +0000

In article <gym.741525309@dcs.ed.ac.uk> gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews) writes:

>Moreover you[*] have missed the most important thing, namely that you
>might be able to guess an approximate formula, but not the exact
>one. Why is this important. It means that the people without the
>maths degrees or the CS programming skills are going to be able
>to compete on the same terms as those with those skills.

[*] == someone else, not me.

A _well_ designed game, of which there are few, does not suffer from
this problem of revealing formulae aiding only a privledged few.
Atlantis, for example, reveals the formulae, yet does not present much
opportunity for statistical wizardry. I'm sure at least one frequent
poster to this newsgroup will disagree with me, but I assure you that
there is no significant advantage to be gained through simulations in
Atlantis -- the important factors are pretty obvious.

I also agree (write the date down to use against me later) with David
desJ that players skilled at analyzing games (which doesn't
necessarily mean a degree in anything particular) will be able to
figure out any flaws (read: nifty optimizations possible) in the
system, no matter whether or not the formulae are published. By
publishing them, you invite analysis of the game by lots of people,
and listening to their feedback can often improve the game.

References

Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Tue, 29 Jun 1993 11:55:07 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Wed, 30 Jun 1993 10:33:28 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Wed, 30 Jun 1993 20:13:49 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Thu, 01 Jul 1993 11:15:09 +0000

Referenced By

Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Tue, 29 Jun 1993 11:55:07 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Wed, 30 Jun 1993 10:33:28 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Wed, 30 Jun 1993 20:13:49 +0000
Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
gym@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Graham Matthews)
Thu, 01 Jul 1993 11:15:09 +0000