Ridere, ludere, hoc est vivere.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Notes on simultaneous-move games with continuous strategies

My recent posts on game theory have focused on games with discrete strategies, which is to say that players are faced with a finite number of choices for each decision. Some time ago, in our colloquium on games of strategy, Aaron Honsowetz, Austin Smokowicz, and I discussed games with continuous strategies (also on video) - those games in which players choose a value on a spectrum, such as a price to set on a commodity. 

Monday, October 22, 2018

European board games before Catan


Game designer Rob Newton asked on Twitter what people would consider "classic literature of the board game world." Fellow designer Jonathan Weaver responded in three categories - citing Chess and Go as "ancient literature," Monopoly as "classic American literature," and then added, "whatever the predecessor of Catan is would be classic European literature." Some time ago, I was inspired to go back and look at what board games Americans had available to them when Monopoly arrived.  Now I was faced with a similar question for Europe before Catan. I already knew that Clue was originally English and Risk came from a French design, but Weaver's response made me realize that I really couldn't identify other European games released prior to 1995. Surely Catan couldn't have been the first popular European board game, so I felt that some self-education was in order.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Notes on games with mixed strategies


In an earlier post regarding theory of simultaneous move games, I concluded with an example of a game between two tennis players that did not demonstrate a Nash equilibrium between its two pure strategies. Sam Hillier: Consulting Philosopher more recently elaborated on the topic with an excellent post on mixed strategies. Whereas I had approached the question of an equilibrium for a single tennis shot and concluded that none existed, a tennis match of course includes many shots, so players have an opportunity to invoke a weighted mix of shots and defenses between the two options.

Monday, October 8, 2018

Spies vs spies: First impression of Cold Warrior

I have long felt that the Cold War represents a rich thematic opportunity for board games. Yet I can identify only a handful of games set in that NATO-Soviet contest of diplomacy, espionage, and brinkmanship that rank in the top 1000 of boardgamegeek.* Into this cloak-and-dagger arena the new designer Wes Crawford introduces Cold Warrior (artist Jimmy Malone, published on Game Crafter).

Monday, October 1, 2018

Quick draw: First impression of Death Pit Duels

In the world of head-to-head two-player battle card games, I'd be hard pressed to name a more distilled, purified entry than Death Pit Duels (designer Bryan Johnson, publisher Frost Forge on Game Crafter).