Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
In Tic-Tac-Toe, the number of possible choices starts at nine initially and gets
worse from there. (Actually, it only
looks
like nine. Given that the board is symmet-
rical on two axes, the true number of starting moves is three: corner, side, and
middle. Interestingly, the second player either has five or two responding moves
depending on the initial selection by the first player.) Still, there are more choices
per game than are available in Rock-Paper-Scissors. Anyone over the age of eight,
however, realizes after about 10 times through the game that all the choices lead to
the rather bleak outcome of a draw. (Startlingly, the WOPR supercomputer in the
movie
WarGames
needed significantly more time than that to reach this conclusion.)
So, while there are certainly
more
choices in play, the game isn't necessarily better.
Blackjack has only a few choices of what to do at any given point: hit, stand,
double, and split. There are plenty of scenarios that the player can find himself in,
however. A glance at one of the cute little Blackjack cheat cards (Figure 1.2) will
show that there are 280 different meaningful combinations of what's on the table at
any given time. While that is a significantly larger possibility space than Tic-Tac-
Toe and certainly Rock-Paper-Scissors, a second glance at the cheat card will show
that there is a statistically “right� way to play each of those combinations. So, while
there are plenty of choices, they aren't necessarily “interesting.� In fact, seasoned
Blackjack players have that cheat sheet memorized—removing it, for all intents
and purposes, from the realm of choice entirely. They simply play the way that mil-
lions of models have shown to be statistically advantageous.
Wandering down the casino aisle, you may encounter the Poker room. Again,
there aren't many choices in the standard poker game. Aside from folding a hand,
the choices largely revolve around how much to bet. And yet, the choices that
are
in play are far more interesting than those of Blackjack. What makes them that way?
After all, just like Blackjack, it really comes down to the probability statistics. “What
is the
likelihood
that my hand is better than yours?�
To understand the difference between the two games that makes Poker's choices
more interesting than those in Blackjack, we must realize that there is another
concept in play. There's someone else in the room that is
also
making a “series of
interesting choices.� Theoretically, just like Blackjack, the number of possible Poker
hand combinations could be calculated. Just like Blackjack, there are a finite num-
ber of scenarios—although I would hate to see the size of the little cheat card. Given
that information—and even being forced to use some inference about the other
hands—you could make a reasonable assertion about the relative strength of your
hand. Your interesting choice would be reduced to what you were willing to risk
given the potential of winning and losing. The game would still take on the form of
Blackjack—albeit a bit more complicated. Except for the one knotty factor that no
amount of statistical modeling can entirely take into consideration—the guy on the
other side of the table with the dark glasses and stupid hat that keeps rattling his
chips is making an “interesting choice� as well.
