I am reading a good book of puzzles (King Arthur in Search of his Dog and other curious puzzles) by a chap called Raymond M Smullyan.
He writes logic-based mystery books and his book "Lady or the Tiger" is cited on wikipedia as worth reading for its explanation of logic puzzles (it was actually this book for which I was looking when I bought King Arthur....)
The puzzles in the google doc here are recontextualized plagiarisms of his logic structures. In some ways they are "new" puzzles as altering a word here and there in a given structure can clarify/obfuscate the structure significantly without invalidating it.
Actually substituting the variables and keeping track of them, all but forces you to explicitly abtract the structure from its initial context (particularly when it comes to refactoring the solutions and explanations).
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
I want more life......
Last night was great.
Drink and wine on tables scarcely relevant. Five groups attention focused. Not all that enticing on first impressions.
Until I joined a group.
The board-game cards pretty, similar but different.
I LOVE Rock Band.
I wish I'd tried all this years ago.
Drink and wine on tables scarcely relevant. Five groups attention focused. Not all that enticing on first impressions.
Until I joined a group.
The board-game cards pretty, similar but different.
I LOVE Rock Band.
I wish I'd tried all this years ago.
You're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down...
Wednesday's class was challenging.
We had to do and analyze a lot of puzzles. Of course it was challenging!
I don't do puzzles but am willing to give them a bash. I REALLY wanted to have five minutes on my own in a quiet room with a piece of paper to analyze each one.
To categorize statements. To check for ambiguity. To analyze the assumptions about the system and to look for origins of these assumptions.
Under pressure (yeah I felt under pressure) I got frazzled.
I was running to stand still. A couple of times when task B assumed understanding of puzzle A (that I was just intuiting) I didn't like it at all.
Now, apart from crummy design principles assignments, I've got the week-end to think about the puzzles.
And that I'm looking forward to....
We had to do and analyze a lot of puzzles. Of course it was challenging!
I don't do puzzles but am willing to give them a bash. I REALLY wanted to have five minutes on my own in a quiet room with a piece of paper to analyze each one.
To categorize statements. To check for ambiguity. To analyze the assumptions about the system and to look for origins of these assumptions.
Under pressure (yeah I felt under pressure) I got frazzled.
I was running to stand still. A couple of times when task B assumed understanding of puzzle A (that I was just intuiting) I didn't like it at all.
Now, apart from crummy design principles assignments, I've got the week-end to think about the puzzles.
And that I'm looking forward to....
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
All these...moments... will be lost..in time...
Is there an option in games to capture and replay your gamespace triumphs?
Or for that matter, the moments when it all started to go wrong (for the purposes of postmortem)?
Would/do you get much use out that functionality?
Or for that matter, the moments when it all started to go wrong (for the purposes of postmortem)?
Would/do you get much use out that functionality?
HATE is a strong word
I spend alot of my mealtimes trying to explain to my kids that HATING french beans just represents a waste of energy (they can afford it, they have a lot of energy to waste but that's not the point).
The reason I don't really play games has much to do with HATE and patience.
You see I like to portray myself as not-really competitive. You don't see me get too het up about competition. You can't be competitive if you don't compete. Right?
Nah..
I don't game because I really, really HATE losing.
And anybody to whose heard me snarl at the workstation during the tutorials can see that many aspects of my life already become competitive without games adding additional adrenal gland squeezing tension. In fact I have to take time to dissipate the stuff just to become functional again.
Maybe sandbox games might do it for me. Maybe the option to wander wraith-like through a game before playing might help.
I might see if I can get Chrystal Edge for Android.
The reason I don't really play games has much to do with HATE and patience.
You see I like to portray myself as not-really competitive. You don't see me get too het up about competition. You can't be competitive if you don't compete. Right?
Nah..
I don't game because I really, really HATE losing.
And anybody to whose heard me snarl at the workstation during the tutorials can see that many aspects of my life already become competitive without games adding additional adrenal gland squeezing tension. In fact I have to take time to dissipate the stuff just to become functional again.
Maybe sandbox games might do it for me. Maybe the option to wander wraith-like through a game before playing might help.
I might see if I can get Chrystal Edge for Android.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Holloway ludologyminitalk
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Holloway ludologyminitalk
View more presentations from GPHslideshare.
What about strange attractors?
While lamenting the loss of books (stuck in storage behind the sofa and kitchen chairs)
It occurred to me that chaos theory must have a lot to offer games analysis and modeling.
A game might be a system with states that tend to aggregate around attractors (perhaps one of dynamism that would favor the heroes and another of stability that would favor the hoards, schemers and strategists).
If a game could modeled to approximate that sort of system the parameters that need to be manipulated to approximate the desired system of states.
Similarly a game modeled on a system with sensitive dependence on initial factors could be used to to take similar but subtly different inputs to a variety of significantly different outcomes.
I'm sure there's a body of research on this out there and will Google it when I get the chance.
It occurred to me that chaos theory must have a lot to offer games analysis and modeling.
A game might be a system with states that tend to aggregate around attractors (perhaps one of dynamism that would favor the heroes and another of stability that would favor the hoards, schemers and strategists).
If a game could modeled to approximate that sort of system the parameters that need to be manipulated to approximate the desired system of states.
Similarly a game modeled on a system with sensitive dependence on initial factors could be used to to take similar but subtly different inputs to a variety of significantly different outcomes.
I'm sure there's a body of research on this out there and will Google it when I get the chance.
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