Aliens Don't Play Chess |
August 12th, 2013 |
| games, go |
If human culture were to develop again from scratch there would
probably still be games, but most of them would be different. The
space of possible games is very large, and I don't know any examples
of a game that was developed independently in multiple cultures.
I would expect, however, that the probability of playing a game would
be dependent on the complexity of the rules and the quality of the
game those rules define. Some complexity in rules is generally
required for an interesting game: tic-tac-toe has simple rules
but after a few games people reliably learn how to force a draw, while
backgammon has more complex rules and experts can play interesting
games.
While it's hard to pin down exact levels of complexity and interest in games, I think go is the simplest known game that a person could reasonably devote their whole life to playing.
(Star Trek Diplomacy is right out.)
Update 2013-08-13: to investigate the complexity question I wrote some programs.
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