yli comments on Open Thread, November 15-22, 2013 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: drethelin 16 November 2013 01:36AM

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Comment author: yli 18 November 2013 11:56:57PM 1 point [-]

In a way every game is a rationality game, because in almost every game you have to discover things, predict things, etc. In another way almost no game is one, because domain-specific strategies and skills win out over general ones.

One idea is based on the claim that general rationality skills matter more when it's a fresh new game that nobody has played yet, since then you have to use your general thinking skills to reason about things in the game and to invent game-speficic strategies. So what if there were "mystery game" competitions where the organizers invented a new set of games for every event and only revealed them some set time before the games started? I don't know of any that exist, but it would be interesting to see what kinds of skills would lead to consistent winning in these competitions.

There are various other ways you could think of to make it so that the game varies constantly and there's no way to accumulate game-specific skills, only general ones like quick thinking, teamwork etc. Playing in a different physical place every match like in HPMoR's battles is one.

Comment author: Bayeslisk 19 November 2013 02:58:55AM 2 points [-]

Possibly. You're giving me an idea - have a simple game with a few interacting rules drawn randomly from a larger set of interacting rules, and see who figures out how to take advantage of how the rules interact. Remind me to get back to you on this.

Comment author: gwern 19 November 2013 04:48:47AM 2 points [-]

have a simple game with a few interacting rules drawn randomly from a larger set of interacting rules, and see who figures out how to take advantage of how the rules interact.

Sounds like a matrix IQ test...

BTW, have people in this thread played the Flash game "This Is The Only Level" http://armorgames.com/play/4309/ ?

Comment author: Bayeslisk 19 November 2013 07:14:33AM 0 points [-]

What is a matrix IQ test?

I have played that. My idea is slightly similar, I think.

Comment author: tut 19 November 2013 01:20:33PM *  1 point [-]

Something like the Raven matrices.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 19 November 2013 05:06:36AM -1 points [-]

Ok. I just wasted 15 minutes on that game and got up to stage 13. That looks potentially addicting. How many stages are there?

Comment author: witzvo 21 November 2013 12:59:36AM *  0 points [-]

About 30. Fun. Just finished. (16:21, 83 deaths) Edit: uhoh there's a 31. hmmm.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 21 November 2013 01:29:40AM 0 points [-]

O. I can't get past 31. Is that a real level? If so, what does one do?

Comment author: lmm 19 November 2013 09:32:12AM 1 point [-]

Mafia as played online works like that - you have broad expectations, but no idea which roles exist in this specific game.

Comment author: Bayeslisk 19 November 2013 05:38:07PM 0 points [-]

This is also very close to what I'm trying to get at, but I want for it to be both more physical and conducted in real time.