Open thread, 11-17 March 2014

David_Gerard

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

Here's a marvellous memetic hazard that you should avoid clicking on. The 2048 game. Just in case you thought you were getting any work done today. HN discussion. (And HN on its memetically hazardous nature. Creator: "I've been playing this all day today. I basically created my own demise.")

(Someone has, of course, written an AI to try to beat it. HN discussion, though try to figure it out yourself first.)

Set a time/alarm. I set mine to 5min. That time was enough to get a feel for how to win (I played up to 512).

Initial strategy:

Xrrc n ynetre ahzore zber va gur pbearef guna fznyyre ahzoref.
Xrrc n ynetre ahzore zber ba gur fvqr guna fznyyre ahzoref.
Oevat gur fnzr ahzoref arkg gb rnpu bgure. Xrrcvat zrnaf qba'g zbir njnl sbe n fnsr cynpr hagvy arrqrq.

0[anonymous]12y

I've won the game several times (created a 2048 tile). As far as I can tell, this is the right strategy, which doesn't win every time but gives you a decent chance: 1) The biggest tile stays in the top right corner. 2) Other big tiles stay in the top row, waiting to be merged with the biggest. They should be roughly sorted from left to right, but that will probably happen by itself anyway. 3) Never press down. Learn to predict and avoid the situation where the top three rows are filled and you have to press down. If you get into that situation, you've lost. 4) If you have no choice except moving the biggest tile out of its corner by pressing left, then put it back in the corner on the very next move. If you can't, you've lost. 5) When there are empty spaces in the top row, get them filled as soon as possible, before doing more horizontal merges. Only when the top row is completely filled and all four tiles are different, you're completely free to play in the bottom three rows. 6) Avoid having bigger tiles below smaller ones. If you have a small tile stuck in the top row with a bigger tile below it, you're in danger of losing.

6NancyLebovitz12y

Definitely fascinating. It's a shame it doesn't keep track of number of moves-- the fewest number of moves needed to clog up the board might also be interesting.