Frontlines
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From the Frontlines of the Nondigital: Breaking the Unbreakable
Posted by Charles Berkeley on 06 Sep 2008 | Tagged as: Frontlines
I’ve been meaning to post something about this for awhile but have been a bit busy. So here, finally, is a post dedicated to a moment that happen this summer in the fifth finest borough of New York: a young, ambidextrous man helped break a 150+ year old game in Staten Island. The game was Baseball, which is perhaps the most scrutinized game ever and commands a rule book as thick as War and Peace (not really, but close). One would think if there was a moment left that could literally break the game, it would have happened by now. But leave it to players looking for a gaming advantage to exploit a weakness in the rules. What happened? Well, an ambidextrous pitcher faced off against a switch hitting batter. Batting against the opposite arm in baseball gives the hitter a significant advantage as it buys a few extra milliseconds for the batter to recognize the baseball. That may not sound like much of an advantage, but trust me, it’s one of the key strategies behind the game. So when both pitcher and batter are looking for the same advantage, you can probably guess what happens: a stalemate. And since baseball has no clock… well…
The NY Times wrote up a piece about this shortly after it happened. It’s interesting to read across baseball blogs about how the rules should be interpreted and which player — hitter or batter — should be forced to commit to a side first. The whole situation just goes to show: there’s always room for players to explore the boundaries of a game — and players will always do just that as long as there is motivation to find a strategic edge (I suppose one could apply this same adage to politics).
Frontlines of the Non-digital: the Electoral & Democratic Delagate Systems
Posted by Charles Berkeley on 24 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Frontlines
As many of you know, I created a game called Political Capital to serve as my thesis at ITP. It’s a game about running for President — or more specifically, the game expresses the electoral system and the political election process at a surface level and plays something like Risk. Lately, because I will be presenting my thesis soon (May 6 at 12:20pm) and also because of the topsy-turvy nomination process the Democrats are serving up, I’ve been thinking a lot about our political election systems. I figured it was time to dedicate a post to them and begin a conversation among game designers of how we can improve what we’ve got. Lord knows there’s plenty of room for improvement.
Frontlines of the Non-digital: Hedging Our Bets
Posted by Charles Berkeley on 04 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Current Events, Frontlines
So I’m in a bit of an interesting quagmire: remember my post a few weeks back about the NCAA tourney pools? Well, low and behold, I’m in 4th place in a 250 person pool with quite a bit of *cough* pride on the line (enough for the IRS to be interested, let’s say). It’s an interesting dilemma that might be best phrased in this way: if someone walked up to you on the street and offered you a month’s rent but you had to flip of a coin to get it, would you risk that OR take half of a month’s rent guaranteed without having to flip the coin? This is basically what hedging a bet is all about, because only fools would flip the coin.
Frontlines of the Non-digital: March Reading
Posted by Charles Berkeley on 25 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Frontlines, Readings
Nice article in the latest April issue of Scientific American entitled: How Game Theory Could Stop Sports Doping, by Michael Shermer. He basically uses the prisoner’s dilemma and Nash’s equilibrium to explain (and pose a solution to) the problem of athlete’s use of performance enhancing drugs. The article is a good primer on what drugs are used in sports, how they enhance performance, and the underlying motivation to use drugs and keep secret the abuse. His five point plan to curb doping is a bit idealistic, but in theory he has some solid ideas. A must read for anyone who is concerned about the state of doping in athletic competition.
Frontlines of the Non-digital: March Madness Edition
Posted by Charles Berkeley on 16 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Frontlines
College basketball hysteria will soon cripple the nation (in this week alone, about $3.5 billion worth of productivity will be lost to the sport) and so it’s time to stop and take a close look at what it is about the sport that has people going mad. As a devote Kentucky Wildcat fan, I’m sure I could wax something eloquent about cinderellas, buzzer beaters, and the beauties of the zone defense (wink, wink Dave Hickey); but most fascinating about the next week (really next 3 weeks) is how folks who aren’t remotely fans will become caught up in the tournament. The reason? Largely because they joined an office pool and filled out a bracket trying to predict the outcome of the 64 team tourney (actually 65 but who’s counting). What’s with these damn office pools?
Frontlines of the Non-digital (Super Bowl Edition): Executing As a Team Under Pressure
Posted by Charles Berkeley on 01 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Frontlines
So about a week ago, I found myself in the midst of a heated discussion with an avid sports fan (Matt Parker) and amateur saber-metrics wannabe (think: high school calculus meets baseball statistics). Anyway, over Kentucky Fried Chicken in the middle of Manhattan, Mr. Parker, myself, and Charles Pratt (who knows very little about sports) discussed the role of psychology in an athlete’s performance… specifically who would win this match: a team of college basketball players who had practiced together for two years or a team of all-star professionals who had never played together… with one caveat: the players must all be the same age to regulate physical development (say 21 years old). In other words, it’s Duke vs. the all NBA rookie or 2nd year team. Who wins?
Frontlines of the Nondigital – The Debate Over College Football and the BCS
Posted by Charles Berkeley on 09 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Frontlines
Preface: So what’s the biggest game design challenge in the world? It’s deciding who is champion in NCAA Division 1 College Football. We all know of this sport, but does everyone realize in the 60+ year modern history that there HAS NEVER BEEN A CHAMPION CROWNED?
So to make a long, complicated story/problem short: college football relies on opinion and mathematical formulas to dictate who plays who in the BCS (Bowl Championship Series… not to mistaken for a playoff). I repeat: there is NO playoff. After the bowls, the NCAA does NOT recognize a champion. The Associated Press does (sports writers) and they cumulatively vote for who they think is the best team and that team earns a faux championship. The mathematical equations that are used to determine the bowl matchups are transparent but completely convoluted so no one really pays attention. In fact each week when the new BCS computer rankings are released, it’s a big surprise to see who comes out on top. These rankings take “strength of schedule” (a broken formula that I will get into later), opinion polls, and about 5 other computer based polls into account to make the BCS Meta-rankings. And the funny thing: all college football fans agree the system is broken but it seems to never get fixed. I want to argue two things: one, that an intrinsic part of the sport of college football is the debate to who is best; and two, that a better non-playoff system can be molded by game designers like us to effectively declare a champion.
Frontlines of the Nondigital – Surface
Posted by Charles Berkeley on 08 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Frontlines
You’ll never play the same game twice: that was how my mom sold me on trying Bridge. It might have been the same line when my dad talked me into Chess. And come to think of it, pretty much any great game of deep strategy shares this quality, digital or not. Yet Chess only maintains this quality through the game play of your opponent. Same with Bridge, but there it also depends on the cards you’re dealt. Now consider games and sports where you will never play the same game twice and the reason behind this is the altering of the context of the game. I’m talking playing surfaces, environments, and general pregame shenanigans.
I’m watching a Russian by the name of Federer, first name Roger, come from behind to win the first set of a tennis matches in the semifinals of the French Open. I love European championship tennis for two reasons: it’s really good, and it’s on live television in the morning. I’m talking Wimbledon along with this tourney, and watching Federer — perhaps the most dominating tennis player ever — can be a religious experience. Don’t take it from me, take it from David Foster Wallace. But since an article about Federer has already been done, I’ll write one about the second coolest thing in tennis: the surfaces.
Frontlines of the Non-Digital – Betting
Posted by Charles Berkeley on 07 May 2007 | Tagged as: Frontlines
This past Saturday was Cinco de Mayo. For those of you who are not fluent in Spanish, I think that means “you sunk my mayonnaise” which probably can be further interpreted to correspond with a Mexican version of the game Battleship. I’m still checking my sources on that.
Saturday was also relevant to another non-digital game: the Kentucky Derby. The first Saturday in May always serves as the day when 3 year old horses run for the roses and millions upon millions are wagered on their brittle legs and empty bladders. Customary for any ex-commonwealthian (not a real word), I embedded (not only a real word, but the OED’s 2006 word of the year) myself into a frenzied atmosphere of others celebrating the race complete with hat and mint julep. Charles Pratt and Thomas Duc joined me for said festivities and it was suggested I write up a report on this sport of Kings for the blog in reference to the gaming aspects of horse racing. Consider it done.