Optimal strategy vs. Fun Part 2

[continued from the previous post]

It’s actually reminiscent of the very early days of MtG. Originally there were no rules about deck composition other than you had to have at least 40 cards in your deck, so people would make decks that had 30 of one card (Lightning Bolt) and 10 of another (Mountain). Then the creators quickly realized there needed to be a little more variety, so the now standard rule of no more than four of any one card was adopted. Something similar would be easy to do in Dominion and for me at least would make the game a lot more fun. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be done or that the game would be better. I look at it as more of a personal hangup on my part then a shortcoming of the game. Playing the game the way it’s “supposed” to be played isn’t all that fun for me, so I simply don’t play it. “Well that’s just part of the game” people will say, and my response is “Yeah, and that’s why I don’t like it!”

Optimal strategy vs. Fun Part 1

I was playing a game on Kongregate earlier today called GlueFo2.0, which is similar to the all-time classic Asteroids. For my younger readers who have never played Asteroids, you have a little space ship in the middle of the screen that you can move around and fire shots from. Giant asteroids appear, and you have to destroy them. The first time you hit them they break into 2 smaller pieces, then those 2 can each be broken down into 4 smaller ones, and finally those can each be broken down into 8 tiny ones. Once you hit the tiny ones they disappear altogether. While I was playing  GlueFo2.0 I was of course thinking about the best way to win the game (the optimal strategy).