On Monday, I posed a puzzle. What's the next three numbers in this sequence: 4,14,23,34,42,50,59,72,81? I challenged HGM to give me an answer, offering a $10 prize. He says he knows the answer, but didn't actually give it to me, supposedly because he doesn't want to take the money. I'll grant him the benefit of a doubt that he's familiar with the puzzle, but the solution isn't quite at hand. Or something. You can decide. At least I keep my $10.

The point of the puzzle is to outline what one person thinks is subtle (and/or clever) frequently is just arbitrary. Most people will look at those numbers and try to discern a structure or relationship between them, and from that, generate the next few numbers. But, there is no structure or relationship to those numbers. The numbers are a reference to something external: they are the stops of the New York City subway C train (4th Street, 14th Ave, 23rd St, 34th St, etc.). The next three stops are 86th, 96th and 103rd. You could argue this is a clever puzzle, but it's a type of puzzle that requires external knowledge to solve. It's more of a trick trivia question than a true puzzle, and trivia is arbitrary.

No amount of analysis or study of just the numbers will reveal the solution. The answer is not contained in the data in the question. Sure, there's a solution. Sure, it's subtle. But unless you are in possession of the external data (the knowledge of New York subways), you'll never get the answer. So as much as I can insist the problem is "solvable", it is arguable that for a large number of people, it's not. (Ironic that someone from Germany was the only person to provide the answer.) And, I think this is true of a lot of Clan Lord game mechanics. Unless you are in possession of inside information, there is simply no way to understand (or often perceive) the relationships between elements of the game. If an element of game mechanics is so "subtle" as to be imperceptible, it is insignificant to the player. If training with Master Mentus a 100 times decreases my chance of wearing my sunstone per /THINK from 1/200 to 1/250, there is simply no way for me to ever perceive this. The change in probability will be almost immeasurable. So while the (hypothetical) relationship between Mentus and sunstone wear might be "subtle" and real internally, it makes no difference to a player, and therefore does not have a meaningful effect on player decisions. A choice to train Mentus, in this example, ends up being a coin toss.

There are just too many things like this in Clan Lord. And the worst is, the things that players do learn are often changed simply because they were learned. This turns playing Clan Lord less into a game where players make meaningful choices to a simple "Hunt the Wumpuss" game, where GMs hide aspects of game mechanics like easter eggs, and upon discovery, simply hide it again. "Don't sit there and try to analyze the mechanics," we're told, "just play the game!" But an important part of playing the game is learning the mechanics. The problem with the mechanics is they are so simplistic and linear that if you learn them, the optimum approach becomes obvious. So, Delta Tao is resigned to periodically moving the goal posts, and changing the length of the field, just to keep the challenge of the game "balanced".

"There's a fine line between stupid and clever..." or the Clan Lord version: "There's a fine line between subtle and meaningless..."

(Thanks for the smack, Alexis. Yes, it's the C train, not the A train.)

posted 11:38 AM | link |