Monday, December 08, 2008

Minesweeper - a game of luck?

A minesweeper-game a day keeps your logic alive -- well maybe only as long as you're a beginner; as at some point our brain being too smart, does not want to apply the same logic again and again, and starts looking for patterns to quickly clear the empty lands -- yes, memoization as in dynamic programming ;)

When I get a quick break, I like playing a minesweeper game. When my luck is bad on that run, minesweeper turns into a game of luck. It generates a pattern wherein there aren't enough cues. Usually people claim that minesweeper has hidden cues "all" the time; it is just that the user does not notice them. Seems not.

Here is the snapshot of such an ambiguous position I got recently:



There was only one mine left; two tiles to be cleared. Now, atleast I dont understand where shall the mine be. Both seem equally probable. Does anyone have a different opinion?

I managed to get unlucky that day and lost the game even after correctly marking 99 mines :(



Better luck next time with minesweeper!

3 comments:

  1. hehe maybe I should move on to tetris too :)

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  2. ..im a minesweeper master..i finish advance games in less than 150 seconds..this game SUX,coz their is luck involved..i hate it when luck rules over logic sometime..

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