Tks Kaj. I can see that this designer tried to fuck AIs up by the brute force way, which is not efficient and, well, not elegant. The game also kind of suffers from the same problem as Esperanto, that is it’s way too “eurocentric”.
Those summaries from the site sound dubious.
On average there are over 17,000 possible moves compared to about 30 for chess; this significantly limits how deep computers can think, but does not seem to affect humans.
Of course that affects humans. This is like sacrificing most of your 2nd goal to get a tiny little bit ahead on your 1st goal.
End game databases are not helpful since a game can end with all pieces still on the board.
Absurd. Many strategy/abstract games, even chess, can end with all pieces alive.
Research papers on Arimaa suggest it is more of a strategic and positional game with less emphasis on tactics.
Reviews I read suggest otherwise. Moreover, the game claims that it’s among the highest rated on BGG. Following the link reveals that it’s down in the 40ish or 50ish ranks, below Go, Xiangqi, Shogi, and even Chess, which it aspires to improve from.
Besides, there’s a pattern I noticed from reading the reviews. Those high scores for Animaa usually come from earlier years, 2000s. Conversely, the recent ones are dominated by negative views. In them we can see those repeated complaints about slow pace, boring feel and stripping off of chess’ aesthetics...
So, I’d argue that Animaa isn’t really an attempt to do what I asked in the question. It went solely for the 1st goal while completely ignoring the 2nd goal, which weigh about 40-45% of importance IMO. After all, the human element is just something we’re having an edge over AIs. And what is a game if it doesn’t have people playing??
Tks Kaj. I can see that this designer tried to fuck AIs up by the brute force way, which is not efficient and, well, not elegant. The game also kind of suffers from the same problem as Esperanto, that is it’s way too “eurocentric”.
Those summaries from the site sound dubious.
Of course that affects humans. This is like sacrificing most of your 2nd goal to get a tiny little bit ahead on your 1st goal.
Absurd. Many strategy/abstract games, even chess, can end with all pieces alive.
Reviews I read suggest otherwise. Moreover, the game claims that it’s among the highest rated on BGG. Following the link reveals that it’s down in the 40ish or 50ish ranks, below Go, Xiangqi, Shogi, and even Chess, which it aspires to improve from.
Besides, there’s a pattern I noticed from reading the reviews. Those high scores for Animaa usually come from earlier years, 2000s. Conversely, the recent ones are dominated by negative views. In them we can see those repeated complaints about slow pace, boring feel and stripping off of chess’ aesthetics...
So, I’d argue that Animaa isn’t really an attempt to do what I asked in the question. It went solely for the 1st goal while completely ignoring the 2nd goal, which weigh about 40-45% of importance IMO. After all, the human element is just something we’re having an edge over AIs. And what is a game if it doesn’t have people playing??