I friend of mine recently recommended a small independent game to me called Clairvoyance (www.gameofclairvoyance.com), that I thought might be of interest to the LW community. It’s effectively a competitive turn-based strategy game, but it’s distinguishing feature is that each player places 5 moves at a time, which are then interlaced and executed with the opponent’s 5 moves. Thus requiring the clairvoyance of the game’s name—you need to anticipate your opponent’s moves in order plan your own, included anticipating their anticipations of your actions, etc.
It’s clearly not intended as a rationality aid, and I originally did not approach it as such. But after getting trounced in my first few games, I found it very helpful to approach each turn probabilistically—thinking of each round in terms of a probability cloud of possible positions for various pieces, and planning around attacking swathes of that cloud rather than specific squares. Though early on, I can also foresee an element of theory-of-mind practice emerging if you play one opponent repeatedly and begin to learn their particular style.
If any one cares to give it a whirl, the game is just $5 while still in beta. It’s cheap, it’s fun and easy to learn, and games are relatively fast. If anyone wants to rumble, my handle in-game is also Erdrick—I have a feeling the crowd here would provided for some excellent opponents.
A Game for Probabilistic Thinking
I friend of mine recently recommended a small independent game to me called Clairvoyance (www.gameofclairvoyance.com), that I thought might be of interest to the LW community. It’s effectively a competitive turn-based strategy game, but it’s distinguishing feature is that each player places 5 moves at a time, which are then interlaced and executed with the opponent’s 5 moves. Thus requiring the clairvoyance of the game’s name—you need to anticipate your opponent’s moves in order plan your own, included anticipating their anticipations of your actions, etc.
It’s clearly not intended as a rationality aid, and I originally did not approach it as such. But after getting trounced in my first few games, I found it very helpful to approach each turn probabilistically—thinking of each round in terms of a probability cloud of possible positions for various pieces, and planning around attacking swathes of that cloud rather than specific squares. Though early on, I can also foresee an element of theory-of-mind practice emerging if you play one opponent repeatedly and begin to learn their particular style.
If any one cares to give it a whirl, the game is just $5 while still in beta. It’s cheap, it’s fun and easy to learn, and games are relatively fast. If anyone wants to rumble, my handle in-game is also Erdrick—I have a feeling the crowd here would provided for some excellent opponents.
-Brett