Tether had a problem

[marks...@gmail.com]

I've received a number of compliments about Tether and I've had to inform
the well wishers individually that Tether has fallen prey to the law that my
most interesting game concepts are also the most vulnerable to flaws. The
problem with Tether was that there might be no capturing and both players
might not succeed at cordoning off space for themselves. In that case
Player 1 wins automatically. Or if it's a pseudo tie with each player
cordining off three spaces for himself, for example, same result.

Looking back it should have been obvious, but sometimes designers get
carried away and this happened here. I did play test it for a few days but
apparently not enough.

Normally I hate to announce game flaws in a group overrun with hair-trigger
extremists, but now that they're all hiding under their desks, I'm not quite
so reluctant. I feel like I can breath now. Ahhhh!

Bill thinks he's punishing me by not talking to me.

lol :D

Sorry I clowned on you so much, Bill, but I thought you were gone.

-Mark

Mark Steere Games
http://marksteeregames.com

[fizzy]

Thumbs up to Mark for honestly analyzing his own game and publicly
announcing this flaw. I still like the concept of Tether and hope
Mark will find the solution.

[marks...@gmail.com]

On 2-Jan-2010, fizzy <ewo...@aol.com> wrote:

> > Sorry I clowned on you so much, Bill, but I thought you were gone.
> >
> > -Mark
>

> Thumbs up to Mark for honestly analyzing his own game and publicly
> announcing this flaw. I still like the concept of Tether and hope
> Mark will find the solution.

Thanks fizzy :)

When something as simple as Tether is fundamentally flawed, you're back at
square zero. No reason to pursue the concept further. A good idea that
doesn't work isn't a good idea, interesting though it was. Thanks for the
support though.

[Mark_Thompson]

Would it be more likely that one player or both would cordon off
territory if it were played on a different board geometry? On the
hexagonal grid it takes a minimum of 6 stones to surround one, but
perhaps playing on squares, or the MacBeth geometry, would make this
work better.

[Mark Steere]

Hi Mark. There are undoubtedly a variety of schemes for making pseudo
draws less likely to occur in Tether, including bigger boards. It’s
also a virtual certainty that advancing skill will have the opposite
effect, making pseudo draws increasingly likely. In any case, if it’s
even possible for a game to draw (or pseudo draw) between non-
cooperating players, I don’t want that game.

Infinity minus Tether is still infinity. There’ll be more to come.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed on Mosaic. I tested it out more
extensively than Tether, but you never really know.