| |
BGonline.org Forums
What makes a has-been?
Posted By: Steve Mellen In Response To: What makes a has-been? (Chuck Bower)
Date: Wednesday, 6 April 2011, at 10:53 p.m.
I am not sure how anyone who thinks a .01 difference on an opening-move rollout is significant can deny that backgammon is basically a solved game. Now, I'm not sure I fall into that category, but it seems to include a lot of people who read this site.
I don't think it makes sense to say an athletic event is "solved" in this sense of the word. I mean, you might as well say that the 100-meter dash is solved because we know a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. In sports, even if you know the optimal strategy or technique, you still face the challenge of executing it as best you can with your imperfect human abilities. You can of course make an error in a mindgame, even a solved mindgame, but I really don't think it's the same concept.
If backgammon is solved, of course there's still room for one player to have an advantage over others, even though that advantage will be small at the higher levels. But if it's solved, there's not even the possibility that someone will come along with a revolutionary new concept that changes everyone's thinking about the game. At the highest levels, it becomes almost entirely a game of watching the bots and trying to imitate what they do. I can understand why some people would think that makes for a less interesting game than one where there are still undiscovered frontiers.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.