Life In 19x19

Hey guys, I've been brewing this idea for a while.
Since Go allows for so many variations: pair go, blind go, etc. I decided to propose my own variation
As the topic subject already gave it off, it's Picture Go.

The main objective of Picture Go (or Drawing Go, or Pixel Go, I haven't really decided on the name) is not to conquer territory, but rather to draw a picture.

At the beginning of the game, each player sketches what he/her wants to accomplish and post it hidden:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Black's Idea : smiley.
$$ ---------
$$ | . . . X X X . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . X . . |
$$ | . X , . . . , X . |
$$ | X . X X . X X . X |
$$ | X . . . X . . . X |
$$ | X . . . . . . . X |
$$ | . X , . X . , X . |
$$ | . . X . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . X X X . . . |
$$ -------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c White's Idea : house.
$$ ---------
$$ | . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . O O O . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . O . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . O . |
$$ | O O . O O O . O O |
$$ | . O . O . O . O . |
$$ | . O , O . O , O . |
$$ | . O . O . O . O . |
$$ | . O O O O O O O . |
$$ -------[/go]

By the end of the game, each stone that matches your original drawing is worth 10pts. every other stone you played that is not a part of your original drawing counts as -1, which also includes prisoners. Your opponent's stones do not count for or against you.

The formal rules of Go apply, one cannot commit suicide, you only live with two eyes, etc. The game ends after three passes or resignation (which is probably useless, because you cannot count your opponent's score).

There is no problem of two players having the same idea to begin with, because each one will need to fight in order to conquer the desired "pixels".

I believe it could make some fun games.

And I have NOOO idea whatsoever of how the outcome of one of such games would be, that's why I didn't post a sketch

Well, hope you guys liked the idea and looking forward to play one of those

How about picture Othello? You think that you have put a marker on your picture, but your opponent flips it so that it is on his picture.

Actually this is an interesting game theory problem. What is optimal strategy? Is it good to have a picture with few pixels or many? Should they be spread out or lumped together? Will the pictures with a high winning percentage resemble joseki shapes in normal go?

Hidden information in go can be fun. I remember for instance in Batoo that you could play a hidden move in the beginning of the game which would only be revealed when it came into play. I'm looking for some good hidden information games but never thought to ask about it here... I will make a new thread about that.

Kanin wrote:Actually this is an interesting game theory problem. What is optimal strategy? Is it good to have a picture with few pixels or many? Should they be spread out or lumped together? Will the pictures with a high winning percentage resemble joseki shapes in normal go?...

You get 10 points for every stone you play that matches the original drawing. You only lose points via prisoners and by playing in spots that aren't in your drawing.

So I'd draw this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]---------
$$ | X X X X X X X X X |
$$ | X X X X X X X X X |
$$ | X X X X X X X X X |
$$ | X X X X X X X X X |
$$ | X X X X X X X X X |
$$ | X X X X X X X X X |
$$ | X X X X X X X X X |
$$ | X X X X X X X X X |
$$ | X X X X X X X X X |
$$ -------[/go]

Then I'd try to play in as many spaces as possible, and try not to get any prisoners. Every time I played on an intersection, I'd rack up another 10 points.

Interesting....

If your opponent does the same, you both fall in ordinary Go with sort of Chinese rules.

Hmmm, need to find some rule to prevent that.
It's hard, because the rules need to be syntactic, i.e. they are not supposed to analyze the semantics of your drawing.
On your specific case, I'd say that your drawing is not a valid Go shape, it has no eyes, but that could be easily handled, just by taking off two stones.
Limiting the number of stones could be one solution. You may only use half the available spaces.
Perhaps the number of stones for each player could be predefined, i.e. your drawing MUST use 30 stones.

On the semantic approach:
There could be a set of predefined "authorized" drawings to start with. Like a card you would pick up while playing "Pictionary".
Or, if playing through a Malkovitch scheme, there could be some kind of third-party broker that would "authorize" both drawings before the game starts.

But I really appreciated the time you devoted to formulate this problem.
(Now that I think it's solvable)

May I interest you in a game of battleship?

Why is this in the "creative writing" subforum?

TheBigH wrote:Why is this in the "creative writing" subforum?

The original post was entirely in iambic pentameter.