Mastermind: Game For The Brain

By Cheryll Tefera


Board games involve a number of participants, studies conducted by social scientists show that they help in the development of interpersonal intelligence skills as well. The reason for such is the fact that the games involve competition - and collaboration at certain times. As a result, they help the person understand and interact with others more effectively. Common features of games include uncertainty of outcome, agreed upon rules, competition, separate place and time, elements of fiction, elements of chance, prescribed goals and personal enjoyment. Early board games represented a battle between two armies, and most modern board games are still based on defeating opposing players in terms of counters, winning position, or accrual of points (often expressed as in-game currency). A 2012 article in The Guardian described board games as "making a come back". Another from 2014 gave an estimate that put the growth of board game market at "between 25% and 40% annually" since 2010, and described the current time as the "golden era for board games". Much research has been carried out on chess, in part because many tournament players are publicly ranked in national and international lists, which makes it possible to compare their levels of expertise. Playing board games has also been tied to improving children's executive skills. It helps one and all in improving their respective Decision making skills. The adults tend to relate the board games to tedious Project management decisions as well!

Mastermind resembles a game that was mainstream prior many years. It was named as Bulls and Cows. It includes two players who are included in interpreting the purported codes of one another. Mordecai Meirowitz developed this game in the year 1970. Mordecai was a famous Israeli telecom master and an acting postmaster! Mordecai Meirowitz is considered as a Board Game geek by many. Game of the year (1973), Design Center Award and Queen's Award for Export Achievement are three of the major recognition awards won by this wonderful board game!

Mastermind is a very unique game in its own right, which is played utilizing a disentangling board. This board has a shield toward one side covering a line of four vast openings, and twelve (or ten, or eight, or six) extra lines containing four extensive gaps beside an arrangement of four little gaps. Also, code pegs of six (or more) distinctive colors, with round heads, which will be set in the expansive gaps on the board are needed. Finally, key pegs, some shaded dark, some white, which are level headed and littler than the code pegs are required to be put in the little gaps on the board. There are 1296 different ways of choosing four pegs, where each one is chosen from six colours.(6x6x6x6 = 1296 ways).

The two players decide in advance how many games they will play, which must be an even number. One player becomes the code-maker, the other the code-breaker. The code-maker chooses a pattern of four code pegs. Duplicates are allowed, so the player could even choose four code pegs of the same color. The chosen pattern is placed in the four holes covered by the shield, visible to the code-maker but not to the code-breaker. The code-breaker may have a very hard time finding out the code.

The code-breaker tries to guess the pattern, in both order and color, within twelve (or ten, or eight) turns. Each guess is made by placing a row of code pegs on the decoding board. Once placed, the code-maker provides feedback by placing from zero to four key pegs in the small holes of the row with the guess. A colored or black key peg is placed for each code peg from the guess which is correct in both color and position. A white key peg indicates the existence of a correct color code peg placed in the wrong position.

If there are duplicate colors in the guess, they cannot all be awarded a key peg unless they correspond to the same number of duplicate colors in the hidden code. For example, if the hidden code is white-white-black-black and the player guesses white-white-white-black, the code-maker will award two colored key pegs for the two correct whites, nothing for the third white as there is not a third white in the code, and a colored key peg for the black. No indication is given of the fact that the code also includes a second black.

This pattern of guessing, unraveling goes on until one of the thing happens, either the Code-breaker runs out of his chances or he predicts the exact pattern deployed by the Code-maker. The scoring is such that the Code-maker is awarded a point for each prediction that the Code-breaker makes. A bonus point is granted to the Code-maker if the other player doesn't unravels the correct pattern in the last prediction. The winner is obviously the one who has most number of points after finishing the pre-decided number of rounds. Even the score revolving around coloured key pegs placed can be used.

There have been many mathematicians involved in researching concrete solutions to this game. Many number of algorithm have been presented on the world stage. Michiel de Bondt has used one in three 3SAT basics to prove that it can be solved by NP-complete logic. By examining different probabilities to deploy different number of players on the table, more number of holes on the game-board and another set of substantiated colors, different versions of this game have come into existence. Mastermind Secret Search (1997), New Mastermind (2004) and Mini Mastermind (2004) are its latest types.

Online versions have recently overtaken the popularity of board versions. Many companies have used different combinations of pieces and colors to avoid infringements pertaining to Intellectual Property Rights. If the unoccupied parts (holes) of the board are treated as another color, it would definitely lead to a more intense battle between the player.




About the Author:



Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire