On Optimization

[doctorconquest]

I have a confession to make. It's something that sets me apart from my peers; something that makes me feel as though I don't belong among my co-workers, sometimes even among my friends. It's a hidden shame that I've seldom spoken of before now.

You see, I don't really enjoy optimization.

There, I said it.

Comments

[doctorconquest]

Intriguing thoughts, everyone.

It's interesting to note that I hit the wall with Peggle tonight, right where I thought I would. The levels with increasing levels of orange pegs were an enjoyable challenge, but the levels where you have to hit a certain number of points got incredibly boring incredibly quickly. Instead of aiming at whatever pegs I could get at (and gleefully watching them go BOING, DING, DEEDLY-DEE!), suddenly I needed to think about the underlying game structure that awards points and how to manipulate it. Although that's mildly interesting to me, it's not fun, and I'm not very good at it. I got past one level then did another one three times unsuccessfully before quitting in disgust. I hear that you can skip forward to levels where you're supposed to wipe out all the pegs... That might be fun, but it might also be too hard.

I still haven't concluded exactly where I draw the line. I'll pay closer attention as I reach it in other games and report my findings.

[doctorconquest]

That's interesting, because the underlying structure is what appeals to me most. Possibly because (since that's game theory and counting) I could potentially get a thesis out of it!

--Jane