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I participated in a Google hosted one a while back and it was great fun. There is a great push and pull between trying to be as random as possible while attempt

I participated in a Google hosted one a while back and it was great fun. There is a great push and pull between trying to be as random as possible while attempting to exploit non-randomness in your opponents. I ended up going with a 'many demons' solution whereby I had many strategies voting on what the guess should be and I modulated the weight of their votes based on their success. I also used 'sicillian logic' to make meta-strategies that simply voted on a move that would win/lose to the guesses of my other strategies. One thing I always wanted to try was to cheat. Flood the submissions with bots that would attempt a pseudo-random-looking handshake. If it failed the bots would act randomly. But if it succeeded they would perform a pre-determined pseudo-random pattern that my one true bot would exploit to boost its rating.

mdonahoe 12y ago
Reminds me of the clever strategy that won a prisoner's dilemma contest. http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/10/65317 http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/10/6531...
- richdougherty 12y ago
  Or The Alliance of Pacifist Scum from RoboWar, a game I played back in the 90s. http://robowar.sourceforge.net/RoboWar5/Theory/theory.html#Alliance http://robowar.sourceforge.net/RoboWar5/Theory/theory.html#A... "Essentially, the idea behind the Alliance was a simple recognition that the scoring system for tournaments up to that point made no award at the time for killing one's enemy, only for surviving the battle. It mattered not even if the enemy was still alive, so long as you were alive at the conclusion. So in the Eighth Tournament, someone came up with the screwball idea that maybe they shouldn't bother even fighting at all unless they came under attack from their enemy. Either it was amazing coincidence or there was an active conspiracy of communication going on that I was unaware of to build these horrible things, because a few more of these guys showed up at once than coincidence would seem to warrant in the Eighth Tournament. "I refer to this bunch as the Alliance because that's essentially what it is. The robots agree not to fight each other so that each gets full credit for all of their battles. When Allied Pacifist Scum are in battle with each other, both get 100% points for their battles. If they fought it out, each would get 50% if they were equally matched, and both might well get less than that, since a double kill doesn't benefit either one of them."
- surreal 12y ago
  This is the most clever I've seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8 He ensures his opponent has nothing to gain from defecting... (Rules etc until 2m 30s, then the game)
  - twiceaday 12y ago
    That's awesome. My favorite part is when the clever guy who kept his cool during the entire episode drops his jaw when he hears the other guy is going to use his winnings to re-spray his yacht.

mdonahoe 12y ago

Reminds me of the clever strategy that won a prisoner's dilemma contest. http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/10/65317 http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/10/6531...

richdougherty 12y ago
Or The Alliance of Pacifist Scum from RoboWar, a game I played back in the 90s. http://robowar.sourceforge.net/RoboWar5/Theory/theory.html#Alliance http://robowar.sourceforge.net/RoboWar5/Theory/theory.html#A... "Essentially, the idea behind the Alliance was a simple recognition that the scoring system for tournaments up to that point made no award at the time for killing one's enemy, only for surviving the battle. It mattered not even if the enemy was still alive, so long as you were alive at the conclusion. So in the Eighth Tournament, someone came up with the screwball idea that maybe they shouldn't bother even fighting at all unless they came under attack from their enemy. Either it was amazing coincidence or there was an active conspiracy of communication going on that I was unaware of to build these horrible things, because a few more of these guys showed up at once than coincidence would seem to warrant in the Eighth Tournament. "I refer to this bunch as the Alliance because that's essentially what it is. The robots agree not to fight each other so that each gets full credit for all of their battles. When Allied Pacifist Scum are in battle with each other, both get 100% points for their battles. If they fought it out, each would get 50% if they were equally matched, and both might well get less than that, since a double kill doesn't benefit either one of them."
surreal 12y ago
This is the most clever I've seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8 He ensures his opponent has nothing to gain from defecting... (Rules etc until 2m 30s, then the game)
- twiceaday 12y ago
  That's awesome. My favorite part is when the clever guy who kept his cool during the entire episode drops his jaw when he hears the other guy is going to use his winnings to re-spray his yacht.