Memory game, even more twisted

Thanks to Guzman for his long and thoughtful comment on my post the other day about Van Chung’s cleverly twisted variation of the Memory game.

I read Guzman’s comment with great interest, and am impressed that he has managed to amass so many variations on this venerable game. Although I didn’t see any mention there of my even more twisted variation on Van’s version of the Memory game. Maybe nobody has come up with my version before.

As with Van’s version, part of the challenge in my variation is just to figure out what the game is — ie: how the rules have been tweaked. In a way, that meta-game is the really interesting part — more interesting in my opinion than the game of solving the puzzle itself.

In a way, such game variations are metaphors for life itself. In life, the hard part often lies not in playing the game, but rather in figuring out the rules in the first place. Anyone who’s ever been on a first date will know exactly what I’m talking about.

It occurs to me now, thinking about this, that Franz Kafka’s novel “The Trial” would make a wonderful subject a twisted meta-game. Such a game would make a perfect thirtieth birthday present for some lucky gamer. The fun would lie in trying to figure out the rules. If you designed it right, the game could be played for an entire year (although not longer, for obvious reasons). 😉

3 thoughts on “Memory game, even more twisted”

  1. My son came up with a memory game with some Star Wars scene cards we have. They don’t have duplicates, but some are very similar (a group of stromtroopers on Hoth, a group of stormtroopers on the Death Star). The object of the game is to pick up two cards and convince the other player that they are similar enough to count as a match. There’s a little bit of memory involved, but it’s mostly about recognizing patterns, negotiating, creativity, and coming up with your own rules. Though maybe aimed towards a younger audience than these games.

  2. Very interesting, it’s fun to discover how it works
    and it’s fun to think of a strategy to play.

    I found that there are two strategies.
    An inefficient one and an efficient one,
    but both may come in handy to play the game.

    _______________________________________
    Let’s start with the inefficient one:
    Assume I turn up the cards in positions A and B.
    And then I click on positions C (to flip A and B down).
    Now: The card that was in A will go to B,
    the card that was in B will go to C,
    and the card that goes in C will go to A.

    Now,
    if I turn up the cards in positions C and B
    and I click on position A (to flip C and B down),
    the card in position C will go to poistion B
    (and therefore to its original place),
    the card in position B will go to position A
    (it original position),
    and the card in position A will go in position C
    (it original position).

    This way,
    you turn up two pairs,
    you get to know 3 cards,
    you place them in their original positions so that you can memorize them.
    ____________________

    And now the efficient one:
    I use posisiton Z as a special position where I discover new cards.

    Turn up cards in positions Z and A1
    assume they are a lion and a turtle,
    then click on A2,
    memorize that lion is A1 and the turtle is in A2.

    Turn up cards in positions Z and A3
    assume they are a fish and a house,
    then click on A4,
    memorize that fish is A3 and the turtle is in A4.

    repeat process ….

    ___________________

    regards,
    guzman.

  3. Of course, things get messed up if you dont play it as a solitaire but against another person who might just follow a different strategy or might turn up cards randomly mixing everything up.

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