Return to Unfiction unforum
 a.r.g.b.b 
FAQ FAQ   Search Search 
 
Welcome!
New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.
Website Restoration Project
This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.
Announcements
This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.
This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.
  

The time now is Sun Nov 17, 2024 10:27 pm
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)		 View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum
Calendar
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: General/Updates
[UPDATE] Path of Least Time, 18th May
View previous topicView next topic
Page 1 of 2 [29 Posts]   Goto page: 1, 2 Next
Author Message
eeeqz
Veteran


Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Posts: 104
Location: Leics/Kingston upon Thames

 		[UPDATE] Path of Least Time, 18th May
Quote:
Counterpoint
Thursday, May 18 2006, 03:28 PM
Applying to study at the Academy involves an extensive and sometimes invasive series of questionnaires, tests, exams, personality evaluations and interviews. Taking part in the process, let alone succeeding, is seen as a real achievement; like qualifying for special forces, it's gruelling and not particularly fun.

There is one interesting component of the process though, which at least I found fun. That's the games stage. Some professors like to pit candidates against each other in strategy games like Pyramid and chess, echoing gladiatorial combat. When I applied to my department, Counterpoint was the game in vogue.

Counterpoint is a relatively new strategy game; people only started playing it seriously a few decades ago. Technically it was created long before that, but it was too difficult to play because you had to keep track of too many things - however, computers made the whole process much easier and less tedious.

The soul of Counterpoint consists of insight and prediction. When you play Counterpoint, you can't see the other player; they might be behind a divider, or in another room. Each of you has your own board that is a window onto a landscape that your share. When you place or move a piece on the board, it affects its surroundings, creating changes that ripple outwards. Your opponent can't see your pieces, but they will be able to see the changes it caused to the landscape. In turn, the landscape affects your own pieces, strengthening some, weakening others. It determines where you can move and what you can do.

You can imagine that playing Counterpoint can be a frustrating experience for beginners, who would have to constantly try and predict the movements of an enemy who they can't see and can't even directly attack. Indeed, you can't just 'take' an opponent's piece - you have to alter the landscape to do that. But when I played Counterpoint for the first time, I loved it. Visualising the positions of my opponent, setting traps and spinning out waves of changes that reinforced themselves across the landscape simply made sense. There are many different metaphors that can be used to describe Counterpoint, and the one I chose was of physics and light. It worked well for me.

During my first few years of playing Counterpoint at school, I concentrated on eliminating my opponents as quickly and decisively as possible. I would translate the concepts I learned in physics to the board, creating interference patterns in the landscape that would protect my own pieces but confuse or destroy my opponent's. It eventually got to the point where people were more interested in watching my games than playing me, just to see what new cataclysmic trick I would come up with next.

Co-operation is a more subtle face of Counterpoint, one that I had dismissed as being unnecessary in order to win, never mind being completely impossible in a game without communication. However, when I started playing outside school, I had to play using different rules. Competitive Counterpoint awards points to the winner based not only on your own play, but also on your opponents play and on the end state of the board. If you finish a game with the landscape in ruins and your opponent's pieces weak and scattered, the multiplier for your own score will be low; however, if the landscape is highly structured and, for want of a better word, elegant, and your opponent's play was good, then the multiplier will be high. Unsurprisingly, I had tended to use the former strategy.

It was about this time, in my late teens, that I started seriously considering to apply to the Academy. I discovered that I'd probably have to play Counterpoint as part of the application, so I worked harder to improve my play. I soon stumbled upon a way that would allow me to increase my score without changing the way I played too much. In essence, I would deliberately handicap my own play in order to let my opponent build up their strength and their landscape, and when it had risen high enough, I would attempt to cripple them with as little collateral damage as possible.

This was a very crude way of winning, one that would never work in the long term as my opponents heard about the strategy, but it served my purposes. During the games at the Academy, I used it to beat every single one of the other candidates, cruelly opening up the landscape they'd grown, right under their feet. I felt very pleased with myself with this, and I was sure that I would be offered the scholarship we were all competing for.

Sure enough, the professor called me the next day and asked me to come in to his office. He told me that by all accounts, I would be an excellent student, maybe even a brilliant one, but he was worried about my character. The way he would decide whether I was suitable, he explained, was through a game of Counterpoint. If I could reach a particular score, then I would be admitted to the Academy. The score he named was beyond any that I had ever seen in competitive play.

I sat down in front of my board, feeling panicked at the completely unreasonable score that he expected, and waited. He placed his first piece near the centre, a move that develops the landscape quickly but is incredibly vulnerable. I hesitated, wondering whether this was a trap, and began building a base a little further away. Over the course of the opening, we developed two cities, cautiously watching each other from our strongholds.

Soon enough, he attacked. I hadn't noticed his build-up, thinking that the strange swirls and wells appearing and disappearing outside his city were merely random. Instead, they congealed into a broad wall and two fissures, implacably moving towards me. I would have to redeploy my pieces and try and dislodge his city if I wanted any chance of salvaging this game. Alternatively, I could try to send out my own wave to neutralise his, but it would waste much of the the work I'd done so far. I stared at the board, completely frustrated and almost crying. There was nothing I could do that would allow me to win the game any more - the most I could hope for was a decent loss.

I stood up, ready to resign from the game and go home, when I realised that I had misheard his remark earlier. The goal here wasn't for me to reach a high score; it was simply for the game to end with a high score, regardless of who won. With this realisation, I saw another possibility; I could allow the wave to pass through my pieces, but reflect it back so that in the process, the landscape would become more developed. His city refracted it, and I began moving my pieces out around his, in order to feed off the newly strengthened landscsape. My gesture was clearly recognised when he dissolved his city and began creating - something. I couldn't understand what it was, it wasn't threatening but it seemed completely chaotic.

For a few turns, I stood at a distance, trying to make sense of the maelstrom that was developing in the ruins of his city. Tentatively, I moved a small group of pieces inside, where they were swallowed up and buffeted about, but not destroyed. Intriguingly, they seemed to be stabilising the chaos that was happening. I resolved to move all of my pieces inside.

The maelstrom shifted, crystallising into something new and sending out an enormous wave of change across the landscape. The landscape was completely unrecognisable now - it was more charged and developed than any I'd seen before, but it wasn't enough to reach the score required before the game ended. What was needed was more movement, more spin. I shifted my pieces around counter-clockwise, but it didn't impart enough momentum. The next turn, however, the professor followed on, setting events moving.

I replied, shifting again and again until the storm at the centre of the board appeared as a intricate, fractal mass, transforming the land. We fell into a rhythm - a dance - each taking our cues from the other, guiding and following a dozen different times. I could hardly tell any more what was my work and what was his, but across the board, my pieces waltzed around their invisible partners, whirling their way through the storm. I found myself laughing in delight as the game became something I'd never seen before.

And then it was over. The pieces had been run far beyond their normal lifetimes, and the landscape froze. I drew back from the board, unfocusing. I looked at it from all sides, seeing the spires and chasms that circled the centre in fractal patterns. I couldn't tell what the score was, but I knew it was enough. As I sat back in my chair, exhausted, the professor entered, and told me I had been accepted, before quickly walking away. I reached out to touch the board, wanting it to continue.

I've thought a lot about Counterpoint over the last couple of days while I've been tracking Miranda; I wrote this whenever I haven't been running. I've been trying to understand what is going on in this conflict between us, and as I run closer to her, as we gradually near the marshes and the mountains beyond them, I wonder what kind of dance we are both in.



Intriguing... something for the next PCAG, perhaps...?
_________________
Quot Homines Tot Sententiae...
Proud member of the Caine Johannson Dream Team Fan Club
http://www.perplexcitytrades.com/eeeqz

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 11:51 am
 View user's profile Visit poster's website MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Alter Ego
Boot


Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 40
Location: UK, Essex

 		Reminds me of Command and Conquer...
_________________
To solve any problem that has never been solved before, you have to leave the door to the unknown ajar. - Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate physicist Worshippy

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 12:04 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Shinydaniel
Greenhorn

Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 3

 		Wonderfully well written. Did this remind anyone else of The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks?

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 12:05 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Alter Ego
Boot


Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 40
Location: UK, Essex

 		I think Kurt's really lost the plot now Screwy, he's been wandering on his own to much....... Violet! Laughing
_________________
To solve any problem that has never been solved before, you have to leave the door to the unknown ajar. - Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate physicist Worshippy

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 12:10 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
_izzy_
Veteran

Joined: 05 Apr 2006
Posts: 99
Location: Hertfordshire, UK

 		as much as i hate to say it, i think it is possible 'miranda' is using the same trick on Kurt, as he used to beat his contestants to win/earn his academy place:

kurt wrote:
I soon stumbled upon a way that would allow me to increase my score without changing the way I played too much. In essence, I would deliberately handicap my own play in order to let my opponent build up their strength and their landscape, and when it had risen high enough, I would attempt to cripple them with as little collateral damage as possible.


ie she is lulling him into a false sense of security, letting him think that he has the upper hand and in the mean time she's preparing to in a way pull the ground out from under him, i mean she must have guessed he would follow her and at the minute tracking her does seem to be on the some-what to easy side.

but i hope this is all wrong, otherwise poor kurt... Shocked

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 12:23 pm
 View user's profile MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Brian Morton
Decorated


Joined: 22 Sep 2005
Posts: 178
Location: San antonio

 		Kurt's becoming unglued. I think he's finally losing it. Too much time alone with a copy of The Art of War is really affecting his noodle. I never heard of a guy breaking down over a girl like this. He better find her soon.
_________________
"Damn you, Smith- damn you to hell."

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 1:36 pm
 View user's profile MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
_izzy_
Veteran

Joined: 05 Apr 2006
Posts: 99
Location: Hertfordshire, UK
Brian Morton wrote:
Kurt's becoming unglued. I think he's finally losing it. Too much time alone with a copy of The Art of War is really affecting his noodle. I never heard of a guy breaking down over a girl like this. He better find her soon.


I really don't see Kurt as breaking down, i think he now has a much better grip on himself - no longer talking to imaginary people - i just see this as him trying to equate the position he has found himself in with a situation from his 'normal' life - he sees it as a strategy game, against an unseen player - but this time he is playing it for real (and i for one really don't want him to lose)

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 1:46 pm
 View user's profile MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Rand0m
Decorated


Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Posts: 271
Location: London
Brian Morton wrote:
I never heard of a guy breaking down over a girl like this.


Oh boy, have you lived a sheltered life!

I'm not sure where Kurt's going with the implication that he and Miranda are, on some level, co-operating here. But if he starts thinking of this a game they're playing together with a fixed set of rules and no consequences beyond the game itself then he's hosed when Miranda next decides to pull a knife on someone. Particularly if it's him.
_________________
How the Cube was found - my Season One endgame microsite. Arrow

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 1:46 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
duckiemonster
Unfettered


Joined: 10 Dec 2005
Posts: 554
Location: Oxford, UK

 		Breaking down? Going mental? Rubbish, if you ask me. He's back to his old self, pretty much.

And whatever's going on in that mind of his, that was a beautiful piece of writing.
_________________
duckiemonster.com w00t!

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 1:50 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Brian Morton
Decorated


Joined: 22 Sep 2005
Posts: 178
Location: San antonio

 		I just meant the constant introspection and dwelling on it. They were only dating for a while. Every man has dated at least 1 psycho chick at one time or another. I guess the ones I dated didn't have explosives. I figured he would have treated it more logically less emotionally:D ...preparing for the emminent lash out from previous sexist statements...
_________________
"Damn you, Smith- damn you to hell."

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 1:59 pm
 View user's profile MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
ryandrew
Unfettered


Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 575
Location: Manchester

 		First a magic tent of wonderment, then contact lenses of supremecy. And now, this fantabulous game? Kurt has everything going for him! (Except for the whole killer ex-girlfriend on the run who tried to blow him up thing)

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 2:23 pm
 View user's profile MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Dranioth
Veteran


Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 92
duckiemonster wrote:
Breaking down? Going mental? Rubbish, if you ask me. He's back to his old self, pretty much.

And whatever's going on in that mind of his, that was a beautiful piece of writing.


Quoted For Truth.

Frankly, I personally began to see the normal kurt skulk back from the brink of insanity on the 15th when he actually PREPARED for an encounter with Miranda insted of trying to set up a random ambush or just rushing in and trying to reason with her. I'm fairly sure that we're getting the old Kurt back.

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 2:32 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Macavity
Entrenched


Joined: 25 Jul 2004
Posts: 883
Location: UNSC Comm Relay Station Alpha, West Shokan, NY
Alter Ego wrote:
Reminds me of Command and Conquer...


I was thinking more along the lines of Command & Conquer plus Battleship/Civilization . . .

(On a completely unrelated note, another C&Cer! Effing WHEEEEEEEE!)
_________________
You are likely to be eaten by a grue. If this predicament seems particularly cruel,
Consider whose fault it could be, with no match or torch in your inventory...
NP: Erase The Truth

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 3:02 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
perplexed
Decorated


Joined: 23 Jul 2005
Posts: 261
Location: Greater London, UK

 		if hes got all these nifty gizmos why cant he find a way to get a satellite pic of her... plus if i was him i would have got the pharmacy man to put some kind of chloroformy stuff in her oxxypro, so much less messy.

AND did i mention... SHE KNOWS WHERE HE LIVES... Shocked
_________________
'take not my words as sacred, for in the Cube alone lies the power and each man must seek it for himself.' - Gyvaan
perplexed, moi? Definitely Razz

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 3:31 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
locqust
Unfettered


Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 545
Location: Gloucestershire UK

 		Sounds like an interesting game though...
_________________
"If you'd been listening you would know that nintendos pass through everything." Col. Jack O'Neill

PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2006 5:04 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
Display posts from previous:   Sort by:   
Page 1 of 2 [29 Posts]   Goto page: 1, 2 Next
View previous topicView next topic
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: General/Updates
Jump to:  


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group