GAN
GAN draws it’s theme from Generative Adversarial Networks, pairs of machine-learning systems that compete with and adapt to one another.
Learning the game is simple, but mastering it requires predicting your opponents’ behavior or brute forcing them into positions where their options are limited.
A simple set of moves and two methods for scoring points give rise to complex strategies. As the stack of letters grows in each of the four quadrants on the board, players may find that a series of careful maneuvers can gain them a powerful advantage but must remain wary as a single misstep can dramatically shift the outcome of a well-laid plan.
Short Term Gains vs. Long Term Strategy
In this example, the player has the option of moving the ‘G’ in Quad Three on to the ‘A’ in Quad Two. Recalling that the card underneath the ‘G’ in Quad Three is an ‘A’, the player can confidently predict that this move will result in a match to the pattern on his model card and earn five points for winning the round.
Alternatively, the player may elect to move the entire stack of cards in Quad Three to Quad One because the top card in each stack is the same letter and both are “unlocked.” If there are a large number of cards in Quad Three, this may be the better move in the long run even if the opponent wins the round.
If there is a ‘N’ underneath the ‘A’ in Quad Two, the opponent could match the other model card on the next move by moving the ‘A’ to Quad Three. While the opponent would gain five points, the player may earn many more if they can keep the cards they collected by moving the stack from Quad Three to Quad One.
THe pitfalls of impatience
In GAN, when a card is moved from one quad to another, the card is flipped to its red side and that space becomes “locked”, as shown by the red ‘A’ in Quad Zero. Here, the player has matched his model card and won the round, but will miss out on collecting any of the cards in Quad Zero.
At the end of each round, the player has the opportunity to recover all the cards in Quad One and Quad Zero, but only if there is another matching card of the same color on the board. If there was a red ‘A’ in Quad Three, the player would have collected the cards in Quad Zero. He does, however, collect the cards in Quad One because there is another green ‘N’ in Quad Two.
Players may find that patience and cunning will be rewarded and must plan accordingly.
