[pbmserv] how about this for a crazy idea for gamerz.net

[Douglas Zander <darthdoug_1999@yahoo.com>]

How about this for a funny, crazy idea?   As some of you may know, dailygammon.com has a "computer guessing" feature.  Dailygammon.com is a turn-based backgammon site with a graphical interface and a computer guessing feature to speed up the games.  The computer there will guess at your opponent's moves for a few turns and allow you to play ahead.  Then when your opponent logs on she makes a few moves and if her moves are the same as what the computer guessed for her then the moves stand.  If her moves are different then when you log on later and make your moves the game will have rolled back to the point where her moves were different.  This makes the games go faster as several moves can be played out for your opponent that may turn out to be the actual moves your opponent will make.

Now making a computer guesser for the many games here would be difficult.  The AI involved would be hard to program for many of these games.  But what if we allowed the player to guess for his opponent?  Instead of a computer guessing your opponent's moves, you would guess what moves your opponent would make and then when your opponent logs on and makes her moves the server would compare your guesses to her actual moves.  This may very well speed up the games as each player will make several moves/turns per session instead of just one.  Of course, the "show" command would need to be removed or adjusted to show only the last confirmed move and state of the board, and the guessed moves would not be shown if the board is rolled back.  Wild idea, huh?!

-- 
Douglas Zander