Link Thread

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

That's one reason why I'm not your average nerd. I'm not a chess addict. Probably because I've gotten smacked by one too many uppity ten dollar computer programs.

I don't think chess is quite the defining nerd attribute it used to be anymore. I don't know a lot of people who play, and I'm a math grad student. The weird thing is that Metroid2002, a totally unrelated forum that Hejira and I frequent, is full of chess fans and has even organized tournaments.

But then, the appeal of chess is too universal to try and match it up with some specific group. It's the definitive strategy game. TOS and B5 showed people still playing chess 300 years from now, and I believe it.

[Nate the Great]

From what I've read, there are many better strategy games out there. Go, for example. Now, I've never played even though I know how. For that matter, what about Hexxegon?

[Zeke]

Anticipating that objection, I said definitive, not best. I think chess has a stronger claim to that title than any other game. "Best" wouldn't even make sense, since there are any number of ways one game can be better than another: simplicity, challenge, accessibility, and so on.

Go is indeed a strong contender, though I think chess edges it out. As for Hexxagon, I apply a simple rule: any game I have to look up is in no way a classic yet.

[ijdgaf]

I think the whole Go vs. Chess issue is more or less an East vs. West thing. Which you define as "definitive" largely rests on where you grew up.

I say they both co-chair their definity.

[Nate the Great]

Well, it's just that from what I've heard, if a random person had to go on a hundred-year trip across the galaxy and could only take one game with them, the odds are better that they'd take Go with them.

[Chancellor Valium]

@IJD: Exactly. In my home, for example, it was Newfoundland Trivial Pursuit...

[Zeke]

You know, we get pretty silly here sometimes. But I think it's time now to take a moment, as we sometimes do on this show, to look... into the future.