Butterfly Garden

Top Down Resource Gathering Game

Butterfly Garden prototype can be played at: www.josephclaymiller.com/shelf/butterfly.swf

Important note: Flash Player is needed to play this game: (http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer)

Alternate Directions in User Interface
The top down view makes it difficult show depth.  I wondered if I might get a more picturesque feel to the game by using a different view and bitmap images.  Below is a screenshot of that prototype

Side Scrolling Resource Gathering Game

The conclusion I came to was that an isometric view might be best for this game.

The UI is also lacking a health bar indicating the avatar's health which would decrease with time and refill when the player collected food.

Directions in Design

The game would start the player off as an egg from which the player would hatch as a caterpillar and begin collecting the resources available to it. The player's choice of resources to gather would determine which attributes their avatar could unlock in the adult butterfly stage.  As a butterfly, the player can lay eggs which act as save points for the attributes the butterfly has collected.  If the player dies, they can re spawn at an egg they have laid.

Pros and Cons of free browser based MMORPGs

Cons

Spyware

Many free browser based MMORPG can actually be spy-ware.

Plug Ins

Many browser based MMORPGs required you first download a plug-in to play. This is fine if you have your own computer, but if you are using a public computer, you may not be able to download the necessary plug in.

Betas

Many of the free browser based MMORPGs are just betas, and after the beta closes, the only way to play is to pay.

Cyber Attack

Browser based MMORPG are vunerable to cyber attacks. I found Free Realms, hosted by Sony Online Entertainment, had fallen victim to cyber attack and had shut down when I attempted to play.

Pros

MMORPGs are a fun way to play online with other people. A game that worked for me was zOMG! It was cute and you could start playing without giving away your personal information such as your name and e-mail first.  However if you did not provide this you could not customize your avatar.

Design Practice QUESTIONS

1. How do you plan to deal with the issue of new players arriving in the middle of a long game? Get rid of the victory condition, or find a way to make sure that players are matched with those of similar ability?

New players can come in at any time.  There is no victory condition, the play is all expressive. Players don't directly compete with each other, but can make changes in the environment that other players can see.  The new players arriving continually change the environment for all players to enjoy.  There is no game mechanic for killing or stealing from other players.

2. What will happen to the game play when a player vanishes? How will it affect the other players’ experience of the game (what they see and hear)? Does it disrupt the balance of the game? Will it make the challenges easier or harder? Is the game even meaningful anymore?

The player avatar would vanish if the player leaves the game. The game continually saves its state so changes the player has made in the environment persist. The game also continually saves the player' character's attributes and possessions, so they will be available the next time the player logs in.

3. What happens to the game’s score when a player vanishes? Is the game still fair?

The player's score would be stored on the players computer and is persistent for that player on that computer.

4. Does your game offer a player an advantage of some kind for intentionally disconnecting himself (whether by preventing himself from losing or by sealing his own victory)? Is there any way to minimize this without penalizing players who are disconnected accidentally?

The advantage to intentionally disconnecting oneself would be to avoid the penalty of death. This would require disconnecting when an enemy was near before the enemy reaches the character. When the player logs back on, the enemy would probably be gone. This advantage is minimized by adding safe spots where a player can leave their character at any time to avoid getting killed, necessitating the need to leave the game.

5. In a turn-based game, what mechanism will you use to prevent a player from stalling play for the other players? Set a time limit? Allow simultaneous turns? Implement a reasonable default if the player does nothing?

Players would not be able to interfere with other players, all the players turns would be simultaneous.

6. If you offer a chat mechanism, what features will you implement to keep it civil? Filters? A complaint system? An ignore system? Or will your game require moderated chat spaces?

Profanity filters and a game admin to monitor the chat room would cut down on the inappropriate chat. Players would also be able to block other players chat.

7. Is your game designed to prevent (or alleviate) collusion? Because you can’t prevent players from talking to each other on the phone as they play, how will you address this? Or can you design your game in such a way that collusion is part of the gameplay, as in "Diplomacy"?

Players would each interact in the game space in their own way and any interaction between players would not hinder the play of other players since there is no direct competition.

Sexism of Video Games

Sexism has been predominant in video games for as long as characters and violence have been a part of video games.  The earliest games were too restricted in pixels to develop the avatar into a real character. The player controlled a dot on the screen directly, or indirectly with a joystick and buttons. This type of avatar was generic and void of sexism. When the arcade game Pong was released it was popular among all genders.

As technology progressed, games were able to incorporate more detail.  Game avatars morphed from primitive shapes to gendered characters, thus beginning the long history of sexism in video games.  The new character avatars such as Mario and Pac-Man were all male. Only on occasion would the avatar be female, such as in the sequel to Pac-Man which featured Ms. Pac-Man. Most of the female characters were like Princess Peach; a prize for the avatar character for defeating the evil character. The inability to play the female character gendered video games towards men.

As the graphics in video games continued to improve the focus of video games shifted more towards characters and story.  Unfortunately the player characters remained male, and their stories continued to revolve around violence. An poignant example of sexism in video games is the grand theft auto series. The player's character is male and has the ability to kill any other character in the game.  There are prostitutes in game, all of which are female. One mechanic of the game is the ability of the player character to solicit these women on the street, have them enter the car and replenish the player character's health for money. This mechanics combined with the predominant killing mechanic favored a rape strategy many players would employ to raise their health without losing money: The player would drive to a secluded alley where they wouldn't be seen by other characters, and then when the woman left the car after raising the players health all the way, the player would beat them and take back the money they had just paid for that service and anything else the woman had on her.

Video game have been and continue to be marketed predominantly to males. Games and advertisements for these games are targeted so heavily towards 18-35 year old men, they alienate female players. One recent advertisement on TV for a new First Person Shooter did not show clips from their game in the advertisement, instead they showed clips of woman after woman being appalled at the game they were selling and suggesting it was too violent, too vulgar, and not at all appropriate for anyone.  A spokesman concluded the advertisement claiming the game was not for your mother, but you would love it.  The attitude the advertisement conveys is that men and women like different things, and what they are selling is everything men like that women don't.  This blatant disregard for female preferences in entertainment discourages many women from playing video games at all.

A more famous example of sexism in video games perhaps, was the release of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball in 2003. The game did not feature any of the fighting that the series is know for.  Instead, it was a series of mini-games featuring the female characters from the series wearing only bikinis.  These bikinis could be upgraded with money to be more revealing.  The goal was to form a team and compete in the volleyball competitions.  In the place of a fighting engine, they had a physics engine to calculate the bounce of the breasts of the characters as they jumped up and down on the beach playing volleyball.  The game artists used more polygons in the creation of these characters breasts than technology had been previously capable of, ensuring their characters had the roundest boobs in all video games to date, and a complex physics engine to jiggle them perfectly.

With the rise of casual gaming on the internet, things are starting to change. Game producers are realizing the potential market of non-core gamers and developers are producing games for women.  Many women are making an impact as game developers and producers in the male dominated industry, but the industry continues to be overwhelmingly male dominated and marketing their games mostly towards male gamers.  This is because of the sexism in our sociey and the gender wage gap.  Men have more money to spend, so games are marketed towards men.

Game Map RPG Persidio

Interactive Map

The map is of the Persidio for an RPG scenario where the military base has been privatized, and it is your job to manage the resources of the Persidio, rent out the buildings, run busses and other services for the new inhabitants.

Design Practice QUESTIONS

1. What entities and resources will be in the game? Which resources are made upof individual entities (such as a resource of airplanes consisting of individual planesthat the computer can track separately) and which are described by mass nouns(such as water, which cannot be separated into discrete objects)?

The game will contain various flora and fauna that are made up of individual entities. There will also be entities for clouds, rain (as a mass), and the ground surface of the world.

2. What unique entities will be in the game?

The unique nature of the entities in the game would be derived from the player's decisions in the game. The player would have control over the look and behavior of the various flora and fauna encountered.

3. Which entities will actually include other entities as part of their defi nition?(Remember that an avatar may have an inventory, and an inventory containsobjects.)

The clouds would contain the rain.

4. What attributes describe each of the entities that you have identifi ed? Whichattributes are numeric and which are symbolic?

Each entity would have a coordinate position in relation to the game world, a rotation attribute, a lifespan, all of which would be numeric. There would also be an action attribute which would be symbolic.

5. Which entities and resources will be tangible, and which will be intangible?Will any of them change from one state to another, like the resources in Age ofEmpires?

The flora and fauna would be tangible resources.

6. What mechanics govern the relationships among the entities? Remember thatany symbolic entity requires mechanics that determine how it can get into each ofits possible states and how other entities interact with each possible state.

The mechanic of colliding with an entity would cause that entity to perform its action.

7. Are there any global mechanics in the game? What mechanic governs the waythe game changes from mode to mode?

When the player reaches the end of the lifespan for their character without dying prematurely, the player starts a new mode.

8. For each entity and resource, does it come into the game world at a source, ordoes it start off in a game world that does not provide a source for additional entities or resources? If it does come in at a source, what mechanics control theproduction rate of the source?

The entities in the game would reproduce to create more of that entity. The mechanics would be controlled in part with the player's interaction with the entities.

9. For each entity and resource, does it go out of the game world at a drain, or doesit all remain in the game world and never leave? If it does go out at a drain, whatconditions cause it to drain?

Each entity leaves the game at the end of its lifespan or when consumed.

10. What conversion processes exist in your world? What trader processes exist? Doany feedback loops or mutual dependencies exist? What means have you providedto break or prevent deadlocks?

The entities in the game are mutually dependent. The entities must consume other entities in order to live. If the entities all die out, then the game ends.

11. Can your game get into a state of equilibrium, static or dynamic? Does it includeany form of decay or entropy that prevents states of equilibrium from forming?

Each of the entities decays, and must consume other entities to survive causing a dynamic equilibrium.

12. How do mechanics create active challenges? Do you need to establish anymechanics to detect if a challenge has been surmounted?

The constant threat of being consumed by larger entities combined with the need to consume smaller entities creates the active challenge of surviving.

13. How do mechanics implement actions? For each action that may arrive from theuser interface, how do the core mechanics react?

The user interface controls an avatar that causes actions by colliding with entities.

14. For autonomous entities such as nonplayer characters, what mechanics controltheir behavior? What mechanics defi ne their AI?

The mechanics of the AI would consist of searching through the entities in the game world and moving the position of the entity each frame towards the closest entity it is capable of consuming or away from the closest enemy capable of consuming it.

Design Practice EXERCISE

2. Research the history and rules of Tetris, then perform the following exercises:

a. Devise an entity that contains enough attributes to describe the tetromino (aTetris block) that is currently under the player’s control. Name each attribute inthe entity; state whether it is symbolic or numeric; and if symbolic, list its possible values.Your entity should include one cosmetic attribute.

The attributes of a tetromino are the rotation, the coordinates in relation to the play field, and the placement of the 4 squares.

b. Document the effect of each of the player actions allowed in Tetris on theattributes of the currently falling tetromino. Bear in mind that some actionshave different effects depending on which tetromino is currently falling. Wherethis is the case, be sure to document the effects of the action on each differenttype of tetromino.

The player's key strokes can shift the tetromino along the x-axis, speed up the progression along the y-axis, or rotate the tetromino.

c. Document one of the scoring systems for Tetris (there are several; you maychoose one), indicating what condition of the play field causes the score numericentity to change and by how much. Your mechanic for changing the scoreshould include as a factor the current game level (another numeric entity). Alsodocument what makes the current game-level entity change.

The score is added to every time a tetromino is placed on the board without reaching the top. Significantly more points are awarded for completing rows and the level is a multiplier for the score.

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong's is challenging to play. The main challenge is timing. As you progress, you have less time to make decisions about how to move your character to avoid enemies and rescue the princess. I passed the first level by jumping over barrels, getting the hammer to destroy barrels, and eventually reaching the top where the princess was. This instigated the start of another level which had more enemies and the same princess in need of rescue at the top. The levels get progressively harder, rewarding you briefly by showing Mario and the princess and a heart, then challenging you again and again until you fail. A good sense of rhythm is required to play for very long.

Pinball Gameplay

1) What is "good gameplay" when it comes to pinball game design?

Good gameplay rewards the player for hitting targets, and does not punish players for missing targets too severely. The design would also allow for interesting movement of the ball when the player fails to reach the desired target, not only when the player hits the target.

2) How do pinball playfield designers create exciting experiences?

Pinball playfield designers create a story players progress through by accomplishing the subgoals. The designers also put in flashing lights and sounds for accomplishing these subgoals. The build up of sound and lights adds to the excitement the player feels and lets the player know they are doing well to encourages them to play more.

Game Sound

Game Music
Created using GarageBand
song1 
song2

Game Sound Effects
Created using Audacity with sounds from Freesound.org
Contextual sound/Narrative sound
Focusing attention
Defining space
Establishing place
Creating environment
Emphasizing/Intensifying action
Setting pace
Symbolizing meaning
Unifying transitions

Golem Encounter

Atypical Construction Game

My construction game would be based on plants. The elementary parts of the construction game would be sugars that could be used to construct plants. The player would be able to synthesize sugars by planting and raising seeds that would grow into plants which would form sugars over time from the radiant energy of the virtual sun in the gameworld. The player could use the sugar to buy more seeds that would grow into plants with different abilities.

Hero Creation

Using Hero Machine, for the fantasy character, you can modify the style and color of the character's skin, eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, beard, hair, headgear, undershirt, overshirt, gloves, coat, belt, leggings, footwear, pants, weapons, back, companion and background.
For the Super-Hero character, you can modify the style and color of the character's skin, eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, mask, hair, helmet, undershirt, overskirt, insignia, leggings, belt, pants, gloves, coat, footwear, weapons and back.
For the sports character, you can modify the style and color of the skin, face, hair, helmet, shirt, coat, gloves, belt, leggings, pants, footwear, weapon, shield and back.

I created the Winged Catman, Phoenix, and Rain. The winged Catman has a silver suit that offers full body protection. On his back, the Winged Catman has wings so he can fly.  The Winged Catman uses claw fist weapons and dose little damage, but is aided by a flying cat companion.  Phoenix can not fly., her gear however, is flameproof and gives her control of fire to inflict massive damage. Rain's choice of weapon allows her to control water and her cloths offer little protection but give her healing powers.

Remix Game

Remix Game Presentation
I would create an action (survival horror sub-genre) game using the work of director Michael Bay such as "The Island", "The Rock", and "Armageddon" to set the emotional tone.

I would use the music of Infected Mushroom to set pace of the game and to further the excited emotional tone of the survival action game.

Adventure

Game created by Warren Robinett for Atari
Published in 1979

1 - What is the game genre (e.g. shoot-em-up, racing, sports, puzzle, MMORPG, ‘sandbox’, music sequence following game (e.g. DDR, guitar hero)

The first of the adventure game genre.

2 -What is the type of game ‘world’ or environment (e.g. flat environment, puzzle/maze space, 3D world?)

The world consisted of castles and a maze of pathways.

3 - What is the perspective taken by player (e.g first person, third person perspective, top down, isometric) in relation to main player controlled character.

The game is top down perspective, although some objects in the game, such as the dragons and the castles are shown from a front or side perspective to show more detail even though the.

4 - What is the actual gameplay – what does the player have to do?

The player can move the avatar in the four cardinal directions and pick up one object at a time to carry with them. The different objects have different functions and are needed to accomplish the goal. There was no instruction indicating what this goal was, but I determined it to be retrieving the glowing challis from the black castle and bringing it back to the yellow castle, using the yellow keys to enter the yellow castle to pick up the sword to kill the dragon guarding the black key and the dragon guarding entrance to the maze to the black castle.

5 - Is the gameplay intuitive? (i.e. is it easy to understand what to do without instructions?) describe.

The gameplay was highly intuitive, in fact, I did not see any instructions describing how to play the game. The imagery of castles and dragons implies what actions are to be expected from the player, such as picking up the sword and using it to slay the dragon, or picking up the key and using it to enter the castle. The doors of the castles and the gaps on the top bottom or sides of the screen imply that you can exit the screen in certain locations.

6 - Is the gameplay patterned (game does the same thing over & over) or is it random (happens differently every time?)

The gameplay has a very simple pattern. You can move around the screen up left right or down. If there is an enemy in the screen they move towards you. Each screen has one or more entry/exit points that you can move through to get to a new screen.

7 - What does the type of graphic approach used as well as the audio tell you about the limits of the technology at the time the game was published?

The graphics and audio of adventure depict how limited the technology at the time was.

8 - Describe your views about the game from the point of view of

1. ease of play

Adventure was easy to play although it was a bit obscure about what to do at times.

2. enjoyability

Adventure was enjoyable to play because it offered enough challenging to make you feel accomplished when you beat the game.

c) level of engagement/immersion

The level of engagement was as high considering the simple graphics and sounds.

9 - Had you played this game prior to this time? If so, when?

I had heard of Adventure before but never played it.

10 - what does playing the game remind you of in terms of other games/media?

The game is very typical of an adventure game.

Game Proposal

1)     Write a high concept statement: a few sentences that give a general flavor of the game. You can make references to other games, movies, book, or any other media if your game contains simlar characters actions or ideas

The game is a 2D butterfly simulation inspired by the PS3 game "Flower". Like the game flower, you explore a nature scene and visit the flowers. The goal of the game is to populate the virtual world with colorful flowers and butterflies. The focus would also be on butterflies not just flowers.

2)     What is the player’s role? Is the player pretending to be someone or something, and if so what? Is there more than one? How does the player’s role help to define the gameplay?

The player takes on the role of a soon to be butterfly that flies around looking for flowers.

3)     Does the game have an avatar or other key character? Describe him/her/it

The coloration of the butterfly that is the character's avatar is determined by the color of the plants the player finds and can lead to different abilities.

4)     What is the nature of the gameplay, in general terms? What kinds of challenges will the player face? What kinds of actions will the player take to oercome them?

The player must avoid birds by hiding among plants.

5)     What is the player’s interaction model? Omnipresent? Through an avatar? Something else? Some combination?

The player interacts through their avatar and can control it's flight.

6)     What is the game’s primary camera model? How will the player view the game’s world on the screen? Will there be more than one perspective?

The camera model is a 3rd person view of the player's avatar in the game world.

7)     Does the game fall into an existing genre? If so, which one?

A simulation game.

8)     Is the game competitive, cooperative, team-based or single player? If multiple players are allowed are they using the same machine with separate controls or different machines over a network?

The game would be single player.

9)     Why would anyone want to play this game? Who is the game’s target audiencde? What characteristics distinguise them from the mass of players in general?

The target audience would be casual gamers.

10)   What machine or machines is the game intended to run on? Can it make use of or will it require any particular hardware such as dance mats or a camera?

The game is intended to run in the browser on any home computer.

11)   What is the game’s setting? Where does it take place?

The game's setting is a meadow.

12)   Will the game be broken into levels? What might be the victory condition for a typical level?

The levels would be the different parts of the world. The victory condition for a typical level would be to fill the level with colorful flowers and butterflies.

13)   Does the game have a narrative or story as it goes along? Summarize the plot in a sentence or two.

The plot is the destruction of the natural butterfly habitat by mysterious dark powers and it is the player's quest to discover the source of the corruption and to reestablish the butterfly population.

US VS IT

Laser Eye: damage values : (0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)

Fist: The robot attacks only the square directly in front of it for 2 damage.

Atomic Mine: The mines have gone missing.

Rotate 90: Turn towards the nearest tank or goal line if all the tanks are destroyed.
Move: The robot moves forward one space if the space is empty and not off the board if facing the goal line or facing a tank.

Lowell Explores Game Worlds: WIP: Chess Game

Lowell Explores Game Worlds: WIP: Chess Game: "Created by: Eduardo Sanchez, Lowell Villanueva, Joseph Miller jmillergame100.blogspot.com ELSanchez31003.blogspot.com Game Objective: Score..."

"Legend of Zelda" online

1) How would you describe the level of engagement compared to more action oriented games from the same period?

I would describe the level of engagement of Zelda as slightly more than that of Super Mario Brothers. The view is top down and allows for movement in the four cardinal directions, as opposed to Super Mario which was more linear. The execution of the top down view in Zelda avoids the loss of detail inherent from a top view by drawing the objects from a view in-between that of a side view and a top down view, while maintaining the mechanics of a top down layout.

2) What role does setting and characterisation play in the game?

The setting and characterization emphasize the story and try to connect with the player emotionally. The setting helps emphasize the fantastical space you inhabit when you play the game.

3) How do spells, pickups and power-ups assist the game play?

The hearts added health, but are hidden in the bushes along with spiders that can reduce health. The risk of the spiders can be completely avoided when Link's health is full by not slashing any bushes with the sword. When his health is low however, it may be advantageous to brave the bushes to find hearts in order to be prepared to face the larger and more dangerous enemies in the game which can not be avoided.

"I, Videogame" - episode 2 in-class survey

1) What kind of company was Nintendo before it made videogame and videogame consoles?

Nintendo started out making plastic toys and playing cards.

2) What videogame system did it sell before it made its FAMICOM (known in USA as Nintendo Entertainment System)

The Magnavox Odyssey.

3) Shigeru Miyamoto was not a programmer - what skill set did he bring to the industry?

He was an artist and aspiring storyteller. He brought story to video games.

4) How did the limits of the technology affect the way Mario could be shown?

The design had to be less complicated to fit on the small screen and within the technological limitations. He had to be small, so his nose is big to see at the small size and he has a mustache because there wasn't enough room for pixels for a mouth. His colors were also chosen to be recognizable at a distance.

5) Why did US retailers think there was no future in home videogame consoles at the time just prior to the NES release in the USA?

They believed the fad of the home gaming console was over and personal computers were the future.

6) What was assumed to the be the 'next big thing' by electronics manufacturers?

Personal computers.

7) What did Legend of Zelda bring to gaming that was new?

Legend of Zelda brought leveling (he gains weapons and life energy) to video games. It was the first successful combination of RPG and action. It was story based and emotionally engaging.

8) How did the conservative values of the 1980s (Reagan & Thatcher etc) affect the culture of videogames?

The concept of collecting treasure. More money was often a goal in the games of the time, which was in line with real life aspirations of the adults in the 80s who were purchasing these games.

9) How were the PC games published by Mystery House like King's Quest different from console games?

It had graphics. It also required more patience because the story was more involved and the puzzles was deeper.

10) How did Sega's 16 big Megadrive system change home console gaming?

It had double the processing power so it could handle superior sound and graphics. The game Sonic that was bundled with the system introduced an antihero to video gaming.

11) How did "Leisure Suit Larry" differ from most genre based games of the period?

It was the first game to have racy content. It was also the first game to have a more life like world.

12) How is this aspect reflected in many games of today?

There are many realistic games on the market today.

13) What is 'motion capture'

A technology developed by hollywood where markers are placed on a person so their motion can be captured with cameras as they move and can then be mapped to an animation to make the movement more lifelike.

14) What is the 'uncanny valley'?

The negative response a human has to the uncanny looks of computer animations that are lifelike but not quite human.

"I, Videogame" in-class survey

1) Videogames emerged from the culture of the "Cold War" - what does Henry Jenkins from MIT compare the period to in terms of a famous board game?

Battleship

2) 

a) Who was the inventor of the first Video game according to the documentary?

William Higginbotham

b) What was the name of the game? 

Tenis for two

3) Steve Russell is credited with the first true computer-based videogame (in terms of its use with the 1961 PDP1 mainframe computer) with SPACEWAR - what popular science fiction book series also influenced him? 

"Doc" Smith Lensman sereis

4) What innovation did Steve Russell's SPACEWAR introduce in terms of input hardware?

The joystick

5) 

a) In the anti-war and counterculture period of the 1960s and 1970s, what new home entertainment system let consumers finally control what was being seen on the home television?

The Magnavox Odyssey

b) Who was its inventor/developer? 

Ralph H. Baer

6) PONG emerged out of the counterculture spirit of the early 1970s - its natural home was what type of entertainment setting?

Bars/Pubs

7) Who does Nolan Bushnell say were generally best at playing the game?

Women

8) "Space Invaders" emerged in the late 1970s as the first game from Japan.
How did the TAITO production team intensify the emotion of the game using the four-note in-game music theme?

They increased the tempo of the four-note tune to intensify the emotion.

9) Steve Moulder reflects that the first arcade games tended to result in the player's defeat. This he argues in turn reflected the view held by many designers during that time that war itself is defeatist.
Has this view changed since that time? Do today's latest games still convey this sense? Why? Why not? (use your own words)

Today's latest games can be beaten, so they do not convey the earlier sense of war being defeatist.

10) Have you ever played any of the games shown in this the first episode of "I, Videogame"? What was your memory of playing it? Where were you, when was it?

I've played many of the games featured in "I, Videogame" starting as a young child at the arcade. At the time I thought the games could be beaten given enough skill and time.