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Pac-Man was designed as a game for humans, with a priori knowledge of what kinds of things humans find rewarding. Thus the goal is obvious because it was designed to be similar to other human goals. Eat the food, don't get eaten. For this reason, it's not at all special that humans can determine the goal of the game.

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Yeah. Try sticking a more abstract game like Go in front of a random person and see how that works out. Without being taught the rules, a human will have absolutely no idea how to proceed. This would put a human in pretty much the same boat as a computer.

A friend of mine had a meta-game he'd play with his step father. His step father would buy a new game, but not tell him the rules. They'd play this game until he figured it out and consistently trounced his step dad. Then his step dad would buy a new game.

Wow, that's a great idea. Sounds like loads of fun.

Secure the largest amount of territory and capture enemy groups? Seems pretty human :p

Not to Edward Lasker: "The rules of go are so elegant, organic and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe they almost certainly play go."

You got all that from looking at a 19x19 grid?

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