Hacker News Reader

Comment by Navarr | Hacker News Reader

I think no. Video games traditionally give tips - these are designed to help out players who aren't sure what to do. They are not designed to be the best possible move.

If the game autoplayed the best possible moves, what would be the point of learning poker? Where would skill come into the mix?

This lawsuit seems frivolous to me. I would never expect a game to give me the most optimal hint - only a hint for how to get closer to winning.

View on HN

The way to give helpful tips, as opposed to best possible moves, is to be more vague, not to recommend a specific less-than-optimal move. Imprecise help like "hold onto your high cards" or "don't gamble on drawing one particular rank" could work, but if the Auto-Hold feature is advertised as a faster way to hold onto an optimal set of cards, then that's what it should be.

Video games <> gambling machines.

The guy's in software but then he acts dumbstruck that the machine wouldn't tell him the optimal move? Wouldn't you be happy if there was at least some player skill involved which would contribute over time help you lose less.

That's not usually the social contract in gambling. The house usually goes out of its way to make sure you know the technically correct play (i.e. the one that 9 out of 10 experienced players would make). These are meant to be games of chance, not games of skill. At least at the level that you would never draw to an inside straight, if given the option not to -- that's just dumb. As others have mentioned, there are times you might turn in a winning hand in hopes of drawing a royal flush, since so much of the return is in the jackpot -- that's less clear-cut, and I wouldn't expect a video poker machine to make the jackpot-seeking recommendation, since it's not how you would play in a 5-card draw table game.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com