HA! Get it? What's the "deal"? Oh, ho ho! Anyway, I've never been able to understand what people find compelling about solitaire.
I've tried FreeCell on various occasions and felt that it would be just as enjoyable, and far more useful, to alphabetize my DVD collection. Is there any kind of solitaire, using a standard deck of cards, that's a little more like, say, exploring a haunted dungeon or conquering an empire, and a little less like sorting laundry?
ID:14920
 Jul 6 2006, 8:34 am
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Jul 6 2006, 9:22 am
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Sarm
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You could probably make a turn-based battle system when you try to match cards and build a random dungeon generator for the times when you need to flip a new card over from the discard pile.
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Actually, solitaire is a game of deceit, politics, and assassination. The premise of the game is that you must assasssinate four individuals, whom you know little about. After putting together 13 individual pieces of information on each one, you attain sufficient information to make the kill. Information is, in fact, aquired through making contact with people. In the beginning, you only have a small number of contacts availible, and certain contacts require some fairly complex greetings, counter-counter greetings, counter-counter-counter-counter greetings, etc.
Unfortunately, solitaire is the least immersive game ever made. | |
It is not compelling but rather time consuming. I normally play it when I have a few minutes free and don't have anything important to do.
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It's a card game invented like 200 years ago.
There are two player versions according to wikipedia - perhaps you could make one of these into a BYOND game? | |
Well after a state required test....and being the first in class to finish with 4 hours left in the testing room....no talking/electronic devices, solitaire becomes your best friend. Other than that, I use it as a way to pass time (only in-school).
-SnipeDragon | |
Solitaire is definitely intended as a time-spender.
There was a freeware solitaire games collection which I used to fiddle around with, but I can't find it! I'll forward a link once I can. I found those games to be considerably more entertaining. | |
What's the deal with solitaire? Why, you could ask the exact same thing about "Tetris!"
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I've never understood how people can spend hours playing it when there are other options. But sometimes there aren't. Like at work ;-)
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Gosh dang, so far not a single testimonial to unadulterated enjoyment of Solitaire (though Bdjewkes made it sound pretty nifty, until the last line). Well, now I don't feel so out of touch.
Sarm's idea might have some potential. Maybe you could even use the placement of pips on the cards (I think there's a pretty standard arrangement nowadays, though I could be wrong) to determine where cards can join together. I'll be away from the PC for a couple days... maybe I'll have a chance to ponder the Solitaire conundrum further in the meantime. | |
Haha, I've played solitaire only when I had no choice but have nothing to do but play card games by myself. I played regular solitaire and Baker's Dozen.
But no, I'd never choose it over anything the slightest bit interesting, like watching TV. | |
I play Freecell or Spider Solitaire occasionally, when bored. Certainly there are better games, but they're not bad.
The best thing about them is that you can pick them up and leave them quite easily. Other games take longer to play and one gets sucked into them. If you only need to kill a couple of minutes and not an hour or two, then solitaire is the perfect game for that. | |
Well, as the name implies, it is intended as a card game for one player... For when you really want to play cards (I.E. bored out of your mind), but you're all alone (I.E. you have no friends)...
And really, what other single-player game could be played with cards (aside from some bastardization of one of the multiplayer games)? The problem is that it's almost entirely a game of chance... Yes, you can strategize to a point, but for the most part, you've got to rely on getting a good layout and making the right (blind) choices along the way... Most Solitaire games end in a stalemate... But yeah, it's essentially a time-waster... | |
And really, what other single-player game could be played with cards? There are literally hundreds of solitaire variants. :-) Some of them are always possible to win, as well. Even if the game itself isn't, the generator might just never generate an unwinnable layout - the FreeCell that comes with Windows always generates solvable games, except for one game which the developers missed. | |
Well, I'm basically lumping all Solitaire variants into that statement... Most (if not all) revolve around the same concept (move cards to stack them in numerical order, following some rule of suit/color, like alternating, or alike together)
Of course, some of them do offer a much higher degree of strategy than "vanilla" Solitaire (FreeCell is a good example), but they mainly all fall down to the same rules of chance... As for some generators only generating solvable layouts, I have to note that I'm not talking about computer Solitaire... I mean the actual, real-deck-of-poker-cards, hand-shuffled-and-dealt-out, variety of the game... you know, the real way to play it? lol And human "generators" can often create unsolvable layouts, regardless of variant being played... In fact, having a calculated (pre-determined, in most cases) computer layout generated for you sort of removes a core aspect of card games: randomness... | |
Similar concepts, sure, but the gameplay can be quite different. And if a game is winnable but difficult (which is quite frequent) then you do need skill as well as luck.
As for some generators only generating solvable layouts, I have to note that I'm not talking about computer Solitaire... I mean the actual, real-deck-of-poker-cards, hand-shuffled-and-dealt-out, variety of the game... you know, the real way to play it? lol But who would ever want to play it like that? That would just be silly. ;-P In fact, having a calculated (pre-determined, in most cases) computer layout generated for you sort of removes a core aspect of card games: randomness... It's still just as random; it's just that some of the random choices don't come up. If you want to argue that this makes it "pre-determined", then I can argue that all card games of chance are pre-determined. :-) | |