
Twitch plays Go - wj
http://www.usgo.org/news/2018/04/twitch-plays-go-this-saturday/
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jballanc
For those new to the game of Go, one aspect of the game that makes it so much
fun for me is the way that a good commentator or author can tell an entire
story around the game (and Will Lockhart is one of the better commentators).
Attacks, counterattacks, being bold vs being cautious, going for territory or
strengthening defenses...a good game commentary can be more enthralling than
many novels.

This also means that an individual's personalty shows through in a game of Go
more than it would for, say, Chess. I know I'll never be a top-tier player,
but I also know that by improving my Go game I can improve my performance in
other aspects of my life. I am often impetuous and overly-optimistic. In Go,
this means that I tend to attack when I should defend, and when I do defend I
tend to do so imperfectly. In life, it means that I often start more projects
than I can finish. So, in a way, Go is my own personal meditation strategy.

Finally, for those who want to get into the game but may not have time to play
a full game in one sitting, I highly recommend Dragon Go Server
([http://www.dragongoserver.net/](http://www.dragongoserver.net/)). Games are
played out in "correspondence" style. This means that a game may take a long
time to play, but it also means that the play tends to be very strong. I'm
personally only 14kyu on DGS, whereas I was 11kyu on KGS 3 or so years ago
(back when I had time for it).

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fjsolwmv
What gave you the misapprehension that chess doesn't have bold and cautious
attacks and defenses, and dramatic games? It certainly does.

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jballanc
Oh, I realize that personality plays some roll in chess, but I think the
degree to which is shines through in Go is on a whole other level. There is
only so much you can do in chess that is still considered sound play. For
example, you keep your queen back if you're a cautious player or bring it out
early if you're not, but doing something like sacrificing your queen early in
the game to take a pawn would just be regarded as stupid.

There are many fewer truly "stupid" plays in Go, especially early in the game.
In fact, if you look at a lot of the commentary around the games that Alpha Go
played, one thing said time and again was how Alpha Go made moves that seemed
"amateurish" only to follow up later with connecting moves that seemed almost
prescient.

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indescions_2018
Promotion for "The Surrounding Game", which looks like a gorgeous documentary.
As Lee Sedol claims in the trailer: "It's the most difficult game ever devised
by humans"

Watching highlights of Fortnite 100-player battle royale matches where Ninja
is racking up multiple kills per second really makes you wonder if a bot with
visual recognition, building strategy skills is achievable in this generation.
It's a _lot_ of information. Resulting in a massive decision tree. Bot AI used
to be pretty decent back in the UT days. I wonder if Epic is thinking about
employing them now to pad the games and increase engagement?

Does EPIC add bots to fill in the 100 for BR?

[https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/forums/battle-
royale/roya...](https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/forums/battle-
royale/royale-with-cheese/149568-does-epic-add-bots-to-fill-in-the-100-for-br)

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mathgeek
> really makes you wonder if a bot with visual recognition, building strategy
> skills is achievable in this generation. It's a lot of information.
> Resulting in a massive decision tree.

It really depends on how the bot accesses the game, especially the controls. A
bot with direct access to the motion of their character will have 100%
accuracy and precision. One that has to use physical controls is far less
likely to outpace humans so easily.

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mark_l_watson
I didn’t know about the Twitch game platform, but I have been playing Go for
over 50 years - glad to see potentially many new people getting introduced to
the game!!

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dudech
I learned it as a kid and played until my professor died.

I don't play either much but prefer it to chess.

I'd say the sudden traction comes from the tv show Counterpart: the opening
credits feature a board of Go.

 __* spoiler alert __*

If the show is definitely worth watching, it doesn't show much of the game
itself. I would say this is a good way to tease gamers into (re)discovering
it.

As to why it is featured, the game philosophy is about the uncertainty of a
win, capturing your adversary is never a definite thing.

I think the show actually needed to introduce Go to explain it's depth.

 __ __

Hoping you will enjoy both :)

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jammaloo
There has been a big resurgence in Go interest after AlphaGo beat the world
champion last year. That made a lot of headlines, and brought in a lot of
interest.

The AlphaGo documentary on Netflix is worth watching, if you have an interest
in Go, or AI.

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fjsolwmv
And that's ironic because AlphaGo's achievement was proving/making Go too easy
for a computer / hard for a human to play well enough to be worth investing
resources in making a human good.

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kahnpro
Can we get Twitch Vs AlphaGo? I would pay to watch that.

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chii
twitch vs twitch would be more insteresting

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OscarCunningham
Is this going to have the crowd voting on moves, like Twitch Plays Pokemon? If
so I think the game might go on for a long time (or a very short time if
people spam "pass"). If Go doesn't end by mutual consent then it tends to go
on for a very long time before the board fills up and it becomes literally
impossible to play.

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Buttons840
You could run the board position through a Go engine and only pass once the
engine decided it was time to pass.

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OscarCunningham
Yeah, I think that would work well.

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baby
That's great, please post a link here when it starts :)

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gizmo686
Its on the main channel:
[https://www.twitch.tv/twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/twitch)

