Is It Cheating?

• Many, many, years ago, a programmer came to the company I worked for at the time to see if they would publish his poker game. One of the features of his poker game, he said, was that it had "intuition".
  
  "How does that work?" we wanted to know.
  
  "Every now and then, the computer peeks at the player's cards and uses that knowledge when deciding how to play," he said.
  
  We didn't publish his game. What would you do? Is it cheating, or a way for a computer to compensate for its inability to know human behavior?



• Another company that publishes games has a trial period, as many do. Their games are free during the trial period. As an incentive to get you to buy the game, they make sure their games are more interesting or easier to win during the trial period. Like beginners rules for board games. Cheating, or good marketing?



• Here's another question: Many women wear makeup to improve their appearance. Especially on dates. Is that cheating... or good marketing?

Blog Tag: Chatter