Why does Minesweeper always come down to a 50/50 guess at the end?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the game Minesweeper, particularly focusing on the mechanics of gameplay and the frustrations players experience, especially regarding the frequent necessity of making 50/50 guesses towards the end of a game. Participants share their experiences, strategies, and opinions on the game's design and difficulty levels.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express enjoyment of the GNOME version of Minesweeper and share their personal best times, noting the competitive nature of the game.
  • Several players mention the difficulty of other games within the GNOME suite, such as "four in a row," and share their struggles against the AI.
  • Participants discuss strategies for improving gameplay, including the use of mouse buttons to speed up actions, such as marking mines and revealing squares.
  • There is a consensus among some participants that the game has a flaw, as it often leads to situations where players must make a 50/50 guess, particularly in the final stages of the game.
  • Some players express frustration with the randomness of the guessing mechanic, feeling that it undermines their skill and effort in the game.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the frustration of encountering 50/50 guesses in Minesweeper, but there is no consensus on whether this is a significant flaw in the game design or simply a part of the challenge. Different players have varying experiences and strategies, leading to a mix of opinions on the game's mechanics.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention specific gameplay mechanics and strategies, but there are no detailed mathematical analyses or formal definitions provided. The discussion remains informal and based on personal experiences.

Who May Find This Useful

Players interested in Minesweeper, particularly those looking to improve their skills or understand the game's mechanics better, may find this discussion relevant.

mattmns
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I just went on a long streak in minesweeper... About 2 hrs of my life spent wisely. Note: I play gnome mines, so I have a 1 second advantage, just add a second to my times to get the windows xp minesweeper time. Got a 27, minesweeper 28 :cool:

minesweeper
 
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i love GNOME. SO much better than KDE.

That said, congrats!

Try beating the four in a row game in GNOME. The AI is a little too good, I've beaten once out of about a hundred games. Dang hard.

What size setting was that, i can't quite tell. I just got a 26 on small.
 
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franznietzsche said:
i love GNOME. SO much better than KDE.

That said, congrats!

Try beating the four in a row game in GNOME. The AI is a little too good, I've beaten once out of about a hundred games. Dang hard.

What size setting was that, i can't quite tell. I just got a 26 on small.
OMG I know, I hate that 4 in a row game. On easy it is almost impossible to beat, and I have not even tried any of the other levels. I beat it once after at least one hundred tries, same as you it seems. Even when I hit hint non stop the other person wins, if it is not a tie. That ai is rigged like hell lol.

Ohh and that was intermediate (40 mines).

edit.. yeah I too like gnome over kde. However, as you can tell, my desktop is not custom at all, it is all stock :cry: , I just reinstalled a few days ago.
 
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mattmns said:
OMG I know, I hate that 4 in a row game. On easy it is almost impossible to beat, and I have not even tried any of the other levels. I beat it once after at least one hundred tries, same as you it seems. Even when I hit hint non stop the other person wins, if it is not a tie. That ai is rigged like hell lol.

Ohh and that was intermediate (40 mines).

edit.. yeah I too like gnome over kde. However, as you can tell, my desktop is not custom at all, it is all stock :cry: , I just reinstalled a few days ago.


I didn't do much customization, mainly because i planned on switching to slackware first anyway, only to find that the 2.4 kernel that slack 10.0 uses will never recognize my hard drive no matter what i do (sata). The normal fixes for sata drives don't work with mine. So I'm stuck on fedora for now. Not that that's such a bad thing, but still.
 
I have no idea how in the hell to play mine sweeper but my roomate is a master at it. he can put it on the highest level, which is i think 99 mines, and can beat it in like 80 seconds i think. on the small one, with 10 mines, he can beat in like 4 seconds.
 
gravenewworld said:
I have no idea how in the hell to play mine sweeper but my roomate is a master at it. he can put it on the highest level, which is i think 99 mines, and can beat it in like 80 seconds i think. on the small one, with 10 mines, he can beat in like 4 seconds.


Thats crazy. I don't think i can move my mouse around that fast.
 
gravenewworld said:
I have no idea how in the hell to play mine sweeper but my roomate is a master at it. he can put it on the highest level, which is i think 99 mines, and can beat it in like 80 seconds i think. on the small one, with 10 mines, he can beat in like 4 seconds.
Those are some really good times, I am terrible at expert (99) my scores usually are about 120-130
 
mattmns said:
Those are some really good times, I am terrible at expert (99) my scores usually are about 120-130

st least you beat expert. I was looking at about 2:30 for intermediate, then i died.
 
Hmm, you know that if you mark(flag) a mine, and you have a #1 that is next to it you can push the middle mouse button (on that #1) and it will take care of all the spaces that the #1 touches. The same principle works with #2s, #3s, #4s, etc. You just need to make sure you have all of the mines marked; for example, if you want to middle mouse click a #2, you need to have the right two mines flagged. You do know about the right click to mark a flag right? Read the little help->contents thing, it has some good beginner tips in it. You should be able to beat intermediate (40 mines) in under 1:30 after a little bit of practice.
 
  • #10
mattmns said:
Hmm, you know that if you mark(flag) a mine, and you have a #1 that is next to it you can push the middle mouse button (on that #1) and it will take care of all the spaces that the #1 touches. The same principle works with #2s, #3s, #4s, etc. You just need to make sure you have all of the mines marked; for example, if you want to middle mouse click a #2, you need to have the right two mines flagged. You do know about the right click to mark a flag right? Read the little help->contents thing, it has some good beginner tips in it. You should be able to beat intermediate (40 mines) in under 1:30 after a little bit of practice.


yeah marking is no problem, i just didn't know there was a way to fast click all the squares around a number. that would easily cut my time in half
 
  • #11
One way that my roomate is so fast at it is that he presses the right and left mouse buttons at the same time. Doing so causes a mine to be flagged and all the boxes around the mine to be opened. I don't know if anyone knew this already...
 
  • #12
Yeah if you press the right click and left click at the same time it does the same action as the middle mouse button would do. However, that is a good tip, because I usually use the middle mouse button, so this could save me some time, brb going to go for a new record.

Thanks, that is a good tip.
 
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  • #13
The game has a major flaw though... no matter how good you are,, you usually end up in a situation where you have to take a 50/50 guess at it. It's usually the last blocks left where you have a square of four undetermined "blocks" and with two possibilities and no way to determine it by the numbers. I think it sucks that after all that clicking it still comes down to a 1:2 chance of winning.
 
  • #14
MathStudent said:
The game has a major flaw though... no matter how good you are,, you usually end up in a situation where you have to take a 50/50 guess at it. It's usually the last blocks left where you have a square of four undetermined "blocks" and with two possibilities and no way to determine it by the numbers. I think it sucks that after all that clicking it still comes down to a 1:2 chance of winning.
lol I hate that too, that is why I usually play intermediate because there are not many guesses. It really sucks when you have not yet beat expert and you keep losing on some 50/50 guess at the end.
 

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