How you play a game in the privacy of your own home, or the anonymity behind the monitor can say a lot about who you are and what you are like. Sometimes examples of gaming strategies reveal a utilitarian genius which is fascinating to me for two reasons: The ability to “win” the game in terms of an undesigned hack. And the reflection of the gamers psychology that the gaming strategy may be. Below are my favourite examples of strategy hacks in simulation games.

Inception life

Conway’s Game of Life has always amazed me, and it should amaze you too! It is a game to show that complexity, and complex patterns can be created by very simple rules. It describes nature at its most basic. The rules are:

  1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by underpopulation.
  2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
  3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation.
  4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.

The game then plays itself based on the initial pattern. Since it’s creation in 1970, many people have managed to define animations and specific patterns that can end up being quite amazing! Here is a game of Conways game of life emulated in conways game of life.

Just a walk in the park

Inside the most evil rollercoaster tycoon park ever created.

Magnasanti

The largest and most terrifying SimCity

The painting goblin

The first thing I do once I have enough money is build a small room in the basement, send him down there, and then remove the stairs. I set him up in a tiny little area with only an easel, a toilet, a refrigerator, a bed, a shower, and a trash bin. All he does all day is paint. That's it. He paints and paints and paints. Eventually his paintings become very good and worth a lot of money. Every few minutes I go downstairs and sell whatever painting he has finished, and then I return to playing the game.

My family always ends up feeling blessed because of their fortune, and they never find out about the horrible secret living beneath their home"