Dude the Great vs the pet – 03

This is the 3rd installment. It starts here. If you're not familiar with Dude the Great, start here. The last installment started here. It ended here.

14 Comments

I call that the game went like this, if you look from the perspective of the previous page:
O at (1,1) (upper left)
X at (1,2) (upper middle)
O at (3,1) (lower left)
X at (2,1) (middle left)
O at (1,3) (upper right)
X at (2,2) (middle)
O at (2,3) (middle right)
X at (3,2) (lower middle)

I tried to figure out steps that would make as much sense as possible by going backwards. So essentially O was being overly aggressive and tripped over himself. Incidentally, if someone starts in a corner and then the response is not the middle, then the starting player always has a sure-fire way to win.

@Aneeka: Did I get it right? 🙂

Actually, if someone starts in a corner and the response is the middle, THEN the starting player is much more likely to win. The starting player would respond to the middle by going to the opposite corner, thereby forcing either a draw (second player goes to a side forcing the first player to react) or a win (second player goes to another corner, forcing a reaction that creates two win conditions) Although it’s counter-intuitive, the middle is usually a suboptimal play for a first or second move.

I disagree, because if I start in a corner and the opponent doesn’t play the middle, then I have a 100% chance to win, because I know all the combos. If the response is in the middle, I can’t be more likely to win than 100%. All I can do is do what you just wrote and that’s less than 100%.

That’s correct, but I think you’re overthinking this.

Dude is playing against himself here, and apparently not with a perfect command of the basic rules, let alone perfect strategy.

Congrats, thou are both right! Have a cookie 😀
Gotta love zero sum games!

game has already got cannonical solution, just google the answer

Am I the only one wondering why the game started on O?
Also, if your play is right, O would have won by taking the middle in the 3rd turn.

If O is going first, then:

o|_|_: o|_|_: o|x|_:
_|x|_: x|x|_: x|x|o:
_|_|_: o|_|_: o|_|_:

at which point O screws up completely with:
o|x|o:
x|x|o:
o|_|_:

Bringing us to the beginning of this comic.

I mean, let’s face it, nothing about this game of tic-tac-toe is supposed to make sense in the first place. However, if O had played logically, then going for that corner would have been it’s next logical move (and the final move of the game). So it’s an error that makes some kind of sense.

How about a solution where O doesn’t screw up as much? (see above, but here’s the graphical variant):
o|x|_: o|x|_: o|x|o:
_|_|_: x|_|_: x|x|_:
_|_|_: o|_|_: o|_|_:

Except there is no actual way to lose at Tic Tac Toe without screwing up completely.

You avoid O “screwing up” completely in one move by not ever making any moves that make even a shred of sense.

o|x|_: is followed by:
_|_|_:
_|_|_:

o|x|_: o|x|_:
x|_|_: x|o|_:
o|_|_: o|_|_: for a 100% certainty of winning.

It may make more sense for O to be making nonsense moves all along, but on that assumption any possible sequence is just as likely as any other.

Maybe D is the other player and he tells Dude where to put his X’es.

Like any good magician, Dude the Great keeps a dragon under his hat! That or the dragon keeps a dude under it’s hat…

I want to say that the cape should be visible between Dude the Great’s legs(Like, he is wearing pants or something? I don’t see a dress or anything that would obscure the cape…), but that would look messy? Or is it a cloak?

He’s at home, washing his tights!

Dude the Great was nervous about how uncomfortable this quest might be, and thus is attempting to prevent its ability to DragOn for too long…

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

Dude the Great vs the pet – 03