by steveg700
grant5 wrote:
So let's discuss. Do you disagree with the definitions and examples that I laid out?
Well, I'm not clear on the distinctions that made Acres qualify as "broken" rather than "solved". Do we have a basis upon which to say that the game isn't working as its design intended? If not, then it could be argued that the game is "solved". We can't say that Acres is broken to the point of being outright unplayable, since people play the game simply by not going down that route.
Overall, I don't know how useful it is to try to offer firm definitions for terms that seem to be applied in different contexts by different people. I used Puerto Rico as an example exactly because I've heard the word "solved" applied to it multiple times. I can't tell them they're using the word incorrectly with any real authority. Even dictionaries don't really work that way; while it annoys me to hear people use the word "literally" to denote emphasis (e.g. "I literally hate Dr. Pepper" or "we've literally broken the English language"), if it continues to gain traction, it will eventually be incorporated into its denotation.
