Category Archives: Random Game

2048: Doctor Who Edition

Some days ago a link was spread across social networks that advertised a game called „2048: Doctor Who Edition“ published on usvsth3m.com. The link was usually accompanied by a taunt „I reached the X*th Doctor! Can you beat me?“ (*X being the number of a Doctor).
I believe I do not need to repeat myself about what Doctor Who is, let me just tell you this: My natural curiosity of course got the better of me and I tried it myself.

What is the games‘ goal and how is it played?

The game gives you a four times four grid and two starting tiles with usually the lowest possible pattern.
The goal of this game – and its original versions, to which you can find links below the Doctor Who Edition – is to combine the tiles with similar patterns using your arrow keys to get up to the highest possible pattern.
In the DW case you combine the tiles with the pictures of each Doctor to reach the Eleventh, while in the normal 2048 you combine numbers to reach the eponymous number (don’t worry you follow the binary numbers starting with 2 and don’t go up from 1 to 2048).
But only the direct predecessor allows you to create a higher tile (Two First Doctors create a Second Doctor tile, two Second Doctors create a Third Doctor and so forth).

Are there any strategies involved?

As it is a kind of logic game there are of course many possible strategies.
I tried several things myself, like randomly moving the tiles around to make them fit, keeping everything on the left side or keeping everything on the right side.
But the one I used after repeatedly playing it for a couple of times was to try to keep the bottom line(s) more or less static and only work with shifting the tiles from left to right, after I established a line. Every time it could not be avoided to make  an up and down movement or a space was empty I would try to regain the static line again.
In these lines I would secure the higher Doctors and have the lines above them to create similar ones to upgrade the ones in the static line, while also filling spaces with lower tiles.

What was my own progress?

When I first saw the link to the game the poster claimed that he had only managed to get to the Eighth Doctor, so I took it upon myself to reach the Ninth. Surprisingly as I played without a proper strategy I did indeed manage to get up to Ten in the first try. (Using the strategy mentioned above my first try on 2048 got me to 1024)
Though as soon as I started thinking about the movement of the tiles as soon did I not manage to reclaim that small victory. After some more playing getting to the first Nine became more and more easy (I had the Seventh or even Eighth in a couple of moves) , up to the point where the second one would follow suit and create the first Ten.
Getting the second ten however was not an easy feat and it took me several more tries and probably a lot of luck to get it when the tiles even lay so perfectly that I could not just make the second Ten, but also combine them one final time:

Prove that a beat the game! =)

Prove that I beat the game! =)


Unfortunately you can’t continue to play after you made the final combination. I would have liked to try how far I would have managed to go with that game.

What did I learn from playing this game?

For one: This game is highly addictive. If you don’t reach your goal, you will try it time and time again until you’ve done it.
For another: Without creating some kind of strategy for yourself you will be hopelessly lost quite soon as the tiles pop up randomly and don’t give you that much of a chance to arrange them properly. (Mine is only an example, use whatever you think suits you best!)
At long last: I like that I managed to put up that strategy for myself. Moments like these give me hope that I am not too bad/stupid for my chosen profession as I still manage to make logical conclusions – just as I did with the buses on Thursday.

What are my other thoughts on the game?

I really liked how the pictures used for the Doctors were black and white until the Fifth and then turned into colour starting with the Sixth and his ridiculous coat. It kind of reminds you that the show has had it’s 50th anniversary last year. Though it was a bit unfortunate that they only took random out-of-character pictures for Eight, Ten and Eleven.
At some point you will even stop thinking about them as characters or people and more as numbers that you need to combine, at least that’s how it was for me.
It’s a fun and also strangely relaxing game, where you don’t really have to think that much after you’ve established your strategy.

If this gave you inspiration to try the game yourself or you have already tried it:

How well did you cope with the game? (Which Doctor did you reach?)
What was your strategy?
I’m curious about your replies. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the game and the pictures used within it belong to their respective owners.

Dwarves

I don’t know why, but in general I don’t like dwarves or at least I don’t care about them.
Even though they are one of the classic fantasy creatures (alongside Elves, Fairies, Trolls, etc.) I never really payed attention to them …
All those novels about them, be they by the German novelist Markus Heitz or someone else, just didn’t sound interesting to me.
Only if they were part of a story it was ok for them to be there. They make good side characters and antagonists.
But before I want to give you some examples of dwarves I (dis)liked, I’d like to explain a fact I find rather interesting:
Grammatically there are two plurals of the word dwarf: dwarfs and dwarves. And even though I had dwarfs in mind when I started with this post, it seems I have to go with dwarves, according to this:

„Dwarfs is the standard plural of the noun dwarf. Dwarves is a newer variant popularized (though not invented) by English author J.R.R. Tolkien in his fantasy fiction works, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The Tolkien spelling is appropriate when referring to little people in fantasy worlds. Dwarfs is better everywhere else.„

I think that is pretty cool. I consider origins of sayings or words to be quite interesting anyway. And having a plural for a fantasy version of something is, well, pretty cool. 🙂
But now onwards to some of the different dwarves that crossed my path so far.

The first dwarves every kid notices are probably the seven dwarves from Snow White. So did I. Probably. My favourite dwarf however in Disney’s Snow White was the grumpy one, but even as little kid I felt somewhat betrayed when he turned into one of her willing „slaves“ towards the end. Still I kind of vividly remember the scene where the dwarves chase the queen over the edge of the cliff. Pretty cool scene. Though, I kind of felt bad for the queen .. .and annoyed by Snow White … so not one of my favourite versions of it. But Once Upon a Time‘s Grumpy kind of makes up for his cartoon versions lack of personality(?). His rough attitude and his comments are just hilarious and fun. And I really liked the story of how his name changed. Yet, it is a creepy thought thinking about dwarves hatching from eggs … I’m not sure whether I’ve read/heard something akin to that before. I just don’t want to think about it …

Another Snow White adaptation with focus on the dwarves is from the German comedian/actor Otto Waalkes: 7 Zwerge – Männer allein im Wald (7 Dwarves – Men Alone in the Wood), where nearly every dwarf is portrayed by a German comedian (including Otto).
It is a pretty funny movie that gives a different view on the whole story. And of course the re-occurring joke – as none of the actors is that small – that it is a prejudice that dwarves are small.  🙂
Well, there are far to many versions of this fairytale to explore them all and I don’t really want to dwell on Snow White any longer (or even get into the latest versions with Snow White and the Huntsman or Mirror Mirror as I’ve seen neither of them so far.)

As you read in the quote earlier the word „dwarves“ was popularized by Tolkien and he has quite a bunch of dwarves in his stories – so I heard. I belong to those people that never read Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit. Though I watched the LOTR movies. Well, and didn’t understand them, but that is a different topic. Maybe one day I will read the novels …

Even older than both Snow White and LOTR are myths surrounding dwarves. They were mostly depicted as miners or other craftspeople, so they are more common in areas where those industries where widely spread. Unfortunately (or luckily?) I do not live in such areas, so I can’t tell you any local myths.

But I can however tell you about the dwarves in Norse myths. 🙂 The dwarves that have utterly complicated names, which I can’t remember. But I know that they forged things like Odins ring, an automatic boar, Thor’s hammer Mjölnir and one of them sewed Lokis lips when he had told one too many lies or rather mocked them one too many times. One does not mock a dwarf. 😀
Just as one does not make fun of a certain warlock, but this is about dwarves, so my focus will not be on Richard form the webcomic Looking for Group. The comic has its fair share of dwarves, with the bardic smith Pella being the most famous one. A kick-ass woman that knows how to swing her hammer for forging and her axes in battle. She has however a relationship of understanding for the warlock, but no I am not diverting to give him attention. He already gets that more than enough in the comics. 😀

Speaking of attention: I’d like to draw your attention to some other dwarves.
The dwarves I used in my own stories.
For once there is Bogie the tall dwarf from my „Weltenbaum“ (Worldtree) short stories. He is among the youngsters from the Underworld who find their way unto the Surface, into the world of humans. These stories are written in German, so it might not be understandable for some. Not sure if I’ll translate them one day, but after reading them again I might at least add some more to them or edit them a bit.

Nevertheless, I’d also like to introduce you to the newest addition to my blog: „The Quest for Ore“ – whose title is obviously not inspired by Van Canto’s „Quest for Roar„.
An English short story inspired by my first experiences with Minecraft – the more or less addictive game, where you have to build your own world through crafting blocks into whatever is possible.
As the guys I’m playing with are planing to create a dwarven city I started thinking about stories about dwarves. And the one above is the first product of that.

There probably will be more – one other is already half done even – stories within this world I created for it. I’m kind of curious what I will come up with next.
But what I write in this case might be inspired by running around in Minecraft, but it is not a tale from what I actually experienced. And I think you can’t call it a FanFiction either.
(Spoiler: E.g. did we run through the „mines“, but we did not encounter any spiders.)

And yes I know: You don’t really read that the characters are supposed to be dwarves. They could just as well be humans.

But I think they are (still nameless) dwarves that will get some screentime again

And I have to say: It was fun writing a normal fictional story again, instead of adding something to an existing world.

PoiSonPaiNter