Week 12: A change is finished when it can be checked

The semester ends with one change to one constant, and everything you have learned to say about why it is the right one.

25 May 2027

Is it me or is it the game? Your answer is the constant's new value beside its old one, measured on the same 51 fixed seeds, so anyone can run it again and show you are wrong.

Open the slides

You have spent eleven weeks learning to distrust a number. This week you commit to one.

The claim#

A balance change is finished when someone else can check it. “It feels better now” is where this course started, and it is not allowed at the end.

What a defence contains#

One constant in the specimen, its old value and its new one. Then, in this order, each taking a minute or less:

1. The prediction you made before measuring, with its number and unit.
2. The instrument: which simulated players, what reaction times, and that it was 51 runs on fixed seeds, the same ones before and after.
3. The result, as a distribution and not a single figure: wins out of 51 and median survival, before and after.
4. What you took away: a restricted-play comparison showing the change did not quietly kill an option.
5. Who tried to break it: the lazy strategies from week eight, run again against the new value.
6. Where the instrument could be lying: the ceiling, floor or cap nearest to your metric, and why you are clear of it.
7. What you felt when you played the changed game, and whether it agrees.

If any of the seven is missing, that is the first question you will be asked.

What you leave with#

The number.