New Rule

I can’t recall how many times I’ve seen or heard people scorn Sudoku because, as they claim, “I’m no good at math.” Similarly, I can’t recall how many times I’ve tried to convince these people that there is no math required to play Sudoku. It’s a logic puzzle. Granted, calculation of probabilities and patterns of elimination is mathematical, but this type of number crunching does not happen in the conscious mind. Logic puzzles do not “smack of math,” in a manner of speaking. No sums required.

What Sudoku represents is the incredible power of premise to alter the way players approach games. People look at a grid of numbers and they think “math.” And as most people older than fifteen are not accustomed to doing elementary math in their everyday life, they recoil. Intelligent, sophisticated thinkers I have met swear off Sudoku almost on principle. They will not even attempt to play a puzzle — I can only assume due to the conviction that they will not win, and that in the process of losing their mathematical incompetence will embarrass them, but even that is remarkable. There’s something to the idea of mathematical ability that carries a stigma of mental fitness, something unique and strangely powerful.

Consider crossword puzzles — far more popular despite their similar structure. Because people do pay attention to language and culture and use them every day, they do not fear them. No one recoils from a crossword. They may feel it is too hard, they make take a laissez-faire attitude towards participation with it, but even the most apathetic are usually still willing at least to look at it and try to solve what clues they can. They play despite their conviction that they will not win. There is something approachable about crossword puzzles — people engage with them readily and without any embarrassment if they cannot find the answer. Clearly, something is going on in the mind of these players that speaks to the fundamental difference between crosswords and Sudoku. There is a barrier to entry to Sudoku that has nothing to do with the puzzle. It’s in the premise.

To prove my point there is non-numerical Sudoku. Take Character Sudoku on the network website for USA (the cable channel): you place colored tiles with bobble-head portraits of the stars of their various shows into a Sudoku puzzle. Would an otherwise reticent Sudoku player find this more approachable? Undoubtedly. No numbers means no fear of math, however unfounded that fear is. Freed from the premise and all the assumptions and mindsets that accompany it, Sudoku is completely transformed while remaining exactly the same. I intend to undertake an experiment: whenever someone complains that they hate Sudoku because they hate math, I’m going to get them to try Character Sudoku and see how they react.

Tags: Game Criticism //