All Comments on 'A Game for Learning about Yourself Ch. 04'

It hit me as I started reading this chapter. Your writing emphasizes the different desires and different rationales of quite a number of characters. Thank you for that.

First, excellent story - Thank you! Please keep writing. I've been eagerly waiting to read about game 2, as the games themselves are the most interesting part for me.

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During this game, Stephanie opts to use the following strategy; do nothing. Never take a new number. Trust in cosmic forces.

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Stephanie then wonders what will happen to her chances of getting a strike this way. Here's the answer: about 32%

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There are 112 possible combinations (14 numbers for the player, 8 for the house. 8x14=112) where 36 of them result in a strike. 36 out of 112 equals approximately 32.14% Therefore a player following a "do nothing" strategy at Level 2, like Steffi did, has about a one-in-three chance of getting a strike each turn.

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For the record though, this 'do nothing' strategy was a bit of a letdown - I do like it more when Steffi deliberately takes risks during the game, because it's fun to read her internal rationalization - the excuses she makes to herself - for why to play poorly on some turns. Psychological self-deception. Plus the thrill of the risk can be almost like taking a hit of sex drugs for her, teasing herself to higher levels of arousal, which is hot as hell to read. Oh well. Maybe she'll switch back to a random-risks strategy for her next game.

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Some notes on the game itself; Final scores:

Madison - 24

Naomi - 23

Stephanie, Maggie, and Janet - 22

Priya - 20

Ami - 19

Ashley, Precious, and Luna - unknown, but presumably in the high-teens.

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This spread of scores fits within the expected distribution for a group of players following various hybrid or inconsistent strategies under level 2 rules. Everybody (or nearly everybody) ends up naked. Which is exactly what the Club wants.

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If Janet truly tried to play optimal safe (rather than somehow flawed), then she did get somewhat unlucky - but not in any sort of unrealistic way. As Walzer points out, sometimes people just get dealt shit.

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Evidence hints that several players were taking risks or not always trying to play safe. Yet none of the players, to include the winner Madison, were speedrunning (or always taking max risks). Walzer confirms this during post-game analysis.

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Under these conditions it's reasonable to expect a game at level-2 rules to last somewhere between 50-70 turns, or about an hour or two of gametime. The story appears to accurately reflect this (There were 3 breaks, supposedly spaced about 45 minutes apart, but the 1st break came only a few minutes after the game started, and the last break happened right before the final few turns. If each turn takes between a minute or two, to allow time for sexy stripping, then everything adds up correctly.) Well done! I like the internal consistency of this story. None of the details contradict each other, and everything fits with what's predicted by math and statistics. Nice!

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Thank you again for writing this amazing story. I'm looking forward to further chapters!

Is the subtitle/chapter-name a typo?? It mentions level four, not two.

Several times during this story, it's pointed out that the Club does not cheat - the little number-generating devices are truly random, and not rigged. This is likely true, at least most of the time, for several reasons:

1) Gambling is prohibited in Nevada unless licensed, and the Gaming Control Board could insist on an audit of the electronic devices. If the Nevada Gaming Commission ever got wind of cheating, it could revoke their gambling license, regulate or fine the Club lots of money.

2) The Club isn't hiding. So the FBI or any other legal branch could easily send undercover agents, either as Club members or even as contestants. If an investigation turned up anything nefarious, criminal charges or other legal trouble would ensue. The Club clearly wants to avoid that.

3) The players might catch on. Cheating the numbers for one turn can easily be missed, or passed off as luck of the draw. But consistently rigging the numbers, over the course of a 100-turn game, may become noticeable to one or more observant players. This breaks the player's trust, and so isn't worth it to the Club in the long run.

4) Cheating spoils the fun. By taking randomness out of the devices, it ruins the enjoyment of gambling. Many Club members are self-proclaimed habitual gamblers. So they're not going to juke the number gizmos and ruin their chance to bet with each other. At least and especially for low-level games.

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But at Level 4, it's possible the Club actually does cheat, perhaps just near the endgame or final few turns, so they can pick a specific woman to become center, and/or block certain types from winning at level 4. Why?

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Many contestants have husbands or social connections in their communities. Friends, parents, other family, clients, loved ones, perhaps even children. Should it be true that a Level-4 center is to be enslaved for a year or more (a decade?!) to disappear into that role. However, a socially-connected woman cannot be unplugged from her life for that long without being noticed and missed. If the wrong sort of woman strikes out a Level 4 game, that would cause all kinds of unwanted attention, questions, and problems for the Club. Surely they don't want that trouble.

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The ideal candidate to get 'picked' as winner at level 4 has no such connections. Nobody to notice them go missing. Which begs the following observation: Stephanie never visits, calls, talks about, or even thinks about, her parents. Did something happen to them that they're not alive or involved in her life anymore? She seems an only child too, no siblings. Apparently no aunts, uncles or cousins either. Bad luck for her. The Club knows her real name and can easily pay for a private eye or background check to learn that she has no family.

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Stephanie also appears to not have any real, meaningful friends. No friends at all, outside the game. A Roberta was briefly mentioned in the first chapter, but who hasn't been seen since - and to whom Steph did not trust enough to truly confide any of her secrets.

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Steffi lives alone, unattached, no boyfriend or roommate. The only guys she spends time with are booty calls, no real relationship. She doesn't even have a pet! Absolutely nobody would miss her if she vanished.

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One of her bosses at the bank, the CFO Roger Johnson, even seems to be a Club member and could cover up things at her workplace, to make it look like she quit or something. Probably few coworkers would notice anyway, or ask many questions, since it seems there's nobody close to her.

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In other words, Stephanie is the ideal sort of player who the Club wants for center at level 4, to become a lifetime slave. If the Club ever does cheat with the number devices, it seems highly likely they'd set it up for Stephanie to lose at Level 4. She might not suspect or realize it's rigged until too late. The last game she ever plays.

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To summarize: If Stephanie goes to Mexico, that may be the last time anybody from her old life ever sees of her.

The story info read "Naomi and Stephanie play at Level Four". I think its probably supposed to say "two" instead of "four".

a short recap of the bios would help to remember the persons behind the names. Not reading the complete story from chapter 1 onwards leads to forgetting the finer details. Manchmal ist ein Hauptpersonenkasten praktisch, especially in serialized stories. And you tend to work with rather great family structures.