Finding Meaning in Abstract Games: A Deep Reading of Sage Solitaire

The document proposes a methodology for interpreting the meaning of abstract games, which are characterized by minimal thematic assets, through their rules and dynamics. The core thesis is that meaning in such games emerges from player experience shaped by procedural rhetoric, rather than explicit narrative or visual elements. The methodology involves four stages: implementing the game's rules in code, implementing a simulated player that embodies a theory of human play, running simulations of the game, and finally, analyzing the insights gained to derive themes and meanings. This approach aims to provide a humanistic understanding of games by making explicit the implicit decision-making processes and strategic dilemmas players face.

The methodology was applied to a deep reading of Sage Solitaire, a single-player digital card game for iOS. The analysis focused on the "Single Deck" version. The simulated player model for Sage Solitaire aimed to maximize score by prioritizing high-scoring hands and those with a bonus suit, while also considering factors like pile depletion, the impact on future high-scoring partial hands, and the strategic use of the "trash" ability. The implementation of the player model highlighted the game's reliance on conditional decision-making and combinatorics, as players constantly evaluate numerous hand combinations and their potential future implications.

Simulations of the implemented player playing Sage Solitaire thousands of times yielded an average score of 517, with a high score of 890. The strategy cleared all cards in 5% of games, and the "trash" strategy was chosen 46% of the time, succeeding in only 19% of those instances. These findings suggest that Sage Solitaire is fundamentally about conditional decision-making, combinatorics, and economics, where complete hands represent consumption goods and partial hands represent capital. The game forces players to make decisions in uncertain environments, weigh conflicting factors, and confront the limitations of human cognitive abilities in tracking complex game states and probabilities. The analysis concludes that abstract games offer profound reflections on human experience, and this computational interpretation method provides a rigorous way to understand their aesthetic and thematic depth.