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Out of curiousity (and perhaps also to amuse my students), I am looking for examples of actual mathematics appearing in video (computer) games. Of course that sort of mathematics would probably be very basic, but perhaps it still exists.

To clarify, I mean some use of mathematics in-game, as opposed to the design or programming of the game. I also prefer examples of games which are not purely puzzle games, but perhaps contain some puzzle solving. Nevertheless, such examples would also be interesting.

I hope this question is not off-topic. I was considering asking on Arqade SE, but I don't suppose there are many mathematicians there...

Thanks!

Pandora
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  • There's a game called 2048. But then again, it can be considered a purely puzzle game. – Prasun Biswas Apr 11 '15 at 07:38
  • This question might be relevant: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1170407/videogame-dota-2-probability#comment2385142_1170407 – Miguelgondu Apr 11 '15 at 07:39
  • @PrasunBiswas Yeah, I know it, but is there a winning strategy (I think that would be equivalent to having an actual mathematical solution)? I've always used a strategy which is not mathematical (but works with high probability). – Pandora Apr 11 '15 at 07:40
  • The Knights of the Old Republic (don't remember if it was the first or second) had a Tower of Hanoi puzzle. Also pretty sure one of them also had a "move liquid to this bucket to that bucket using 3 and 5 gallon buckets" type puzzle. Also pretty sure Mass Effect had one of those too. Maybe I am actually thinking of Mass Effect actually... I wouldn't be surprised if both series had the same sort of puzzles, as for the most part they were made by the same developers (except KoTOR 2) –  Apr 11 '15 at 07:43
  • If you don't include basic calculations as mathematics, then I'd venture there's very little outside of ingame puzzles. Otherwise examples abound; e.g. collecting only items with a high enough value to weight ratio, determining the damage outputs of weapons with different attack rates or bonuses or cooldowns, etc. You'll find these aspects in just about any RPG. – G. H. Faust Apr 11 '15 at 07:55
  • All the motion games are requiring "unintentionally" use of mathematics/physics to "calculate" location-speed;acceleration and from there predict action. The user implement manually "filters" that allow him to get desired results. – Moti Apr 11 '15 at 10:30

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