Game Notation II

Chess has algebraic notation. Backgammon has the 24-point numbering system. Even Hex openings can be reliably conveyed using opening diagrams. In Counter-Strike Source, the status quo is to describe openings using natural language, e.g. “two players drop down and rush the catwalk.”

I’ve previously argued that this way of describing play makes it impossible to automate the necessary tasks of testing, clarifying, and maintaining CS openings. And yet openings can be argued to be just as important in CS as in Chess. So what are the alternatives?

Game Notation I

Openings are the sequences of actions taken at the start of a game. Chess openings, for example, have been studied for hundreds of years, and are an important part of effective play. When Chess openings become recognizable, they are given fancy names like The Giuoco Piano or The Ruy Lopez. Kind of like outlaws in the Wild West…

Openings are popular in a variety of classic games like Chess, Checkers, Go, etc. But it is less conventional to think of applying opening theory to a game like Counter-Strike Source…