Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe

Ajay Balamurugadas's profile
Ajay Balamurugadas

Senior Director - QE, GSPANN Technologies

Rahul Parwal's profile
Rahul Parwal

Specialist

Challenge Description

Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe is a board game that uses nine tic-tac-toe pieces arranged in a 3 x 3 grid. Players take turns playing on the smaller tic-tac-toe boards until one of them wins on the larger board. In contrast to the traditional tic-tac-toe game, this game teaches you about systems thinking, visualization, and anticipation.

Instructions:

Overview of Game:

  • This is a two-person game. You will need a partner to play this game.

  • This game is available for free on various websites. The one that we prefer is available here: https://bit.ly/mottictactoe 

Gameplay:

In addition to the local board, which is similar to a normal tic-tac-toe board, each move must also take into account the global board in the following ways.

  1. Anticipate the next move: Each move played on a local board determines where the opponent's next move may be played.

  2. Visualize the game tree: Each move determines the next move, and therefore reading ahead, predicting future moves follows a much less linear path leaving many possible paths.

  3. Winning the game: Local wins are not valuable if they cannot be used to win the global board - it may even be strategic to give up a local board to your opponent in order to win a more important local board.

Wrap-up:

Adding games to learning can make the experience more engaging and effective. Additionally, it helps us make sense of the information available to us, and spot mistakes or gaps in our understanding. We can use games to develop testing skills. Unlike the elementary game of Tic-Tac-Toe, Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe is not something that can be solved using brute force. The game requires continuous analysis and strategizing. With the Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe, you will learn and practice skills like analysis, strategizing, risk storming, systems thinking, etc.

Key Takeaways:

  • Games can be used to generate interest and enthusiasm as learners.

  • Games and Testing both need similar skills like critical thinking, strategizing, investigation, pattern recognition, sense-making, time management, etc.

  • Not all creative processes can be automated. Computer systems still cannot reasonably solve this game as it requires continuous analysis and strategizing.

  • A small positional advantage might cause a bigger loss in the larger game landscape.

What you’ll learn
  • Use games to improve testing skills

Resources

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