Ghost (game)
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Ghost is a word game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment, and trying not to be the one to complete an English word. The one that does, loses that round of the game. Usually some minimum is set on the length of a word that counts, such as 3 or 4 letters. Otherwise, for example, the game could not be started with "A" or "I".
Ghost bears some similarity to fellow word games Jotto and Cheddar Gorge.
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Game play
The player whose turn it is may challenge the previous player to prove that the current fragment is actually the beginning of some word by saying "I challenge you," or simply "challenge." If the challenged player can name such a word, the challenger loses the round; otherwise the challenged player loses. In various computerized variants, the computer names words instead of the challenged player.
Bluffing is not uncommon, though it's rare for it to work in the way planned. For example, in a two-player game, suppose the fragment is "S-Y-Z-", which can only be the beginning of the word "syzygy." The next player realizes that the player on whom the word will end is a friend, and decides to try to protect him. Instead of saying Y, he extends the fragment to "S-Y-Z-O-", which is not a word but sounds as if it could be one. Player 5 should challenge, but fears player 4's word knowledge, and either guess or intentionally bluffs himself by extending the word to "S-Y-Z-O-L-." Player 6 challenges and player 5 cannot reply. Player 5, not player 4, loses the round. Bluffing rarely achieves its intended results, but it can sometimes add amusement to the game.
If any score is kept at all, the traditional method uses the letters of the word "Ghost," in the same fashion as the basketball game Horse. The loser of the first round gets a G, the loser of two rounds gets a GH, and so on. The first person to lose five rounds gets GHOST, and has thereby lost the game.
Ghost can be played by 2 or more players. No equipment is required, not even pencil and paper. Use of dictionaries or word lists is considered cheating. It can be played by players of a wide range of ages, but the game is not enjoyable to most unless all players have comparable knowledge of words.
Winning strategy
Since the game tree of Ghost can be derived from the list of combinations of letters that are considered to be words, the game (as played by two players) can be easily "solved" by a computer, or even a patient person scanning through the dictionary, to find a winning strategy for one player. Generally, the player that does not have the first opportunity to lose has a winning strategy, though the exact strategy will depend on the dictionary that is used to judge whether something is a word.
As an example, if the minimum word length is 3 letters, the first player has the first opportunity to lose, so (using a typical dictionary) the second player has a winning strategy; no matter what letter the first player begins the word with, the second player can respond in such a way that the first player will eventually lose. In fact, the second player only has to memorize a list of about 90 words before the game to know what letter to add in any situation. Of course, memorizing a winning strategy ruins the game, and could be considered a form of cheating.
Variants
Superghost is played by choosing either the beginning or end of the growing word fragment and adding a letter there. Xghost (also known as Superduperghost) is played by adding a letter anywhere in the growing word fragment, including between letters. These variants usually require much more effort and time to play than the conventional game, and as such are lesser-known and less popular. Xghost in particular is considered vastly more difficult to play.
A Ghost mIRC game exists as well.[1] (http://andre.facadecomputer.com/ghost)
External links
- Ghost mIRC game (http://andre.facadecomputer.com/ghost)
- Write On Reader - GHOST (http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/games/em_ghost.htm)
- Words and Stuff - g is for ghost (http://www.kith.org/logos/words/lower/g.html)
- Second-player winning strategy for Ghost with a 3-letter word minimum (http://torg.mit.edu/files/ghost-strategy-3letter.txt)