How puzzeling..

I was given this puzzle recently. The object is to take the pieces apart, and put them back together again. Simple? Well it turns out the pieces only fit together in one direction (the slots are angled), and each piece fits into any other, some fit better than others. The first thing I think when playing with these puzzles is about their physical nature. Can I break it if I'm not careful? What if this was incorrectly manufactured and doesn't actually work? That last one was on my mind the whole time while solving it, and proved to be my weakness. While some fit better than others, it is intentional rather than a mistake.

There seems to be a major, and a minor difficulty in this puzzle. The major is that the slots only fit one direction. This is a base of the puzzle - how do they fit together? In which order?
This by itself would lead to a good puzzle, but then there's the extra layer added - the minor difficulty of having some fit better than others. While playing with it, it is hard to tell if it is just a manufacturing problem.
But having solved it, I realise it is not. It creates a solution that can only be solved with the pieces in a certain order - made even more difficult in that none of the pieces are uniquely marked (save for the copy-write mark on one)

It is a good puzzle, the major difficulty is a good one, while the minor is a basic way to make it harder - I would say that the minor difficulty seems like a cheap shot, except that it creates all sorts of solving problems that make the puzzle more intriguing. Why does it fit this way? Is it a trick? Did I miss something? It's magic!
I must also add the physicality of it is beautiful, it feels like knocklebones - and makes the same sound when it pieces. It's just nice to hold even - giving it use even after it has been solved.

Water rendering project

While not strictly game related, here's a project I worked on recently.

NZ Herald : Violent video games are 'a learning tool'

An article on video games. link

• On FPS: "People that play these fast-paced games have better vision, better attention and better cognition," said Daphne Bavelier.

• "People do learn from games," said J. Dexter Fletcher of the Institute for Defence Analyses.

• President Barack Obama recently identified the creation of good educational software as one of the "grand challenges for American innovation,"

• He added that students who played "pro-social" games that promote cooperation were more likely than others to help out in real-life situations like intervening when someone is being harassed.

• Opposition: "You are not just passively watching Scarface blow away people," McKiernan said. "You are actually participating. Doing these things over and over again is going to have an effect."

It's great that there is recognition of the validity of video games as teaching tools, but the study presented focuses solely on popular video games that portray violence. The teaching from these games are things like "better vision" and "better attention". I personally find all the video games I've played (many of them FPS) very helpful while driving a car or being around cars (skills applicable: Attention, peripheral vision, spatial awareness, trajectory prediction). But besides that, the games listed offer little else. "Shallow" as many game designers have described them as.

Firstly to address the issue at hand, sensible parental decisions, and everything in moderation. Simply: do not give R18 games to children, and do not play games (or any one type of game) too much. Solved.

I want more (quantity and quality) meaningful games.