Setup and Rule Diagrams

[Dave Killoran]

Setup and Rule Diagram Explanation

This is an Advanced Linear: Balanced game.

The setup to this game requires some manipulation. Since each of the paintings has two characteristics, oil or watercolor and nineteenth-century or twentieth-century, each of the paintings requires two separate spaces to represent these characteristics. In a normal linear game this could easily be represented by double-stacking the characteristics above each painting. However, since the paintings themselves are stacked into two rows, this would cause unnecessary confusion. Thus, we have chosen to represent the characteristics of each painting side-by-side. For example, 19O would represent a nineteenth-century oil painting, and 20W would represent a twentieth-century watercolor. The diagram and rules are then relatively easy to represent:

J97_Game_#3_setup_diagram 1.png

This game uses several two-value systems. Since each painting must be either an oil or watercolor, but not both, if a painting is not a watercolor then it must be an oil, and if a painting is not an oil then it must be a watercolor. The same type of reasoning can be applied to the nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings. This leads to several powerful inferences in question #15.

[T.B.Justin]

I thought this game could be qualified as a pattern.

What is the contrast between "general action of all variables" and "the specific governance of variables?"


I think the rules can be considered to be general and specific.

[Dave Killoran]

Hey TB,

This is a good example of how they can bleed ideas of one type into another. Pattern games typically are built on linear setups, so we're in the right sphere to get a pattern game. And the way the rules work together does create a sort of domino effect so I see your point. I saw the fixed elements and two levels and felt it was more Advanced Linear than Pattern, but at a certain point it becomes a matter of which element "feels" stronger here, and you seeing pattern elements moreso is not a problem at all since you are still in the right linear frame of analysis.

Another good example of the Advanced Linear "domino effect" is the June 1991 Game #2 about offices and computers. Very similar in how one piece of information "transmits" through the setup in each question.

Thanks!

[T.B.Justin]

Edit: That game is in the LSAT game training type book!

If I recall correctly that is the one with computers, printers, and years as the variables to office's. Where can I locate that game in the Powerscore books? (I'd rather not spend $400 on those earliest PTs)