[Icehouse] Xeno color mapping for Homeworlds

[Subhan Tindall]

I think there are some fairly strong perceptual/psychological reasons
to go with the first mapping below:

Cyan = Blue   - cyan IS a member of the category 'blue colors' for
most intents & purposes
Purple = Red  - purple is very close to red & could easily be grouped
w/ 'red colors'
Orange = Yellow - Orange is very close to yellow & could easily be
grouped w/'yellow colors'
Clear = Green - this one you just have to remember, it's more or less
the category of 'the one that is left over', but green & clear don't
really conflict either

Vs. this one:

 Cyan = Green - cyan is very clearly not a member of 'green colors'
for most people & this association will produce a fair amount of
cognitive disonance
 Orange = Red - orange is bording on the 'red colors' category
 Purple = Blue - purple could also group easily w/ 'blue colors'
 Clear = Yellow - once again you have to just remember this one,
although there's probably a fairly week mapping between yellow & clear
from a perceptual standpoint

So, the 1st mapping has 1 very clear mapping, 2 mostly OK ones, & one
'leftover' mapping,
the 2nd mapping as 1 very disonate mapping, 2 OK ones, & 1 that maybe
has a week association.  I think the very strong disonance generated
by mapping cyan & green would far outweigh  the very weak associate of
yellow & clear.

Of course, there's a pretty easy way to test the most 'natural'
association of the colors.  Generate some empirical data as follows:
Find 10-20+ random people, preferable people not familiar with
Icehouse at all, or at least not homeworlds players.
Give them each 1 piece of each of the 2 sets of  colors in question,
tell them they have 1 minute (maybe 2?) to groups them into matching
pairs of 1 color from each group.
Record the results, run some simple stats.

This will give you a pretty decent idea of what the most natural
mapping between the colors is from a perceptual standpoint.  This will
also be the easiest mapping to remember.
I'd be willing to bet a fair amount of money that no more than 1 out
of 20 people would put green & cyan together.

Science is fun!

Subhan

On 6/3/07, James Hazelton <jameshazelton at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm going to have to agree with cyan=blue. The cb/pr/oy/cg correlation makes
> the most sense to me. I will admit that when I was reading through 3HOUSE, I
> did stop for a second to consider, "Cyan isn't the equivalent of blue? I
> wonder why."
>
> If you leave it as is, I can see it being something that a lot of people
> houserule.
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