Clean Sweep

It happened because of Minesweeper. The dumb computer game that’s been around for ages, I’ve always had an affinity for it. Even when I was a kid and didn’t understand the concept I’d just randomly click waiting for the little smiley face at the top die. The little x’s for eyes was hilarious to me.

So when I’m bored and don't have time for serious gaming, that’s my go to. Click, how many bombs are in the area? Base your guess off of that and click again, hope to clear more space. Try to clear the whole board as fast as you can without killing the little miner. Not the way I played as a kid.

“This shit is dull as Hell,” Jason said, watching from behind me.

“It’s kind of interesting,” I rebuffed. “In a coding-mathematician sort of way. You have to use your clicks and your time wisely.”

“I bet I could make it better.” He grabbed a chair and started taking out his wallet. I groaned. He had too much money for his own good and has a tendency to put it toward gambling.

“You better make this worth my time.” I restarted the game to get a fresh board.

“Kody, have I ever let you down?” he asked, clicking in the middle of the board, where there weren’t likely to be any bombs. Several squares were cleared and I had a general idea of where to go from there. “I’ll give you $50 to find a bomb on the next click.”

“Have you not played this game before?”

“There’s a lot more clear squares than there are bomb squares. Finding the bomb square is harder and more satisfying, I think,” Jason explained.

So were playing the way I would if I was a kid. Find the bomb, kill the sweeper, get some gold.

I looked at the numbers around the little area, mostly ones with some twos. There was one three indicating the most danger. Looking at the numbers around it I tried to decide the best where the bombs were and clicked.

“Some smart ass you are,” Jason laughed.

Somehow I’d missed the bomb. It was both disappointing and exciting.

It made me think. What if you were looking for the “bombs” or the payouts and you had to use math and luck to get them.

“I’m not putting any kind of money into that kind of scheme.” Jason said on a later date, eating some of my food. “I’m an addict, not a philanthropist.”

“It would be too complex if we used any existing money anyway, with exchange rates, laws… We’d have to play with monopoly money.”

“Because that’s something people will want,” Jason choked.

“Maybe not at first… but eventually. Especially if I upsell it. If you make something rare, like gold or diamonds, it becomes a commodity.”

“I don’t get it.” he sighed, sinking deeper into my couch and changing the channel.

“Diamonds are no more valuable than any other precious rock, several others are actually more valuable, like some emeralds or sapphires. Diamonds just have a better PR team. They withhold the amount of diamonds and make sure they’re always being talked about. Pearls do something similar. So we take our currency-”

“-that doesn’t exist-”

“-we make it so there’s only so much of it, we write about it, make sure someone’s always talking about it, and then it will take care of itself.” I finished.

“So you want to make a global currency attached to your game of reverse minesweeper?”

“Basically, yeah.”

“I mean… I think we’ve done crazier things.”