RockPaperAzure

I was at first excited and intrigued to hear that Microsoft is hosting the Rock Paper Azure contest.  This Rock Paper Scissor sets up programmers against each other in a battle of wits.  Microsoft provides a sample of the code and lets you have at it.

The rules of the game are basic.  You program a bot that competes against other bots.

• Rock beats Scissors
• Scissors beats Paper
• Paper Beats Rock
• Dynamite beats paper, scissors and rock, but can only be used 100 times (per battle).
• Water balloon beats dynamite but loses to everything else, but can be used an unlimited number of times.

Each battle consists of 1000 rounds, and afterwards  you get to analyse the combat log and make changes to your bot. 

The down side to this is that they want you to sign up for their free 90 day Windows Azure trial.  I thought at first this would be okay to do, but then I found out that they want your credit card.  I don't know about you but I probably would forget to cancel the subscription and end up getting charged 90 days from now.  So sadly I won't be competing here.

My question to Microsoft is why not just open the doors to all developers?  What about some kid who doesn't have a credit card, he or she could be pushed to become a great programmer through a contest like this.

In the end I really think it's a great idea, and wish I could compete.  However, this idea has inspired me.  I would love to set up a server where coders could compete in a contest like this.  There probably wouldn't be any prizes at first, but maybe in the future there could be.

If you're still interested, the webpage for the Microsoft contest is: http://www.rockpaperazure.com/

Good luck and have fun if you enter.