Menlo Virus Game Play

Absolutely no Virus Game Play is allowed in officially sanctioned Menlo Competitions Corporation (MCC) tournaments. Participants found to be "cheating" by these means will be immediately disqualified and potentially banned from all future MCC tournaments.

Despite this, some players prefer the Menlo game with viruses integrated into the game itself. An entire sub-league of professional Menlo games exists for Virus-allowed gameplay. This form of play is most popular among programmers because they know every strength and vulnerability of the code that constructs their suits. Many of the innovations that have lead to the best codes for even MCC compliant suits have been the result of the efforts of Virus players.

Virus gameplay and the culture around it tends to be far more dangerous, unpredictable, and seedy than MCC standard matches. The reason for this is twofold. Virus gameplay is at its core about how to circumvent the rules and laws of the game, attracting a certain type of personality and essentially encouraging anarchy. Also, because matches are not regulated by any official or central association, the potential for players to take advantage of each other, or for inexperienced coders to cause permanent damage to equipment is greatly increased. There have been reports of privately engineered card code being stolen during matches, of multiple players teaming up to combine their cards to create super viruses that can royally screw other players, of equipment and cards being permanently damaged either intentionally or unintentionally, or even implanted with latent viruses that emerged in later matches.

Programming for Virus Gameplay

The only limiting factor to what one can do with Viruses is how much room is on a card, be it regulation size or not. Like with any code, the most robust and effective viruses and blockers tend to take up the most space. Newer and more compact Virus codes are always being sought after. The biggest factor for Virus gameplay is knowing how to balance the amount of Virus code and the amount of actual Suit code. Some players go half and half, creating a suit that will specifically benefit from the effects of the associated viruses. Other players will concentrate solely on virus blockers, protecting their own suit, and potentially neutralizing any advantages the opponent may have been relying on. And yet others will go with the simplest of suits, and will concentrate on having an arsenal of viruses that will destroy their opponent before any actual fight takes place. Some players even like to test their MCC compliant virus-free suits against Virus players to test the integrity of their code, and to test the performance of their suits in adverse conditions.

Generally, the effects of viruses can be summarized into three basic categories; those that effect one's opponent, those that effect one's own suit, and those that effect the Virtual Reality, Pointers, Buffers, and Swimmers respectively.

At their core, Buffers are the easiest to code, the most robust, and the hardest to block of the three categories, because what the code affects (the suit) and where the code resides (the card) are already very closely linked in code. Their main drawback is that many of the effects of Buffers can achieved with the same amount of code simply by improving the suit. The more complicated Buffers, however, can create very formidable opponents.

Swimmers are the middle ground in terms of coding difficulty, effectiveness, and resistance to blocking, because the cards of both players have equal access to the environment. They are so named because once Swimmers are sent out into the environment they take on a life of their own. The Swimmers of different players tend to interact with each other, creating interesting and unexpected results. Part of programming a good Swimmer is making sure that it will produce the effect you need regardless of what your opponent has in store.

Pointers are the most difficult to code, the most finicky and unpredictable, and the easiest to block. This is not only because it takes finesse to reference an opponents suit in code, but also because one cannot plan for any specific instances in an opponent's code before a match begins. However, Pointers that do end up working, can have devastating effects on an opponent. The payoff can be well worth the time, effort, and card space. It is Pointers that are responsible for instant-kill matches.

Card Security and Virus Blockers

If the code is good enough, every virus can potentially be blocked, and every blocker can potentially be surpassed. Blockers are most useful for protecting the weak point of one's suit, either by protecting from Pointers, or by attempting to prevent an opponent's Buffers from creating abilities for their suit that would be detrimental to yours. They are also good for making sure that your opponent's Swimmers do not interfere with yours.

Though Virus blockers are an integral part of Virus gameplay, they are allowed in MCC standard rules as 'card security code.' Some players have them for paranoia reasons, some to subdue the effects of potentially unstable code in their cards. When playing with a new group of players outside an official event, or with inexperienced coders, it is good practice to have some basic Blockers on your card, just to be on the safe side.