How to WIN Meccha Chameleon
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How does Mecha Chameleon change the classic hide-and-seek formula?
I know how to win Mecha Chameleon, and by using a little bit of science, you can turn this friends-lob-hide-and-seek game into psychological warfare. Hello Internet! Welcome to Game Theory Mecha Chameleon. Yes, it is pronounced Mecha. It's a Japanese word that means very, extremely, or super, so super chameleon. Which makes sense, it's a classic prop hunt style game, but instead of getting random objects to hide as, you have to colour yourself right into the background. Or not, if you're me and have whimsy.
Damn, yeah, I can't find Tom anywhere. I found my friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but I didn't find Tom anywhere. Oh, Spider-Man!
Dab on Mr. Tom live, by the way. But I've been having a lot of fun with this game, and it's been all I've been seeing other streamers play for the past few weeks.
I'm unreal! I'm unreal! I'm unreal! I got overconfident there. Whistling. Oh, my gosh.
Oh, yeah. And I get it, it's a classic hide and seek recipe with a fun twist, which is a recipe for endless fun. Heck, they even sold 10 million copies in just a couple of weeks. But the cool thing about Metro Chameleon is that it's not just about who survives. Instead, each player gets awarded points based on a few different factors. Of course, a hider will get points for simply being the last one found, but there's more to it than that. They get points for being near the hunter, or if they're in the hunter's direct line of sight, but don't get caught. If a hunter is looking right at you, but you're camouflaged, you'll get more points. So if you really want to win this game, you need to do a little more than just finding the most remote spot on the map and holding your breath.
There's a bunch of psychology that goes into a game like this, and I have all the tools you need to exploit your friend's brains all the way to victory. Grab your paintbrushes, theorists, as we help you become completely invisible in Mecha Chameleon. One of the main mechanics of the game is that your avatar can have a selection of poses. Lots of variety to choose from, but two or three of these poses are far superior than the others, mostly lying flat and the ball. But picking which one depends on your surroundings. If you are in a sparse environment with not a lot of clutter and plain open spaces, your best bet is the lying flat position. This is because a lying flat pose lowers the object's vertical profile and can reduce edge contrast against the floor or other flat surfaces, which, when there's nothing else going on, helps you to remain hidden.
Studies have found that visual search is guided by what we're expecting to see, so hunters tend to scan at likely human height position and for upright body configurations. Maybe that explains why gamers don't look up. A flat and starfish pose like this, either on the floor or the ceiling, is going to fall outside the brain's default human template, making it harder for the brain to even register you're there. The same principle can apply to the laying sideways pose, which can be useful if you're trying to be up against a flat wall as opposed to the floor or ceiling. You're essentially working against your friend's brain's hard-wired psychology. The other pose that works really well is the ball, especially in cluttered spaces where there's so much happening visually that the human brain doesn't really process each and every item with the same amount of detail.
It instead relies on peripheral processes, making sense of everything fast. This is a phenomenon called crowding. Crowding causes our vision to interpret busy areas more like a summary or texture than a set of separate objects. For example, you can go, those are a bunch of balloons, but the brain isn't picking out each and every balloon, their color, their shape, or their size. So just like that, you ball up and you will blend right in. This could work with any pose in theory, but a rounded, more compact pose can be read as part of the general visual noise rather than a long, obviously body-shaped thing. These poses are a great starting place to remain undetected.
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