Hmm. I think there are different types of artificial: let me try an analogy to demonstrate:
Bridge involves taking tricks. The default version of the game requires hiding the trick after it is done. I could imagine some variants 1) base case: play trick, look at trick, hide trick. 2) full visibility: play trick, keep trick face up. 3) pseudo-visibility: play trick, put trick face down, but allow player to ask a referee what's in the trick pile at any time
Now, one could argue that hiding card discards in Bridge is annoying because once the information has been shown to everyone, it should stay public knowledge, but I think that in Bridge, needing to remember what cards have been played adds to the game: it is part of the challenge, it is not artificial. More parallel to the Pandemic case is the distinction between option 2 and 3: 3 allows for all the same information transfer of 2, and at any time, but with what I would call an "artificial" barrier in the same way as hiding Pandemic cards is. Yes, people can get make mistakes because humans are flawed, but once you've chosen to have unlimited table talk in a team game (or unlimited checking the discard pile in a trick-game), then you may as well go all the way and just keep everything up rather than making people repeatedly query the other players (or the discard pile) just because they can sometimes mess up. So the artificial constraint in 1 is fine, the artificial constraint in 3 is not.
I will note that Pandemic explicitly states in the rules that it is ok to look through the discard piles because (and I'm paraphrasing from memory here) "the point is not to have Pandemic be a game of Memory". But the "keep your hand hidden" rule is adding just that. Except not even that, because you _can_ ask people what cards they have, and they can answer, they just can't actually show you.
(I guess maybe what it comes down to is an opinion about "what the game is about": in my opinion, the card-hiding does not add any benefit in either or the two key areas for a game: "improved paint" or "improved strategy". Hidden information only makes sense to me if either people have individual goals, and so might not want to share all info, or if the information is actually hidden and people aren't allowed to communicate it directly so that remembering or divining the info is a skill-based addition to the game)
Bridge involves taking tricks. The default version of the game requires hiding the trick after it is done. I could imagine some variants
1) base case: play trick, look at trick, hide trick.
2) full visibility: play trick, keep trick face up.
3) pseudo-visibility: play trick, put trick face down, but allow player to ask a referee what's in the trick pile at any time
Now, one could argue that hiding card discards in Bridge is annoying because once the information has been shown to everyone, it should stay public knowledge, but I think that in Bridge, needing to remember what cards have been played adds to the game: it is part of the challenge, it is not artificial. More parallel to the Pandemic case is the distinction between option 2 and 3: 3 allows for all the same information transfer of 2, and at any time, but with what I would call an "artificial" barrier in the same way as hiding Pandemic cards is. Yes, people can get make mistakes because humans are flawed, but once you've chosen to have unlimited table talk in a team game (or unlimited checking the discard pile in a trick-game), then you may as well go all the way and just keep everything up rather than making people repeatedly query the other players (or the discard pile) just because they can sometimes mess up. So the artificial constraint in 1 is fine, the artificial constraint in 3 is not.
I will note that Pandemic explicitly states in the rules that it is ok to look through the discard piles because (and I'm paraphrasing from memory here) "the point is not to have Pandemic be a game of Memory". But the "keep your hand hidden" rule is adding just that. Except not even that, because you _can_ ask people what cards they have, and they can answer, they just can't actually show you.
(I guess maybe what it comes down to is an opinion about "what the game is about": in my opinion, the card-hiding does not add any benefit in either or the two key areas for a game: "improved paint" or "improved strategy". Hidden information only makes sense to me if either people have individual goals, and so might not want to share all info, or if the information is actually hidden and people aren't allowed to communicate it directly so that remembering or divining the info is a skill-based addition to the game)
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