We've all played Solitaire. Except for the very youngest of us, probably played it with cards instead of (or, as well as) on the computer. It's a good way to lazily blow some time when you're bored and alone. But the game sucks.

There are a few reasons for why the game sucks. It has nothing to do with the fact that it's not originally a computer game, or because it's played with cards, but because of the rules. You see, because of the rules of the game, the game isn't always winnable. Worse, because you don't know the state of the deck of cards before the start of the game, you often don't even know if the deck you've been dealt is winnable or not. Quite the predicament!

At least with Solitaire on the computer, it's possible to write it so that unwinnable decks are discarded before the player gets a chance to play them. However, even if unwinnable decks are thrown out, it's still possible to play well and rationally, and end up losing all the same. When faced with two or more possible moves, each looking as good as the others, you could easily make a move that at the time makes sense, but makes the game unwinnable past that point. And again, there's no way to know, in game, that you've done that.

Here we are, with a game that is so utterly random in how it plays out, that it is impossible to come up with winning strategies. At best, you can devise a strategy that gives you a 50-50 chance, thereabouts, to win. And even then, chances are you'll have to break heavily from it in order to succeed.

A good game is either winnable or open-ended, as long as the player doesn't do dumb things. By that definition, Solitaire is anything but good, at least as a game. It's still a great time waster, for when you need one of those, but as a game, it sucks.

[Edit: Added open-endedness to the definition of a good game, as that quality was missing. Shout out to Sneftel for bringing this oversight to my attention.]