A crazy, surprising run continued

[mdyak]

I, too, am finidng that it is taking me, on average, as long as it takes to play a 5x5 game to find one to play, which is about twice as long as it used to take. This is mostly due to the fact that there are less people playing this game then there were back 2-2.5 years ago, which causes the games to recycle a lot slower, and since a lot of the currently active players here play the higher word amount games, that leads to them being recycled faster than those with much lower scoring potential, which means there are a lot more games with lower scoring potential than those with higher scoring potential.

One possible fix for this that would actually work would be for the creators of this game to add a couple hundred high scoring games to the board rotations, though this would cost a lot of development time that I am not sure the current administration team is willing to do at this point in time. Another possible fix is for more players to play the more undesirable boards. I'm probably going to play every board in 5x5 next month that I get and see what kind of average I can get with that. This would also help recycle the lower scoring boards faster.

I swear they are recycling the exact same boards! I play a game that has only been played 2 or 3 times and recognize it as one I already played that had been played a LOT more times when I saw it last. It's taking longer and longer to find a game that looks like fun, and then so many of them are reruns... boring...

[lalatan]

No problem bwt. Ouch! I hope you get your back problem cleared up soon.

[bwt1213]

Yes, I did see it and I used it. It worked well for me, and I thank you. I've been remiss on too many of my responses and haven't played as many games recently. I did something to my back and it hurts a LOT. I've been putting off seeing a doctor in hopes it would get better. It's been a couple of weeks and it's getting worse instead. Sorry for not answering right away, though. I should have, and I'm ashamed I didn't.

[lalatan]

Some interesting scoring results there.

bwt, did you ever see my reply to your post? xttps://forum.puzzlebaron.com/forum/puzzle-baron/wordtwist/19337-achievements-and-accomplishments-thread

[bwt1213]

Well. Brisul, I had something happen in about the first month I played here, and I have never had it happen again. I exactly matched the high score, AND the most words, AND the longest word, AND the word with the most points all on the same board. Of course, that meant I got credit for exactly zero records (and deserved none). I called that an "invisible game". Has anyone else ever done it? And just FYI -- I did not use all the same words, because I got credit for some unique ones, and the game had been played about a dozen times previously.

[Brisul]

image_68.png Kind of cool when your score is exactly twice what the original high score was. Never had this happen before.

[Razorflame]

I, too, am finidng that it is taking me, on average, as long as it takes to play a 5x5 game to find one to play, which is about twice as long as it used to take. This is mostly due to the fact that there are less people playing this game then there were back 2-2.5 years ago, which causes the games to recycle a lot slower, and since a lot of the currently active players here play the higher word amount games, that leads to them being recycled faster than those with much lower scoring potential, which means there are a lot more games with lower scoring potential than those with higher scoring potential.

One possible fix for this that would actually work would be for the creators of this game to add a couple hundred high scoring games to the board rotations, though this would cost a lot of development time that I am not sure the current administration team is willing to do at this point in time. Another possible fix is for more players to play the more undesirable boards. I'm probably going to play every board in 5x5 next month that I get and see what kind of average I can get with that. This would also help recycle the lower scoring boards faster.

[Spike1007]

MistMyChance, that's pretty specific! I can see that your strategy evolved over time. Does it help? Mine is a lot simpler, since I mostly just go for long words, and will play a board if there's a chance that there's an unfound word that's worth enough for me (even if lalatan has the current best). I throw away a lot of games though, so while I spend more time playing than clicking, I'm not sure it pays off.

By the way, in the past I've also done the thing where I just don't like the player's name & will try to best their words. I know it's petty (and I won't admit to what those names are), but it does add to my personal enjoyment.

[MistMyChance]

I have a strategy. I add up the number of words and will play a game if the high score is less than that number, but only if more than 3 people and less than 30 have played that game and only if the high score isn’t over 500 and lalatan doesn’t have the best or longest word.
But if a game is outside those parameters and a single person has all 4 stats, I will play it anyway. And if I don’t like the person’s name that has the stats, I will play it even if it’s WAY outside those parameters.
I now spend far more time looking for a game than I do actually playing it.

[Razorflame]

Yes, you have to play continuously in order to keep your edge in this game is what I've found. Basically put, you have to play for at least half an hour daily in order to keep what you've learned and more play often leads to higher scores and better performances over time. Sadly, I probably will cut back on the amount that I am playing in a week or two because I have to practice for an event I might be participating in in early May..but I will still play here for at least 30-60 minutes a day. I just have a lot more time on my hands this week because my parents are gone and I have to petsit..

[lalatan]

You're welcome. My prediction is you will get back to where you were and then some. You're driven and have skills. (I've often thought you have to be fairly obsessive (and I was but now am less so but still like to compete) to succeed in this game and push yourself higher.)

[Razorflame]

Thanks RazorFlame! It's what I like to do on this website. At one point over a year ago I told someone on the forum I didn't want to learn chemistry/science/medical long words but I guess I changed my mind.

I came across 1 of your games yesterday where you scored over 500 and 100 words. Doesn't look like there's too much rust on your game!

There still is rust in my game. Back when I left, my average was 70 points higher than it is now and my average words per game was about 10 more than it is now. I also believe that I was scoring on average more 700+ point games back before I left. It will take some time to get back to that point, but I think it will take less time than it took the first time. Thanks, though, for the compliment!

[lalatan]

Thanks RazorFlame! It's what I like to do on this website. At one point over a year ago I told someone on the forum I didn't want to learn chemistry/science/medical long words but I guess I changed my mind.

I came across 1 of your games yesterday where you scored over 500 and 100 words. Doesn't look like there's too much rust on your game!

[Razorflame]

lalatan Nice to see you've become a juggernaut when it comes to finding long words on this site now. I've played quite a few boards already where you have the longest word record and even I was not able to find the word you found. A lot of them are because I don't know the scientific words too well, but there are some other, simpler words that I feel like I should have no issues finding, like CANDLELIGHTERS, but then again, I didn't think to put the two together Good going

[crazykate]

Great Screenshot and impressive score, Brisul!
My playing style is closer to lalatan's when it comes to 5x5, but I appreciate talent and skill in any category.