Achievements and Accomplishments Thread

[Emerging]

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Nowhere near the territory of a few players above, but I'm happy to finally have joined the 800-club. A z in an otherwise high-probability board helped make it happen.

[Naboka]

I do play as chubtrub, though I'm a little unclear if you're asking for the origin of the username, or why I use a second handle.

With regard to the former, it's just the handle I use for my fantasy hockey team. The friend group often refers to each other by variations of "Chubbs".

With regard to the latter, I use chubtrub to play when I'm playing in suboptimal conditions, or if I want to be a bit more relaxed with the goal of learning and implementing less familiar words and combos. This leaves this handle's high-scoring average in tact to more easily monitor if I'm improving, and to compete in the monthly. Generally I'll play against the scores of top players (including my own), or play boards where reaching 700 points is unlikely so that other people can compete against my scores and use the wordlist to learn words.

I'd personally like it if the recycling point were raised to open up more of those midrange boards. In addition to widening the competitive window, the wordlist is the easiest place to learn new words, especially those outside of the Collins dictionary. It seems a shame to erase a list compiled by however many number of plays just because someone scores an arbitrary number of points. Another workaround would be to keep the list, but to reset the records. *Speaking of Collins (formerly SOWPODS), their editors recently included another 2k or so words for Scrabble play, many of which are not valid here (yet?).

That clears up a few things. The chub made me wonder about fish and excess weight.

I entertained the idea of having another handle because I spent hundreds of games practising and dumping--trying out what is and isn't accepted. Playing under another name would certainly allow more freedom for the inevitable avalanche of mistakes and failures. (I'm still amazed by words that seem common to me but which aren't accepted). The problem with taking that approach seemed to be missed opportunities. If I ran across a game with 300 UR words and finally managed to beat my personal best, the credit would be lost. Keeping the same handle and dumping the disasters just seemed more practical.

Just where the cutoff point should be to recycle games will always be moot. What is fair. And to whom? Usually I feel a bit guilty closing out boards when someone has scored something obviously high for them. Like a normal 450 player hitting 650. To me, it seems that person should be able to keep that record.

Long word players would be at an increased disadvantage if games were harder to recycle. As it is, there are only a few players who can consistently put games with long words back into play. Once the best/longest word is gotten, it remains dormant as a record until the game is put back into the system. Players like lalatan who strive to increase their accumulated records would be harmed.

For me, seeing new words has little value. Several months ago, I stopped trying to accumulate new words. The diminishing returns made it impractical. Because I have to pace my typing to around a hundred words a game, there are only so many words I can enter. It's not unusual to know fifty more words to enter but not have the speed to accomplish this. My mind works far faster than my fingers these days.

As is, I enjoy seeing how many green words I can add to the list. Added value. And, I suppose, that recycling the game before other players can benefit from that added value has an argument. But, there's also the element of personally gained value that one has to work for versus inherited/abducted value, where one has done nothing except benefit from the work of someone else. That happens more in the longword department, where someone will discover through their knowledge and efforts a very rare long word, only to see that word cropping up as others are exposed to it, but have neither the knowledge or effort to have "earned" that word.

I get a kick out of adding green words to the played words readout. Getting 50 or more on a game that's been played 20 or more times is always an ego boost. If the games weren't recycled as they are now, those green words would just be part of reds--already played and nothing special.

Putting in the effort to earn what one gets has been ingrained in me. Sometimes I'm torn between wanting to make things easier for other players by providing tips and combinations. I used to post the list of words that enabled me to accomplish Red Boards. I just thought other players could benefit from knowing the involved combinations. But, I seriously doubt that anyone really took the time to learn any of them. When something isn't earned, it often has no value.

I'm still scratching my head over how easily I have beaten your scores, while you're able to put up such stellar numbers. Part of me wonders. Part of me could care less. As a lifelong member of the I've Never Met a Rule I Didn't Want to Break Club, worrying about whether someone has somehow managed to skirt the rules would be disingenuous and hypercritical. I don't even play the game as imagined. It's mostly memory tricks. Magic of the mind.

Anyway, just played the following game this morning before I had to run errands with the wife. Hope you can understand the confusion as to how I'm managing to beat a 1500 point player when I've never managed 900.


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Oh, well. I waste too much time on Wordtwist. Both playing and posting. It's proven to be an expensive pastime considering the opportunity costs. Playing may help exercise my mind, but perhaps not as much as it once did. And posting seems more like recitation deep in the forest where no one listens. Probably be more profitable to spend my remaining minutes communicating with those with ears to hear. A tree falling in the forest makes no sound unless there is something capable of hearing. No hearing, no sound. Just vibrations.

[mpd]

Just curious, do you also play as chubtrub, and if so, the reason for that handle...

Will be entertaining watching you and Megaword go head to head. Certainly will leave the midrange boards to the rest of us.

I do play as chubtrub, though I'm a little unclear if you're asking for the origin of the username, or why I use a second handle.

With regard to the former, it's just the handle I use for my fantasy hockey team. The friend group often refers to each other by variations of "Chubbs".

With regard to the latter, I use chubtrub to play when I'm playing in suboptimal conditions, or if I want to be a bit more relaxed with the goal of learning and implementing less familiar words and combos. This leaves this handle's high-scoring average in tact to more easily monitor if I'm improving, and to compete in the monthly. Generally I'll play against the scores of top players (including my own), or play boards where reaching 700 points is unlikely so that other people can compete against my scores and use the wordlist to learn words.

I'd personally like it if the recycling point were raised to open up more of those midrange boards. In addition to widening the competitive window, the wordlist is the easiest place to learn new words, especially those outside of the Collins dictionary. It seems a shame to erase a list compiled by however many number of plays just because someone scores an arbitrary number of points. Another workaround would be to keep the list, but to reset the records. *Speaking of Collins (formerly SOWPODS), their editors recently included another 2k or so words for Scrabble play, many of which are not valid here (yet?).

[Naboka]

Thanks very much JJBeanie, I'm glad you enjoyed the videos. It was actually surprising to me to see how much time I lose not entering valid words. Always room for improvement, I suppose! A happy new year to you as well.

Thank you for your dissertation, Naboka, enlightening as always.

Dessert stations always seem preferable to dissertations. Probably why my blood sugar is begging for a reexamination of bad eating habits.

All things being relative, most people would consider my "enlightening" much like a dim bulb versus the sun. TLDNR sums up so much.

Just curious, do you also play as chubtrub, and if so, the reason for that handle...

Will be entertaining watching you and Megaword go head to head. Certainly will leave the midrange boards to the rest of us.

[BoggleOtaku]

You guys should start your own thread, MegaWord vs mpd, as I foresee long term activity and interest in your friendly competition!

[MegaWord]

Had a close game just now, 816 pts in the first minute, but I got nervous and choked toward the end. This is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maf2S5OcCT8

[mpd]

Thanks, MegaWord! Your records have certainly provided me with a considerable amount of motivation and it is always a pleasure to compete against your scores. Good luck!

[MegaWord]

Congratulations, MPD, on your records. You've beaten my 5x5 and 4x4 points records now. I want to improve with you for some friendly competition. We'll see what happens. May your Wordtwist play be blessed.

[mpd]

Thanks very much JJBeanie, I'm glad you enjoyed the videos. It was actually surprising to me to see how much time I lose not entering valid words. Always room for improvement, I suppose! A happy new year to you as well.

Thank you for your dissertation, Naboka, enlightening as always.

[Naboka]

Video.

Above and beyond.

Obviously, I owe you an apology for doubting. How silly of me to suspect that something was amiss. Back when I'd go days without losing any most-points records and suddenly noticed that I was losing 6-15 a day, I initially thought there was a glitch in the system. Investigating, I realized you were always playing when the records disappeared, so I started tracking you.

Can't believe I thought something was off when I realized you were playing me 20% of your games, day after day, week after week, month after month. Everyone here probably goes months playing 20% of their games against the same random player day after day, week after week, month after month. Nothing suspicious there. Probably happens all the time. Surely nothing odd or unusual about it.

Your scores, being so high indicated a player capable of beating pretty much anyone. So, how dumb of me to think something didn't add up when I would run across your games and beat your scores by 50, 100, even more than 200 points. No contradictions or inconsistencies there. How silly of me.

Then, you went on a quest to claim the average points per game gold trophies. Mighty valuable those gold trophies. But, the problem with playing for high averages is you can't really play the lower scoring games. A few players have solved this by having two accounts.

So when a new player arrived, who mirrored your playing patterns... Suddenly, he was beating me 6-12 times a day while playing my games about 20% of his played. All while I was occaisionally running across his games and beating him by 50, 100, even more than 200 points.

I'm so embarassed to have thought that player might be you. He was a player who was beating Megaword as many as 5 times a day, and boysmom how many times a day, but somehow only winning about 70% of games played. Nothing inconsistent or contradictory there. Obviously, any 70% player here is capable of beating Megaword 5 times in a day, of beating the very best players everytime he played them, but losing 30% of his games to... to... to...? To whom?

The only conclusion must be that I'm shamefully acting like an abject loser, someone incapable of accepting that his team lost the game. The refs must have been bought off.

Seeing is believing. Every day I see video on Instagram and Youtube of things that seem impossible. David Blaine does things that blow my mind. How grinch-like must a person be to see such wonders and doubt. Faith and doubt don't go well together. None of us can be carried away into the ecstasy of belief if we doubt.

Philosophically, we realize we can only know this world through our senses. Sight, sound, touch, etc. But, quatum physics and religion both suggest there is something beyond our 5 senses. What seems solid really is not. The things we see are mostly illusions of a brain interpreting inputs. The eyeball sees things upside down and the brain has to flip the image. Do we actually see the color yellow?

How can we doubt the actor playing concert-level piano pieces? His fingers dart skillfully across the keys. In weeks the actor goes from being merely a competent player to a maestro. Our eyes tell us it's true. Our minds want to believe. Tears fill our eyes. We suspend our disbelief.

Seeing is believing. In these days of CG, we get to see images of celebrities and politicians stark naked when they've never taken a nude photo. We get to see clips of a guy catching a ball thrown from a hundred yards away while looking at the camera rather than the ball. How can we doubt such things?

Lance Armstrong used to claim he'd been tested over 500 times and never failed a drug test. It was true. So how could we doubt?

The nullfidian will never know the joy of believing without question. I am surely doomed to eternal suffering for my heretical nature. To not believe? How is it possible? To not believe what we see? How utterly debased must one be to question anything?

To cry out for forgiveness. Tantalus never reaching the fruit, never able to drink. To not trust what is seen. How is it possible? Surely, there is something egregiously wrong with one's ability to reason when he sees video and... Please, God, just a single bite of belief! Just one sip of trust! Forgive my doubts! There is video! To suffer the sulphurous burn of scepticism, eternally burning long after every star has consumed itself!

Could there be any greater punishment than not believing? If only confessing would end the torture. The heretic on the rack suddenly seeing the error of his ways.

Yet, in the end, nothing that happens here in the Wordtwist universe is all that important. A minor tempest in a child's teapot. And, not surprisingly, no neighbor has ever felt those tremors when the child next door holds a trembling teapot.

A little bit of success seems like a lot so someone with little success. $100 seems like a windfall to a homeless person holding a sign at the intersection. But, for some $100 is the tip at a restaurant with gathered friends. All of us are different, so it's not really the job of any of us to determine what another should find important. I follow a girl on instagram who's been wheelchair bound but is learning to walk. Simple tasks like hesitantly walking across the room or gingerly standing while making a meal are such monumental successes for her. They fill her with joy. Her little successes fill me with joy too.

Sharing other's joy makes life more rewarding. As does sharing their sorrows.

None of us is completely honest. The nature of the human brain makes absolute honesty absolutely impossible.

The universe is filled with answers to which we have no access. We often don't even have questions to even seek those answers. It's just all beyond our comprehension. The unknown unknown. Sometimes, all we can do is trust the feeble stream of information our senses provide and make educated or uneducated guesses as to the meaning and importance of those inputs. We fill our lives with self-deception because the universe is so frightening we need our security blankets to calm our minds.

Either way, my daughter's cinnamon rolls are heavenly. My wife's marinar divine. The music of living transcendant. May we all enjoy our sensory inputs as much as possible and learn to not take our human foibles too seriously.

[JJBeanie]

I'm not exactly sure how the approval process works with posting, so I've removed any screenshots/external links and hopefully the third time's the charm.

Not a whole lot to say, but I'm quite happy to set a new PB, clearing 1500 in 4x4 after several months of effort. I think that 1600 is probably attainable, though there are only so many boards that realistically hold that potential.

Additionally, I've posted a couple videos of my gameplay. A search of "mpd wordtwist" should be enough to lead anyone interested to them.

Hope everyone is having an enjoyable holiday season

Wow, Mitch, that's amazing! Congratulations on breaking through 1500!

It was interesting to watch your hands in the short video and to see the words fly by on the longer one. I see when you find certain letter combos, you spit out all the words associated with those letters pretty darn quick. I have a couple of combos like that (ates and nesses) where my fingers just do their thing without any conscious thought from me. You have a heck of a lot more combos than I'll ever have. I chuckled when you had some invalid words plus there was a slight pause in finger movement at one point. I chuckled because that makes up about 70% of my game play and for you it was just a blip

All the best for 2025. I'm hoping you break through 1600 pts. What a feat that will be!

[mpd]

I'm not exactly sure how the approval process works with posting, so I've removed any screenshots/external links and hopefully the third time's the charm.

Not a whole lot to say, but I'm quite happy to set a new PB, clearing 1500 in 4x4 after several months of effort. I think that 1600 is probably attainable, though there are only so many boards that realistically hold that potential.

Additionally, I've posted a couple videos of my gameplay. A search of "mpd wordtwist" should be enough to lead anyone interested to them.

Hope everyone is having an enjoyable holiday season

[Naboka]

Had this weird dream that Megacheater had been reinstated by Stephen after submitting documentation from the Nigerian Society of International Bogglists. The NSIOB verified that he could type over 300 words a minute and knew more than 99% of all words in the English language.

Wow!

Pretty impressive.

The average person only knows about 6% of the words in the English language. And something like 98% of people can't type 60 words per minute. The average speed being... 30 ish?

Consequently, Megacheater could post about his amazing accomplishments. About scoring over 3,000 points in 4x4 and 5,000 points in 5x5. With over 400 words in 4x4 and 600 words in 5x5.

People were cheering. Lining the roads in celebration. Parades were had. Nigerian Princes and Princesses rode their regal floats and magic carpets, giving us mere mortals a glimpse of the greatness only imagined in dreams.

Ah, dreams.

So different than reality.

But, for some, the dream is all they have; reality just too hard to bear.

{ps: speaking of vocabulary, did you know that ranivores are creatures that eat frogs? With two ponds in the back, we get to watch a parade of creatures preying on frogs. And, best of all, ranivore is accepted in Wordtwist.)

[bwt1213]

Total points: 790 New record!
Total words: 122 (22 common,12 wide,13 rare,75 ultra rare) New record!

Bested my high score playing 4X4 tonight. Talk about an excellent early Christmas present. Happy Holidays, all.

Great job! Couldn't help noticing the high appw score, especially for 4x4 -- you seem to have found a rich vein or three.

[JJBeanie]

Total points: 790 New record!
Total words: 122 (22 common,12 wide,13 rare,75 ultra rare) New record!

Bested my high score playing 4X4 tonight. Talk about an excellent early Christmas present. Happy Holidays, all.

Congratulations, jbud1980! It's such a buzz when things like that happen.