The thing about this game, especially the 5x5 grid, is that it's easier to achieve a high ranking if you focus on just one or two of the categories rather than trying to excel in all of them. There are only a few exceptionally talented players who manage to get an extremely high score while also entering words with 15+ letters. If you try to go for most words played, not filtering by points, your score and average is going to be lowered by the 3pt words you include. If you try to avoid low-scoring words, unless you've gotten extremely good at this, your total word count will suffer. If you go hunting for longest word records, it's unlikely that you'll get the total points and most words records as well. And even if you do manage to get 3 or 4 high scores for every board you play, that automatically takes you out of the running for average points per word, because you haven't been selective enough.
I remember realising this a few years ago and thinking that due to the different possible goals and strategies, it's as if there were 4 or 5 different games rolled into one. I tried switching goals ever so often, which means that even though I sometimes got decent scores and some trophies or records, my player averages are consistently mediocre. I've since embraced mediocre and am currently trying to play boards where the longest word hasn't yet been found, but while I'm hunting for the longest word, I'm also entering other words, competing only against myself for total points and number of words found.
I remember realising this a few years ago and thinking that due to the different possible goals and strategies, it's as if there were 4 or 5 different games rolled into one. I tried switching goals ever so often, which means that even though I sometimes got decent scores and some trophies or records, my player averages are consistently mediocre. I've since embraced mediocre and am currently trying to play boards where the longest word hasn't yet been found, but while I'm hunting for the longest word, I'm also entering other words, competing only against myself for total points and number of words found.
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