Another competition

[bwt1213]

My personal goal is to make the top 50 on all the lists -- most points, highest average, words per game, and points per word. Some of the players (you know who you are) might not consider that much of a challenge, but it's reasonably difficult for me and I don't always get there. Some months, I don't get enough points. Some, the points per word trips me up. Perhaps some of you would find my little game within a game a challenge, too.

[leabhar]

Nope, not me. I really don't give a toss to be on lists. I like to find the last word on a board, or a word that no one found before on a 50+ board. It is cool that I find on occassion the longest or best scoring word, but I cannot and do not want to compete with native speakers. It's about learning new words and more than anything else: fun.

[bwt1213]

Nope, not me. I really don't give a toss to be on lists. I like to find the last word on a board, or a word that no one found before on a 50+ board. It is cool that I find on occassion the longest or best scoring word, but I cannot and do not want to compete with native speakers. It's about learning new words and more than anything else: fun.

On a TV game show, I heard that an American who doesn't speak French memorized the French Scrabble dictionary in two weeks, then went to France and won the French Scrabble tournament. You're doing a whole lot better than that; you write English better than many native speakers. So, don't sell yourself short -- you can do it if you want. The key phrase is: "if you want". I think we all play our game-within-a-game, and I'm not issuing a challenge. If I were, I can think of a dozen people who wouldn't just surpass my results but make my standings look downright pathetic.

[Naboka]

Nope, not me. I really don't give a toss to be on lists. I like to find the last word on a board, or a word that no one found before on a 50+ board. It is cool that I find on occassion the longest or best scoring word, but I cannot and do not want to compete with native speakers. It's about learning new words and more than anything else: fun.

Kind of have to laugh. I suppose being a native English speaker provides advantages,, but game moves far beyond native speaking. I don't know anyone who knows or uses: oof, oon, oor, oos, oose, oont. Nor oba, oda, ora, soba, sora, abo. And we aren't even talking: deil, diel, sei, seis, seir, rei, reis, teil, steil. I don't know the percentage of "non-word" words I've had to learn to play this game, but it has little to do with being a native speaker.

[scheffek]

Well being a non-native speaker doesn't prevent you from reaching top scores - like mine.

[lalatan]

scheffek, I noticed quite some time ago that you are #1 for lifetime points in the 5x5 Hall of Fame. An amazing achievement! Congrats!!

[scheffek]

scheffek, I noticed quite some time ago that you are #1 for lifetime points in the 5x5 Hall of Fame. An amazing achievement! Congrats!!

Thanks. I'm still exercising my typing skills, and being here is more fun.

[Naboka]

Every month brings something different. Last month I set the goals you've suggested here. The hardest was the points per word. It was the only month I made that list. This month I decided I wanted to join the millionaire's club. I'm about 35,000 points away right now for this month's total. Next month, I'm going to simply take it easy, study word combinations, and rest my wrists. Amazing the stress that all this hurried typing has on aging wrists. Maybe I'll take some art courses for balance.

[bwt1213]

As an interesting footnote, I looked at the lifetime score totals, and saw I was in 46th place -- I didn't think I was that high. But here's the really interesting part: I took the total points I had made and divided by the total games I had played. That should give me the lifetime points per game, right? The number I got was about ten points higher than the number shown for my lifetime points-per-game average.

[bwt1213]

I just checked Scheffek's totals. Take the total points and divide by the total games, and the number is 250 points higher than what is shown for Scheffek's average score per game. Take the total words and divide by the total games and you get an answer about twice as high as the number shown for average words per game. It's pretty clear that something is very wrong with the totals shown, and judging from my own scores only I think the numbers I computed are probably correct and the numbers shown in the table are not.

[leabhar]

I just checked Scheffek's totals. Take the total points and divide by the total games, and the number is 250 points higher than what is shown for Scheffek's average score per game. Take the total words and divide by the total games and you get an answer about twice as high as the number shown for average words per game. It's pretty clear that something is very wrong with the totals shown, and judging from my own scores only I think the numbers I computed are probably correct and the numbers shown in the table are not.

Is it possible they count the games that are not finished as well?

[leabhar]

Kind of have to laugh. I suppose being a native English speaker provides advantages,, but game moves far beyond native speaking. I don't know anyone who knows or uses: oof, oon, oor, oos, oose, oont. Nor oba, oda, ora, soba, sora, abo. And we aren't even talking: deil, diel, sei, seis, seir, rei, reis, teil, steil. I don't know the percentage of "non-word" words I've had to learn to play this game, but it has little to do with being a native speaker.

I have the advantage of speaking more than one (in fact far more than 2) languages and being a language nut. A lot of those words come from immgrants and made it into the US English language. Still I have been playing since 2007 and am on no list at all. Guess I am either not competitive or lazy...

[Naboka]

I have the advantage of speaking more than one (in fact far more than 2) languages and being a language nut. A lot of those words come from immgrants and made it into the US English language. Still I have been playing since 2007 and am on no list at all. Guess I am either not competitive or lazy...

Or you have different priorities. The opportunity costs of learning essentially useless words and playing large numbers of games is almost embarrassing. The other things we could do with that time! The books read, paintings painted, projects finished with that amount of time would be substantial. But, playing is entertaining--and therapeutic, if approached properly. Being competitive, I sometimes justify my obsessions with the George Mallory quote for why he climbed Everest. Didn't realize that many of the words here were from immigrants. Which languages do you speak? Just English and a bit of French here.

[leabhar]

Or you have different priorities. The opportunity costs of learning essentially useless words and playing large numbers of games is almost embarrassing. The other things we could do with that time! The books read, paintings painted, projects finished with that amount of time would be substantial. But, playing is entertaining--and therapeutic, if approached properly. Being competitive, I sometimes justify my obsessions with the George Mallory quote for why he climbed Everest. Didn't realize that many of the words here were from immigrants. Which languages do you speak? Just English and a bit of French here.

I read the books, work, knit, crochet, garden, dogs... so much and not enough time, lol. I am native Dutch, married to a South Dakotan (We live in the Netherlands). So: Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish, Greek and I just started learning Danish.

[bwt1213]

Is it possible they count the games that are not finished as well?

Based on the fact that the words per game is only half the actual result, you'd expect the average score to be only half, as well -- though that difference may be possible. However, if they were counting unfinished games as well, my own averages would be far different than they are. I wouldn't be off by a paltry few points, I'd be off by hundreds.