How?!

[bwt1213]

Estive...you know that knowing the meaning of the word that you input in Scrabble...is NOT a rule...right? Apart from that...it's always interesting to learn how others play. Do Not Get Me Started on Monopoly rules....(apparently we've been playing it "wrong" for years..at what price entertainment?)

When I played Scrabble at home (I was 12 when I started) we had exactly the same rule. If you couldn't define it, it wasn't allowed. If it was challenged and your definition was wrong, the word wasn't allowed even if it was in the dictionary. We had a nice, fat dictionary, which I read several times. I played everyone -- I really mean everyone willing to play, too -- and never lost a game, ever, until I was 19 and played the woman I later married. Yep, I beat my parents every time. My father, the English teacher and band director lost to me every time we played. My mother and her college friends, ditto. No one ever complained about the house rule, either. I often scored over 700 points a game. Ah, those were the days. 60 years ago!

[Naboka]

When I was younger, I used to play Scrabble where you had to know the meaning of the words you input, otherwise the tiles played would be considered invalid. Though that's the past now, and I don't know what more than half of the words I play mean >.< I don't really play by blocking, I see the words mostly as well.

I think "chunking" needs to be clarified. Chunking isn't really blocking.

Players here come in all levels of skill. Skill is a product of chunking. You study, study, study; practice, practice, practice and all that knowledge has to go somewhere. Our conscious minds can't handle all that information as individual pieces, so we chunk it. We combine the smaller pieces into larger groups and combine the larger groups into even larger groups.

Artists have used a grid technique since before Christ. Even some of the masters. Today, talented artists can become indignant about the idea of using a grid. If you suggest they used a grid, they can become apoplectic. Even beginning artists can create fair likenesses using a grid, so to be accused of doing that!!!!!! What an insult!

But, a grid is simply a formulaic method of doing what anyone has to do to capture a realistic likeness: you have to orient points on a picture plane as closely as those that exist on the viewed plane. You have to orient those points. Just like a surveyor, you have to know exactly where each point is in relation to every other. You have to know where the corner of a lip is in relation to the corners of the eyes. You have to establish benchmarks and measure from those benchmarks. (like surveying) If you're drawing to scale, you have to adjust the measures according to that scale.

But, (if you aren't doing abstracts) you still orient to benchmarks. Doesn't matter how skilled you are or what you call your technique.

Blocking, I would guess, refers to having a square of letters that are easily recognizable and produce a given number of words. This works well for beginners.

But, not for advanced players. Blocking doesn't allow a player to perform the mental acrobatics required to twist through the multiple possibilities of letter connections.

Relying on blocking will keep a player at an elementary level. But, it is a useful technique that can improve beginning scores.

Chunking is different. It allows a player to put all the word elements and word patterns into his/her subconscious brain and operate from there.

In chunking, we see 0-u-s-e and know that all manner of possibilities exist. They almost never exist in a grid, but rather in strings meandering through the board. Your subconscious brain is salivating at the possibility of douse, souse, touse, touser, house, chouse, trouse, etc. The possibilities get pulled into your conscious brain and you look for them.

If your eyes detect s-k-e-e , your conscious brain might pull up an array of chunked possibilities and begin the search: skee, skees, sken, skeen, skeen, skeens, skene, sker, skeer, skeers, etc.

It's all individual words, be it a 3 letter word or 16 or 30 with the longer words meandering around the board in increasing complexity--but always dependent on individual chunks of information. The re, ing, ness, nesses, ation, that chunk and rechunk into larger words.

We warehouse the possibilities. We learn the patterns and chunk those patterns in our subconscious brain. It's not an insult to have learned a lot of stuff and learned how to use shortcuts to accomplish goals.

A master draughtsman subconsciously grids--but with shortcuts. He's eliminated all the extraneous lines, and learned to orient the points from benchmarks he's independently established. All the right angles of an set grid become cumbersome. He's streamlined the process and expanded it so he knows the angle from the center of the chin to the top of the ear is exactly a certain amount. He doesn't have to measure the angle with a tool. He's that skilled. He's had enough experience that he knows, and he's measured it mentally.

Chess players gain insights as they improve their level of skill. It's a revelation that revolutionizes their game. But, it's old hat to players levels above who have moved onto greater insights--but chunked those previous insights. Then, those higher level players have insights which revolutionize their games--but are old hat to those even more advanced.

Learning is a building process. Learning to play Wordtwist at higher levels is a building process. It would be interesting for more advanced players to share their insights with those of us who are struggling to climb the mountain. But, in truth, as individuals advance in a field, they often have no idea how they do what they do, much less how to explain it to someone else.

[flops]

When I played Scrabble at home (I was 12 when I started) we had exactly the same rule. If you couldn't define it, it wasn't allowed. If it was challenged and your definition was wrong, the word wasn't allowed even if it was in the dictionary. We had a nice, fat dictionary, which I read several times. I played everyone -- I really mean everyone willing to play, too -- and never lost a game, ever, until I was 19 and played the woman I later married. Yep, I beat my parents every time. My father, the English teacher and band director lost to me every time we played. My mother and her college friends, ditto. No one ever complained about the house rule, either. I often scored over 700 points a game. Ah, those were the days. 60 years ago!

Sounds similar to me playing Boggle, you end up no one to play with...sigh...still, I think its a bit mean making rules to stop your kids from beating you (not that it works!!). When we played scrabble, you didn't have to know the meaning (and its NOT A RULE, in my Nanna's really old and possibly original version), but if you didn't know the meaning, you had to look it up (also not a rule, but we were sooo curious).

[MegaWord]

Kinda funny, but one thing I've come to realize is that my nails tapping the keys slows me down. Must have fingertips on keys, not nails. And another is the humidity, or stickiness of the fingers, can't have that either. I didn't try any advanced strategies to improve my game in the beginning. I just looked at the missed words and tried to find them on the next game, that was back when the only twice occurring consonants were RSTN, so the same words occurring were even more probable. My typing was below average as well, I rejoiced at achieving 500 pts the first time, now I average higher than that playing all games unselectively, last month in 4x4 averaging 570 pts in such a fashion.

[Naboka]

Kinda funny, but one thing I've come to realize is that my nails tapping the keys slows me down. Must have fingertips on keys, not nails. And another is the humidity, or stickiness of the fingers, can't have that either. I didn't try any advanced strategies to improve my game in the beginning. I just looked at the missed words and tried to find them on the next game, that was back when the only twice occurring consonants were RSTN, so the same words occurring were even more probable. My typing was below average as well, I rejoiced at achieving 500 pts the first time, now I average higher than that playing all games unselectively, last month in 4x4 averaging 570 pts in such a fashion.

Good to know you're human. Any secrets other than hard work, practice and study?

[MegaWord]

Good to know you're human. Any secrets other than hard work, practice and study?

Well, the real reason I have excelled is this burning desire within me to push the limits of achievement and possibility and show others the awesomeness of it, to surprise, to awe. I have expressed this through video game achievements. I grew up playing video games from a very young age. It is a way to channel and express this desire to the world.

[Naboka]

Well, the real reason I have excelled is this burning desire within me to push the limits of achievement and possibility and show others the awesomeness of it, to surprise, to awe. I have expressed this through video game achievements. I grew up playing video games from a very young age. It is a way to channel and express this desire to the world.

Well, consider me in awe.

I can only imagine the zen-like state required to focus and remain calm trying to accomplish that much in such a short period. When I've had near accidents, time has slowed down. It used to do that in martial arts. In fights, opponents just seemed to move in slow motion. There are Wordtwist games when I've gotten into that state, but lacked the word storehouse and finger dexterity to capitalize on it.

About a month ago, it even crashed my mental circuitry, all those neural pathways pinging and zinging out the window. Even the muscle memories for the keyboard went haywire. It was certainly interesting.

Craig Malkin's book Rethinking Narcissism is an excellent read. Having a high opinion of one's self and one's ability is an asset for healthy living.

I knew the drive was there from other comments you've made. I'm still interested in the higher level strategies you've developed, though I'm also aware that talented people often have no way to describe what they do or how they do it at a level that separates them from others.

When I finish an art course I'm working on, I'll probably revisit your videos and back engineer your approach.

[MegaWord]

Well, consider me in awe.

I can only imagine the zen-like state required to focus and remain calm trying to accomplish that much in such a short period. When I've had near accidents, time has slowed down. It used to do that in martial arts. In fights, opponents just seemed to move in slow motion. There are Wordtwist games when I've gotten into that state, but lacked the word storehouse and finger dexterity to capitalize on it.

About a month ago, it even crashed my mental circuitry, all those neural pathways pinging and zinging out the window. Even the muscle memories for the keyboard went haywire. It was certainly interesting.

Craig Malkin's book Rethinking Narcissism is an excellent read. Having a high opinion of one's self and one's ability is an asset for healthy living.

I knew the drive was there from other comments you've made. I'm still interested in the higher level strategies you've developed, though I'm also aware that talented people often have no way to describe what they do or how they do it at a level that separates them from others.

When I finish an art course I'm working on, I'll probably revisit your videos and back engineer your approach.

Interesting that you mention martial arts. When I was really pushing for higher scores I would listen to Bloodsport Soundtrack: Finals, it would connect me to that emotional intensity I was looking for which would increase my bodily response. It is like training your reflexes seeing things planning the next move while enacting the current one. Remembering the mental string of words you're typing while already planning and seeking the others. The faster I type the easier it is mentally, because there is less time necessary to hold the mental queue of words. When my typing is slow, it degrades my mental game as well. The fingers must work in tandem with the mind.