Other Games

[2cute]

Does anyone else play any other games besides WordTwist?

I tried Word Searches & Trivia on this UBulletin section. And I also played many puzzle games (Candy Mahjongg, 9 & 8 ball, Sweet Shuffle etc ... ) in the new section.

[JJBeanie]

WordTwist is definitely my favourite game, but I play a few others, too. My favs are:

1. Wordtwist

2. Bontegames is a great site. It has lots of different puzzle games. I have a few on my phone for when I'm in a waiting room. Factory Balls gets quite challenging, Sugar Sugar is fun, and the colour games go from super easy to what-the-heck.

3. Web Sudoku (.com)

4. Number Grids (Puzzle Baron)

5. GeoGuessr

I'll also play scrabble, mahjongg, logic puzzles, the occasional jigsaw and tetris. In real life I play Bananagrams with my sister when we visit - we have a few variations to the standard game. Basically, I'll play just about anything

[2cute]

That's great JJBeanie. I'll try out Bontegames. For a long time I played on Royal but now they are ending their site in Dec 2021. So I am looking for a similar site. So far I haven't found one like that. PuzzleBaron is the closest I have found where members can chat & interact with each other besides playing the games.

I've never heard of GeoGuessr or Bananagrams. I used to play lots of board games, Uno & card games when I was young. Occasionally I still play Rummy when my family visits.

[Nylimb]

When I want something entertaining for a few minutes, I play either WordTwist or Tetris.

When I have more time and energy, I usually do logic puzzles, mostly Sudoku variants, that I find on the Cracking the Cryptic YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/CrackingTheCryptic/videos. Two British puzzle champions, Mark Goodliffe and Simon Anthony, do live solves of hand-crafted puzzles, some of which are very clever. They give links so you can try to solve them yourself. (I usually manage to solve them, but much more slowly than Mark or Simon.) They've even done a few of my own puzzles.

[quetzalmom]

Twist Text is similar to Wordtwist in that you have to find words with a given set of letters. Some elements way easier, some harder. I like it as a break from Wordtwist.

[2cute]

Twist Text is similar to Wordtwist in that you have to find words with a given set of letters. Some elements way easier, some harder. I like it as a break from Wordtwist.

I just tried it on 'Game House' it is harder than wordtwist as you don't type it in. Plus to move onto the next level you need to use all the letters to make a single word. That would be a great game for the super long word players.

[2cute]

When I want something entertaining for a few minutes, I play either WordTwist or Tetris.

When I have more time and energy, I usually do logic puzzles, mostly Sudoku variants, that I find on the Cracking the Cryptic YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/CrackingTheCryptic/videos. Two British puzzle champions, Mark Goodliffe and Simon Anthony, do live solves of hand-crafted puzzles, some of which are very clever. They give links so you can try to solve them yourself. (I usually manage to solve them, but much more slowly than Mark or Simon.) They've even done a few of my own puzzles.

So you created games & then other people play them? Interesting.

[2cute]

2. Bontegames is a great site. It has lots of different puzzle games. I have a few on my phone for when I'm in a waiting room. Factory Balls gets quite challenging, Sugar Sugar is fun, and the colour games go from super easy to what-the-heck.

Basically, I'll play just about anything

I just visited the site & found almost every game I chose required I use flash. So did you keep Flash on your computer? I deleted my version since adobe insisted they would not longer support it.

[bwt1213]

So you created games & then other people play them? Interesting.

I have actually done that myself, to a remarkable lack of success. One such game was a search in four dimensions. You were trying to track down the bad guy, but your detector only gave you the 4-D distance, not the direction. Your score was determined by the number of moves it took you to find him. A perfect score was four moves to find him, then one move to put you right there with him (that verified you'd done it correctly). If you were within 0.1 units of the bad guy, that counted as a success. The grid was a thousand units in each direction, and neither you nor the bad guy had to have integer coordinates for anything. You weren't supposed to use a calculator, of course. That would take the fun away.

I used to play it occasionally, just to relax. No one else ever played it more than once. Lots of people declined to play it at all. Go figure.

[Nylimb]

So you created games & then other people play them? Interesting.

They're puzzles, not games. I sometimes post puzzles that I create on Logic Masters Germany https://logic-masters.de/Raetselport...hp?name=Nylimb. Some fans of that site liked some of them and suggested them to the guys on Cracking the Cryptic. That was early in the pandemic. Since then both sites have become a lot more popular, and the number of puzzles to choose from has grown. These days I think most of the puzzles chosen by Cracking the Cryptic are sent in by their creators, but so far I haven't been bold enough to try that.

[JJBeanie]

I just visited the site & found almost every game I chose required I use flash. So did you keep Flash on your computer? I deleted my version since adobe insisted they would not longer support it.

I play on my android phone most of the time these days. I have kept an old version of flash for when I want to play games that are better (for me) with a mouse (like Sugar, Sugar).

[2cute]

I have actually done that myself, to a remarkable lack of success. One such game was a search in four dimensions. You were trying to track down the bad guy, but your detector only gave you the 4-D distance, not the direction. Your score was determined by the number of moves it took you to find him. A perfect score was four moves to find him, then one move to put you right there with him (that verified you'd done it correctly). If you were within 0.1 units of the bad guy, that counted as a success. The grid was a thousand units in each direction, and neither you nor the bad guy had to have integer coordinates for anything. You weren't supposed to use a calculator, of course. That would take the fun away.

I used to play it occasionally, just to relax. No one else ever played it more than once. Lots of people declined to play it at all. Go figure.

Sounds complicated. I can see why some people played it only once. Like a rubix cube. Once you solve it you don't want to mess it up because it was so complicated to get there.

[2cute]

They're puzzles, not games. I sometimes post puzzles that I create on Logic Masters Germany https://logic-masters.de/Raetselport...hp?name=Nylimb. Some fans of that site liked some of them and suggested them to the guys on Cracking the Cryptic. That was early in the pandemic. Since then both sites have become a lot more popular, and the number of puzzles to choose from has grown. These days I think most of the puzzles chosen by Cracking the Cryptic are sent in by their creators, but so far I haven't been bold enough to try that.

What's the difference between puzzles & games? To me they're the same. On some game sites puzzles are a type of game, like matching, mahjongg, zuma etc ...

So I checked out the link. Those puzzles are mostly Sudoku or 'games' with numbers. So you like to create 'puzzles' with numbers. Interesting. I wasn't aware that this was so popular. I know shooting or fighting games are popular (not to me yet I know lots of people who love them). They create clubs & people play each other in these portals. They learn the names of the characters & during comic con they dress up as those characters in the games.

I'm supposing the number games are good for people who speak various languages (other than English) and yet still play & understand one another. Sort of like music. The scale is the same no matter your language, you can communicate a feeling or thought through the music.

[Nylimb]

What's the difference between puzzles & games? To me they're the same.

I did some Googling to see if there's a widely accepted answer to that, and there doesn't seem to be. The answer that I like best is from Robert Lent on https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-di...e-and-a-puzzle: "A puzzle has a solution, and once you’ve solved it, it’s not very interesting anymore. A game can be played again and again."

For example, after solving a crossword or Sudoku puzzle, solving it again wouldn't be much of a challenge, unless enough time has passed so that you've completely forgotten it. But you can play many games of chess and they'll all be different because you and your opponent will choose different moves each time. The same is true for one-player games that involve chance, like video games or solitaire card games.

I guess I'd consider a WordTwist board to be a puzzle, but one which none of us ever solve completely. Given enough time and access to the word list that the website uses, we could find all the words in the board, but 2 or 3 minutes isn't long enough for even the best human players to find and type them all. And even if we did find all of them, we'd probably forget most of them by the time we see that board again.

[Naboka]

I did some Googling to see if there's a widely accepted answer to that, and there doesn't seem to be. The answer that I like best is from Robert Lent on https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-di...e-and-a-puzzle: "A puzzle has a solution, and once you’ve solved it, it’s not very interesting anymore. A game can be played again and again."

For example, after solving a crossword or Sudoku puzzle, solving it again wouldn't be much of a challenge, unless enough time has passed so that you've completely forgotten it. But you can play many games of chess and they'll all be different because you and your opponent will choose different moves each time. The same is true for one-player games that involve chance, like video games or solitaire card games.

I guess I'd consider a WordTwist board to be a puzzle, but one which none of us ever solve completely. Given enough time and access to the word list that the website uses, we could find all the words in the board, but 2 or 3 minutes isn't long enough for even the best human players to find and type them all. And even if we did find all of them, we'd probably forget most of them by the time we see that board again.

Interesting definition.

Words tend to have multiple definitions,

and layers of meaning within each definition--

which tends, over time, to become new definitions.

That a solved puzzle becomes uninteresting has theoretical zing

--but empirical thud.

I don't find lost interest to be accurate. Take solving the Rubik's cube.

Wordtwist seems to be a game with layers and layers of puzzles. You might end up solving dozens of puzzles to finish the game.

The key element of puzzle is making an unknown known.

Once you know, you know.

But, I've never found knowing to be uninteresting. Just the opposite.

The key elements in games involve developing knowledge, abilities and skills to reach known goals more efficiently.

Games will always have unknowns. And the unknowns are the puzzles of that game. Unknowns to be discovered and solved in the pursuit of a larger goal. How do I prevent the wide receiver from catching the ball and scoring a touchdown? How do I respond when he jukes?

Most games contain layers and layers of concatenating puzzles. But, in a sense, puzzles don't contain layers and layers of concatenating games. Though a complex puzzle might contain layers and layers of sub- or contributing puzzles.

A game would probably have a broader level of engagement. Though, a puzzle might take a lifetime to solve--or fail to solve. (Ask a physicist or mathematician.) Whereas a game might only consume a few hours over your entire life.

Doesn't matter that puzzles can be complex and require years to solve. As, per Lent's definition, puzzles tend to have specified solutions.

However, life throws its curves at definitions. Life puzzles can have multiple solutions. Solutions with nuanced difference, or dramatic difference. Religion and politics. Getting a date. Finding a perfect recipe for cheesecake.

A solution for one of us might not be the solution for another. (Which leads to false solutions and insane beliefs, but that's waaaaaaay out of order for friendly chats in a Wordtwist forum--so excuse me for even tracking that mud into the house.)

Games tend to require acquired skills that one develops over time with study and practice with the intent of more efficiently reaching a desired goal.

So, as in the Rubik's cube, solving the puzzle would probably become making it a game. You study the skill to improve on your ability to reach a result, the solution for which was long known, but the expertise in efficiently reaching that goal...that's the game.