The beautiful game

[Naboka]

Since the dictionary update last year my experience has been similar to leabhar's. It takes way longer to find a game where I may be able to set a long word record. Recently I adpoted a personal policy of quitting gameplay for the day if I have to click through 50+ games. I have occasionally counted the number of games I've had to click through to find one and hit 80+ a few times and over 100 once. While the upgrade seems to be a boon for speed players it seems to be the inverse for long word players. Exacerbating the problem is speed players increasingly playing long words because of their higher point values, which of course is their right to do so. I'm going to e-mail Stephen to relate my experience since the upgrade and see if anything can be done to change the situation. (However, the game actually is designed for speed players. I don't expect him to cater to my personal whims.) So if it doesn't change I will mostly bow out of gameplay and move onto other pursuits. I've had a good run so can't complain.

Your leaving would be a terrible loss. All the crazy words you find. I wouldn't be able to play what word did lalatan find? anymore.

Once I tried to find a game with a 35 or 36 point word on 4x4. My best had been stuck at 34 and I wanted to improve it.

I'd studied all those words on the best lists. And long-word players don't retire boards, so it made some sense that I could find one of the many boards players have found those--reflected in the puzzle stats at the beginining.

Didn't count the clicks or really note the time, but my fingers and wrists and forearms really started aching. I'd switch fingers, doing 50 with each finger and cycling back. Nothing. A complete exercise in futility. Had to be over a thousand clicks. Well over. But, subitizing isn't my forte when suffering. Ached too much to play for a couple of days.

Anyway, as an act of charity to those of us who lack your long-word skills, it behooves you to stay. Just think of Saint Peter examining his clipboard when you arrive at the Pearly Gates. Eyebrow raised, he looks at you, looks back at the board, smiles, and steps aside so you can enter.

Emeritus status isn't nearly as entertaining as keeping the coeds honest?

[kittencaboodle]

hmmm yes I love it less too now, but my reason is that many of the long words are now at a level of obscurity that you sort of have to learn them in order to play - a reasonably educated word gamer wouldn't be able to guess the complicated multi prefix medical words, nor the words denoting ridiculously high numbers, without studying up. This takes the pleasure out of it somewhat for me.

[lalatan]

Originally posted by Naboka View Post
Your leaving would be a terrible loss. All the crazy words you find. I wouldn't be able to play what word did lalatan find? anymore.

Once I tried to find a game with a 35 or 36 point word on 4x4. My best had been stuck at 34 and I wanted to improve it.

Anyway, as an act of charity to those of us who lack your long-word skills, it behooves you to stay. Just think of Saint Peter examining his clipboard when you arrive at the Pearly Gates. Eyebrow raised, he looks at you, looks back at the board, smiles, and steps aside so you can enter...


Lol, you have a great imagination.

Yeah, while playing 4x4 I very seldom see any stats with a best word over 34 pts. I was happy when I set records for NONEQUALIZATIONS (37/16) the end of March. (I started taking 4x4 screenshots a while ago. Lots of interesting words in 4x4 now.) Ironically the previous record holder had played EQUALIZATIONS for 31 pts. That's probably the highest pt value I surpassed in 4x4.

I will also add this. I have pretty well surpassed the records of everyone... except you. There were about 10 games where you were the best/longest word record holder. The stats suggested that maybe there were opportunities to better them. Nope, not once. So congrats on that. I don't bother trying anymore. lol

Also, I consider you an HQHB. I appreciate the empathy and support you have shown me in the past. You are 1 of the most interesting people I've known. You have so many life experiences and a lot of wisdom.

[Naboka]

Originally posted by Naboka View Post
Your leaving would be a terrible loss. All the crazy words you find. I wouldn't be able to play what word did lalatan find? anymore.

Once I tried to find a game with a 35 or 36 point word on 4x4. My best had been stuck at 34 and I wanted to improve it.

Anyway, as an act of charity to those of us who lack your long-word skills, it behooves you to stay. Just think of Saint Peter examining his clipboard when you arrive at the Pearly Gates. Eyebrow raised, he looks at you, looks back at the board, smiles, and steps aside so you can enter...


Lol, you have a great imagination.

Yeah, while playing 4x4 I very seldom see any stats with a best word over 34 pts. I was happy when I set records for NONEQUALIZATIONS (37/16) the end of March. (I started taking 4x4 screenshots a while ago. Lots of interesting words in 4x4 now.) Ironically the previous record holder had played EQUALIZATIONS for 31 pts. That's probably the highest pt value I surpassed in 4x4.

I will also add this. I have pretty well surpassed the records of everyone... except you. There were about 10 games where you were the best/longest word record holder. The stats suggested that maybe there were opportunities to better them. Nope, not once. So congrats on that. I don't bother trying anymore. lol

Also, I consider you an HQHB. I appreciate the empathy and support you have shown me in the past. You are 1 of the most interesting people I've known. You have so many life experiences and a lot of wisdom.

Thanks for the compliments.

You might as well just keep trying. I don't know how many times I've ended a game, glanced at the board and groaned about having missed a hidden element.

Some words are just so glaringly obvious. Played unutterablenesses the other day. Nesses always stands out. As does able. The utter couldn't be missed, nor the un. Took about 8 seconds into the board while running through the essesn combos. (I've added enses to the mix, which seems to be new to the recent boards.) Thought immediately, this must be how lalatan sees a board. Very proud of myself for thinking I've done something as efficiently as you.

But other times, even when I know you've found some long word, I'll have to really study the board to figure out how you were even able to unravel the threads. Some threads are just sooooo tangled and murky. But you're able to see what others miss.

You happen to be the target of anyone trying to learn long words. It's a huge compliment to have good players trying to match what you've done.

A couple of days before May ended, my average hit 700.00. The number was so perfect with all those zeroes. I stopped playing just to preserve it.

Then I had a panic attack during the night and got up to look at boards. Playing the game helps to reset my mental state. An oddity popped up. I'd lost 8 highest score records in just a couple of days. WhIch I immediately atributed to the glitch as I hadn't lost any for over a week. (Just yesterday I gained 5 longest word record overnight without playing anything, so...)

But, a pattern started to emerge. I'd play, notice a record disappear, check who was on line who might have caused it. And after an analysis, realized one of the top players was targeting my games. The percentage of my games lost to theirs played was statistically cockeyed. Made me laugh. I must have hit the big time for a 1,000 point/200 word plus player to feel that beating my games was an important challenge.

No way that I can challenge that kind of typing ability. So I thought, "why not play a bunch of mid level games that completely neutralize the typing advantage. Watch them run into a brick wall." Sometimes I just get so competitive.

But, I think a lot of things. Drives the wife crazy how I can entertain diametrically opposed ideas simultaneously while outrolling multiple variations. I've tried to explain to her that it's just a convenient way to examine all options, and doesn't mean I'm committing to any of them. She usually shakes her head and walks off. Why can't I just make up my mind!! Huff.

Which brings me to the point: I'm just going to continue doing what I'm doing. It's what I do best. And what you do best seems the best option for you. Just because someone else is splashing in the river doesn't mean either of us should stop swimming how we like to swim.

As long as there aren't crocodiles or piranha.

Or naked nymphs.

Out of respect, I'd just have to get out of the river and sit on the shore watching.

[lalatan]

Some words are just so glaringly obvious. Played unutterablenesses the other day. Nesses always stands out. As does able. The utter couldn't be missed, nor the un. Took about 8 seconds into the board while running through the essesn combos. (I've added enses to the mix, which seems to be new to the recent boards.) Thought immediately, this must be how lalatan sees a board. Very proud of myself for thinking I've done something as efficiently as you.

Yup, that's 1 of the ways it happens, seeing different pieces and putting them together. I used to spot -nesses first but lately if there is -able I'll see that first. No idea why my mind would switch over like that. My brain seems to do some things w/o thinking about doing them. Many times when the board pops up my eyes will be drawn to a certain area of the board and that's 1 of the word fragments I need. About once a month my eyes will go to an area and immediately I know what the word is. Last month I saw 2 letters, SA, in the upper right area and my self-talk voice told me, "The word is DESALINIZATIONS." Is my mind actually recalling the board layout and where those insignificant letters were positioned?!

I'd love to see your MRI when you're playing a game in which you find 100+ ultra-rare words. If someone put a good soundtrack to it, it'd be a cool light show...

[leabhar]

hmmm yes I love it less too now, but my reason is that many of the long words are now at a level of obscurity that you sort of have to learn them in order to play - a reasonably educated word gamer wouldn't be able to guess the complicated multi prefix medical words, nor the words denoting ridiculously high numbers, without studying up. This takes the pleasure out of it somewhat for me.

I totally agree with you.

[JoanM19]

GLUCOOLIGOSACCHARIDES ...... wtf.... doesn't quite roll off the tongue... I'd be lucky to get the saccharide part of the word...

[Naboka]

Yup, that's 1 of the ways it happens, seeing different pieces and putting them together. I used to spot -nesses first but lately if there is -able I'll see that first. No idea why my mind would switch over like that. My brain seems to do some things w/o thinking about doing them. Many times when the board pops up my eyes will be drawn to a certain area of the board and that's 1 of the word fragments I need. About once a month my eyes will go to an area and immediately I know what the word is. Last month I saw 2 letters, SA, in the upper right area and my self-talk voice told me, "The word is DESALINIZATIONS." Is my mind actually recalling the board layout and where those insignificant letters were positioned?!

I'd love to see your MRI when you're playing a game in which you find 100+ ultra-rare words. If someone put a good soundtrack to it, it'd be a cool light show...

Had an MRI on the skull about a year ago. Claustraphobia almost slammed the door on that vault when it was only half open. Deep breaths, calm breaths, imagine you're in outerspace. Get me out of here!

The human mind is so fascinating. What happens at the level of recognized consciousness, and what subliminally? Studies seem to indicate we perceive far, far more than we allow ourselves to recognise after the tedious mechanisms of mental processing get done.

As counter intuitive as it sounds, not processing the board is faster. Just letting the higher consciousness provide answers. Artists call it their muse. The less they try to control what they allow their minds to process, the broader their creativity becomes.

Just watching social media provides the clues as to why human minds are so sluggish. All the denial. So much stop this, stop that, prevent this, prevent that. Kind of hampers the ability to allow thought and perceptions to move.

People tend to not want to be wrong, to not want to make mistakes. Probably some ridiculous survival mechanism. But the greatest lesson we bring to the kids in kindergarten is: you can't learn if you don't make mistakes. We want you making lots and lots of mistakes. You learn from mistakes. And you learn a lot from being wrong--...

if you take the time to examine why it's wrong.

Your superconsciousness or metacognition or whatever you want to call it probably recognizes all sorts of patterns before your conscious mind realizes: hey, that's the answer.

As for the light show, it would be chaotic. Reminescent of the light show from Close Encounters to the nth.

[Naboka]

For years players complained about all the usable words and word forms that weren't recognized on Wordtwist.

Stephen took those complaints to heart and spent years trying to develop a workable remedy. And you have to realize it was a lot of hard work.

A lot of thought.

A lot of weighing options.

What to add, what to exclude?

Where to draw the line.

Where to find balance. What about slang, obsolete terms, dialect, etc?

Is the solution perfect? Not at all.

Was a perfect solution possible? Nope.

But, it cost him money buying access to an expanded dictionary.

Will everyone be happy? Not on your life.

I used to get so irritated playing words I knew that weren't recognized. Now many of those words are counted. But there are still gaps, still words that I know that don't count here. Words that are used all the time in medicine and various fields of science. Such as various biological classifications.

It's never going to be fair playing games. People are different. People have different skill sets. Different abilities.

Mostly, I just want to say that I appreciate all the effort admin put in trying to improve the game.

Maybe those improvements made the game more unfair, giving a huge advantage to players with bloated vocabularies and a fascination for strange words. Maybe all those strange words are offensive to casual players. My wife likes to chide me for using "fake words" here. She has a certain contempt for it.

Because it doesn't seem fair to her.

Though randomly hitting key possiblities in hopes of finding a word strikes her as fair. I don't know. Maybe accidental success is better than deliberate.

But, again, thank you, Stephen for all the hard work that went into all this.

[lalatan]

I thought it was very considerate that Stephen polled us on the forum before the implementation of the new dictionaries. There were no voices at that time calling for the abolition of long words, words not used in today's vernacular, words I don't think are real, etc. It was exactly the opposite; we came to a consensus that we wanted it all: short ones, long ones, scientific, medical, obsolete, archaic, slang, foreign words borrowed into English. So, that's what we got. Stephen will always be damned if does and damned if he doesn't. If I were him I'd choose to be damned by the minority rather than the majority.

I applaud Stephen's willingness and hard work to improve this website. It's way beyond what it was years ago.

[folkslinger]

[For more sensitive readers, the following is a joke]

Complaints about Wordtwist

1. It has made me stay up way too late and lose sleep.
2. It is forcing me to kiss my wife a lot. (because when my wife and I play as Seamonster, we have to kiss everytime we exceed the average score)
3. It reduces my mindfulness, primarily by allowing me to ignore the pain in my hands.
4. It prevents me worrying excessively about things I cannot control.
5. It forces me to learn new words and information.

[End of joke]


It is a beautiful game and the comments by Naboka and lalatan are well deserved accolades.

[leabhar]

The comments made by lalatan and nabuka are made by players who memorized useless multiletter words. Nobody said the game isn’t beautiful, but for mediocre players it slowly becomes impossible to play. That is the point we are trying to make. Again: I am a non native speaker and I do not care for 24 letter words that an average bear never heard of. But no worries, I have found an excellent word game, which is challenging and fun.

[Naboka]

Dang, this thread is just begging for a philosophical outburt.

From Thoreau's our quiet desperation concealed by games and amusements to Camu's assessment that life is meaningless resulting in our Sisyphean effort to find answers and value where none exist.

The absurdity of our existence and how we try to find value.

For the last few weeks I've been watching the NBA finals. Talk about absurd. Grown men trying desperately to throw a ball through a hoop while other grown men try desperately to stop them. All that trash talking. Players being paid millions (value represented by $$$$) to do it, and watched by millions. Some of those viewers so attached to the outcome that they'll roadrage for days if their team loses.

Still sucks me in. And makes me cheer and groan.

(At least the losers aren't put to death.)

"Use" is a tricky word. One person's "use" is another's "useless." One of my friends makes good money making artwork out of metal others have thrown away. He found "use" in the "uselessness." And, because the findings and artworkings are plural, you might say "uselessnesses."

As for memorizing useless long words, a large portion of the long words I find were learned decades ago in high school, college, and work. Relevant words. The words I've memorized for the game are predominantly 3-7 letters. And, there is no doubt those are useless (though oont and xystus have their moments) for anything other than this game. Utterly useless. Never to be used elsewhere other than as a joke.

But wow, the points they produce!!!

And producing points has its use--or value.

And despite the meaninglessness of playing an array of meaningless words, I would venture that the challenge is not much different than playing the words all of us have memorized throughout our lives. Such as most of the words dear reader is reading in this comment. You can read them because you've memorized them. You recognize them.

Any language requires memorization. Playing an entire language of meaningless words is similar to playing the game as a foreign language. I would venture even more challenging--because the letter patterns are merely patterns without meaning.

(Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Worse than smoking dried bananas to get high.)

Every player has their own goals and methods to reach those goals. If we wish our goals and methods to be respected, it behooves us to not diminish other's methods and efforts. Tearing down others because we can't match their accomplishments isn't a good look. I'll never ever ever be able to type as fast as boysmom, Megaword, ThunderRock or others.
Nor will I ever develop the longword skills of lalatan, kjambur, dadsbricks or others. Their skills serve as an inspiration. They aren't enemies they're fellow players.

We all have our own problems. Knowing too many words can (counterintuitively) hurt your game. This morning I tried centistere which is a hundredth of a stere. Stere is only a rare word rather than ultrarare, so you'd think...but oh no, centistere wasn't accepted. And it's a word you can type into google and get an immediate definition!

Nor did that same game accept retistene which is a crystaline hydrocarbon derived from retene. Retene's accepted. And you can google either and get definitions.

So, those are known words, that weren't memorized for this game, that produced...NOTHING--except lost time and missing retiring the board by 4 lousy points!

And right, don't cry for me Argentina.

But, the relevant point is that each and every player has a distinct set of history, abilities, problems, goals that they bring to the game. Each, in essence, plays by default a slightly different variation of the game than anyone else. And it's really not the place of any of us to demand everyone else play according to our abilities and and goals.

When people bump into me in the store and say, "sorry," I like to joke "You should be, I'm the most important person in the universe." Great ice breaker for striking up conversations. Other people bring so much to our lives. All their stories and experiences. Their whys and wherefores. Such a reward that everyone else is different.

And if others get the records I wanted, that's okay. I appreciate them being here. Good for them. There's always another game.

[lalatan]

The comments made by lalatan and nabuka are made by players who memorized useless multiletter words. Nobody said the game isn't beautiful, but for mediocre players it slowly becomes impossible to play. That is the point we are trying to make. Again: I am a non native speaker and I do not care for 24 letter words that an average bear never heard of. But no worries, I have found an excellent word game, which is challenging and fun.

I fail to see (not that I need to) how the existence of lengthy words in this game makes it more impossible for anyone. It may impede your ability to be competitve with other players. But there are tens of thousands of words 3-10 (or whatever upper limit you want to use) letters in length that can be played. Even more so with the latest dictionaries update. Anyway, I'm glad you're still able to enjoy the game.

I don't understand folks like Joan who get upset when they encounter certain long words in this game. If it's in the dictionaries used on WordTwist why shouldn't it be playable? I don't know the exact criteria for the admission of words into dictionaries but I would venture to say the word was used enough by a large enough group of people at some point in time to be admitted. That said, like kittencaboodle, about 7 years ago I wrote on the forum I had no desire to learn long medical and scientific words. I change my mind; I learned that if I wanted to be competitive I had to learn them. Now I see them as a challenge and enjoy learning them.

Lol, folkslinger, I enjoyed your post. I have some of those complaints myself.

naboka, I liked your philosophical outburst.

[kittencaboodle]

Appreciate the discussion and in no way meant to throw aspersions on Stephen's efforts to improve the game. I have a feeling some suggestions I made long ago may have contributed to the boards being the way they are now and that makes me very happy! As for the words themselves, I studied biology and chemistry at college level many years ago and know a lot of words that laypeople don't, but I have balked at the "next level" of technicality required for these more recent developments. I appreciate what lalatan has said about these being a new challenge. I think for me I just don't enjoy "learning words to play" but like to draw on the fund of knowledge I already have. For example, with Scrabble I have also refused to learn the two-letter word list which means I will never be a competitive player! So that's definitely just me and mostly about the limitations of my competitiveness/what feels fun for me.