Comments

[jbud1980]

User has been banned/deleted now and all boards they scored records on have been marked for recycling in the next update a few hours from now.

Would that bot have been banned if its username wasn't so obvious?

[dannyb]

User has been banned/deleted now and all boards they scored records on have been marked for recycling in the next update a few hours from now.

That's great. Thanks. About adding nage to the word list . . . (Just kidding)

[admin]

User has been banned/deleted now and all boards they scored records on have been marked for recycling in the next update a few hours from now.

[dannyb]

MegaCheats. You gotta love that screen name. No pretension at all. "Yeah I cheat. What are going to do about it?". Remember several years ago there was Cheatswithjavascript. No attempt to hide their cheating.

[Naboka]

Stephen, please do expunge MegaCheats and all his stats. And if their IP address corresponds to anyone else's, expunge all their records as well. As much as we don't need to spend our time wondering who is cheating, we certainly don't need to spend any time competing with cheats. Crippled minds and stunted hearts should find their own games and play against their own kind in other games. I will stop now, lest I name them.

Wonder if the IP addresses could be blocked for good from Puzzle Baron. Not even sure how those addresses work. Can you just get another computer and start all over again?

Just out of curiosity, I've been tracking games-played vs high-score cummulative records of the top players to get a better understanding of Prime-Suspect-Number-One's impact. Yesterday PSNO's alter ego played 32 games and Megaword lost 5 high-score records. (64,722-64,717) Somewhat outrageous for a player to beat Megaword 5 times out of a total of 32 games played! Especially a player with a 62.5 % win ratio. (Out of 32 games played, he added 20 high scores to his record: 20/32=62.5 %)

And that doesn't even include the losses others suffered who he likely can't beat playing without assistance.

As for MegaCheats, it would be interestng to see if his/her IP address came from a current player. Hope Stephen posts what he finds if he pursues that angle.

[bwt1213]

Stephen, please do expunge MegaCheats and all his stats. And if their IP address corresponds to anyone else's, expunge all their records as well. As much as we don't need to spend our time wondering who is cheating, we certainly don't need to spend any time competing with cheats. Crippled minds and stunted hearts should find their own games and play against their own kind in other games. I will stop now, lest I name them.

[Naboka]

Looks like someone is making a statement.

Wow!

I 'm convinced they're legitimate.

They managed a high score of 2,670 points on 4x4, and most words at 438! That's some amazing brain power. That's some amazing typing skill.

2,670 points!!!

438 words!!!

All in 2 minutes!

And how can we doubt such excellence?

Screen Shot 2024-12-02 at 9.31.08 AM.png

And with a user name like MegaCheats...

What's there to question?

Makes me want to join a cult being in the presence of such greatness.

[bwt1213]

There's an excellent article about curiosity and how to build it in the newest issue of Scientific American.

[Naboka]

I agree. I'm not anywhere near the best player, but in the past, obvious outliers were swiftly dealt with and removed. Why has that stopped? Is it because bots type in the forum? Remember Nobody, Naboka and you calling it out? Did Nobody average an eye-rolling score comparable to the scores we see by It?

I would imagine admin has no desire to waste time playing whack-a-mole with all the cheats on the the various games under the Puzzle Baron umbrella.

Past cheats that have been called out tended to fade away after being caught. It was more their choice than admin having to step in--except for obvious bots.

Calling out cheats has the downside of becoming a target. Personalities who feel under-respected, usually sit in a seething cauldron of wanting to get revenge. Odds are great that this player (playing under two names now) has been here before, been called out for cheating, left, stewed in that cauldron filled with "being unjustly treated" and vowed to return bigger and better than ever. Probably why he targeted my games in particular--getting even for being called out. Though he did go after Megaword, boysmom and others. Just that he was playing at least 20% of his games initially against mine. He may even have been the player nobody.

When you're running computer assists, you can be as "bigger and better" as you're willing hold back and still seem legitimate. I could use the short program my brother-in-law gave me to average 1500 points a game easily.

Plus, calling out cheaters can annoy other players. Who wants to hear all the complaining? Most players just want to sit for a while and enjoy themselves without all the drama.

Lot of good players still believe he's legitimate. It's that unfalisifiablity factor. As long as he doesn't get too outlandish, he maintains the veneer of legitimacy. Sort of like Bernie Maddoff and Lance Armstrong. A lot of experts in their fields fully believed they were legitimate. There were people shouting out warnings, but...

Now, do people exist who could put up his numbers? Probably dozens or hundreds around the world. But I wouldn't be able to beat such players by 100-200 points, which I've done against both his alter-egos. If I were brighter, I'd be doing something else.

As we both know, this game has an addictive quality. You just want to try again. And again. And again. I think his sub-ego namesake actually plays a lot of games at his ability level--which might be around Turbo's level--or not. That would account for his winning record tending towards 60% rather than 100% which the "bigger and better" namesake "achieves." But, the sub-ego probably isn't capable of beating the big guns, so up comes the computer assist when confronted with the really big fish who have played low-word-availability boards. I mean, you're sitting in a cauldron of being disrespected so you've got to "prove" you deserve respect; you've got to prove to yourself that you're better than the best.

Problem with always winning is stultification. You start a board with lots of points available, turn on your program, get you 1200 plus points, turn off the program before your score gets suspiciously high...over, and over, and over, and over. Other than seeing your name in lights and proving how "amazing" you are, it's got to be a pretty empty experience. Sort of like running races against old people with bad knees. Or playing basketball against five year olds. You know you're always going to win, but...?

But, empty or not, you're addicted, so...

Hopefully, this player will simply start playing the game unassisted. No one really has the means to absolutely prove he's using an assist. No one is there to watch his fingers on the keyboard. A good cheater learns to disguise what he's doing so he doesn't get caught. He learns from his mistakes and makes the cheating seem legitimate. A good cheat can get our confidence--oh yeah, confidence man, conman.

On a fun note, tried to play cambion/cambions but it wasn't accepted. A cambion is the offspring of an incubus or succubus. Kind of a fun word.

Also, been seeing kakistocray popping up on the internet. Haven't seen that word since college. Have no clue as to whether Wordtwist accepts it or not. Too bad we only get one extra point for one of the k's.

And, speaking of "outliers," I tried inliers today and it didn't count. It's in Lexic, so I must have fumbled the typing. It's a rare game that I don't lose several words from crappy typing skills.

ps: just played this game. A very weak board. After finishing, I figured boysmom had gotten less than 110 words and using the average PPW that would have given him a score somewhere in the 570's. Just don't see a player winning 60% of their games beating boysmom by almost a hundred points and 15 words on a weak board like this. At least, not unassisted. This is just one of dozens and dozens of examples of such games I've encountered. Games where I've destroyed his scores where I shouldn't be able to beat a player who has scored almost 1500 points, and games where they've knocked off Megaword and boysmom and others. The inconsistency far exceeds rational range of play for anyone capable of legitimately scoring over 1400 points and putting up well over 200 words. Of course, this just provides a learning experience about red flags. That kind of learning will surely heat up the cauldron and give the phoenix rise to come back bigger and better.

Screen Shot 2024-11-26 at 4.44.34 AM.png

[jbud1980]

I seem to remember admin posting a couple of years ago (right after the new dictionary and influx of new games) that games which had reached the cut-off of 701 for 4x4 during the previous 24 hours were recycled. (games are not recycled at 700, it has to be 701 in 4x4)

That would apparently include any game played between 12:01 am to midnight EST. So a game could sit for 23 hours and 59 minutes with a score of a 1000 points before being recycled. Or it could last only 1 minute with a score of 701 if played just before midnight. That's why sometimes we see games with really high scores still in play during the day.

At that time, if memory serves me (which it often does not), around 80-150 games were being recycled daily in each game category--4x4 and 5x5. So, 160-300 games total? Even back then, there would be 80-150 "unplayed/recycled/new" games added daily. That would be a game with zero previous plays in the game stats. No high score, no most words, no best word, no longest word.

Have no idea how many games are available in total. Nor how many games are available daily. 50,000? 60,000? 80,000? Certainly more than 50,000 total, but are those games all up for grabs each day? Don't know. Seems games cycle somehow whether they've reached a cut-off number or not.

In the last 2 years there has been a dramatic uptick in player skill. The people playing back then have gotten a lot better. And there has been an influx of very talented new players. Both of which would predict an increase in daily recycled games from 80-150 to ?????

And, if you had a newer player doing 10 games a day and hitting the cut-off mark for recycling on every single one, ...

That's an additional 10 games added to the 80-150 or whatever that number is these days.

Have no idea how many recycled games Emerging, Tufts, and the like are adding each day.

Not to mention that once the best/longest word available for a game has been played, it sits until that game gets recycled. It could sit for two years and 40 plays without an opportunity for anyone else to claim it as a record. Or, it could be recycled the very next day if a player scores 701 points. The faster games are recycled, regardless of number of plays, the better for long/best word players seeking the record.

And for long word players, it's sort of like a the quip about a joke being new if you hadn't heard it before: finding the best/longest word is always like playing a new game if that word hadn't been found previously.

Oh well, as the wife constantly tells me, I talk too much and over-explain everything. Probably should take a break from posting. None of this has much interest in my daily life. What might take me 20 minutes to write only takes fractions of a second to think. Not a very productive outcome this translating a simple thought into information for others to consume--especially if I'm not getting paid or the opportunity costs from other things I should have done with that time begs a reconsideration of how I spend my time.

I agree. I'm not anywhere near the best player, but in the past, obvious outliers were swiftly dealt with and removed. Why has that stopped? Is it because bots type in the forum? Remember Nobody, Naboka and you calling it out? Did Nobody average an eye-rolling score comparable to the scores we see by It?

[Naboka]

Recycled games? Boon for long-word players who want to capture pristine records? I play every new board I see, and sometimes I get a word I'll keep (minimum 30 points -- and I'll dump any that are less). I don't see many such boards, though. So I counted to see just how many boards I'd have to look at to find one that says it's unplayed. My count: 355. So if there are lots of unplayed boards, I'd hate to see what it would look like if someone weren't recycling them for us. I play boards that have been played and look promising, too, or I wouldn't have the patience to be here at all.

I seem to remember admin posting a couple of years ago (right after the new dictionary and influx of new games) that games which had reached the cut-off of 701 for 4x4 during the previous 24 hours were recycled. (games are not recycled at 700, it has to be 701 in 4x4)

That would apparently include any game played between 12:01 am to midnight EST. So a game could sit for 23 hours and 59 minutes with a score of a 1000 points before being recycled. Or it could last only 1 minute with a score of 701 if played just before midnight. That's why sometimes we see games with really high scores still in play during the day.

At that time, if memory serves me (which it often does not), around 80-150 games were being recycled daily in each game category--4x4 and 5x5. So, 160-300 games total? Even back then, there would be 80-150 "unplayed/recycled/new" games added daily. That would be a game with zero previous plays in the game stats. No high score, no most words, no best word, no longest word.

Have no idea how many games are available in total. Nor how many games are available daily. 50,000? 60,000? 80,000? Certainly more than 50,000 total, but are those games all up for grabs each day? Don't know. Seems games cycle somehow whether they've reached a cut-off number or not.

In the last 2 years there has been a dramatic uptick in player skill. The people playing back then have gotten a lot better. And there has been an influx of very talented new players. Both of which would predict an increase in daily recycled games from 80-150 to ?????

And, if you had a newer player doing 10 games a day and hitting the cut-off mark for recycling on every single one, ...

That's an additional 10 games added to the 80-150 or whatever that number is these days.

Have no idea how many recycled games Emerging, Tufts, and the like are adding each day.

Not to mention that once the best/longest word available for a game has been played, it sits until that game gets recycled. It could sit for two years and 40 plays without an opportunity for anyone else to claim it as a record. Or, it could be recycled the very next day if a player scores 701 points. The faster games are recycled, regardless of number of plays, the better for long/best word players seeking the record.

And for long word players, it's sort of like a the quip about a joke being new if you hadn't heard it before: finding the best/longest word is always like playing a new game if that word hadn't been found previously.

Oh well, as the wife constantly tells me, I talk too much and over-explain everything. Probably should take a break from posting. None of this has much interest in my daily life. What might take me 20 minutes to write only takes fractions of a second to think. Not a very productive outcome this translating a simple thought into information for others to consume--especially if I'm not getting paid or the opportunity costs from other things I should have done with that time begs a reconsideration of how I spend my time.

[bwt1213]

Recycled games? Boon for long-word players who want to capture pristine records? I play every new board I see, and sometimes I get a word I'll keep (minimum 30 points -- and I'll dump any that are less). I don't see many such boards, though. So I counted to see just how many boards I'd have to look at to find one that says it's unplayed. My count: 355. So if there are lots of unplayed boards, I'd hate to see what it would look like if someone weren't recycling them for us. I play boards that have been played and look promising, too, or I wouldn't have the patience to be here at all.

[Naboka]

Based on your discoveries and his historical stats I think there is just cause for you or someone to petition admin to remove any of his records. Stephen has done so in the past but hasn't been responsive for a while. He could be ill or on vacation as has occurred before. It intrigues me that the top speed players didn't do it for other cheaters or this one even though their records were the ones being trashed...

On the plus side, he's recycling games--which is a boon for long-word players who want to capture pristine records for best/longest word. I know I've been enjoying the extra recycled games that offer brand new chances at best/longest words.

And, if he disappears in this incarnation, he'll just be back in another. He's already here as two players putting up unrealistic numbers. Kind of hard to break an addiction. When you're spending that much of your life, playing that many games and reaping the endorphins of "winning" it's probably not an easy exit.

He'd probably have to attend Wordtwist Anonymous and work through the steps. "Hi, my name is Bob. And I'm an addict. I've stolen from my mom, my kids, my church, my job and just about everyone I know to support my habit. After waking up in an alley and remembering I had just sold myself for the hit that left me sleeping in my own vomit, I realized I hadn't hit bottom. The shame was overwhelming. I realized I was capable of much worse. I realized I needed help. I know it's not going to be easy. I'm an addict. Addictions are hard to break."

Might as well stick around so we know what we've got.

[lalatan]

Based on your discoveries and his historical stats I think there is just cause for you or someone to petition admin to remove any of his records. Stephen has done so in the past but hasn't been responsive for a while. He could be ill or on vacation as has occurred before. It intrigues me that the top speed players didn't do it for other cheaters or this one even though their records were the ones being trashed...

[Naboka]

Just not buying that he's capable of averaging over 1,200 points legitimately in 4x4.

Screen Shot 2024-11-20 at 10.46.41 AM.png

It would have been by a larger margin except for my poor typing : enes/6, arars/8, ars/6, nep/6, nurr/6, spart/8 in addition to typing star/3 instead of starr/8. For a total of 45 additional points lost from crappy typing skills. All of those words I know 100% that I "typed." Plus rawaru which was typed but didn't show whereas rawarus/12 did. So, 55 points?

Better players could have outdone my score. It wasn't a small, complex board filled with ultrarare ultrarare words. So the excuse that he wasn't yet accustomed to Wordtwist words would be bogus. Any elite boggle player would have had no problem with it. Stolch14 found 142 words. Every word played was scrabble dictionary material--even rawarus (type of fish--which Lexic recognizes the singular form but not the plural) is in the Collins Scrabble Dictionary.

Yet, he's now winning every game he plays and averaging astronomical scores.

For now, I'll just look at those 1200 point averages, shake my head, roll my eyes and laugh. The folly of humans.

Just like we ask the kindergarteners: "can I get in your head and make you want to learn?" Nope. Nor can any of us get inside anyone else's head and make them want to do the right thing.

Jails are filled with people who believed what they were doing was justifiable.

But, it's just a game. A silly game. A game that certainly will not occupy any of my thoughts as I move to the Great Beyond.