NEW GAME: Word Power!

great game

Love it!

Love the new game it can really make you think

Great game for keeping the feeble ageing brain agile

Best kind of trivia questions. I'm learning from it

From one word nerd to another.... I LOVE the new game !!!!

absolutely love it, great game to keep the grey matter on its toes!!!! so to speak.

great new game

keeps the brain working !! especially the older ones

BEST GAME OF TRIVIA, I LOVE IT.

Thankyou for this great game,can't get enough,good for my brain:)

I love the new game. Its great! You have to think quick, its like push-ups for your brain

Brilliant new game!!

great new game, need more like this

I enjoy it every time I play

Great game but hate it if I don't get 100%

This is a great game but how do people get through it in less than 1 minute? And how do you get over 5000 points??? I gather you have to go really fast...I didn't think I was that slow!!! Usually takes me about 1 min - 1min 30 secs. Any ideas??

It is a great game, but I am also curious about how the points work.

Just Played "Word Power" and one of the questions was " Which word is spelled correctly"? Should that not be "spelt"??!!! Also curious to know how points work, as I frequently get 95% and have never yet made it onto score board.

Lesley I remember my year 6 spelling text had a comment on spelled/spelt and misspelled/misspelt. I don't seem to think it was too concrete then. Scoring is probably based on response time. I frequently get 100% and still don't reach the top. In Quizzard I can reach the top with a score over a minute because my laptop is slow since I made browser and flash updates and the Quizzard questions set slowly. Word power comes in differently so I don't have my finger ready before the questions are set

Love the game, but I'm also curious as to how the scoring works. Sometimes I get 100%, in a quicker time, but get less points than someone else - how does that work?

All YP scoring is a mystery. Check out the NZ connection (heatherb and erehwonwarriors). They achieve scores that are simply impossible by human action alone. There must be a way of interferring with the software. If I was competitive, I may upset - but I really don't care. It is intriguing though.

I do find I score consistently better on my old slow computer than on a newer faster one. But not that much better. I would like a more predictable scoring system based on skill at the puzzle rather than tricky techniques so that I can measure if I'm improving.

Great Game but like other people I too am mystified how your scoring works. It,s the same with the Cryptics. I can get 100% in pretty quick time but can never get over 19840 points! A comment would be appreciated.

Staff

Indeed, scoring can be a contentious issue, and we have a system in place to try to make the mix of computer systems, browsers etc. all perform on a level playing field. It's worth noting tough that a shrewd puzzler could, for instance, enter all but one of the letters for each word in a crossword grid, and then complete each word in quick succession. The scoring advantage here is that the boost would remain high for a larger number of scoring events, resulting in a much larger score. The key to this 'cheat' is that our leader boards currently allow for visitors to improve upon the first score achieved for the day, essentially allowing more than one high score. We're thinking about reviewing this rule to allow only the first score of a day, what do you all think about this?

Phantasmagorical!

Dr Play, I would prefer you allow only a player's best score of the day, not the first (as the cryptics already do) or there's no room to improve through the day. Out of curiosity I tried doing what you said with the crosswords but it was very boring, took a lot longer and didn't make much difference to my score. I've done puzzles with the boost at 9 all the way through but I still only get normal high scores not millions or hundreds of thousands. Surely the purpose of scoring is to tell us how well we have played? I like to feel that a score is achievable by anyone with effort. It's much more satisfying.

I note from the members list that the current highest flyer scored 1.4million points in a game of Hitori Island. This is not possible using legitimate scoring and boost factors. Something else is going on. A little suss?

Yes, Dr Play. Scoring is a contentious issue. The "system" that is supposed to give us a level playing field, obviously doesn't work. Without the 1-9 speed it would make no difference when the last letters were entered in a crossword, and those who can manipulate their scores into the millions in most of the games might have to think again. Crosswords on the Lovatts site don't seem to have this feature, and they are quite satisfying to complete. Remember the days when YouPlay had a forum, and the top Hitori Island scores were remarked on almost every day as being unfair and unobtainable? They still are. Recording the first score only for each level of each puzzle would be a fair indication of ability. Recording archived games scores gives a false impression, as they often score differently from the current day.

Yes Dr Play, I quite agree with Kragzy and Beauregarde, about the legitimacy of the scoring system that has been in place for a long time. I really think you need a new system entirely. I especially believe that in all instances, the first score submitted should be the only score. That would surely put an end to multiple submissions of the daily game, just to be the top scorer. Of course this probably wouldn't stop those that continuously get millions of points every day, because no matter what anyone says, they must have some secret way of finding a glitch that enables them to get those scores. If you can't remedy that, you can always do away with the scoring system, so that the enjoyment of the puzzles themselves could take priority. As for the older systems being the reason for these incredible scores, I wish to point out, that when I changed from my very old system to a new one, my scores never changed. I agree that the scoring system used on the Lovatts puzzles are quite sufficient.

I love playing the puzzles, but it is frustrating when I play on average 100 plus games a day for my 1 or 2 million points, but am quickly overtaken by some who only play 5 to 10 games of Hitori Island.

I really can't see the point in scoring when - (a)people manipulate the way they enter the answers just so they can get their names listed as high scorers; (b) sometimes there are oodles of players with the same score even though some have taken from a couple of minutes to some with over half an hour to complete the puzzle; (c) then there are those who receive hundreds of thousands of points, which surely must be a malfunction in the scoring system. It is so disheartening when one has completed a puzzle quickly and accurately only to score a miserable amount of points. As I said, what is the point of having scoring?

Staff

Okay, so far it looks like we'll be changing the scoring model for daily puzzles to record the first play of the day on the leader boards. This will be done for the crosswords soon, with the other daily puzzles to follow soon after. In the meantime, keep the comments coming, we love feedback! ;-)

Dr Play's comment - "In the meantime, keep the comments coming, we love feedback! ;-)" If you would like us to give more feedback, wouldn't be a good idea, then, to have a thread set up for just that?

I am one of the players who acheive ridiculous scores in hitori island; this is a result of the boost bar becoming frozen at the maximum of x9 so even when i'm not clicking on any squares my points are still multiplying. Would love the system to be changed so as to better reflect my ability not a computer glitch. As regards having more than one score in the highest scores list per day, this is a result(for me anyway)of doing the archived puzzles from before i joined the site, not repeating the daily puzzle over and over. For me, the simple enjoyment of doing the puzzles is more important than what score i can achieve or scoring higher than others.

Staff

Thanks for the info, grub84! :-)

Personally I don't see a need for leader boards for scoring. The pleasure of completion is more essential to me.

Hi yp gang......ditto ditto with all of the above. I have a bit of an issue with how Quizzard is operating atm. It says that each time to play it it's random so you get a new set of questions...........but this isn't so of late. If you go through and answer so 9 questions and get one wrong and then abort the game and then play again immediately......quite often you get the same set of ten questions so it has enabled the player to have a preview of the questions asked and be ready to click away and hence the quicker times and higher scores just lately. Anyhow that's my gripe.......happy puzzling dudes and dudettes....regards Birdie

Oh sorry.....a bit more complaining from me......how do we explain the "zero" times shown for the top five in many of the games lately ?? It is happening on most days now and i've seen it on Quizzard and Ripple Effect...........not sure if it's occuring in the other games too......seems to be a glitch just of late.........bye again yp puzzlers and admin..ers Birdie

Hi everyone, I like the opportunity to improve my score throughout the day. I usually play early in the mornings, which means that I am hardly awake for the first few tries and my brain most certainly isn't in gear at that time. What I'd like to know is how some people manage to complete the trivia puzzles in 20 or 30 seconds. I know I'm not the fastest thinker out there but it takes longer than that for me just to click through without even reading the questions {I tried it a couple of times out of curiosity}. On a different note, I'm not into sports at all and I am getting very frustrated by the sheer amount of sporting questions that are making their way into the trivia games. I don't know, nor do I care who won what sporting even back in 1999. Why not give these sporting questions their own trivia game? You certainly have enough questions to do so and more than likely enough sports mad members who would love it.... Cheers Pagan.

Anyone that can do a Codecracker in less than one minute or a Cryptic Crossword in less than one minute would have to be an Alien with super powers.Or do we have geniuses in our midst? I am 67 years old and quite happy to get up in the top ten in cryptics and even Wordpower sometimes but I still think the scoring system is a mystery!

There are people who enjoy printing out the crossword and completing it sitting in the sun with a cup of coffee. No problem. Others take their time, pause and resume. Bear in mind that as there are no prizes for high scores, any method of completing a crossword is acceptable. We're playing games here, not competing for rewards. Impossibly high scores, as we've been discussing, should be impossible to achieve. There is a glitch, and it needs to be remedied, to satisfy the majority who just want to see a decent score for a good effort.

Just had another session with wordpower, Cryptics and Code Cracker. The faster I got the worse my scores got! Gotta be something wrong somewhere! How can anybody do a cryptic or a code cracker in under a minute??? Also I believe archive puzzles should be randomised, not put in chronological order. Comments people. Love the games nevertheless.

Hi willyum, getting a fast time in the crosswords and code cracker is easy if you can touch type at a reasonable speed. Solve the puzzle from a print out then just type in the answers, but as you noticed faster times usually get lower scores. In the cast of the code craker it is much the same thing solve it a couple of times and being able to touch type you don't need to look for the right keys.

I'm not sure that I agree with the archive puzzles being randomised. If you have been away from a computer for some time, e.g. on holiday, it would be hard to find the puzzles that you have missed.

I can't see any point in randomising the archives. What exactly is it supposed to achieve?

I don't like the idea of randomising the archives either. When the Sudoku went down that path, I couldn't select select them in any order. I also ask "What is it going to achieve". If anything, when the score is submitted it could show that it is an archived puzzle, OR, Do away with scoring the Archived puzzles.

I don't want crosswords archives randomised. I'm currently working the cryptic archive and enjoy the challenge of completing undone puzzles. I'd just like to be able to pick the page from the first page rather than having to select archive before I see the page numbers.Alternately being able to order the archive to see undone puzzles first.

Eeek! Please don't randomise the puzzles! I'm still catching up on the Hitori Island puzzles I missed whilst in hospital for three weeks.

Double Eeek! As someone who cant get online every day, randomising the puzzles would be very frustrating! I spend most of my time doing the archived puzzles from days I miss or from before I joined YouPlay. Randomising them would make it harder to locate the games I have not yet played.

Randomising archives would remove the chance of doing a new puzzle each time or catching up on missed ones. With many of my favourites I have already reached months before I joined.... like others have said. As for irregularities in scoring who cares .....I'm addicted to ENJOYING puzzles NOT what they score. Complainers ....GET A LIFE!

Me again! Just a quick question to Deeneecee. How on earth did you manage to score 51507 points doing a Cryptic? Would love to know how it's done out of curiosity. Keep up the good work and us all guessing! Willyum

Sorry Willyum, But as far as I can remember, I have never reached any more than 43,000, although there may have been a 44,000 a long time back. I only recently changed my favourite game on my profile from Sudoku to Cryptic, and on doing so, I saw that score of 51507 there as my personal best. I had a good laugh about it, because I know it never happened. But something seems to tell me that one day my score came up wrong on the leaderboards, when it had been actually a lot less. So perhaps that was it. Pity though.

Yes, I've had a similar experience, with a huge score appearing on Hitori Island, when I know it was only an average game, which in my case is very ordinary. Scores can be very misleading.

Thank you Deeneecee for your answer and Beauregarde for your comment. Daffydill has some really valid observations too! I would like to point out that it is not sour grapes on my part or even jealousy but being a Libran I have that sense of fair play and love of harmony! Over to you, Dr. PLay, seems like a revolution is brewing LOL! Cheers all, Willyum

Since this discussion on scoring began, I have looked at the Top 50 Leaderboards a little more than usual and I notice on the Cryptic Crossword leaderboard there are usually about half the people all on the score of 19840. I also notice that there are seldom two people on the same score on other leaderboards. Perhaps Dr Play could explain how this phenomenon occurs?

Once again I have scored 19840 on today's Cryptic, the second time in a week. The top 50 leaderboard shows from # 19 everyone on this 19840 score. My Christmas wish is for someone from YouPlay to tell me how this occurs, seemingly ONLY for the Cryptic. The question has been asked several times previously!