Word Games

In the mid-00s, I got hooked on the numbers game “Sudoku”.  A colleague was playing it at work and I asked her what it was she was doing.  She explained it was a “numbers” game which you could print out and do on break or while waiting for something (Dr. / Dentist apmt, DMV).  I printed out a couple and I was hooked.  Sometime later, I found the game as an app on my Kindle and was even deeper down the rabbit hole…
In late 2017, I retired and started going on Facebook regularly.  I was contacted by someone I knew back in grammar school days and we “friend”-ed each other.  Several of his posts were comments about how much he was enjoying playing “Wordle”.  I never heard of it, so I Googled it and tried playing…
It was “fun” enough, but I didn’t see why it was so addictive.  I would go along for 5 or 10 days and then error out.  I also didn’t realize that if you skipped a day  – or played on a different system (PC vs tablet vs Kindle), “you” didn’t get credited with your win that day.  In fact, although you simply didn’t play, your count was reset to zero (as if you failed in your guesses).  It’s almost needless to say, but I had multiple times when I got the “correct” answer only to find the next day, I didn’t receive “credit” for my win.
So, using the same hardware was the first thing I “figured out”.  I then decided there had to be a “system” to winning.  I settled on using three unique words which contained all of the vowels(“a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u” and “y”) and a good chunk of the consonants (again, trying to keep them unique).
To make a longer story shorter, I quickly shot up into the 80% and then 90% bracket.  From there, it takes a LOT more correct days to improve your percentage correct.
When I last posted about this, I was at 96% and 125 correct answers (days).  Well, I just went up to 97% and, as you can see, I’m at 217 (days).
To tell the truth, it’s now getting all a bit boring…  Even with my OCD, I’m finding it a bit of a drag to continue.  Which means I’ll probably get one wrong, miss a day – or even stop completely.  Either way, I think it’ll drop me back to 96% (or lower), and it’s really not worth the time / effort to work it back up to 97%.
A little over a year ago, a different Facebook friend was posting about “Quordle”, how she’d finally won a game and how much fun it was to play.  And, of course, I had to look into it…
It turns out Quordle is Wordle, but with four words to guess each day and nine tries (instead of 6 tries to get one 5-letter word).
Is it “more” difficult?  Yes, a little bit.  Is it “more” fun?  Not really.  Why?  Because I’m OCD and I “normally” don’t like “trick” games.
How is this a “trick” game?  Every now and then they throw up a word with four common letters and the first letter being the critical different consonant letter.  If you happen to hit the consonant as one of the other words, you can win – more or less easily.  If you don’t, you can end up with more options than you have remaining guesses.  (See:  “bunny”, “sunny”, “funny”)
A third game which I’ve recently begun playing is “Connections”.  Here you have 16 words and your task is to sort them into four groups of four words – with “something” in common. …And you have four chances to guess the correct “connection”.
I think of this game as the SAT game of “societal” common knowledge.  In the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), if you can eliminate one of the multiple-guess answers, you can greatly increase your chance of getting credit for the question / answer.  Random guess:  25% correct.  Eliminate the “obvious” incorrect response and guess:  33% correct.  Eliminate a second “almost” as obvious incorrect response and guess:  50%.   Of course, if you know (or can workout) the correct answer: 100%.
I find this (“Connections”) an “amusing” game, more than a test of skill / knowledge.  There is a significant amount of recency and cultural bias in this game.  How many of us know four names of women’s professional soccer or basketball teams?  Men’s hockey teams?  Items associated with Wonder Woman’s costume?  Actors with common (shared) first or last names?  Groups of things (a “murder” of crows or a “hand” of bananas)?
At any rate, I get a few correct each week and a few wrong (more often than not).  Since I have no investment in the game or answers, I find the ultimate answers amusing / interesting, but – more often than not – I also don’t care if I get them right or wrong and forget the “connection” almost as soon as I close the browser tab.
It (my reaction to the game) reminds me of the combination saying(s) of Sherlock Homes and Einstein:  “Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before.  It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” and “Never memorize something that you can look up.”
Note:  my method of solving Wordle and Quordle does not work on the “advanced” level wherein you can only use “new” words which have the correct letters in them and / or in the correct location from words previously guessed.
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On This Day In:
2023	Near The Heart Of The World
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2022	Limited Knowledge And No Control
2021	Gifts
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2020	A Strength Of Science
2019	A Higher Standard
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2018	Irreplaceable Sparks
2017	Saving For April 15th
2016	First Wish
2015	Tracing Shadows
2014	One Thing
2013	More Is Less
2012	The Screw-Up Gene

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When Enough Is Enough

About two years ago, I began using Facebook regularly.  A couple of months after that I noticed folks were posting about a couple of “word” games they were playing:  Wordle and Quordle.
I didn’t know anything about these games, so I looked up Wordle and started playing.  At first I wasn’t very good.  It wasn’t a big deal…  Then I began getting a couple of correct answers.  Slowly but surely I kept bumping my “wins” up until I got to thirty (30) – which I classed as one straight month of answers.
After a bit more time I got the score up to 56.  I’m not sure why, but I didn’t realize why I kept getting reset to “0”.  Some days I was playing on my PC;  some days on my cell phone and most days on my tablet.  It turned out that even though you are you, they are not you.  …Meaning, when I switched to between formats, it was not counting my score for that day on the other formats.  Eventually, the light bulb went on (“Duh!”) and I then began playing ONLY on my bedside tablet.
Sometime during the last year, I also started playing Quordle.  This is a more complicated (difficult) game…  Instead of six(6) tries to get a single five(5) letter word, you get nine(9) tries to get four(4) five letter words.
Of course, being on the Obsessive / Compulsive Disorder (OCD) spectrum, I quickly became addicted to both…  Part of it (the “jazz” feeling) is the desire to surpass a prior score, but mostly it is a need to continue a repetitive (daily) activity.  (A bit like a daily posting to this blog…)
Then, at some point, the object stops being getting a daily “win” and becomes increasing your win percentage.  That’s where I’ve been for some time…
Anyway, I’ve recently passed 96% on Wordle and I’ve decided I’m bored with both games.  I won’t be stopping play entirely.  I’m just not that interested in making a point of doing them EVERY day.  Such is life…
Two last points:  1.)  I play “easy” mode.  That is, I’m not required to use “found” letters in my next choice.  I didn’t know this was an option for some time, and then never bothered to keep it switched to “on” after a few tries.  And, 2.)  Quordle has an achievements tracker.  One of the things it tracks is your individual words tried.  The problem with this “achievement” is there is a big (HUGH) jump from 1,000 words attempted to 10,000 words.  I’m currently a bit over 2,500 individual words and I’m not that interested in failing enough times to reach the 10K word achievement.  (LoL!)  I’m not entirely convinced they even have 10K words in their database reference / answer table.
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On This Day In:
2022	Only More Democracy & Honest Elections Can Keep America “Great”
2021	Of Course The Term “Value” Is Undefined
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2020	I Hadn’t Thought Of That
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2019	Knocking On Impeachment’s Door
2018	Do You Remember?
2017	Choose Life
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2016	We, Us, All
2015	No Less
2014	Life Advice (50)
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2013	Running To
2012	Suddenly
2011	Liberal Washington
2010	Giants Advance To NLCS!!

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5 In 6

About a month and a half ago I started playing a daily word / search / complete game:  “Wordle“.  It is a once a day game hosted on the New York Times news website.  Basically, you have six chances to figure out the five letter word of the day.  Incorrect letters appear as grey;  correct letters in the wrong location as yellow;  and, correct in the right location, as green.
As of today, I have only missed twice.  I have found it EXTREMELY addictive and also a great vocabulary refresher.  Highly recommended!
Here’s the link to the NYT site’s version:  Wordle – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
[Disclaimer:  I have nothing to do with the New York Times or the producers of the Wordle game.  I am merely offering this link / game as a suggestion of something I’ve enjoyed playing.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	5 In 6
2021	The Principal Difference
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2020	So Sad, Faux Crowd
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2019	And The Same For Blogs And Posts
2018	The End Of Asgard (For Now)
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2017	For Some
2016	Fragile And Explosive, Provocation And Privacy
2015	Bound Up
2014	Economic Engines
2013	Weren’t You Supposed To Be Reading?
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2012	Hangin’ With His P’s
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2011	Six Facets Of Good Leadership

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