word games that miss the point

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:59 pm

here comes a broken record but why WU succeeds where other SWP word games have failed is that it has some element of cerebral gymnastics involved; it is about words.
i play a lot of word games, some for money, most for fun. if the best word is QI on a tws, that game is not about words but numbers.

of the online games, professor mouse on gameduell (yes, two Ls) is a good game which would be portable to SWP. get a mousetrap and swap the murine scholar for something more exciting like a magic dragon or a unicorn wearing a wizard's cloak, get a good design company to make it and you have a playable game which could make money for the cabinet and have a chance to shy at WU.

bookworm adventures is exceptional but probably too expensive for mainstream SWP. (not as expensive as white elephants like fantastic 4, spiderman etc. but itbox has stopped wasting money now.)

king.com's word dojo is also very good imo. having a multilingual dictionary appeals to me although it is open to abuse if it allows short-words-with-unusual-combinations-of-letters-like VZXYI-(and-maybe-J)-which-have-been-invented-to-help-cretins-get-good-at-scrabble.* there are far too many selected words which have been allowed in already.

QAT n 1. the most horrible word, especially invented for scrabble players who are cretinous. until QI came along for even more retarded bottom-feeders. 2. a mistransliteration of KHAT. 3. who cares what it means, you can get 56 points for it.

* i propose we make a new word for that; how about VQ? that will make it even easier to get rid of nasty tiles. we can pretend it is from a polynesian argot; nobody will ever check so long as it scores lots of points.

kingzilla · Post by **kingzilla** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:44 pm

Bookworm was converted to swp by a company called storm games a few years back but i think it was pretty crap and wasn't out long, it was nothing like the web version really

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:37 pm

Re: Bookworm. There's two versions of this;

This one...

Which I believe is the one that was converted (though I didn't spot it anywhere).

And this one

Which is a lot better! Would be good to see on a box in the local.

Look here for a lot of word games to keep you busy.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:25 pm

yes, Matt is quite right. SWP bookworm v1.0 was okay but the dropping tiles meant that you needed more strategy than wordpower. the second link (thanks for those) is the second-best wordgame i've played.
there are many ways to play and enjoy BWA and it doesn't discriminate against casual players who still get to see cutesy graphics and decent gameplay. if it were to be given the production values of something like monster cash (which, as we know falls through the cracks in terms of gameplay) it would be a very replayable game. feed in a responsible prize structure and it could last. MC is still around and it has nothing to do with prize potential.

i'm not naïf enough to want a game which coughs out money, but, with dozens of Q&A games and just one enjoyable wordgame in five years (arguably a purer skill (boo, hiss, burn him)), i'd welcome it and i suggest the casual players will be more excited than they would be to see yet another dull Q&A game.

cp999 · Post by **cp999** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:12 am

Istenem wrote: SWP bookworm v1.0 was okay

Umm. SWP bookworm (as on GamePacks) was rather better than okay. Not only fun to play, but a highly reliable cashpoint.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:05 am

agreed CP, bookworm was pretty easy to win, although spelvin must be the most generous SWP wordgame we've seen. but that wasn't really what i was getting at, more that people played it and could enjoy it time after time without any consideration for getting any money back.

cp999 · Post by **cp999** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:48 am

I do think people played Bookworm though - ones which I did recovered more often than not. I see your point, but I must admit I didn't give too much consideration to the game's punter appeal when I was getting £20-£40 a time from it..

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:53 am

Bookworm was certainly *extremely* popular with one or two pals of mine I remember.

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:11 am

Bookworm got the shit kicked out of it. Fuck me even I played it and made a few hundred and I fucking hate word games.

Can the moderators put this crappy thread into the 11 pages of the fucking Word Up shite please? (Don't forget the sad fuckers got the old Word Up thread to 27 fucking pages the last time).

Do we really need all this shite discussion about word games from saddo man in London? I wish he'd go back to extolling the virtues of Paragon like he used to. All he ever goes on about now is Word Up, which isn't even that popular. I would seem to think that the reason that word games don't come out every five minutes is simple: joe public doesn't actually like them that much.

K_Oranj · Post by **K_Oranj** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:40 am

QM, calm down dear, it's only a comic realm.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:52 am

five fucks in 60 words? wow! you must really hate wordgames.

perhaps it is true that joe public doesn't like word games, but he can play them to his own level without being alienated by unknowable questions. he needs some value from his fifty pee otherwise he won't be playing that game again. whoever manages the games menus is not sentimental: if any game is not performing, it gets binned, WU/soup has survived for years so it must be getting played, therefore it must be popular and by simple logic, good. the same can be said of bullseye and trickshot pool and a couple of others.
if joe public goes to the breakfast aisle of his supermarket, he might try super loops once, realise that they are horrible and go back to cornflakes which he can trust. people in the supermarket are not connoisseurs, nor are they prepared to visit different shops.

when i said that wordnerdery was a purer skill, i stand by this. quizzing is more impressive, requires more dedication and is probably more useful in life, but words are universal.

paragon is still super, word up is the best game in the world and i also bang on about art vs science, just be thankful you don't have to sit next to london's biggest bore at a dinner party. i would probably make you cry.

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:58 am

QuizMaster wrote:Bookworm got the shit kicked out of it. Fuck me even I played it and made a few hundred and I fucking hate word games.

Can the moderators put this crappy thread into the 11 pages of the fucking Word Up shite please? (Don't forget the sad fuckers got the old Word Up thread to 27 fucking pages the last time).

Do we really need all this shite discussion about word games from saddo man in London? I wish he'd go back to extolling the virtues of Paragon like he used to. All he ever goes on about now is Word Up, which isn't even that popular. I would seem to think that the reason that word games don't come out every five minutes is simple: joe public doesn't actually like them that much.

Calm it down QM. Since joining this forum, I've come to know Istenem as a friend in real life, and I can vouch for the fact that he's a damned good chap, and a very interesting chap to boot. Everyone has their own preferences, and he and the other word game mavens are entirely entitled to post what they want about that side of SWPing on here - neither you nor anyone else who hates word games (including myself in that) has to read them.

roberto la vigna · Post by **roberto la vigna** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:24 pm

grecian wrote:Calm it down QM. Since joining this forum, I've come to know Istenem as a friend in real life, and I can vouch for the fact that he's a damned good chap, and a very interesting chap to boot. Everyone has their own preferences, and he and the other word game mavens are entirely entitled to post what they want about that side of SWPing on here - neither you nor anyone else who hates word games (including myself in that) has to read them.

Seconded!

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:54 pm

grecian wrote:a very interesting chap to boot

I don't think "football style" violence has any place on here.

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 1:00 pm

grecian wrote:
Calm it down QM. Since joining this forum, I've come to know Istenem as a friend in real life, and I can vouch for the fact that he's a damned good chap, and a very interesting chap to boot. Everyone has their own preferences, and he and the other word game mavens are entirely entitled to post what they want about that side of SWPing on here - neither you nor anyone else who hates word games (including myself in that) has to read them.

Seconded!

In the words of the immortal Private Godfrey: "And I third it!"

We've only met for a brief evening, but that was all that was required to know that Istenem is a very, very decent fellow.

-+-+-+-+-

I think we'll be seeing WU/WS about for quite a while yet...