Slog - Comments on Serious Time-Waster Alert

Comment by Jane

Jane — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:14:52 -0800

Word Sammich needs a better dictionary. It didn't recognize 3 of the 8 five-letter words I guessed, even though they WERE actual words (haint, e.g.).

I like babble (playbabble.com).

Comment by yearning

yearning — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:18:59 -0800

I was personally bored w/ it. Sorry.

Comment by Callie

Callie — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:34:46 -0800

This is making me feel really stupid. I don't understand it, and there is no help or rules section...

Comment by leek

leek — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:37:42 -0800

Callie--by "high" and "low" they actually just mean "in alphabetic order." It confused me too at first.

Comment by Callie

Callie — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:43:11 -0800

@4 thanks, that helps, but I still don't even know what the objective is. Type a bunch of five letter words until you maybe guess the one the game wants you to type? WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS?

Comment by lineout fan

lineout fan — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 11:48:59 -0800

agreed. frustrating and dumb.

Comment by w7ngman

w7ngman — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:20:05 -0800

Even if you know the rules it's still kind of a dumb game. You just binary search the dictionary. Knowing some obscure 5 letter words is the only real challenge to this game.

Best way to score low is to take the dictionary and pick a word you think represents the "median" alphabetical word. Since you get a high/low answer, you can effectively divide your word list in half with each guess. Once you get the result, take your new word list and repeat picking a median word.

For example, you guess "month" (m is the 13th letter, so its about halfway). If its too low, then your new word list is anything between month and z****. Otherwise, its between a**** and month. Divide that in half and guess the new median. Repeat ad nauseum.

Like I said, the only hard part once you've narrowed it down sufficiently is guessing some obscure word.

Math/CS geeks will note that the average number of guesses this requires is going to be the base 2 logarithm of the dictionary length. Fun!

That means even a score of 10 guesses is quite good, since best case scenario 10 guesses could only crack a dictionary with 1024 words in it.

Comment by w7ngman

w7ngman — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:29:30 -0800

Er, that should say worst case scenario. 10 guesses can *always* crack a 1024 word dictionary.

Comment by Will in Seattle

Will in Seattle — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:26:25 -0800

Why do i keep getting invites to play these games on Facebook? I mean, I'd rather play global thermonuclear Risk ... or ...