DonationCoder.com Software > N.A.N.Y. 2012
NANY 2012 Release: Kyrathaba's Hangman
kyrathaba:
Charging for vowels is just one way in which the program gives a nod to the old Wheel Of Fortune game. Another is the fact that it offers WOF bonus puzzles (i.e., "Same Name", "Before & After", etc.) At the beginning of the first game, you have no points and so must guess at least one correct consonant before being able to afford a vowel. As games continue, vowels become more expensive. The idea is that clever players will use letter-frequency knowledge and context to guess the most likely consonants first (s, t, r), thereby saving themselves point expenditures. As your post suggests, you could take a different stance.
A more practical reason not to change it is that people who are already playing the game with the existing charges-for-vowels setup would be handicapped in comparison to later users who used a version that doesn't charge for vowels. It would skew scoring, as recorded on the online database. But your point is well-taken, sir.
Also, how come I have to toggle between keyboard and mouse in the settings? When I click on the button to guess a letter, instead of popping up a box telling me that I have keyboard guess method selected, why not just guess the letter?
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An excellent observation, Deozaan! Why introduce unnecessary work for the user? I have implemented it in v1.0.3.0. The program now automatically accepts either form of input.
Everyone should use "About"->"Update" to update to the newest version. Thanks, Deozaan!!
Deozaan:
Charging for vowels is just one way in which the program gives a nod to the old Wheel Of Fortune game. Another is the fact that it offers WOF bonus puzzles (i.e., "Same Name", "Before & After", etc.) At the beginning of the first game, you have no points and so must guess at least one correct consonant before being able to afford a vowel. As games continue, vowels become more expensive. The idea is that clever players will use letter-frequency knowledge and context to guess the most likely consonants first (s, t, r), thereby saving themselves point expenditures. As your post suggests, you could take a different stance.
-kyrathaba (June 25, 2011, 09:13 AM)
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The problem I have with this is that you can't really save yourself any point expenditures because you must pay for the vowels one way or another to solve the puzzle. If the game were like Wheel of Fortune where you could "solve the puzzle" without paying for more vowels or the risk of losing your turn from an unlucky wheel spin, then that would be a different story. But since you must enter all letters to complete the phrase, it doesn't matter whether you do vowels first or last, they must be entered (and paid for) eventually.
So in practice all it really does is make the player guess a correct consonant or two at the very beginning of the first round and then the only purpose it serves is to progressively penalize players who are trying to compete on the leaderboards and just so happen to get phrases that have more vowels than other players.
In my opinion, charging for vowels only makes sense if you can win without using them.
Another couple of problems I have with the game that make it feel unfair:
The bonus puzzles or themes are not always clear. I've never really been that into Wheel of Fortune, so telling me the theme was "Before & After" wasn't very helpful. I was thinking it meant something like dirty and then clean, or fat and then skinny, or an apple (uneaten) and then a core (eaten). Fresh and then rotten. From the description of "Before & After" it isn't obvious that it was two separate "word associations" with a common word in the middle.
Since Hangman is generally a test in your ability to spell or your knowledge/understanding of words/language, it isn't fair to put quotes with author's names. Since people's names can be spelled all sorts of ways that don't follow the rules of the language, or could even be (or have roots in) a different language altogether, names seem to me an unfair difficulty.
But then again, maybe I'm just griping because normally I'm pretty good at hangman and this game is so unlike any version of hangman I've ever played before that I'm not very good at it.
kyrathaba:
Does anyone know what exactly I'd need to change in my Inno Setup script so that the "File Version" info (as shown in the screenshot) is correct?
kyrathaba:
Deozaan,
I find your argument regarding vowels to be logically persuasive. And I have resolved my concern about score skewing with the realization that people can update to the newer version and play until they beat their previous score.
Therefore, I've updated to v1031 -- vowels now cost nothing :)
I'm loathe to change the Wheel Of Fortune themes, even though I am sympathetic to your arguments, because they're so entrenched in the format of the default puzzle file, and so much time and effort was spent coding around those themes. But I agree that for people not familiar with WOF, it's more difficult. Still, it is a variant of hangman, rather than sticking strictly to the historical game. I appreciate your allowances in that direction.
Same update process as before. Click "About", then "Update" button. Download and install newer version.
steeladept:
I'm loathe to change the Wheel Of Fortune themes, even though I am sympathetic to your arguments, because they're so entrenched in the format of the default puzzle file, and so much time and effort was spent coding around those themes. But I agree that for people not familiar with WOF, it's more difficult. Still, it is a variant of hangman, rather than sticking strictly to the historical game. I appreciate your allowances in that direction.
-kyrathaba (June 25, 2011, 10:14 AM)
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I too found his comments useful and persuasive. What I think is the correct way of dealing with this part of it though, would be to add a help that explained what is meant by those categories. It doesn't take much to add (I don't think anyway) and it can leave everything else as is without detracting from it in any way.
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