If there was only one player doing all the guessing (6/hour), odds are that person could go weeks without hitting on the correct word!

Well, I guess the one thing that could (and maybe should) be done is to significantly reduce the points bonus once the player gets above 25 wins. If the bonus were only 100 or 200 from that point onwards, there'd be a bit less incentive to play over and over.

If there was a reduction of points after so many wins think the 500 points is fair. After all it is still a game despite the high number of wins some people have where a large dose of luck doesnt go amiss. Even if the points stay as they are the majority of people will be ok with it.

From my point of view dont think it should be changed, and can understand some folks issues with it as i have issues with some of the other hourlies. However those short comings are mine and mine alone and not the fault of those who take part or the site. I'm not the only one on here who has been pipped at the post for this or that badge and wont be the last, despite my attempts at throttling the moniter at times, i just know i've been beaten by the better player.

Not saying anymore before my teamies see this and i get accused of talking sense and i cant be having that.

The problem is, and this is the point that many people have been trying to get over to the original poster, that reducing the number of participants is not necessarily a good thing. I am not unsympathetic to their point of view - when the game first started I found it unbelievably frustrating, dubbed it 'a stupid game' and refused to play it. I then managed a solitary win and abandoned it again. It took me a long time to get into the game and understand how best to play it (not necessarily win it) and I still have moments of frustration. I think it was Arnold Palmer who said 'the more I practice the luckier I get' and that can translate to Crystal Ball as 'the more you play the luckier you get'. Just don't begrudge those who are even luckier, or well read - there are many times I shrug my shoulders and say to myself 'I'd never have got that' as the word will be something I've never come across.

I once went four weeks, playing whenever I could, without a win. Then I won three times in one day when I was about to abandon the game.

But why shouldn't people play over and over, if they get enjoyment from the game, and why should that be disincentivised?

I don't like the game much, but - after a long period of not playing - I've started playing as much as I can, just to (try to!) get the 25 badge. I'm not interested enough though to do the clever tactical thing and wait until the 55-minute mark, so I usually burn my 5 extra guesses at 45 minutes. Not surprisingly then I rarely win! But as Surdoux pointed out in an earlier post on this thread, I do win A LOT in Word Wizard, which is a game I do enjoy. I'm not going to stop playing WW just because I've won a lot, and I can't (hopefully!) be disincentivised anymore than the ELO curve already does!

There's NO justification for sniping at players who are doing well at games they invest effort in and - presumably - get pleasure from. If the Crystal Ball is a game that some players find frustrating, they should just find another one.

Hi thought I'd put by two-bobs worth into discussion.
I've only got the word 9 times, but each time I see the green correct!!! Its like getting my first again, makes you feel good.
Got it twice in one day!
When HurricaneBill passed TabbyTom I sent him a message congratulating him on his success and wished him continued success(I meant it).
Good on him or anyone who does well in this game or another one.
cheers

dsimpy, I just don't want to have too much of an external incentive to win. We had the same issue with Early Bird where a few players were sniping up every EB they could find, just for the 1000 points, to the detriment of those who were shooting for the badge.

It's since then been changed to only give 500 points and only ten times - players who now do the EB beyond their tenth do it because they like doing it, not because of the points. They are also far fewer than those who just did it for the points, without actually caring for the quizzes.

I don't want to remove the fun from anyone who plays the game after 100 or 200 wins because they still enjoy it (those players would play it without points), I just want to ensure it's not dominated by people who don't care about it but see it as an easy source of points. After 25 wins the main motivation to continue playing should be that you actually enjoy the game.

But Wes, if it's points someone's after, there are surely quicker and easier ways of getting them than the Crystal Ball ... no matter how good someone is at it?

Even the most successful one or two players won't win more than 4 times in a day (and even then not every or even most days). 4000 points? You can pick those up in a fraction of the time you'd need to invest in properly playing the Crystal Ball. I really don't think anyone is playing the game primarily for the points .... and if they're not there's no reason to point-penalise people who just happen to be damn good at the game.

Admiral Simpy makes a good point. Anyone who spends all a lot of time on Crystal Ball is not just after the points.

I'm not a frequent winner (7 wins,) but I learn a lot of new words from Crystal Ball. Badges and points are nice, but are those why most of us are here?

It's also a good place to find out which FT members don't know how to spell. :P

The game would be one of the hardest to play solely for points, as dsimpy said. It took me ages before I actually realised that there were points for winning it, as I originally only played for the badge (a tart, moi? ).

I have had a few lucky strikes, too. I once got three words in a row, but then did not get another for over six weeks. It took me over four weeks to go from 99 to 100, too.

Crystal Ball and Word Wizard are two of my favourite games and I like them both, just the way they are. Maybe add another badge for the diehards- 200 (or 500 or 1000) wins would be a challenge to strive for.

Or are just lousy typists when racing to make an entry as the clock ticks.

LOLOL!

I fit into both categories

It's very true that there are easier ways to earn pts. I've won about 10,000 pts per month for the last 4 months. I could get those pts in a few hours of solid quizzing. I could have stopped when I won the badge for 25 correct guesses (as I thought I would) but I enjoy the random fun of the game. The 1,000 pts are a nice token gesture but a secondary consideration in my books Then of course there is the desire for a hat-trick of wins. I've had three in four hours (months and months and months ago), but the hat-trick remains elusive

Tizzy - in my estimation, anyone on here who gets a hat-trick is better than Wayne Gretzky.

On the other hand, it's easy to get a cap-trick on Crystal Ball - just eliminate a bunch of losing choices at 45-mins after so the winner can guess the right one.

I plan to stop at 100 if I ever get there

Creedy... that's what I thought I'd do too!

Bet you don't! (Stop, that is).

I thought I was going to stop at 100 and I now have 111, but who's counting?

I do want to take exception to something that Wesley said earlier about the Early Bird game. I realize that I was one of those so-called point snipers that he mentioned. I was not playing for the points, but more for the challenge of being the first one to get all 10 right on a brand new quiz. I was gracious enough to send a note when I won as well. I do continue to play as well and get 30 points for it being a new quiz as long as I score 50% or higher.

I bet I don't either, but we'll see

Which means you are exactly NOT one of the point snipers I mentioned. I made the clear distinction between those who played it for the fun and the challenge (who do still play for it today even without reward) and those who only played it for the points (who have since disappeared from that particular game). The latter made it almost impossible for anyone else to win the badge (considering that some of them also nearly always got 10/10 right).

That not means alot to me. Thanks Wes!

There is absolutely no personal advantage in crystal ball. Dictionaries don't all have the same words and would take ages turning pages and picking through all the definitions the whole time finding possible words. I have used one a bit at the beginning to save time by writing possible words down in advance of the guessing period, but after maybe 50 wins it was more fun to think of words and then only use a dictionary when it was clearly one I didn't know. Just in case anyone wanted to know I marked those wins and it's well under 10% but would need to add them all up later to know how much less. I do however remember many new words as the system tends to repeat them in little phases and mentioned it at the time. That's just something anyone playing a lot will pick up so if you know tesla and dacoit are possible you'll be more likely to use them. They do all appear in word wizard as well so that gives many words not in any of my dictionaries.

But there is no advantage for any player as we can all use a dictionary or not, and besides learning a set of new words it is as wesley pointed out all about timing. You don't make a guess until there are few enough possible words one may be correct. It's really as simple as that. Far more wins are gained when few options remain than early random guesses, and that is simply down to the odds of waiting. I didn't really notice the points until I saw how many new brains I'd got and traced it back to these, to me it's all about position on the board after the individual wins themselves. As people have mentioned the hat tricks I don't think anyone besides me won four in a row and I didn't even open a dictionary but just had a similar pattern repeated each time. Spotting patterns also provides an advantage as that was what provided 3/4 of my four in a row, but you'll have to work those out for yourself!

Agreed, Satguru, it's all about personal strategy. I once achieved a hat trick with relatively basic words and it was simply pure luck. Even while using a word list, sometimes the word of the hour isn't in my dictionary, or sometimes I'm putting in "complex" words when it turns out to be something like "magic"! I will also vouch for noticing certain words that turn up quite often and trying those when I see the first three letters. But really it all comes down to a simple thing: if you want to win often, you have to play often.

EDIT: Just to say that you also need to bear in mind that some people simply have a more complex vocabulary. Some of my winning words are e.g. "angiogenesis", "basophilia", "midbrain", "lysogenize" etc. and to others these look like "dictionary words" that no one would enter from the top of their heads, but as an anatomy student, I use these words in my life on a frequent basis. I sometimes put such words as my blind guess off the top of my head - it might give me an advantage later on if I can put more words in quickly that begin "ang", but if the word is "angler", then people with a more basic vocabulary will probably get it faster! I think it all evens out in the end, and if you're having frustrations with the game, either play it more often and you'll find that's the key, or don't play at all, because there is no level of cheating going on here.

I agree that sometimes basic words tend to show up alot and I go for those in the beginning. When I find that my basic word has failed, I go to words that I know well. I am a baseball fan and have won more than a few times with words related to it. I teach social studies and words like autocracy that come up in my classes will appear here as well.

I won with a basic word once. It was 'gloat'. Have I mentioned that yet?

Yes you have mehaul, but it's quite amusing, so bears repeating : )))

It made me laugh, too.

I'm here for the points