Hmmm, that's because the system has been told it is no longer an hourly game.

So the Challenge will be tweaked to make it just the 7 hourlies?

I just changed it to make an exception for FITB, so it does count. I also changed it for future players to be 7, so that FITB can be ignored as an hourly if wanted.

Challenge now says Complete. Thank you, Terry!

Do you mean you've taken MC questions and turned them into FITB questions to play in FMI?

You have written a script or algorithm or something that does this? Or are you changing these by hand?

I just played the new format of Fill Me In. It's quite fun

I simply misunderstood what was happening. I though MC questions were going to be part of the game, but they are MC questions converted to FITB, so that was just fine.


"Royal we"? I don't think that's fair, Kyle. There are more than just myself who like all-FITB. As I said, when I wrote that, it sounded like FMI was going to be a mix of short MC questions and FITB. That would have changed the game completely. But I see now that I was wrong.

And guess what..... I don't mind the change. I even like it. How 'bout them apples?




It does come across as harsh. ?
So for the record, I liked the upgradable badges, and I posted something here to that effect, especially about the Achievement badges, because they are about personal development rather than competition.
There are other things I like; for example the changes with the crosswords.


I realize that we have to accommodate mobile and tablet users if we want this site to thrive. I'm all for that. I played FMI before posting this, and I didn't see significant changes to the interface. Not being a mobile player, how has it improved for mobile players?



What is the reason?


Yes, the infusion of new questions I do like. Again, I misunderstood what the plan was. What Terry has done is very good. I played the game earlier, and I could tell there were some of those "pruned" questions, and they were just fine. It all worked as it did before.

The new questions, the true and false, the MC questions with only one correct answer, all that is fine, a fresh approach. But, why every four hours? What is wrong with it being an hourly game? I used to love to play it once I got past my initial dislike towards it and now I miss it. Four hours is too much. Any chance of fixing that, Terry?

Are there plans to reduce back down the number of true/false questions once the fill me in database has more questions in it?

I only ask because my opinion is that the true/false questions are actually not a good addition to fill me in. We already have a brand new super shiny game of fifty/fifty questions so when I play fill me in and get a set with about four true/false questions it leaves me wondering how this is any better. Just my personal preference but there might be others.

If we only have to type a letter (t or f) wee almost might as well be just answering using the mouse. Years ago, the question database had loads of questions in it that only required one or two letter answers and I think I'm right in thinking that they wee removed because some players, including me, were able to do sub fifteen second times with the right set and it became slightly absurd because someone with different questions might have to type numerous longer words.

Just my thoughts. I'm really happy that fill me in is finally getting some attention, it's been unsatisfactory for years and why I stopped playing it (coupled with the fact that I moved to mobile device play exclusively but that wouldn't necessarily stop me if the game is enjoyable enough).

"Are there plans to reduce back down the number of true/false questions once the fill me in database has more questions in it?"

Yes, they will be watered down as the other questions start making their way in there.

Also, there are a number of simply bad T/F questions in there that I intend on weeding out.

For example:

Gilmore Girls : Gilmore Girls

5. In the first season Rory and her mother have to go to dinner at Rory's grandparents on Friday because they are paying for her sports team at school. (T/F)


Just... no.

To better improve the FITB database I have added a "report that question should not be in this game" button on the answer screen. Click this for inane questions that most people wouldn't have the foggiest idea about, or questions that just dont work in this format.

Questions with a number of votes from different players will be yanked.

UH.




It didn't-- this quote is from my response in the Author Lounge from months ago, long before these changes happened. If anything, it's improved the question cache for ALL players, and with increased editor input, will likely have a positive effect on mobile players since we choose the length and complexity of answers.




They tend to be rated very poorly and we let authors know this. If someone is writing a full FITB quiz, odds are they're writing a Brain Teaser, a Word Play quiz, or a quiz that is meant explicitly to raise the difficulty by forcing authors to know the spelling of their answer in addition to the answer itself. The extra step catches out more than most people think, because you can probably have a perfectly viable multiple choice quiz, easy to play for players on all platforms, but instead you now have a quiz which requires that players spell out any length of complex word. Imagine how miffed you'd be playing a Video Games quiz, knowing the answers, but misspelling 'Mario Kart' as 'Mario Cart' because of autocorrect and missing out on points. And yes, some players do rate based on that. They send corrections on it too.




So supplementary additions, but not changes to mechanics.

"As to increasing it to 15 questions, I would be in favor of it IF it could be done without too many effects down the line (Everything, stage games, etc.). The easiest (in my opinion) would be to go to 70 points per question correct instead of the usual 100. This maxes a little higher, but it does not completely unbalance everything. Then a time penalty of 1 for the first 150 seconds and 3 beyond that and we should have an interesting game. I would recommend 5 easy, 7 medium and 3 hard questions in this setup - less memorization possibility on the "hard" section."

Ok.. I am about ready to switch to 15 questions, and rebalance quizzes so they have uniform and fair difficulty. 70 points each should keep most dependencies unaffected.

1-5: Easier FITB questions
6-10: Intermediate FITB questions
11-12: Intermediate T/F Y/N
13-15: Difficult FITB questions

I like the direction the game going. I even got a badge upgrade!

I know some people have questioned the influx of T/F and Y/N questions, but these aren't really any different from some of the old questions which were Real/Fake and Native/Not Native (except on the new ones you won't accidentally type "Nor Native" rather than "Not Native" and lose out that way).

Ok, the new and improved (*) FITB question sets are now in using Wesley's scoring system.

It's much, MUCH friendlier to players looking to test their knowledge as opposed to memorization.... which is how it should be.

(*) - in my opinion

I tweaked points per question up to 80 each since 70 was giving us scores that just felt too low for a 15 qn game. All existing plays this hr were recalculated.

This shouldn't throw off dependencies.

I've just played it and liked the new format. The Achievement upgrades need tweaking, though. I was told I needed to get 10 correct in 35 seconds, which is not now an achievable target (and never was for me, but that's another story).

Thanks, those need to be tweaked. Wesley, got some fair values we can use for all tiers?

Three recent bugs I've seen:

Fill Me In Tier 3 requires just 32 win points, while all other badges with similar tiers require 35 win points.

The green check mark for GMM is disappearing when one plays in the 11PM hour before the site resets for the day.

Finally, the greater precision for Fifty-Fifty is not properly adjudicating winners -- it's still giving the "first" player the tie-break, instead of the faster player. (This only appears in the Winners and Results section -- in the player list while the game is running, the tie appears to be broken correctly.)

Should the t/f fitb questions not be converted to plain t/f format? I've been sending notices in for years when these come up in that game.

If using the questions is at stake, I'd suggest they could be slotted into the 50-50 game instead.

They are only converted to FITB format for the FMI game. In quizzes, they are still played in T/F format. They are added into FMI for variation and because they are still likely quality questions.

I don't think it's necessary to send notes on these types of things unless they are appearing in their original quizzes as FITB when they should be T/F format.

I agree that it would be nice to see T/F in 50-50; they would be a perfect fit there. I personally like a good T/F question now and then.

Issues 1 & 3 fixed.

Green check mark issue... strange... it all looks like it should work properly. I'll have to catch it at 11 PM and see if I can debug.

You'll still find the odd one, now and then, that has that format. I got a CN on one just the other day - probably sent in by you, nautilator!