During some of my games, I have found some really neat six, seven, and even eight letter words. However, I always seem to be passing these up... they don't score very much because I've found them in the middle of the board and they don't use one of the double-word or triple-word letters. Instead, for that turn I end up choosing a simple three-letter word, on a corner, which actually scores more points than my seven or eight-letter word. Little Golem's Word Game appears to be a combination of both Boggle and Scrabble. In Boggle, points are scored based upon the length of the word. Finding long words scores more points than finding shorter words. In Scrabble, using all seven tiles scores a 50 point bonus. I think it would add more to Little Golem's Word Game to give an additional bonus when finding words of five or more letters. For example, a five-letter word, in addition to what it scores normally, might score an additional five points. A six-letter word might score an additional six or seven points, etc. This would encourage players to look for words in the middle of the board. Comments?
As I think about it more, it would be an interesting idea to possible give a bonus for *longer* words that do not use the double or triple spaces. A possible suggestion is something like any word at least 7 letters long have a 1.5 x bonus. So for example, a 7 letter word worth 10 points would now be worth 15 points. [BBW]
I am new here, but already see that folks are playing the corners to gain extra points with little 3 or 4 letter words. I like the idea of a bonus for getting into the middle of the board and thinking a little harderfor longer words...and being rewarded for it!
Add my name to the petition to the Golem
Judy
Wolf, I thought of that too... giving a bonus for longer words that did NOT use the corners... but I wondered if that idea would just be "confusing." But yes, my idea was for a five letter word that did not use the corners add a 5 point bonus; for a six letter word add a 6 point bonus; for a seven letter word add a 7 point bonus, etc. This keeps it simple and makes it easy to figure out your score. With this change, NOW a three letter word on a corner (triple), that normally might be worth 9 or 12 points, is now worth less than a seven letter word in the middle of the board. I think this would make for a better game.
Hi Akuti. BBW's suggestion is to give words that are at least 7 letters long a bonus of 1.5 x score. But I dislike the idea of multiplying anything to get a bonus. For example, BBW's sugggestion: a 7 letter word worth 10 points would now be worth 15 points. (10 x 1.5 = 15) My idea: Most 7 letter words, in the middle of the board, are going to be worth 7, 8, or 9 points. Adding a 7 point bonus (since the word was seven letters long) to this word gives a final score of either 14, 15, or 16. It's about the same result, eliminates the need for any "messy" muliplication, and keeps it simple.
not using the colored letters
4 letter word + 1.5
5 letter word + 2.5
6 letter word + 3.5
7 or more letter word + 4.5
an insentive to look beyond the edges
One of the neat things about this games bidding system, with the half point increments, is that it eliminates all possible ties! As it is now, this game can never end in a draw! Adding a scoring bonus which includes half points would then allow for possible ties. Also, I don't think 3.5 points as a bonus for a six letter word is quite enough. Many three letter words on a corner triple that score 12 points ((2+1+1)*3) would still score more than many six letter words. (7 or 8 points for the six letter word + the 3.5 bonus.) I think at least a 6 point bonus is needed for non-corner words of six letters.
if everyone is going for 3 letter words with the colored letters
then 4 and 5 and 6 and more letter words should receive bonuses
not just 7 letter words
fine then how about 4 letter score +7
5 letter score +6
6 letter score +5
7 letter or more score + 4
and a spell checker because webtv does not have the advantage that computers to with pulling up extra screens so it wouldn't hurt not onl to add bonuses but give the option of a spell checker so the site doesn't have to be left to check on wether the word is a word and in many cases spelled right
Is not easier to give more points 2 long words by simply adding 1 point to each letter score, and maintain the system as it is? It would be more influencal then the 1.5 suggestion on 7 letter words of BBW.
Hi Libor. Right now your score for each turn is the sum of the point values for the word you find. Each letter tile has a tiny number in the lower right-hand corner. That tiny number is the point value for that letter. After finding a word, add all of these point values together. That is your score. Additionally, if your word uses a blue corner letter tile, and is three letters or longer, then multiply this entire score for your word by two. (Double it.) If your word uses a red corner letter tile and is also three letters or longer, multiply the score for this entire word by three. (Triple it.) (If it uses both then double it and then triple it!) After playing for a short while you will find that long words of six, seven, and eight letters, when used in the middle of the board, usually don't score as high as a simple, three letter word on a red corner. A scoring change to remedy this is what we have been discussing.
Hi Ed,
I know how red and blue tiles are counted. I even play few games. But I can't understand Rio's sentence: "Now is range for score word from 1 to 5. "
I dont think that is a good idea.Take a three letter word of '1'-tiles. In the middle 3 points corner 9. If you increase them to two points: middle - 6, corner 18. So You see that the difference increases with higher scored tiles. Leading to even more short cornerwords. Unless You change the corners to just multiply the tile that ocupies it. But that would mean an even bigger change of the gamerules.
1) Rio, next time I will write you in Czech :-)
2) I Agree with Magnus. Better idea is add bonus for long words (over 5 tiles?, only without corner bonuses) instead add points to every tile.
Magnus, I don't see what you mean, I think your are absolutely wrong in saying short words get more points that way... adding a point to each letter score, simply causes the score of a word to be increase by its length so a 3 letter word now word 6 points would become 9 and a 5 letter word now word 6 points would become 11.
Of course the score of each word (also the shorter) is increased, but so are the total points of the game!
But the problem was that the small word with trippling (or doubbling) was overrepresented in the games. And with higher points on the tiles that would be even more so! Take Your three letter word á 6 points. Trppled it would get 18 (12 more). One point more/tile => 9 point, trippled 27 (18 more). Now do You see what I mean? But I agree on there being a hidden bonus if You don't use a cornertile.
I think Magnus means that the infuence of the double and triple tiles become even bigger than it already is.
"Killers", a nice 7 letter word, will be worth (5+2+2+2+2+2+2) 17 points if you give one point extra per tile. This is less than a triple-ed simple 3 letter word ((2+2+2)*3 = 18 points. Do we really want that?
1. it would open the board more and alot less vowels would be crowded around the colored letters
also you wouldn't end up with vx ini a corner together the letters would actually be spread out more
2. the bonus should only be added to words not using the doubling or tripling letters
whether 3 letters long or more
zoo tripled would be 21 or doubles 14
( i believe ) but in the center i would try to make a longer word that way and the longer th word and the extra bonus would give it more points the tripling or even doubling
I like Ed's idea the best. Stay away from .5 multiples, and allow the games to always have a winner. It is much easier to calculate a five letter word gets 5 bonus points, 6 letter word 6 bonus points, etc. The programming for such a simple plan seems like it would also be easier on our Dear moderator :-)
BYW Doti, there IS a built in spell checker already. Just try and submit a word that doesn't exist, and you get your answer right away...in big RED LETTERS! Then there is always a trusted real paper dictionary to keep on hand....
yes i agree
but thats okay
it would be easier the same lke on the scrabble game in pixie pit it gives you multiple dictionarys to use for words
and once you try words four or five times and find out that no words exist from those letters it really takes along time to do a game
webtv does have its downfall to not being able to download
and not being able to take advantages of other offers not just here but in other game sites
not everyone can afford pc's
so i am enjoing the word game inspite of not being able to always make words i can't pronounce let alone use in a sentence
but playing for enjoyment and chatting with friends and laughing at some of the words we do find
the bonus points would be good though because alot of vowels are getting stuck in the corners in clumps that nothing can be done with till more of the board gets open
and sometimes those 6 & 7 letter words do give a bit of a better score than a three letter word in the corner
not always but sometimes
I like discussing a possiblity of a new scoring system, but if we are voting - I personally like it the way it is now. So my vote right now would be: Don't change anything. :-)
well if its not really going to change it much then I agree with BBW
if only given a double score or triple score for words over 6 letters its still going to put eith alot of vowels or alot of constanents in the corners which is already congesting the board
and ppl aren't always going to find 6 and 7 letter words
the corners are getting conjested enough with the way the game is now
so I agree with BBW leave it the way it is
In a recent game I passed up on the nine-letter word RETASTING (for 10 points) and chose the three-letter word THE (for 15 points) instead. (THE was obviously connected to a triple and RETASTING was in the middle of the board.) A lot has been discussed on this topic in the past couple of weeks and I STILL think it would make for a better game to reward longer words. With the scoring system the way it is, when I find a decent word on a triple, I really don't have to hunt much more... I know this score is probably as good as it's going to get for this board. Do we really want that?
It could be possible for rio to make a variant (Golems long word game) where the rule that doubles and triples only count if the word is longer then 3 letters, is changed to 5 or 6. It might help!
Just another stupid idea of mine.
not everyone will find just 7 letter words in the center of the board that
doesn't use one of the colored circles
so why target just 7 letter words?
there are alot of words that make up the english language
and they aren't all 7 letter words that are found in the center
alot of ppl have ended up taking 7 point words or less from the center because the spaces around the corners doubling and tripling squares are either crowded with vowels or constanents
so what differance would it really make to add extra bons score to words of 7 letters or more when they aren't alway found?
In a grid where words of seven letters or more aren't available or possible, having an added scoring bonus for longer words wouldn't hurt anything... the game would be exactly as it is now. With the current rules, the corners, especially the red ones, are simply TOO powerful. When the rules of the game were written, giving the less used corner letters a bonus was obviously meant to be an incentive to use these letters. This is fine and something not found in Boggle. Excellent idea! However, it took TOO much attention away from the center of the board. The corners and triple bonus shouldn't take away the main purpose of the game... FINDING WORDS. When a word like "CAT" scores more points than a word like "DEVASTATING" then something is wrong.
Not sure wether this has been mentioned before, but it might be a good idea to make the corners triple the TILE-value, in stead of the word value. I dont play GWG alot, but I agree with Ed: the corners are too powerfull.
This may help clarify: Let's pretend the rules are exactly as they are now, but instead of the red corners being worth triple the word value, they are now worth 10x the word value!! So now a word like "THE", instead of scoring 15 points (5 points tripled) scores 50 points! (5 points x 10) Whoa! Obviously this would be WAY out of proportion, wouldn't it? I agree, but scoring triple for a word is out of proportion now, but at "only" 3x it just isn't quite as obvious. 3x is just a little too much. When a triple corner is open, it almost always takes away from all other plays on the board and I don't think this is in the best interests of the game.
I agree with the players who believe that extra points should be given for finding longer more complex words. I have played many games where I won simply by staying in the corners, while my opponents, who I felt played a better game with wonderfully long and obscure words, simply didn't rack up enough points. All of us are here to win, but sometimes it feels like a hollow victory...
I whole-heartedly agree that long words not using corners should get some sort of bonus points. And to you, Judy, if your victories felt "hollow", let me tell you, my losses to you sure didn't! They were painful! LOL
how about tripling the four corners
and doubling any words found in the center
it would equal out in the end
that way the added bonus would only double from words found not using the tripling tiles
and the four corners would now be tripled
it wouldn't take away form the value or the amount of points in anyway
i myself have found a word before going from red to red so it was point value of the word X3 X3
That last idea would be not the good... the corners only have two neighbours, which make them far more difficult then any other place on the board to use (except maybe their direct neighbours) doubling random would make the use of the doubles much easier, and would still result in battles where easy 5 letter words beat 10 letter words, without doubling...
What if there were just multiplier tiles. To get a 2x bonus, you had to use two in a word, using 3 would give you a 3x bonus. Then the effort would be to find words using as many of the specific letters as possible.
I like game-a-holic's suggestion
to random the doubling and tripling
you never know where theyare going to pop up to from one game to the next
that would make for an interesting game
and make it more challenging
good idea game-a-holic
I like Randolph's suggestion. Perhaps together with Game-a-holic's. Doubbling tiles (like the jokers) could be in the bag! Then we get another strategic problem in the game!
but it would stop the vowels and constanents form being crowded around the doubling and tripling letters on the board
o
o
o e for example
the bottom o being the triple
now the game continues not bein able to use this tripling letter tillthe end of the game
if the whole point of the game is to make words off theses letters then if there isn't a way to spread them out more then players end up making small words until that triple letter comes into play
Randolph's suggestion is really very nice. I will create two things: [1] On 16th August - start 1st championship - I'll change rules for GWG - I create small change, probably only double score for word with 7 (and more) letters [2] Later I create some variants - for waiting room - with another premium scoring (Randolph's suggestion), another game board, etc.
Little Golem