'Antarctica' is a repeat!

It was chosen on 2009-02-11.

In case it gets selected, here are the top ten answers:

**ice; south pole; cold; penguin; snow;

continent; south; iceberg; seals; arctic**

(hey I didn't talk about a running game!)

i liked this.

Sorry, I suggested this topic, I had no idea it had been a previous choice, I don't see any reason to assume that the top 10 answers would be the same in a competition run on a differet date, with a percentage of new players and different news articals on the subject.

Barry: The first thing most seasoned players do in Empathy, is to check if the topic is a repeat. If it is, then it is usually a good idea to choose the top ten topics of the previous game - possibly exchanging the least popular word in some cases. Since this is the strategy of many players, it becomes a GOOD strategy. If you look back on games that are repeats, you'll see that the first place is usually shared by a dozen people, all of whom have copied the result from the previous game. Therefore: Care should be taken to avoid repeats.

I do see a strong reason ;-)

Marius, then its a fair playing field, all the leading players have the option of looking at the previous game, all the rest of us, those who just play for fun can continue trying to pick 10 items that match the criteria.

I'm sure a lot of people would be interested to see how the top answers change over time.

I think you're very, very wrong, Barry. Making the game boring for the top players, who make up the backbone of it's player base, is a certain way to destroy this game.

If you're really interrested in that kind of experiment (change of top answers over time), I suggest you play Empathy elsewhere - either on other sites or in the "real world". You should try to get a similar player base each time, yet without any of the same players participating.

Here on LG, the rule of thumb should be to try to avoid repeats. The best thing is probably to check if a subject you want to submit is a repeat BEFORE suggesting it - the second best is to warn players about repeats to avoid them being selected, like Aganju does here.

I agree that if we had a series of repeat topics, then we would have a problem, but I don't see an issue with games repeating from time to time.

I don't know how people tackle "Empathy", my assumption is that those players who always place highly simply search "Wikipedia or Google". To get a real test for players you would surely need to select a topic that can't be tackled in that way.

We DO have a series of repeat topics! Look in the forum, and you'll find several posts about this. Or look at back at previous topics - everytime you see lots op players sharing first place, you can assume it's a repeated topic.

As for how people score highly, I assume they use a mix of search engines, common sens and "gut feeling" to do so. Search engines alone will only get you so far - definitely not to the top.

We each have our own opinion and I don't think we are going to agree on this, we just have to trust people to choose the most interesting topic for themselves.

Barry, before making yourself an opinion on the topic, have you checked past games to see what happened every time there was a repeated topic?

When there's a repeated topic, a bunch of players have an agreement to copy the exact ten answers of the repeated topic. So they win. It's plain cheating in my opinion, but I won't convince anyone.

You are right Barry, repeats shouldn't be a problem at all. But it is here, because of bad behaviour. I know arguing about it is like banging my head into a wall, I'll only get an headache, but still.

Making 100 fake new users and entering each game of empathy with "one" "two" "three" ... up to "ten" isn't explicitly forbidden by the rules either. Don't you think the weakening number of players is linked to the lack of fairplay? No, don't blame the site. You're mature enough not to cheat even if it's not hard coded, right?

-this wall shouldn't be here. "BANG" . What, not even a dent? "BANG" I'll get you darn wall. "BANG". I won't give up. "BANG" . Well , ok, I'll rest for now, but I'm definitely trying again next week.

Is it possible to play empathy on other sites? never seen that

Please stick to the facts, Paul, not your delusional fantasies. When there's a repeated topic, I think the most likely good answers are going to be the same as the best answers the previous time it was the topic. I have not made any agreement with anyone.

Paul, I don't want to make an issue of this, I didn't even know the site had a list of previous games when I put Antarctica up as an option, as for cheating, with any game on this site there is the possibility of cheating, and I would assume it would be very easy for a group of players to collude here or of course to use false ID's if they wanted too, the only way really to play on this site is for fun, as you don't know if everyone else is playing fairly, that said it's a great site and a good way to relax during quiet periods.

The agreement is tacit, and it's not in the spirit of the game.

Anyway, the discussion is going nowhere, I don't have any new argument. I admit I distorted reality to pretend I have new things to say ( and I was maybe too much provocative). But still... "BANG"

Barry,

I did not assume that you chose the repeat knowingly; actually, I have proposed repeats myself without knowing (and they got taken and I lost).

Yes if everybody would 'think' anew, it would be still interesting. But it is not happening. I think there are about 25% repeats in the last quarter, and it pi**** me off royally every time (because I think hard about ten good words just to find out that I'm in 41st place and the first 37 have the same ten words from the repeat.

The good thing with that wall is I don't need to convince you. If you don't believe it, just play a while. You will see (and feel).

The bad thing is you will probably just stop playing when you're pi**** off. Sad for a great game to lose players this way.

BANG. BANG. BANG...

Two simple yes/no questions, no directed at anyone in particular:

Do you think I prefer copy-pasting 10 answers from a recycled topic, or thinking about a new one?

If I think "we've had it before" would I not be a _dumbass_ to not see what the mass of people with whom I am playing are good answers?

If you answer either incorrectly, my level of respect for you as someone who enjoys the playing of games will diminish considerably. Forgiveness possibility only on the misinterpretation of the double-negative where you actually got the right intention, but had a parity error.

ssssshhhhht! No talking about an ongoiing game! (looks like this tread wasn't read by enough people...)

well done, but the great Elisa do it first.

The european countries topic was a repeat, and I got the top ten answer. But I didn't look into the past games, it was just luck. I didn't change my mind.

(I don't want to relaunch this threat, every opinion have been stated clearly. It's just to be sure I'm not suspected of doing what I condemned with such virulence )