How Do You Play the Mystery X Game?

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The discussion revolves around a game called "Monkey see, monkey do," where participants take turns providing clues about an object, X, until someone correctly identifies it. The game emphasizes narrowing down options with each clue, with the goal of reaching a specific individual. The American alligator is identified as X in one round, leading to a win for the sixth poster. Participants express confusion about the rules, particularly regarding how to narrow down options effectively and whether incorrect guesses eliminate players from the round. Suggestions for improving the game include setting a time limit for responses and establishing clearer rules to prevent disputes over clues. The conversation also explores variations of similar games, emphasizing strategy and the importance of thinking ahead to avoid losing. Overall, the thread highlights the challenges of organizing a turn-based guessing game in an online forum setting.
  • #31
One little extra rule : plurals, tense changes, etc (forms other than the root) are not considered new words. Okay ?
 
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  • #32
Gokul43201 said:
One little extra rule : plurals, tense changes, etc (forms other than the root) are not considered new words. Okay ?
I was just going to ask about that.
 
  • #33
Also, what happens if the n'th letter allows k possibilities and the n+1'th letter allows one possibility but also completes the word ?

For instance ...
 
  • #34
...M a v i n - I win !

Or do I ??
 
  • #35
Gokul43201 said:
...M a v i n - I win !

Or do I ??
I'd say you win because use of the "n" cancels out any other words that I am aware of.
 
  • #36
You know, you posted "One little extra rule : plurals, tense changes, etc (forms other than the root) are not considered new words. Okay ?" just before you posted "mavin." You made a new rule and then used it immediately, because if you hadn't made that rule then there could be "mavins" or "mavin."

X
 
  • #37
By the way, should we allow dictionaries?

Should we allow words with dashes in them? Terms with spaces in them that are listed in the dictionary? Prefixes?
 
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  • #38
BicycleTree said:
You know, you posted "One little extra rule : plurals, tense changes, etc (forms other than the root) are not considered new words. Okay ?" just before you posted "mavin." You made a new rule and then used it immediately, because if you hadn't made that rule then there could be "mavins" or "mavin."

X
Rather clever of him, wasn't it? :smile: At least he waited for a response and didn't just announce a new rule and proceed anyway.

I see no problem with people using dictionaries. You might have to (and we'd definitely need to be able to use them to confirm a challenge if needed), and this will make it a learning game too. I think there's enough skill involved that using a dictionary isn't an unfair advantage of any sort.

I would argue that if there's a space, then it's two separate words (I think that's what you're talking about, phrases in the dictionary). So, I'd say those wouldn't be allowed.

I'm not so sure about hyphenation. How about as long as it's not two separate words if you remove the hyphen, then hyphenated words are okay? Oh, but then if we do allow hyphens, do they need to be included as a character just like a letter is added, or are they sort of wild cards that can be assumed present at any place and any time?
 
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  • #39
BicycleTree said:
You know, you posted "One little extra rule : plurals, tense changes, etc (forms other than the root) are not considered new words. Okay ?" just before you posted "mavin." You made a new rule and then used it immediately, because if you hadn't made that rule then there could be "mavins" or "mavin."

X
Okay, I forfeit my victory and hand over my wreath to you.

That was really just an experimental round...more for debugging purposes than anything else; and it did identify a bug anyway.

No hyphenated words allowed, or multiple word "words".
 
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  • #40
Xo

Victory! Xosa
 
  • #41
BicycleTree said:
You know, you posted "One little extra rule : plurals, tense changes, etc (forms other than the root) are not considered new words. Okay ?" just before you posted "mavin." You made a new rule and then used it immediately, because if you hadn't made that rule then there could be "mavins" or "mavin."

X
Gokul still wins because he was simply clarifying the rules, I was just about to post the same question and I knew exactly why he was asking the question. :approve:
 

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