Author Topic: Some questions about Chihuahua  (Read 4839 times)

Alan W

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Some questions about Chihuahua
« on: September 24, 2012, 02:27:55 PM »
A player sent me an email as follows:

Quote
Hello,

I have been playing off and on for some time and have a bunch of questions that other players might be interested in – or not.  Thanks for answering them – or not.

1.  On the average, how many players play each day?

2.  Any idea of how many are daily players (more or less) vs. occasional players?

3.  How do you find the 9- or 10-letter words that are unique words (or however you describe words that can only be arranged one way)?

4.  How come as I slave away to add one more word, some players leap by and add as many as 30-40 words in one whoosh? 

Thanks and thanks for an addictive game.

Thanks for those questions. I feel sure other players would be interested, so I'm going to answer them here, one at a time.

I'll start with the last question. The main reason other players' scores leap ahead sometimes is that the scoreboard isn't always right up to date.

There have been problems from time to time when the website has got overloaded, especially when a new daily puzzle has just started and quite a few players are all playing as fast as they can. To reduce the load, I've set things up so that the words a player finds are sent to the scoreboard in batches, rather than every word being sent as soon as it is played. Your view of the scoreboard is kept right up to date as far as your own words are concerned, but another player would see your score move in fits and starts, just as you may see their scores move in fits and starts.

The effects of this are not so noticeable during most of the day, when only a few people are playing any given puzzle, but it certainly is noticeable in the first half hour or so of a new puzzle. It's regrettable, but I think it's better than risking more severe disruption - such as people not being able to get on to the site at all.

Of course, it is also possible that a few of the players making spectacular progress may be using some "aids", so that they have a list of words in front of them, and merely have to type them in, as fast as their little fingers can go!

I'll answer the other three questions in later posts.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites

bobbi

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Re: Some questions about Chihuahua
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2012, 03:52:14 PM »
What would be the point of typing in a list that's in front of you? Somebody please help me understand what anyone would get out of this.

Gaye Christine

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Re: Some questions about Chihuahua
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2012, 04:33:27 PM »
I have yet to figure that out myself, Bobbi.  It actually sounds like a terribly boring thing to do!!

Alan, may I add a question to the other player's list?  The start times of the puzzles - do the times on the web pages change according to ones location / time zone or do they appear the same to each player, wherever they are?  Just wondering as my times are 2am, 10am and 6pm and those are the times the puzzles change in my time. 

Oops, that all sounds more complicated than I meant  ;D

Alan W

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Re: Some questions about Chihuahua
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2012, 05:01:42 PM »
Gaye Christine, the times are set in Greenwich Mean Time, or UTC as it's sometimes called. This means that the local times vary from place to place.

The Standard puzzle begins at midnight GMT, which I assume would be 2 am in Johannesburg, where you are. The other puzzle types are 8 hours before that (Challenge) and 8 hours after (10-letter).
Alan Walker
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bobbi

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Re: Some questions about Chihuahua
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2012, 05:20:36 PM »
With a maximum of 9 letters, less when there are duplicates, this could be a good touch typing drill??

Off topic: I see that you are in Johnesburg Gaye Christine. I am a too at the moment, trying to make sort out my mum's life for here. Failing miserably at the moment - she had a massive stroke on Wednesday afternoon. My daughter and I are reeling at the implications of this, having just spent 3 months selling her house and moving her to a nursing home.

Anyway, I am off to my half brother and his family now to celebrate "National Braai Day." Is your family planning the same?
Only in South Africa.....  ^_^

Gaye Christine

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Re: Some questions about Chihuahua
« Reply #5 on: September 24, 2012, 08:55:28 PM »
So sorry to read about your mother, Bobbi.  Strokes are dreadful things (I spent two years working part time in a frail care centre, so have first hand experience), for the patient and even more for the families.  All I can say is be strong for yourself and your family, and let nature takes its course.

No "Braai Day" for me - vegetarian  ;D ;D  Hope you have a good relaxing day, obviously you need it!!

technomc

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Re: Some questions about Chihuahua
« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2012, 10:14:12 PM »
Oh Bobbi, that is sad news..i know how hard you have worked this last year or so, going back and forth, trying to get her sorted out. What a shock for you all to have this to cope with too!!

 How is your daughter now??

Chin up mate...and keep me posted.. Big hug..XX

Gaye Christine

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Re: Some questions about Chihuahua
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2012, 12:02:27 AM »
Thank you for the explanation, Alan, re the times!!

Alan W

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Re: Some questions about Chihuahua
« Reply #8 on: September 28, 2012, 02:59:42 PM »
Here is some information relating to the first two questions that were raised originally, namely:

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1.  On the average, how many players play each day?
2.  Any idea of how many are daily players (more or less) vs. occasional players?

On most days, slightly more than 500 people play Chihuahua. The numbers have been fairly steady over the past couple of years. Of course, many of these play more than one puzzle per day. On the average, each player plays about 2 and a half puzzles per day.

One way to get an idea of how many players are regulars is to see which players have registered their player names, and how long they have been registered. To explore this, I looked at all the players who had played any of the three daily puzzles with last Wednesday's date, 26 September.

Of a total of 542 players that day, 345 are registered. Their years of first registering are distributed as follows:

YEAR  NUMBER
2006      23
2007      35
2008      44
2009      54
2010      57
2011      69
2012      63

Of the 197 unregistered players, only 23 have given themselves player names - the rest are all "anon".

So, it seems that about half of the players have been playing for at least a year, and quite a few have been around for much longer.

Of course, these figures don't show how often people play - no doubt there are people who have been playing for years, but only play once in a while.

But I found that the number of different players over the course of a week is about twice the number of players each day: just over 1000 distinct players per week. I think this implies that the average player plays on 3 and a half days per week.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites