First Time Goo...

Justin Woods | July 29, 2008
I am starting this discussion because of my recent GOO, I would like to know how everyone liked the GOO and if I should continue making new ones.

I just don't want to be another (Lori), and sorry to drop your name Lori but you seem to be the one that everyone hates to see submit a GOO.

I want some level of difficulty but still solvable, and I'd like to submit a range of GOO's from anyone to master... So this GOO, based on the old rating system I gave it a difficulty of intermediate. Did I hit that mark or do you guys feel different? In advance thanks for your opinions and I hope you enjoyed my first GOO

Lori Lancaster | July 29, 2008
[hidden by request]

Justin Woods | July 29, 2008
Lori please don't take it that way I never meant to be malicious, I personally love those hard GOO's of yours I just meant to say I see a lot of discussion over your GOO's and that's what I am trying to avoid. For the record I have never complained about one of your GOO's...

Lori Lancaster | July 29, 2008
[hidden by request]

Samir Mehta | July 29, 2008
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | July 29, 2008
I'd just like to take this opportunity to point out, once again, how much the difficulty level rating is Sorely Missed... at least by me. There have been several goos now where I really felt lost without this information, even though I usually succeed in guessing correctly. I *cannot* overstate how much I Really Wish for this qualifier to be brought back... seriously -- it's just not the same without it. Must I endure this change along with all the hooplah about scoring, too??? Please, Scott... I beg you... BRING IT BACK!!!

Tony Peters | July 29, 2008
honestly my issue was more about the clue...but then after all this time I sorta understand how Lori thinks about her clues, Scott's train of thought I can usually follow but when someone new throws out a clue I have to start from scratch I didn't get it and my search was no where close c'est la vie

Justin Woods | July 29, 2008
I will have to say Tony I was surprised at the players who got it and the old time players who didn't get like your self and Steve West...

I will try to play around with my next GOO and the clue to give it a more Scott feel...

My intention with Ronnie Milsap was to use a Key Word being "FIRST" his First band "The Apparitions" and first Single "Total Disaster" with the word play off of "Total".

Steve Dunn | July 29, 2008
Justin, I think the goo was good. Challenging but very gettable. I didn't get it, but I didn't try very hard.

Tony Peters | July 29, 2008
don't feel bad when I found out who it was I wasn't overly bent outta shape that I didn't find that answer, He probably isn't someone that i would have guess even with an easier clue

Scott Hardie | July 30, 2008
It was a solid goo, Justin. Keep those requests comin'.

If you don't like difficulty disappearing, you're really going to miss categories.

Amy Austin | July 30, 2008
WhatwhatWHAT!!!

Steve West | July 30, 2008
What she said...

Amy Austin | July 30, 2008
You just really want to screw with us old-timers, don't you!

Samir Mehta | July 30, 2008
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | July 30, 2008
Whoa... that's messed up!

Samir Mehta | July 30, 2008
[hidden by request]

Aaron Shurtleff | July 30, 2008
No way! Amy would wait until GooCon, when it could be any of us doing it, because she's too smart to get caught! :)

Tony Peters | July 30, 2008
No she would figure out how to frame someone who under normal circumstances couldn't possibly be guilty...or maybe just get them to do it in the first place there by achieving her master plan

Lori Lancaster | July 30, 2008
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | July 31, 2008
I don't do anything to screw with old timers. But if what I do happens to screw with old timers in the process, I take a moment to be evil about it.

Amy Austin | July 31, 2008
So... you were joking then? I wouldn't want to have to plan an arson or anything...

Scott Hardie | July 31, 2008
Nope, not joking. But please give the new way a chance before you begin the immolation. (Who knows how long it will be before I finish preparing it, anyway.)

Amy Austin | July 31, 2008
Ugh. I'll never win another tournament again. But you should know by now that I have an open mind!

And, um... immolation wouldn't be my choice, because of what that nearly *always* implies, with or without the prefix!

Scott Hardie | January 27, 2009
I never did explain what I meant by getting rid of categories. At the time I wrote this, I was working on what became a temporary relaunch of the goo game, heavy on ajax for loading content inside the page as you browsed. It was underdeveloped, launched before its time, and deservingly sent to the graveyard of bad ideas on the site.

You might (or might not) recall some miscellaneous changes that I affected in the game at the time. My intention was to breathe new life into the goo game by stripping out unnecessary clutter and getting back to basics. One of the ways that I planned to do that was by getting rid of the 42 categories that we have now – which are still not sufficient to describe the Education goo a few days ago, if I were to really classify this goo where it belongs – and reducing the game to 6-10 core categories that more resemble Trivial Pursuit or something you'd see in a pop culture quiz game, things like "Movies & TV," "History," "Science & Technology," "Arts & Literature," et cetera. Each goo would only be listed in its one core category, not miscellaneous alternate categories since so many of those are a fine line that it leads to confusion, like the Nobel Peace Prize recepient revealed today.

The thing is, I'm a big believer in evolution – a system that works proves itself by continuing to work, and a system that falls into disuse didn't work in the first place. This experiment proved why the game has slowly evolved to the 43 categories that it has now, because before long, I was pulling my hair out trying to recategorize the existing goos to match just a handful of core categories. Some celebrities just have multiple major claims to fame, like Cher, while others defy categorization, like the Bush shoe-thrower. I managed to categorize maybe 200 of the existing goos before I threw my hands up and surrendered, which is why nothing came of the "getting rid of categories" comment above. If only I'd taken it as a sign that trying to mess with the goo game is a very bad idea.

And before you ask: No, difficulty ratings are still not coming back.