Spring Has Sprung

Scott Hardie | March 5, 2013
Here's looking forward to a fun season in the goo game! I can't wait to get to some of the themes scheduled.

I have no intention of changing the rules, but I did come across an idea for a scoring system that I find intriguing, and I thought I would share it just for sake of discussion with players who enjoy pondering variations on the game. Kelly and I have long enjoyed the Buzz trivia games for PlayStation. After a variety of rounds in that game that emphasize different skills (some favor speed, some accuracy, some lateral thinking, some plain silliness, etc), you and your fellow players have amassed points, sometimes stealing points from each other. At the end, your points are converted into seconds on the clock, and a series of trivia questions is asked. When the announcer begins reading each question, your clock starts ticking, and it stops when you select your answer. If you're the first one to guess right, you gain extra time. If you guess wrong, extra time is taken away. When your clock runs out, you're eliminated. The last player left is the winner. To keep the final round from lasting forever, the clocks gradually accelerate with each question, so that time runs out faster and faster, and elimination becomes inevitable.

I don't think this would be superior to what we have now; I like the unpredictabilty that comes with one-on-one faceoffs, the fact that one lucky day can put you far ahead in the tournament. It would also be a great deal of work for me to program the system to work this way. Still, I'm intrigued by the idea of everyone racing against their own personal clock that keeps running out like an hourglass, and the sudden reversals of fortune that come from having the fastest solve time on a particular goo; you can instantly jump from last place to first place, though it doesn't happen often. Perhaps if GooCon is ever revived, or we get around to playing a live round someday on Skype, this would be a fun way to keep score.

Chris Lemler | March 5, 2013
Looking forward to this round Scott!!!!!!! Will be a fun and exciting one :)

Erik Bates | March 5, 2013
[hidden by request]

Steve West | March 5, 2013
That sounds awesome. I'd love it. Maybe 20 lines...

Scott Hardie | March 6, 2013
Accuracy would be the tough part. Ajax (code that lets part of the page interact with the server and deliver new content without refreshing the whole page) is a wonderful technology that runs amazing sites like Facebook, but it involves so many different hidden server connections at unpredictable speeds that I wouldn't trust a "goo solve time" clock displayed on the page to be accurate down to the second. If I built this kind of scoring system without a visible countdown of time remaining, it would be a lot easier to create, but wouldn't be as much fun to play, I think.

Chris Lemler | March 6, 2013
That sounds like a great idea!!!!!! Never heard of it but, sounds really interesting