Today's Goo

Scott Hardie | January 25, 2005
In case any overnight players were wondering why the switch happened, I had decided to swap goos 0444 and 0445, but I forgot to swap their images. You saw 0445 a day early for the last few hours.

I hope that y'all recognize that the game is getting harder on purpose. When the round started, most of the goos in a given week were easy, with one or two hard goos for variety. Now that we're at the end of the round, the ratio is inversed. Fans of easy goos need wait only a few weeks for the next round to begin.

Erik Bates | January 25, 2005
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | January 28, 2005
So, no guesses yet for 0447 (Magic & Paranormal)? I called it hard but I thought a few players would get it right out of the gate. Tomorrow's Family goo is one that I created to be a challenge, but there will be probably be a half-dozen correct guesses by noon. *sigh*

Mike Eberhart | January 29, 2005
Oh, I have an idea on who it is, but I haven't confirmed it yet.

Jackie Mason | January 31, 2005
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | January 31, 2005
I was wondering the same. :-|

Jackie Mason | January 31, 2005
[hidden by request]

Scott Horowitz | January 31, 2005
I think the reason Scott started this game was for people to inflict physical harm on their bodies when they make unintelligent guesses (I've done plenty of those). He's a sadistic genius.

Scott Hardie | February 1, 2005
Let's just say I'm coming to enjoy the end of the round more than the beginning.

Scott Hardie | February 1, 2005
I have just put up enough goos to last through the end of the round, if our top scorer guesses each one correctly until then. I'll add more if needed. These are, in my judgment, some of the hardest goos I have yet created, but you players have a good habit of proving my judgment wrong. I look forward to the next ten days. (Let's start off with an easy one.)

Amy Austin | February 1, 2005
Oh, great... the worst week ever for me to try to finish a round -- flying out to Vegas on the 3rd, w/ 2nd cross-country road trip forthcoming... extra challenging.

Jackie Mason | February 1, 2005
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | February 3, 2005
It seems TC wasn't the only section of the site to break a record yesterday: Our score leader has finally guessed incorrectly, for the first time this round. Megan, if you're reading this, it was a great guess; you found a celebrity who matched the clue even better than the real answer does.

Now Mike and Megan are tied, and he has one more opportunity to guess than she does (based on the goos that are active right now). This is going to be an interesting final two weeks.

Amy Austin | February 9, 2005
Well, thank GOD it wasn't any of the 500 gazillion string theorists I looked up -- starting with the MOST obvious Brian Greene (whom I am guessing is everyone's incorrect guess!) -- I think I now know the names of every single quantum/theoretical physicist from 20th (and even 19th!) century!!! DAMN... that was hard!

I was going to be ultra mad if it was somebody I was warm on... just like my Estee Lauder fiasco, I lost out on Jose Silva because I was out of town and away from a computer when he expired -- I was very close to solving that one. And now Mike knows who the "serial killer" is... this last week is gonna' kill me!!!

Scott Hardie | February 9, 2005
I added the incorrect guesses: Two for Greene, two for Ed Witten, and one for Richard Feynman.

Big cheers to Mike for getting the Crime goo. That's exactly why I'm putting up so many hard goos these days, to try to separate Mike and Megan in the scores a little. The victor will be determined by skill, the way it should be.

I'll be back to write more tonight; gotta get to work.

Amy Austin | February 9, 2005
Yeah, I kept going back to Witten, too... like I said -- glad I wasn't even close, it just makes it that much harder to take! ;D

Jackie Mason | February 10, 2005
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | February 11, 2005
I RULE!!! Mike, I'm comin' for ya', dude...

Scott Hardie | February 13, 2005
A few minor developments in the goo game:

I added an "Aviation & Space Travel" category (link) that is more appropriate for its goos than the "Exploration" category ever was. (I might split the category into two in the future, since there's really no overlap between aviators and astronauts, but for now it's one category.)

I have also completed one fifth of the Goo Library page, letting you look up the goos that belong to a given category. (link) Each current goo's primary category now links to the library as a means of curbing the trend of newbie players guessing celebrities that have already been gooed in the past. I intend to add the other four divisions of the Goo Library tonight; I'm simply out of time at the moment.

Finally, I have added a "biography" link to each non-current goo, which leads to that celebrity's Wikipedia entry. I have found Wikipedia (link) to be a fantastic knowledge resource in general, and after some trepidation about incorporating it into the game (like Google I fear it could make the game about research instead of recognition), I have decided to use it to inform players about each celebrity who appears in the game. After all, one selection criteria is that I try to fill the goo game with really interesting celebrities, and that effect is diminished if you come away knowing next to nothing about them. So, I hope that you click the "biography" link for each previous goo as it is revealed, and learn something about these very interesting people.

Scott Hardie | February 14, 2005
Congratulations, Amy, on your second Golden Imelda.

Amy Austin | February 15, 2005
Thanks, Scott! I wondered if I might get a third and if/when someone would congratulate me on usurping the top spot in the scoring... but I guess not, since Megan came back with a vengeance for the lead!!! Damn. S'all right... I won't go down without a fight -- I'll at least give a run for their money! ;DDD Good job, Megan... I'll be seein' ya'!

BTW, I like the new additions, Scott... nice work!

Jackie Mason | February 15, 2005
[hidden by request]

Mike Eberhart | February 15, 2005
I think there's a conspiracy going on. All of a sudden, all these "Hard" goos appear and she nails them like their nothing. I don' t know, just seems a little fishy to me.... :)

Amy Austin | February 16, 2005
Hahahahaha... yeah, right -- you mean like the way you did last night, huh? ;DDD I mean, WTF, Mike -- you had to have known instantly who that was, because I didn't even have a clue after 15 minutes of searching!!! (And I would have searched for longer if it hadn't been for Ed's graduation this morning -- at the equivalent of "the wee hours" for me!)

Now I'm back to "#3", and I really need to figure out the gov't one before it expires to stay in the running! Shit, and the road trip starts tomorrow -- I'm done for!

As for my guessing methods, Jackie... "ancient Chinese secret", of course!!! ;DDD

Amy Austin | February 16, 2005
Oh, and BTW Mike, that "Crime" goo was not "like nothing" to me, either! I struggled for days with the traditional definitions of "serial killer" just like everybody else... and believe it or not, the fact that you got it first was a big help to me... ;DDD

Mike Eberhart | February 16, 2005
I hope you know that I was kidding with you... I really was hoping that know one else would have gotten the Crime goo. It would have been my first Golden Imelda.... So, THANKS A LOT..... :)

Mike Eberhart | February 16, 2005
Oh, and good luck with that Gov't goo... I couldn't find it. Completely drew a blank on it. I had a pretty hard time finding that Controversy & Scandal goo today.

Amy Austin | February 16, 2005
Of course, I knew that you were kidding with me (but secretly pleased that I have fallen)! I am still futilely (is that a word?) searching for the "head sled" -- I don't really have much clue, either... it would be a miracle for me to uncover it now -- so thanks for your "luck" (that is really secretly jinxing the hell out of me!)

So sorry to strip your Imelda away... but a girl's gotta' do what a girl's gotta' do, you know? (GO, MEGAN! BEAT HIM FOR ME!!!)

Amy Austin | February 16, 2005
Oh yeah, and damn you! for finding that Controversy goo today... I was counting on that to keep us tied!!!

Scott Hardie | February 16, 2005
I just want to say that the "head sled" clue is very old school, the exact sort of clue I used to write in the nineties. There's a reason we don't have that kind any more: They're way too damn hard.

Amy Austin | February 16, 2005
SSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIT!!! I was just starting to look at the Caribbean, too!!! ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! I give up!!!

Amy Austin | February 16, 2005
I like it, Scott... but I was looking for a more pressing reason to have kids -- like needing an heir!

Megan Baxter | February 16, 2005
I'll try - but I'm going away on a business trip for a few days! I'll have to find ways to check in.

Scott Hardie | February 16, 2005
The Goo Library is done. (link)

Scott Horowitz | February 16, 2005
Day off, huh?

Erik Bates | February 16, 2005
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | February 23, 2005
Damn it... Sorry Megan. :-( It was a good guess. And you played a masterful round. I haven't seen somebody rack up that many consecutive correct guesses in years.

Amy & Mike: Good luck!

Scott Horowitz | March 4, 2005
Something that happens to me, I dunno if it is cache or if it is db side. Can you set it that when you enter a guess for the goo, the grid select list defaults to the top? It seems to like a random value.

Scott Hardie | March 4, 2005
See my "Grid Strategy" discussion for an explanation of why I randomized it, Scott: (link) If you and others want it set back so that it defaults to the top, I'd be happy to do so; it would make the page load a lot faster. Let me know what you think.

Scott Hardie | March 5, 2005
Ok, I did away with it. The select menu should now default to the first item in the list. I have a few other ideas for speeding up the page too, mostly on the coding level without you players seeing any difference.

Scott Hardie | March 5, 2005
That work is now done as well. The "Current Goos" page should load in a fraction of the time now. (Again, this was a case of my not being aware of it: I didn't bother to give myself Grid Control, and the page always loaded quickly without it, while those of you who had Grid Control could take a nap while waiting for that damn page to load.)

Aaron Shurtleff | March 7, 2005
OK, I have a stupid question (which is the best kind!):

How does the ranking get determined in the current scores? I mean, it seems like no matter what happens, I'm at the lowest point for my score "bracket". Earlier today, I was #8 (out of 8 people who are all 6 for 6). The last time I looked, I was #12 (out of 12 people who are all 6 for 6). Since I am disconnected from the real world, and only have internet access at work (where I can't surf the web for clues very much), I'm bound to get one wrong soon. I just want to hope that one day, even if it's meaningless, I can see my name as #1 (even if there's 900 people who are tied for #1, it'll boost my fragile fragile ego!) Is there a method to the madness?

Erik Bates | March 7, 2005
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | March 7, 2005
Aaron: The page sorts players first by the grid percentage completed, second by the total number of goos guessed correctly, third by the date they entered the game (earliest first). That may sound daunting, but you'll climb as you keep playing; you're already in the top third of all players. (link)

Aaron Shurtleff | March 8, 2005
Erik: I think it's the second option, but Scott appears to be saying otherwise.

Scott: Hmm... So, the odds are stacked against me, eh? I like a good challenge! OK, so I really don't, but I'll see what comes next.

Mike Eberhart | March 25, 2005
Oh Great, so I guess today's goo is another one of these totally obscure celebrities, and the clue has to be translated into German to figure out..... I think I'll pass. That is, of course, unless Amy gets it. Then I'll have no choice but to try to figure it out...

Erik Bates | March 25, 2005
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | March 27, 2005
Lori has the right to see her favorite celebrities in the game, which is the same right everybody has. (The "Request a Goo" page is still only halfway built; Lori emailed this one to me.) Lori acknowledges that her favorite celebrities are not well known to Americans, so she & I have a more-or-less tacit agreement to take advantage of their obscurity and use them as the occasional really difficult goo, something I like to do a few times every round. If a player is good enough and determined enough to guess this one right, they get to be a whole percentage point ahead of the rest of the pack, which is no small reward. The only problem I see with this sort of obscure goo is that it's no fun to guess, but with six other goos up at the same time, I don't consider that a big deal.

In other GOO news, I have started using Fusion to create some goos. This is an extension of Kai's Power Goo that came packaged with my "deluxe" edition of the software when I bought it in 1998. At some point long ago I decided not to use it, but for the life of me I can't remember why, so on the eve of the game's 500th goo I have finally caved in and started creating some goos that way. What it does is let you paste part of one image over another one, like somebody's mouth and eyes on somebody else's face. The "If They Mated" bit on Conan O'Brien is one example. When creating goos, I only use the one image, but I paste parts inappropriately, such as with the current "Magic & Paranormal" goo, where I paste eyes and chins and hands in the wrong place to create a distorted face. Fusion is limited in application, and because of the interface you can't see the left and right extremes of the image you're working on (which is *so* annoying), but I'll be using it intermittently for the near future. Enjoy.

Mike Eberhart | March 28, 2005
I never said that she didn't have a right to see who she wants, I just think you should create a new difficulty category for these types. Label it, "Almost Impossible". At least with the Very Hard goos, you think that you have a chance at it. All I know is that as soon as I saw the requestor, I didn't even bother looking in depth for it. I did a general search for someone, found an image, and made my guess. So I moved on to the next goo... Other people can like these types of goos, and that's good. I personally don't, but I've never said that you should stop posting them. I just reference back to an old arguement that we had back when that Hitori (sp) goo was made. I think it was Matt who said, he was missing the "Celebrity" aspect of the goo. I still believe that, but that's just me. I'm only one person, and it's your game so you should do whatever you want.

Part of the fun for me is complaining about these types of goos every now and then... :)

Lori Lancaster | March 28, 2005
[hidden by request]

Denise Sawicki | March 28, 2005
ummm, believe it or not I was meaning to make the correct guess earlier although I wasn't sure if it was correct. I probably would have gotten around to making that guess sooner or later. I have an email in my inbox dated a few days ago which i sent to myself to remind myself to make that guess if I didn't come up with a better idea. Not sure it should actually count though!!!

before you changed your post I was about to reply with how upset I was to be disallowed the opportunity to make a guess which would have turned out to be correct.... I know it looks awful fishy though, I don't know if I can somehow show someone the email or something, or if my guess should not be counted...

Lori Lancaster | March 28, 2005
[hidden by request]

Mike Eberhart | March 28, 2005
I didn't even know you posted a reasoning. But if there's a chance that someone got a clue from that, then I would have an issue with it. I think a ruling needs to be determined from Scott.

Denise Sawicki | March 28, 2005
I'm sure you wouldn't have done it on purpose. Still I was rather annoyed since it's not often I am able to get any goo that is marked very hard. :) and I feel guilty now that I didn't guess earlier... The clues really didn't seem to conclusively identify the person for me and I don't think I had found the source image so I wasn't sure but I guess I shouldn't have guessed at such a bad time anyhow. I get foolish under pressure...

Mike Eberhart | March 28, 2005
Just out of curiosity Lori, did you delete that post? Because I can't find it anywhere. Who all saw it besides Denise? I see that Scott Ho made a guess too, so did he get some clue or answer out of the mystery post?

Scott Horowitz | March 28, 2005
I posted after I saw Lori's. I guess I still got it wrong. I figured Hardie is going to invalidate that goo anyways now, so I thought I'd be a wise ass.

Jerry Mathis | March 28, 2005
OOOHHH! I want a clue too! Pick me! Pick me! :)

This goo is giving me a migraine!

Erik Bates | March 28, 2005
[hidden by request]

Denise Sawicki | March 28, 2005
Upon reflection I realize I have been rather rude in this thread. I concede that I do not deserve the point - I wasn't sure of the answer until I saw Lori's statement of the answer. Well, it was fun having an imaginary golden Imelda for a few hours. Furthermore, Lori, I can completely understand that anyone with a new baby would probably think that the past few days seemed like a week!

Amy Austin | March 28, 2005
Shoot -- feels like a week to me, just because of the frustration factor on this one!

Scott Hardie | March 29, 2005
From what I gather, this is what happened: Lori decided here in TC to defend her reasoning behind goo 0495, and identified the celebrity by name. At around the same time, Denise entered a correct guess. Lori realized that the goo was still active and deleted her comment completely. (I hope you saved the original comment, Lori; I for one would like to read it when the week is over.) Lori followed up immediately with a comment pointing out that Denise had probably gotten the goo from her error, while Denise explained that she had already known the correct answer and was preparing to guess it. In the meantime, Scott Horowitz had read Lori's original comment, seen the correct answer, and guessed it; Scott owned up to taking advantage of the situation.

This wouldn't be such a big deal if Denise and Scott were behind in points, but Denise was tied for the lead and this could give her an edge. In a situation like this, I must take time to consider the factors before I make a decision. I have never known Denise to be a liar, and she forwarded me her email from Friday that (if not forged) proves that she knew the correct answer that early. In addition, if Lori did not realize that the goo was still active, that means that she didn't look at it on the Current Goos page before writing her original comment, which means that it's possible Denise had already entered her guess before Lori even made the comment in the first place. (Maybe I should add a timestamp to goo guesses in the database in case this happens again.) But, if I were to give Denise the benefit of the doubt, it would mean accepting the possibility that she took unfair advantage — which means I would be wrong to deny the guess from Scott, who admitted to taking unfair advantage.

What I don't want to do is invalidate the goo, something I have never done before. But I can't make it equally easy for everyone else by providing big hints that make it almost obvious, since some players (like Mike) have already guessed wrong. I would have to invalidate their earlier guesses. And what of the players who already guessed wrong and don't read TC to know that they'd get a chance to guess again with big hints? How do I contact the ones who have not authorized me to contact them as site users? It's a big mess.

There's no easy way out, so I will give it some thought and decide later, possibly even tomorrow. Those who have emailed me on the subject already, I thank you for your input and patience.

Further comments are welcome.

Footnote: There used to be a rule in place that suspended players for giving away the answer, but it has since been removed. There is in fact no safeguard in the game: Imagine if this was a legitimate Golden Imelda for Denise, but someone resented it and posted the "answer" on TC, and other players started guessing that answer. If it was the right answer, Denise would have been denied the prize she earned. If it was the wrong answer, the poster would have cheated a lot of players out of their right to guess. Either way, the fairness of the game would be tainted for up to a whole round. There really should be some safeguards in place, but with the Internet being what it is, I feel helpless to stop a player who is determined to cheat and/or contaminate the game; there are dozens of ways to do it.

Jackie Mason | March 29, 2005
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | March 29, 2005
I have started a new discussion for this goo to make it easier to link into it from the "Current Goos" page. (link) I suggest that from now on, we always start a new discussion for each new goo we want to debate, otherwise discussions like this one are going to get insanely long after a while.

I will make further comments there.

Amy Austin | March 29, 2005
Good call, Scott... last night I was reading a little further back than I started playing (or right when I did start playing), and I had to use the timestamp to determine what goo was being talked about. Makes good sense to start fresh with 0495, or whatever.