Serial New Gamers
Posted by david on 14 Oct 2010 at 04:45 am | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Every time a game is played we store it in our master database. We like to go through our data and look at interesting things, like how many unique people play games and what games get played most, etc.
One thing we’ve noticed is that many players click “New Game” really fast, over and over. This is presumably because they are looking for a new game with the cards dealt in some specific way that makes the game look easier/harder/more fun.
If this describes you, we’d love to know what exactly you are looking for. We don’t mind that you do it—we are just wondering if there is some way that we can improve the site so the cards that get dealt are exactly what you are looking for, automatically.
So, serial “New Game” clickers, leave us a comment here and let us know what you are looking for. Also may sure you mention the game, since the criteria for a good game of Sea Haven Towers is probably different than that of Forty Thieves.
Thanks!
Actually, looking for a game I haven’t played yet.
Hmmm… There are 4 billion possible games. If you are logged in then we specifically only show you games that you’ve never played before. If you are playing anonymously then you get random games. It’s very, very unlikely that the randomly chosen game would be one you’ve played before. And 5 or 10 in a row is just this side of impossible.
Remember, what we’re asking is why some people repeatedly click on the “New Game” button, going through 10 to 20 games in a row in under 10 seconds.
Just to clarify—there *are* a couple situations where you can get a duplicate game:
1. If you disable cookies in your browser, then when you come back to the site it’ll try to make you play the game of the day again. This is because we normally store the fact that you’ve played the game of the day in a browser cookie (specifically for the purpose of not showing you the game of the day more than once).
2. If you play on a computer (say at your work) then go to another computer (at home, maybe) then the game will try to make you play the game of the day again. This is technically the same thing as #1.
3. Last weekend we introduced a bug that caused everyone to play games 1 through 10 over and over. That was there for only about 3 days before we noticed and fixed it. It was a fluke and shouldn’t happen again.
Was looking for a game I hadn’t played yet. For a couple of weeks, games kept repeating and I would hit new game until I could get to a game I hadn’t played yet.
In Freecell, I like to see aces close to the bottom of the stacks, and a nice balance of red and black on most columns. When a column or two is/are mostly one color, it can be a bit frustrating. I also notice that I seem to be competing against the same group of players as I progress through the games, which I like, but also sometimes I just feel like it would be good to get into a different place in the competition… like play a game before anyone else does.
Forty Thieves – looking for a game that looks winnable. I usually look for games that have most of the aces showing and easy to get to and without a lot of kings or queens at the bottom of rows. Sometimes, games just look impossible to beat right from the beginning, so I skip them – because I like to win!
Canfield – same reason – looking for a game that looks like I could win at it. Usually if 2 or 3 cards will play automatically at the start.
I usually click to find a game that does not look familiar. Perhaps it is not the very same game I’ve played before but if something about it looks too much the same, I “shuffle” for another game.
When playing Flower Garden I often click for a new game, then check it’s high scores to see if others have beat it. I do this to quickly find the games that are ‘winnable’ before I play.
With Forty Thieves, there are many games that are not winnable by their nature. Part of the skill in playing it involves looking for a game that CAN be won.