Countdown Game (Based on Scattergories)

[Joseph Bolas]

Here's an idea for a new forum game, that might work, that's similiar to the game Scattergories.

Below are 10 word rounds and for each round you are to find a word of a specific length. The idea is to come up with a word, that you think will be the least mentioned by the other players. For each round, there are 10 possible words (should be anyway ).

R01: T H C A E R N G I - 8 Letter Word
R02: A E B K S R E A B - 6 Letter Word
R03: Y P L O A E S D T - 7 Letter Word
R04: L M S W O E I T J - 6 Letter Word
R05: P A S E T I R A D - 8 Letter Word
R06: U O I N S R X I E - 6 Letter Word
R07: Q N I A E P O Z U - 5 Letter Word
R08: I E A G H S L N R - 8 Letter Word
R09: E A D T V O U L R - 7 Letter Word
R10: D E T N U O M E R - 7 Letter Word

The scoring will depend on how many people play (I'm aiming for 15 players ), but most likely, it will be 10 points for words only mentioned by 1 player, 9 points for words mentioned by 2 players and so on, down to 0 points, for words mentioned by more than 10 players .

Please PM me with your answers for each round (so no-one else sees your answers ). Also, once you have PM'd me your answers, you cannot change any of them.

[Jon Corby]

Interesting. I'll have a go at this later.

[Frank Rodolf]

Fun - wonder what tactical choices people will make.

PM'ed you my answers.

[Joseph Bolas]

Thank you to everyone who has entered the game

I will wait a few more hours to see if I get any last minute entries, but if not I will be revealing the scores later on tonight

[Michael Wallace]

Once you do I'd be interested to know what everyone's strategy (if they had one at all) was.

[Matt Morrison]

Once you do I'd be interested to know what everyone's strategy (if they had one at all) was.

try and ignore all the ING words - I failed.
try and ignore all pluralisations - I think I succeeded.
also don't find LEOTARD (was it R7 maybe?) - I succeeded.

Mind you, these would be shit tactics if I end up coming last.

[Charlie Reams]

Once you do I'd be interested to know what everyone's strategy (if they had one at all) was.

try and ignore all the ING words - I failed.
try and ignore all pluralisations - I think I succeeded.
also don't find LEOTARD (was it R7 maybe?) - I succeeded.

Mind you, these would be shit tactics if I end up coming last.

Revealing your strategy before the end of the contest is probably more of a strategic error than any other decision you could make. Unless this is a bluff, or something.

[Matt Morrison]

Revealing your strategy before the end of the contest is probably more of a strategic error than any other decision you could make. Unless this is a bluff, or something.

My 'strategies' must have been the most obvious tactics to anyone whose watched more than a handful of Countdown episodes.
Besides, I'm anticipating that no one is going to make any last minute entries, especially not entirely due to having read my 'strategies', which would be foolish indeed.

[Joseph Bolas]

It's time to announce the winner

The winner of the first Countdown Scattergories competition is Kirk Bevins

The overall scoreboard came out as:

1st - Kirk Bevins: 91
2nd - Jon Corby: 89
3rd - Frank Rodolf: 87
3rd - Jon O'Neill: 87
5th - Stewart Scott: 82
6th - Michael Wallace: 79
6th - Ian Volante: 79
8th - Kai Laddiman: 78
9th - Phil Reynolds: 76
9th - Rosemary Roberts: 76
11th - Charlie Reams: 75
12th - Matt Morrison: 74
13th - Innis Carson: 73
13th - Lee Simmonds: 73
15th - Howard Somerset: 71

Everyone's guesses and scores can be found here.

I hope everyone enjoyed that and Well Done to Kirk

[Charlie Reams]

My "strategy" was just to note the first word I saw.

[Matt Morrison]

Awesome stuff Joseph, thanks for that - definitely enjoyed it and looking forward to the next one, hopefully soon if it wasn't too much trouble?

I did tell you my strategies would be rubbish Charlie, they fell apart every time:

• R01: the INGs did good
• R02: saw BAKERS instantly and tried to avoid pluralisations, went for BEAKER thinking it would be far less popular... wonder how many people double crossed themselves in the same way
• R09: LEOTARD!

D'oh!

[Michael Wallace]

My "strategy" was just to note the first word I saw.

Same here. My theory was I could either spend ages trying to find the most obscure words, or just go for the most obvious, since I had no real way of knowing which route most other people were going to take.

[Kirk Bevins]

My strategy was spend a bit of time trying to find an obscure word. This doesn't always work (e.g. LEOTARD in one round gave Jono the full 10 points) but words such as TEAPOYS I thought might be a safe bet to gain many points and it worked

[Joseph Bolas]

Awesome stuff Joseph, thanks for that - definitely enjoyed it and looking forward to the next one, hopefully soon if it wasn't too much trouble?

There will definitely be another game Matt, but it will be after the APTOBASH game on Monday.

This gives me plenty of time to revise the rules, to make sure that:

a) I have covered every scenario possible
b) Everyone is okay with the new rules

[Jon Corby]

Interesting stuff, that was good fun. Well done Joseph!

[Phil Reynolds]

I worked on the assumption that the most obvious words would be the best ones to go for, as other players would probably steer away from them. As it happens, several others played the same strategy so I was bolloxed. At least I've finally beaten Charlie at something.

[Jon Corby]

Oh yeah, and well done to The Bevatron as well

[Howard Somerset]

I worked on the assumption that the most obvious words would be the best ones to go for, as other players would probably steer away from them. As it happens, several others played the same strategy so I was bolloxed. At least I've finally beaten Charlie at something.

My strategy was the same - go for the most obvious on the grounds that others will do otherwise. And look where that put me.

Well done Kirk. And thanks Joseph.

[Kai Laddiman]

I should have used my alternative tactic - reverse psychology. With everyone going for the hard words, I could have said the obvious words.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Er, I was just going to enter this - can we have a closing date/time, next time please? Looks interesting anyway.....

[Frank Rodolf]

That was great fun! Thank you, Joseph, and congratulations, Kirk!

[Kai Laddiman]

Surprised no-one went for CREATING in the first round.

[Joseph Bolas]

Er, I was just going to enter this - can we have a closing date/time, next time please? Looks interesting anyway.....

My apologies Kevin . I originally was aiming for 15 players to play so when I got this target I left it a few hours before ending the game.

Surprised no-one went for CREATING in the first round.

Here are the available words (I had) for each round, that were not mentioned:

R01 - CREATING
R02 - BREEKS, KAREES, REBABS, REBASE, REBBES
R03 - ADEPTLY, SPALTED,
R04 - MOLIES, SOMITE, TOILES
R05 - ADAPTERS, ADIPATES, AIRDATES
R06 - NIXIES, NURSIE
R07 - AZINE, QUEAN
R08 - INHALERS, NARGHILE, RINGHALS, SHEALING
R09 - DELATOR, LEVATOR, VAULTER, VOLUTED
R10 - DEMOUNT, MOUNTER, RETUNED

[Lee Simmonds]

Thanks Joseph That was an interesting game. Clearly alot of us had the same idea to not think too much about finding the more obscure words.

[Joseph Bolas]

Thanks Joseph That was an interesting game. Clearly alot of us had the same idea to not think too much about finding the more obscure words.

To be honest, I don't know if 10 words was too many per round. I might go down to 8 words per round next time, to make it a bit harder .

[Ian Volante]

Thanks, I'm looking forward to another.

I've played similar before, and that time, the obvious words scored as everyone tried to be obscure. This time however, I assumed that you clever people would be clever enough not to be too obscure, and therefore I didn't do too badly by going for the second or third word I saw instead