what happened to the quality of puzzles?

[sirarthur1]

I have enjoyed this website since 1997. i never posted to the boards, however, i just enjoyed the website and all the fabulous puzzles. Over the last year, I didn't come because well...things go on in life and you all know how that goes. So last week, I return to catch up on a years worth of puzzles to my dismay they are all boring. They used to be fabulous logic puzzles and now they are nothing more than cryptograms and little word games. I know I speak for many others because the average rating for the last several puzzles is about 2 on a scale of 1 to 5. Remember the great riddles like Monty Hall, or the 100 locks, or the 9 minute egg, or the three men and a duel, or the prisners balls ? They had great images and intensely logical solutions. Now, the puzzles are jsut a bunch of cryptographic monotony like this:

Bry stomri ymp. Rasbes tlae gus ugopla ori. Yx ube copp iln. Avizklut ep tri kott gna ivqu. A cri tyvo raf bweih. Flar uq gbi klo teprad prit vyl. Qlast uq klo prwq. Pso alt oqj xvirn graorc zme. Kap qve xny gal kadu kelo, oud ablar klo kuft gibb. Spy tri wel alik, ska ficq hut. Oif tikap sluk-wir talm uq oraw sjat. Tri flahv nold ta pyq oprag. Slokit vid ozk klo ybuk raf cno artu y qvij. Zkoj hurn uq tri apokt klo xvirn, buq zwam yx kilb. Op krun tegt ejlq drup fir. Aup qup ag ze uq limt byw ror. Af penv kof drog. Awig tasen qer tri erv plum. Zis paff abry, saet klo annet rodi. Ferm qat unct fal yx pat. Acup azaz aru ipre megu. Yl tsasl qmu bakt. Klo ged uq fagr.

I mean cmon guys. This is crap. SOrry, dont want to offend anyone, but this is NOT interesting at all. Whoever is running this website, do you look at the puzzle ratings? The ratings on puzzles like this should tell you that no one really likes those. This site, which used to be a pristine world class riddle website is, in my opinion, descended into a bunch of boring word games


along
around
baby
big
boy
dead
eight
end
fat
fire
foot
home
in
last
lunch
out
over
pay
second
shot
side
station
still
take
tee
up
ward

not fun. not even interesting. the ratings on puzzles like this should prove my point.

[Hitchhiker]

So come up with some better ones and submit them.

[Sofis]

I'm sorry to hear that you don't like the more recent puzzles. I'll agree that the quality has been somewhat uneven. However, the assertation that "the puzzles are just a bunch of cryptographic monotony" and "a bunch of boring word games" is not entirely true, is it? The kind of puzzles published lately have been, I think, reasonably diverse (though, admittedly, somewhat biased towards to the kind of puzzles you apparently don't like). There's no way to come up with a mix of puzzles pleasing to everyone.

And yes, we look at the ratings. While the kinds of puzzles you complain about are, on average, lower rated than some others, explaining this as "no one really likes those" fails to account for this puzzle's rather decent 3.50. Tastes do differ.

However, you may be pleased to find out that my tastes are reasonably close to yours, and that I am hoping to increase the proportion of such puzzles... I can't guarantee I'll actually succeed in doing so, as I'm rather new at being the publisher around here, but I do intend to try.

Peter Jägare
Resident Minotaur

[sirarthur1]

quote:

---

Hitchhiker
knows where her towel is Reply 1 posted 12-07-2002 04:36 PM
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So come up with some better ones and submit them.

---

well i suppose that its not very becomming of me to compalin and not offer a puzzle. i accept that rebuke. im not sure if i have the necessary creative skills to do it. but in all fairness, as you point out, it is not right for me to criticize without offering something, so I will try.

[fgfr*]

[MatthewV]

Creating new puzzle idea is not something that can be done by sitting down at a desk and working on it. Most of the recent puzzles have taken well laid out ideas and changed changed the words or numbers to get a different answer. Some also tweak the method while keeping the entire puzzle similar.

Many of the original puzzles found on this site were very original. However, I have seen nearly all of them in some book or other place at some time in my life. They are really a collection of beautiful ideas from many years and many authors changed slightly for this site.

But those ideas have mostly run out and we are left with what we can come up with on our own. Every now and then someone will come up with a beautiful idea that will be posted on the front page (many also get posted in VSP) but those inspirations do not happen on a very regular basis. The Minotaur is left dry. He resorts to some form of puzzle that can be created by sitting down at a desk but relies on clever ideas of the past.

The reason I became Minotaur was because I was willing to help run the main page. I like to make the pictures, hate to write the stories, sometimes can make puzzles, and almost never solve puzzles. There have been times when I knew what was being posted was not of excellent quality. There was nothing better at that time. Some people complained and I shrugged. I also feel there have been puzzles worthy of praised posted recently. But compliments are few and far between.

There is a thread for comments and suggestions in GL Puzzles (the sticky one, at the top). I encourage that people post there.

[MatthewV]

Also, the Grey Labyrinth has changed from "a forum based around puzzles" to "a forum with some focus on puzzles".

[Courk]

See, I don't see the Grey Labyrinth as a forum. The Grey Labyrinth is that main page that lists news and directs the reader to the puzzles -- because it is a puzzle site. The forum makes up a totally different world behind the scenes that can actually be a bit scary to join. We can't call the Grey Labyrinth "a forum with some focus on puzzles" because it's not just a forum. If someone's not willing to make that jump and start posting, then all they have are the puzzles.

[CzarJ]

Don't forget the Links!

[HyToFry]

And the hot babe.

Seriously though, most of the old great puzzles are now chestnuts. There's only so many things you can do with logic, and they get easier and easier to solve. When people were solving the puzzles the day they were posted... Well... you get the point.

So... I guess the question is... Would you rather have regular updates, or *really amazing* puzzles?

You can't have both, as it's just not easy to constently come up with really amazing puzzles...

I do think it would make sense to move some of the greater VSP puzzles to the main page. Sure, the forum lovers have solved them, but people new to the site have not yet solved them. We'd just have to put some kind of disclaimer in the puzzle, that it was already solved in VSP. Otherwise a new visitor might start to discuss the puzzle in the forum, (thinking s/he was the first to solve it) and feel offended that the regulars won't chime in--cause we already know the answer.
_________________
"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

[MatthewV]

But how many regulars try to solve the main page puzzles?

[Samadhi]

I do. Unless they're paragraph or diagram puzzles. I never get those. Oh or cryptics. And ummm....nevermind.
_________________
And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Lepton*]

Did anyone notice that this thread was (probably spamifically) bumped from 2002? You're doing a fine job, MattV.

[Courk]

I noticed, but hey, I carry on conversations in the Spam forum anyway.

I do agree, though. Matt's doing a good job.

[HyToFry]

I try them when I'm bored and my name has lined OT, VSN and FR/SP.
_________________
"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." Hi ho.

[MatthewV]

Yes, I noticed it was bumped. It was an excuse to vent.

Compliments! Thank you, they mean more than one might think...
...maybe I will get around to finishing some stuff for the next update before Monday (June 12th).

[Beartalon]