HALLIE EPHRON: I used to make fun of people who play online games. Not so much now, since I spend far too much time playing games myself... though I’m far from a “gamer.”
“Did you get today’s Pangram?” That’s the question my daughter and I share daily. Pangrams are the bonanza words to find in the daily SPELLING BEE game in the New York Times. I find a Pangram about one day out of ten. (I did not get yesterday's.)
Word and logic games are my sweet spot. Sudoku: not so much. Still, I play most of the games available the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe web sites.
I also play online bridge (Bridge Base). Solitaire or as a foursome, networking in my sister and her husband (in Manhattan) and a friend (in Wales.) Playing online while we have our phone lines tied together via Facetime, we can easily while away two hours.
Are you a daily game player (notice I didn’t say “game addict")? What are your favorite games and where do you find them.
Count me as one of the game-players . . . I enjoy word puzzles and play several of the New York Times games . . . .
ReplyDeleteI used to play sudoku but stopped. Once in a while, if I am listening to a really good book, when I finish doing all the things I must do in the evening, I'll play a few hands of solitaire while I continue to listen.
ReplyDeleteSudoku is just too challenging for me.
DeleteIn addition to baseball and basketball, I played solitaire and jacks as a child but have not played many games as an adult. I have never played a video game or an online game. Boy, I seem to be a cheerless person! In fact, I get the same pleasure of honing my wits against a challenge in my historical research. These days you can sit at your desk and comb remote archives all over the world, or read (or request on ILL) books long out of print. For me figuring out "what really happened" during a small historical event is addictive. It's a search for tiny puzzle pieces and then the challenge of fitting them together. Who might have written about this event? To whom might he/she have written and if it survived, where might that letter be? What was the weather? Every week or two I will crow to my husband, "I am so clever!" and he will look up with indulgent smile: "What did you find? What mystery have you solved?" Of course, no one cares about these mysteries but me. Still, the rush with success is definitely addictive. Even the search is addictive. Temple Grandin has written about the "seeking" system of the brain and how pleasurable it is. I can attest to that. (Selden)
ReplyDeleteSelden, this is so cool. If I was writing something historical, I would hire you to help in an instant!
DeleteThat is completely fascinating, Selden. And I love that insight from Temple Grandin.
DeleteRoberta, my husband has always said I should hire myself out as a researcher. It is my favorite thing to do -- aside from teaching history to middle schoolers, working with livestock, and raising my children, but two of those three are in the past, and I could do research on my laptop when I was recovering from hospitalizations. Anything becomes interesting to me if you look into it, and remember the Rashomon Effect... (Selden)
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of games, Hallie! Sudoku just confuses me. I play Wordle every day before I go downstairs for my second cup of coffee, and Hugh and I compare results. I know I would love to play Spelling Bee, but it takes up too much time. I'm wary of getting sucked into too much online viewing. The bridge with loved ones while Facetiming sounds fun, though.
ReplyDeleteWe play cribbage every afternoon, always have a NYT Sunday puzzle or two going on a clipboard we pass back and forth, and I play solitaire with cards while listening to shows like Wait Wait or The Moth on weekends, but those are in real life.
I've never dipped my toe into online solitaire. Feels like potential quicksand.
DeleteThere are a many different types of solitaire online. I play regular solitaire and it's quite easy - I think it's geared to always allow the player to win. I don't feel like it is particularly challenging but maybe that's the point! LOL.
DeleteI subscribe to a gaming site out of Seattle called Big Fish. My game of choice is a Hidden Object called Midnight Castle. Started it over 10 years ago. My total playing time is. 113 days 6 hours and 57 mins. Not too bad for a gamer. I like the hidden object game/ is like a jigsaw puzzle in real like, triggers the dopamine. I art is gorgeous and the plot is well.. filled with dread monsters, ghosts and stuff to click on. mindless and soothing. and NO ADS.
ReplyDeleteI do love visual puzzle games.
DeleteThe Spelling Bee pangram was "quieting". I only play non-subscription as long as the system lets me get, the rules of which are mysterious. So I try to go straight for the pangram, or pangrams, if possible, and there may have been two yesterday? Word games are my favorite, they seem to engage thinking more than most others.
ReplyDeleteI'm fascinated with how we arrive at a five-letter word by eliminating letters in Wordle. And how do some keep solving in two tries? And should we be suspicious of that? LOL
Hallie, what a fun way to keep in touch with your sister and friend. I've never played bridge in my life, but I'd be willing to learn if I had partners like yours.
We've tried to rope various friends and family into learning bridge but after about a half hour they throw up their hands and scream AAAAGGGH!
DeleteThat's what I did twenty-five years ago, Hallie!
DeleteHallie, once upon a time I played bridge. It was a favorite pastime of my parents and their friends (the "Greatest Generation") and I was first roped in when one guest, in his cups, became so abusive to his poor wife that she left the table in tears. My mother became the drunk's partner and I played with my father, and we continued to play this way for some time. Unfortunately 50 years later the rules are as vague to me as my five years of Latin. (Selden)
DeleteI play solitaire, word wiz, and tetrablock online
ReplyDeleteI went crazy for a while, playing a bunch of different online word games. Now, I've gotten it down to two: Wordle and Connections.
ReplyDeleteMake that three. My current procrastination time suck is June's Journey.
June's Journey looks like fun, Annette. Do you play in a team, or just on your own?
DeleteI play connections ... and I often get the first 3 sets and the final one only because it's what's left. I usually have no idea why the last set of 4 go together.
DeleteKaren, I play on my own. And I refuse to pay for any of the added goodies.
DeleteWordle and Connections but only occasionally. I'd never get anything written!
ReplyDeleteI am not a daily game player. I really don't play many games at all of any kind. I don't own a video game system or even play one elsewhere. The only game I do play is the SRG Supershow wrestling card game (think Magic the Gathering or Pokemon, but wrestling) on Saturdays when I make my weekly trip to Twilight Comics in New Bedford, MA where I currently hold all 13 titles in the Total Chaos Wrestling league thanks to some incredibly lucky rolls of the dice. I make tongue in cheek posts each week on my Facebook page with the results of each week's matches that we film to post online.
ReplyDelete13 titles in the Total Chaos Wrestling league ?!?! I am impressed.
DeleteMany years ago (about 2004) when we moved back home, and my parents lived in the cottage next door, we would get together in the morning and ‘read’ the paper. My mother puttered – on the edge of Alzheimer’s. We all read the obits – together. Then my father would begin the crossword, and I would do the cryptogram. Small conversation sometimes went along with it. After a while, it would be ‘time to get to work’, and so we would move on.
ReplyDeleteOut of practice now, so would have to relearn how to get into the puzzle mindset, but the sight of a cryptogram brings memories of good times together.
That's so sweet, Margo.
DeleteI am addicted to Spelling Bee and will not quit until I reach Queen Bee though I do take breaks in between. I use Spelling Bee Buddy if I have to but only after I reach Genius. I know!!! Obsessed! Also play Wordle, Connections, crossword mini, and Letterboxed. Somehow I find time to write!
ReplyDeleteJUDY: Same here. My comments on JRW used to be consistently early . It's more erratic now since I only come here after reaching Queen Bee.
DeleteSo that's why, Grace!
DeleteConfession is good for the soul...
DeleteNYTimes game addict here! Just finished MiniCross, Wordle, Strands and Connections. Still ponder Spelling Bee...
ReplyDeleteMe, too.
DeleteI do WaPo Keyword, and Connections and Strands in NYT. I loved the Monster Sudoku back in the day. The 5 star ones would take me weeks, wearing out pencils and erasers. Sudoku on line doesn't seem challenging. I used to do Wordle, but tired of it. My son does Octordle--8 wordles at the same time with a certain number of guesses. He also played (before tRue love) a lot of bridge online, and played in person from age 16-19 (junior bridge tournament in Slovakia was memorable). I also like the news quizzes and Flashback, the NYT history quiz.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid to find out about these other games... it's too easy to get sucked in.
DeleteYes, I now play NYTimes Spelling Bee & Connections each morning before reading & posting on JRW.
ReplyDeleteI stopped playing Wordle & Murdle last year.
Grace, I noticed that our big local indie bookstore has volumes of Murdle books. Do you know anything about them?
DeleteKAREN: I think the books contain the similar murder mystery logic puzxles as the daily online game. But the online version has mini-Murdle and full version (more complicated grid) each day.
DeleteThanks! I've wondered if they were similar to the online game.
DeleteIt might sound strange since I am not a numbers person at all, but sudoku is my game! It's really a logic game, only incidentally using numbers, but it could be anything. I play every day, at the master level free online. I also do the spider solitaire on my computer as a pastime when I am waiting for something to load, etc. I am now at the most difficult level which I hardly ever solve, but what a rush when I do solve it!
ReplyDeleteI do think it takes a different kind of brain to do sudoku than the word puzzles...
DeleteOh yes, I waste entirely too much time on games in my phone. I do Wordle every day and share results with two friends as a daily check in with each other. I do the free Spelling Bee as far as it will let me go each day. I know I wouldn’t quit until I reached Queen Bee if I subscribed.
ReplyDeleteI also play solitaire, woody, wordscapes, and Zen Word.
I prefer paper and pencil for crosswords, Sudoku, word jumbles, word searches, and cryptograms. Luckily we have a free weekly paper that gets magically delivered on Fridays that has a puzzle page. Sometimes I will do crosswords on my Nook. And I have various print puzzle books that get tucked in my bag for travel.
Crosswords are a great time killer when you're *waiting* for something that's out of your control.
DeleteEvery morning I wake up my brain with Wordle, Letterboxed and Connections. The latter annoys me as so often it is stupid connections you can only get by luck…one letter missing from a rapper’s name. Yes, I’m likely to know that! But Wordle comes easily now and Letterboxed is also a breeze. Sometimes I do spelling bee too.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely on Connections. Still, I like it a lot.
DeleteI enjoy the pangrams but only give myself 5 minutes to figure it out. Either it hits me or it frustrates me. Sudoku mystifies me which is curious since I am fairly good at math. You'd think that would translate to Sudoku, but alas, it does not - at least in my brain. I really enjoy online solitaire games. I find them a good way to relax my mind and solve problems while another part of my brain is playing the game. Also, like paper word searches, cryptograms and word jumbles. It just isn't the same online. -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteWordle
ReplyDeleteNYTimes Mini-Crossword
Connections
JUMBLE
Just had to look up JUMBLE. Uh oh...
DeleteI do Wordle, Spelling Bee (only the free version), Connections, Mini-Crossword, and Strands from NYT--the last two just recently in an effort to distract myself from current events. I'm also good at Sudoku--it exercises a different part of my brain. Mah-Jong free version online can be a major time suck. (Flora)
ReplyDeleteI stop and start with Sudoku. Sometimes I can easily solve the puzzle, and other times I get myself so hopelessly snarled up in wrong placements that it's more frustration than it's worth. But it soothes my sense of putting things in order, so I persist. Eventually.
DeleteYes, it's SO satisfying when things click into place.
DeleteI find that a problem with WORDLE is sometimes the answer can be 3 or 4 answers.
ReplyDeleteLike today's it came down to steel or steep - it's just random deciding on which one you pick.
JUMBLE is fun because you take letters and "unjumble" them into the correct word and use those letters to answer a riddle/cartoon situation which is an answer that I find always makes me chuckle. A good way to start the day.
I’ve always loved crossword puzzles, and do a NY Times Saturday or Sunday puzzle every day. (I buy books of them.) I also the the Mini Crossword, Strands, Connections, and Spelling Bee. Like you, I get the Pangram once or twice a week. I also do Sudokus - I made myself lean them to use that side of my brain. My daughter and I have been comparing Wordles daily for as long as Wordle has been a thing; it’s amazing how often our scores are the same, and what’s really crazy is how often our solving patterns are the same. Now my granddaughter has joined in the fun! It may seem like a lot of time spent, but I prefer these games to watching TV!
ReplyDeleteThis is making me wonder if our current collective "addiction" to games would have happened if it hadn't been for Covid.
DeleteYes, I'm a game player: Wordle, then the NYT Spelling Bee, then Strands, then Connections and, finally, the Letter Boxed. I enjoy the challenge, and I'm not above using the 'community helpful hints' feature for the Spelling Bee. I've learned loads of new words -- and new ways of looking at how letters come together to make words. Solo fun for the early morning hours!
ReplyDelete"Solo" - good word for it. Puzzles keep me in bed for at least an hour longer than I would otherwise be.
DeleteTwo games per day for me as I eat breakfast, both from the NYT: Wordle (thank goodness there's only one per day) and Mini-Crossword.
ReplyDeleteYou must be a fast eater.
DeleteNYT “games” person: mini and regular crossword, connections, and tiles to rest my brain. A friend and I check in with some regularity on Connections: “Got the purple first! You?” “I just didn’t connect today. You?” Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteTILES! I love it... or I love about half of the formats.
DeleteI'm afraid all I do is the crossword puzzle.
ReplyDeleteYou're allowed!
DeleteUsed to do the NYT games before I dumped them. Now I’ll occasionally go on a jag with Jetpunk quizzes - name all of the countries, top 10 baby names in each decade, six-letter words containing each letter, etc. I can get a bit obsessive so I’ve been on a break. When my brain needs soothing I play I Love Hue, which is a color matching game.
ReplyDeleteHUE?! Sounds like one I'd like.
DeleteI gave up on Wordle as it had become an addiction as a neighbor and I would see who could get it first. This is my third year playing Mah Jong. I really enjoy playing two hours once a week. In between, I read up on strategies via a weekly email from a Mah Jong group. I play a few games online on my phone. Woodoku, Ball Sort Puzzle and Solitaire with Woodoku being my favorite. I also must confess that I love the Game Show Network and play along to guess the trivia answers.
ReplyDeletePeople who play Mah Jong seem to love it. But I'm afraid to learn it because I'm aalready addicted to bridge.
DeleteMy husband loves the panogram.
ReplyDeleteHow soon did you get today's word?
I still have not...
DeleteBy the way, I checked the oranges my husband bought yesterday, and they were cara caras. I'd never have noticed without the blog chatter yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI bought a sumo orange yesterday, should probably eat it!
DeleteHope you like it. I bought 4 more Sumos this morning.
Deletein the Solitaire game set on my phone, there is one that's supposed to be hard and I've learned to play that and win, which I always do so maybe it's not so hard! I play Wordle, but to play some days, so my winning streak never gets very high. But you're right, Hallie, Solitaire can be a little like quicksand and it's more fun than starting a load of laundry in order to keep myself from writing!
ReplyDeleteAll of these games are their own kind of quick sand!
DeleteMy Nana loved to play bridge; Her daughter, my mum, never had any interest in playing bridge. I wonder if it was a generation thing or differences in personalities. My Nana died before I was old enough to remember her. I would have liked to think that if she lived long enough to see me grow up, then she would have taught me how to play bridge. She was also a left handed golf player and used to play basketball in school.
ReplyDeleteAs a child, I loved jigsaw puzzles. In school, the teachers would give us vocabulary practice with find the word in the puzzle of many letters.
Used to play online games. Now I try to limit screen time.
I have two digital games, and only two, because I find them addictive as all get-go. On my laptop, I play Mahjong Solitaire at the Washington Post website, and on my phone, I play Ultimate Jewel (Balloon Island.) The latter is soothingly easy - so easy, in fact, I had to set my own goal of having a score under 10,000 to make it challenging.
ReplyDeleteMy favorites, however, are board games. It was delightful when Virginia was visiting from The Hague; Victoria and her wife Emilia and our friend Samantha all came over three weekends in a row for dinner and games. We played Clue (this was a sop to me,) Ticket to Ride, and Mind the Gap, which is terrific for a mixed-age group. It has trivia from four different eras: Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. Highly recommended.
Writing it down...
DeleteLove playing board games when family is here!
DeleteI used to, but then I decided I was spending too much time that could be used in more productive ways. Like writing. :)
ReplyDeleteWise
DeleteI do New York Times puzzles: Spelling Bee, Wordle, Connections, and Strands. I religiously did all of them every day, but lately I’ve been falling behind. There are too many other things that need my attention. Maybe this is my motivation to find a way to start doing all of them again every day.
ReplyDeleteDebRo
Nooooooo!
DeleteNo, I'm not really much of a gamer these days. When I started having focus problems that awful May in 2023, I started neglecting my word game, Word Cookies. I used to play it every night before I went to sleep, which wasn't a good time to start a word game and end up staying up too late. I've finally started going back to Word Cookies, slowly and not every day. It sounds like a kids' game, but word difficulty can demand you know words well. I quit playing Wordle almost as soon as it started. I decided I didn't need that frustration in my life.
ReplyDeleteI think I might pursue some more online jigsaw puzzles. I do the one from the Agatha Christie site, https://www.agathachristie.com/news?category=quizzes and enjoy it. It's the cover of one of her books. While it's nothing too taxing to the brain, it gives me pleasure. There are also word searches and quizzes and such on that site. I know that there are some jigsaw sites I'm going to check out.
Like Julia, I prefer the old-fashion board game entertainment, but I like it when there are at least four playing, and we just don't get those numbers anymore. We were able to play Aggravation last Thanksgiving when Ashley and her family were over, and that was lots of fun. If there were a family get-together or a friends' weekend and we each got to choose an activity, I'd probably choose board games.
Family games are wonderful. We play non-board ones. Charades. 20 Questions.
DeleteAggravation is a family favorite. We still have our tattered childhood version.
DeleteI've been doing alphaguess each morning for several months and find myself really looking forward to it. The word changes each day - you enter a word and it tells you whether their word is before or after, and so on. Upon guessing the correct word it tells you how many guesses you made and your time. Only available once a day! alphaguess.com
ReplyDelete