Hexwords - £100 Tournament game on the Paragons

[Nil Satis]

Although I do think the new GWHL Q&A game (Cash for Questions) is a stinker, I really like the other new game that I've seen on the same Paragon release, and this isn't based on my likely chances of winning a penny on the game either.

The game is called Hexwords, and it's the first worthwhile innovation that I've seen in the last year or so. It's a £1 a go word game with £100 to the highest scorer. The innovation is that rather than this being a national prize for a fixed time period, it is based on 250 games being played at an individual site. This is a different way of thinking, and one that I like. It means that punters in each pub can see the progress towards the end of their own tournament.

There are obvious downsides - in quieter locations you may be waiting an awfully long time for 250 games to be played, particularly at £1 a go and with no one winning any smaller prizes that can then be recycled. You would therefore be reliant on the game being retained, and on the pub itself keeping their Paragon, for whatever time it took to reach that number of games.

The word game mavens will no doubt find this very interesting but the beauty of the setup is that for quite some time there will be no way to 'force' the issue as each pub will be a long way off reaching 250 games. Obviously later on there will be an incentive to visit more pubs to see how close they are to that figure before trying to nail a top score, although it may be that there is an attempt in the T's and C's to limit multiple wins by the same individual.

The other nice feature is the game itself. You have to make words of varying length from a grid where each letter has a colour and there are bonuses for having all the letters in a word from the same colour, and so on. For those who like word games, it's quite enjoyable and you get a nice length of game for your £1 (3 minutes I think, with an option to buy an extra minute for 50p).

I don't think I'm alone in thinking that the whole industry's recent record on new and/or updated Q&A games is pathetic but here for once I think congratulations are in order.

[QuizMaster]

FFS

[ggdr]

That does sound interesting Nil, though technically I'm not sure it's an innovation: The Little Shop of Wonders, or whatever it's called, has versions with a "play 250 credits then best score wins prize" format. Is the idea that you put in your mobile number upon hitting a high score? I'll look out for it.

[fotherz]

Well, I'll be looking out for this. Whoever becomes the best at it can scoop a whole load of £100 prizes... right?

[Nil Satis]

That does sound interesting Nil, though technically I'm not sure it's an innovation: The Little Shop of Wonders, or whatever it's called, has versions with a "play 250 credits then best score wins prize" format. Is the idea that you put in your mobile number upon hitting a high score? I'll look out for it.

Apologies if so, but it was certainly an innovation to me as those 'spot the object' games aren't really my forte!

As for your question re logging scores, all you are asked to supply is a username and password. At the end of the tournament in any individual location you would then be expected to claim your prize via those details.

It's an interesting issue re people trying to win multiple times on something like this. In terms of the business model, it doesn't really matter WHO wins any tournament - the game will have taken £250, leaving £150 profit for the pub/machine company/designer etc. The issue might more be one of pub locals resenting an 'outsider' coming in and snaffling a prize they feel should go to one of them, or more pertinently I wonder if barstaff and/or landlords are expressly barred from playing the game? - I think we all know pubs where THEY would be the ones playing the game and feeling they were entitled to win it! This is certainly an issue the AWP boys seem to come up against regularly.

[QuizMaster]

Can't see how that differs from going in and battering the quiz games. Locals always think it's 'their money'. Not my problem if they haven't got the skills.

Just make sure you ALWAYS buy the barmaid/man a drink (or at least offer) before you win. If you know, or are pretty confident that you're going to grab the cash, it will cause less hassle in the long run.

[Matt Vinyl]

I imagine that if it is just a username and password combo, so long as you note / remember each one you could do it as many times as you like? The software couldn't know that two different 'users' were the same person?

[Nil Satis]

Indeed. In the olden days, you would have had to keep a written note of each combination/venue/score with quill pen and parchment but I am aware that you youngsters have all sorts of technological gizmos to facilitate such a task electronically.

That isn't really the issue though - if the organisers care about someone winning more than once, they would be more concerned with the names and address details provided by claimants - looking for similar locations and/or surnames, not accepting PO Boxes etc - obviously if someone wanted to get round such a rule they could use friends' and relatives' details but there would be a sensible limit on how many variations you could use for that.

If on the other hand the organisers don't care about multiple wins (and, as I said above, it doesn't affect the business model if the same person wins more than once as long as the 250 games have been played), then these shenanigans would be unnecessary. Any individual pub would of course be unaware of how many other venues their winner had also won at, unless this information was provided to them by someone involved in running the tournament.

[Istenem]

i played my first of these today in a 'spoons. it seems to me to be a neat enough game (sound wasn't on but i'm interested to hear it). however, the tourney format must be a swiz for all concerned.

i very much doubt whether 250 games will ever be played on 100% of terminals for the following reasons:
1. once punter A gets the top score he has no incentive to play again.
2. if punter B plays subsequently and gets a score which is nowhere near A's, he will see this and give up and play something else.
3. if C beats A (and B), A might notice and play again until he is back at the top for bragging rights.
4. if a very accomplished player is in town (let's call him Istenem :wink and he smashes the top score of the locals, it will never get played again.
5. joe public will prefer to play two other games for his £1
6. and fundamentally, there is no way any given boozer has 9.5 alphabets of SWP player.

which leaves the question of what happens to the money which has been put through? (and subsequent legal considerations of unwinnable SWP).

in terms of gameplay, at least it requires a certain amount of cerebral input compared with GWHL's last two marquee word games (which have just been about knowledge of lists and speed). so i welcome that it requires the player to use strategy and word knowledge rather than just robotic stabbing. but the tournament format is far too ambitious.

[messiah]

I think this style of game may have some legs with a bit of tweaking.

How about £1 a game.

£10 Jackpot

25 games required to be played

This would have the same nominal payout ratio, and a much better chance of getting throughput (as soon as the game came down to less 10 games left, it could be worthwhile forcing it out)

a) The jackpot being won ever
b) The jackpot being won by a local hero
c) The wandering Pro actually being able to collect a victory of any sorts

Of course if the intention is to have a game that never pays out at all, then this wouldn't be effective.

NB £10, 50p, 50 games may actually be more successful, particularly as the game does look quite skillful/fun

[QuizMaster]

You mean like the way the House thing works? That's 50 games at 50p for a £10

[Northern Monkey]

Played this for the first time last nightin a popular city location.now only 249 games to go. I noticed in the Ts and Cs that the prize is claimed from the machine itself? This would suggest you need to go back round physically to claim prizes? Also do they mean the machine itself dispenses the prizes. That would be farcical. Anyway perhaps someone out and about could have another look and let me know if you interpret it this way.

[Nil Satis]

This would suggest you need to go back round physically to claim prizes

Maybe it's to enable the locals in some pubs to prepare a special "presentation ceremony" for the winner's cheque:

[Nil Satis]

I think this style of game may have some legs with a bit of tweaking.

How about £1 a game.

£10 Jackpot

25 games required to be played

Your wish has (nearly) been granted, O Messiah. The new Paragon release has reset this game to be £1 stake, 50 games needed, £25 Jackpot. I still think it's a reasonable game, certainly in comparison to some of the desperate Q&A stuff being released, but by the looks of it on my travels, and just as we feared, no pub in the land was ever going to get close to 250 games being played.

[Northern Monkey]

NS- what was the lowest you had seen re number of games remaining. I think mine was 247 which was probably me testing it on previous visits. 50 games still seems a long way off.

Also on the update have they given credit for games already played towards the 50 target or has that money disappeared into ether?