How do people cheat?

[Crilly]

Seriously, 148 words... give me a break.

[Crilltog]

I know. I got one where Wol got 803 points on 156 words. Incredible! Maybe (s)he's a professional stenographer whose really good at boggle?

[Master of Noodles]

@Crilltog:

Go to http://www.boggled.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15 and see wol's posts.

[whippetwoman]

I am new to Boggled.org. It took me a little while to work it out but it seems that, (being on a dial-up connection?), the timer display sometimes runs slower than real time for me.

No 'cheat' software is required.

[tweety]

How does anyone get that many words in less then a minute. I can barely get 15.

Tweety

[theycallmechad]

I have been troubled by this for quite some time now. You don't need codes to cheat, you need only know what words are playable and be able to type them fast enough. Though I won't post it here (I wouldn't want to encourage cheating), there are simple ways of finding out what words for each board are playable.

That said, I want to make it clear that I am VERY against cheating. I think cheaters are pathetic loosers with no self-esteem and use this site to feel better about themselves.

I play Boggle for fun, not for "glory."

[bionicflutist]

How does anyone get that many words in less then a minute. I can barely get 15.

Tweety


Actually on the 5x5 board, you get 3 minutes; you get 2 minutes on the 4x4 board.

I don't cheat and wouldn't know how to (and have no desire to), and my average on the 5x5 board is about 50 words. It takes practice; it probably also helps that I type over 100 wpm. :p

It's a matter of getting used to looking at the pattern of letters and sort of playing around with them and getting as many words as possible out of them ... turning them around and inside out and adding prefixes and suffixes such as re- and -er and in- and de- and -ed and -ing and of course -s whenever possible. I tend to miss the words that start with vowels, and it's not often that I find the really long words but of course I love it when I do.

Like me, I'm sure that many of the players here have been playing Boggle for years in one form or another. If you're new to the game it may take a while to get "up to speed" but keep on practicing! I think it's fun no matter what the score is, sort of like bowling (my average as a bowler is probably about 73 but I still enjoy it). ;)

[Ping Pong King]

i think you must mean 250 points not words, the best averages for words per game being about 100.

[bionicflutist]

Oops, you're right. I average something over 50 words. My bad. :p

[susanml138]

Oops, you're right. I average something over 50 words. My bad. :p

I'm definitely detest cheaters and I really don't want to know how they do it. I guess it's something to do with being able to get behind the scenes of the different boards and finding out what words are available, I think;) . When I play I only type in words of 5 letters or more as I find it more challenging so my average is less. But I don't care about the points I play for fun and brain stimulation!!! Pity the poor cheaters they must have a low esteem of themselves. To all the true bogglers enjoy!!!!:)

[flexykat]

if people can cheat then everybody is cheating but me

[flexykat]

I love boggle. I don't know how they cheat, but I think they must hack into the website or something cuz the points and words are explosive. I'm a REALLY bad boggler... the most words i've gotten are like thirty or something, it's crazy. But it just goes to show that I DON'T CHEAT

[flexykat]

CAN U READ THIS??? MY REPLY ISN"T WORKING ARGH

[ataraxia]

I actually had a game where the timer and scoring got stuck around 9 seconds. I continued to type for longer than 9 seconds and finally stopped because I thought it would be unfair to keep typing when time should have expired. I ended up with a score of 746 although it could have been higher. It was just one game, but if someone knew how to stall the timer intentionally, obviously it would be a big unfair advantage for that person.

[Crovax]

I actually had a game where the timer and scoring got stuck around 9 seconds. I continued to type for longer than 9 seconds and finally stopped because I thought it would be unfair to keep typing when time should have expired. I ended up with a score of 746 although it could have been higher. It was just one game, but if someone knew how to stall the timer intentionally, obviously it would be a big unfair advantage for that person.

Ah, so that's how so many people on the highest score list have 700+ point rounds.

I figured there was just an absolutely wonderful puzzle in rotation a while ago.

edit: This post was made when I was still relatively new to wordtwist. Having scored multiple 650+ games, I'm certain 700 can be made legitimately.

[1whiterose]

Well, I just noted today that a couple of the people that I suspect use cheat programs (averaging scores around 600) are NOT in the high score lists in the tournaments. So hopefully the scores that they get are not affecting my rankings. You have to feel sorry for someone that needs to win so badly that they have to cheat at a computer game.

[gizmolian]

Hi all. I am very new to boggel and to this site as well. I began playing and initially thought, "wow, I suck!" I was getting around 50 points per game. I decided to keep at it and try to improve, but after a week saw that I still rarely reached "average" posting scores of 110 to 120. Do a little quick math...yes many are cheating here. So I decided to figure it out. I did (though I wont say how) and posted several records as a test. Now I have gone back to playing legit and will get my enjoyment from competing against my personal bests. I believe that anyone scoring over 200 is cheating.
Cheaters ruin the fun of any site, and truely are pathetic.

[HoumaGirl]

The average score thing is new and I am unhappy to say that I am at the bottom average many times. I wouldn't cheat for anything in the world so I thought I would tell you that I got 232 even though the most words I have had in a game this month is 30. I just happened to get high point words in that game because there was a q, z, x and a j in the puzzle. If you come across a board with numerous q words for ten points each the points can rack up if you type relatively fast. That is about as high a score as I have had though. I usually get into the best words catagory and the highest average points per word. Look at the first 5 people in that catagory in the monthly competitions and their average is 1 word per game....must be sitting there looking for the words with the most points. Too boring for me! Happy Boggling!

[gizmolian]

Yes...I am sure. And I apologize for saying that over 200 is cheating. I was wrong to make any assumptions like that. I have terrible typing skills and can score that highly in an untimed game so.....a good typist can do it I guess. That said, the cheating is still rampent :0)

[HoumaGirl]

I know it goes on for sure. I just don't get what they get out of it. I am not that fast a typist either but I do what I can at my ability and try to get the best scores I can. It's like in Scrabble. I am not trying to beat my opponent..just the board. I try to get the most points per word that I can and if I win, fine. If not at least I know I got the most points with the letters I had. Some of these Boggle boards are hard and I can't believe I can't find more words because they are there in the list afterwards...then I see them clearly! Must be that clock...

[hallinananana]

Can't speak for everyone, but I've witnessed one of the high-scorers boggling and there's no cheating involved. He types ridiculously fast and he knows his words. That's all there is to it.

[HoumaGirl]

That's my problem I think. I type relatively fast but not fast enough to see the words and get them in there in time. I have gotten some scores that surprised me when I got a good board and high scoring words...next thing I knew I had almost 300 points! All you have to do is read posts at the top of this thread to see how they do it...One of them tells you they t!ried a cheat method and were able to cheat so I guess some are doing it. The longer you play the better you get, I think. I am looking forward to my first 500 point game!

[stammpeder]

I've gone through the same thought paths that gizmolian and crovax were alluding to in my 8-10+ years playing online timed word games (tangleword, wordracer, boggle, etc.) and I still yet find myself saying to myself that people who beat by scores by a substantial margin might/must be cheating. And even after this long time, I still find myself improving noticeably when I play regularly. I average about 500 pts. on 5x5 (because I like best the games that have many words found), type between 100-120 words (5 letter typing test words) a minute on a good keyboard when I'm awake, have learned many obscure words the meaning of which I have no clue, and ended up with many patterns in my memory, muscle memory probably. When I see a square of s a t e I can rattle off the 4-ltr words in my sleep - that's what playing 10s of thousands of games on line will do. All I can say is that I've met, watched, and repeatedly lost to people who are much better than I am. They have more words and patterns memorized, don't mistype as much as I do, don't type in words that don't count repeatedly like I do, etc. I've learned a lot from them though - word combos and the like. One of my favorites is gene, genes, agenes (senega), sageness.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that realizing that there is a continuum of player abilities up through very amazing players is good for your peace of mind. If you believe me. Maybe a little math will help... the programs out there on the web can take a board that you type in and spit out all the words in a list from longest to shortest take about 20-30 sec (if i remember the pause of the cheaters on Tangleword correctly). If I type 120 x 5 characters a minute, then I can type 100 words that average 5-6-letters long (if there aren't many long words) in the first minute, leaving me half the game left to go. The minimum score for a 6-ltr word is 5 pts and I average about 103 words as you can see on my stats. If I was just typing in a word list I think I'd have higher scores. Anyone typing much faster would easily average 700 pts. a game in 5x5.

Btw, seat, sate, seta, etas, east, eats, ates, teas, taes all work.

[HotTarget]

I'm a medical transcriptionist. That in itself could be considered an unfair advantage! lol Who cares! The only one I'm trying to beat is myself most of the time.

[HoumaGirl]

I agree with you HotTarget...I only try to beat myself or get the best words I can, especially the longest or most points. I know I can never get a 500 point game even if I could type faster and more accurately (good word!). It's just fun...and a great way to keep your brain active while learning all kinds of new words..

[icenerd]

Err .. I think I accidentally cheated last night. I don't know what my timer was at, but it getting low and then I mistyped some word and suddenly my timer is counting down from 24 hours! I can't remember what I was trying to type and I didn't see what I ended up typing, but I think I might have inadvertently entered some kind of hack. Anyway, it's a pretty good board with apparently over 200 words and I think I'd gotten ~100 words and 600-odd points when I got kind of bored with it last night. It ought to still be running when I get home tonight, so maybe I'll get some more that I missed. I hope this doesn't bias the histogram too badly for others, but I'm just interested to see what happens when the timer actually gets back to zero. Has this happened to anyone else?

[MadSlantedPowers]

I'm looking at this month's leaders and I see someone with an average of 2122 points and 348 words in the 5x5. Something certainly isn't right with that. Given what others have been saying about knowing words and patterns and having the ability to type fast, I can believe that most of the others are probably legit. I've been playing on this site for about a month and have continued to improve. I just had a good board today on the 5x5 and got my highest score yet of 386, so I know that if I knew more of the obscure words and could find them quicker, 500 wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. My average is 173 in the 4x4 and 190 in the 5x5. My 4x4 best is 273.

[dsweetie]

I am new to Boggled.org. It took me a little while to work it out but it seems that, (being on a dial-up connection?), the timer display sometimes runs slower than real time for me.

No 'cheat' software is required.

same here. It sucks. Always lose a couple seconds

[dsweetie]

I love playing boggle because I can learn new words. When I learn new words can use them in my books and sentences when I talk. When I get used to thosewords I can form better points in Scrabble and it becomes more of an adventure. This website just shows me that learning the home row keys plays a big part in getting a lot of points per game. I'm slow at typing and probably wil always be but at least the experience is fun whether people are cheating to get to the top or not.:)

[deedeezee]

I think someone posted 300 words tonite in a game. How is that possible? no matter how fast I typr I never get more than 30 or so. AM I dumb?:confused:

[AntonioSalieri]

I just played about 10 games in a row where the record scores were under 400 points and some of the record scores were under 300 points. What I'd like to know is how someone can average over 500 points per game when there are so many boards where the highest scores are under 400 and even 300? Are they somehow able to skip the boards with less points? If they were cheating their scores would still be registered as records for the games they cheat on. I'm just not seeing these high scores. I play every board but I think some people have figured out how to skip the worst boards.

[jilli_mc]

I don't cheat and I don't type fast either. But I manage to average 50+ words on average and my highest game so far is a little over 400. I don't type my words, I use the mouse and click on the tiles. I am right handed so I mouse/click wiith my right hand and hit enter with my left. Doing this has really increased my game scores since I type slow. If you don't type fast, you might want to try this method instead.
It is also true that the more you play the more familiar with word patterns, etc. you become.

[jilli_mc]

Antonio, if you don't like the stats shown for a game, just don't hit "start game" and hit "new game" instead. That is how some skip boards and choose the ones they want to play.

[AntonioSalieri]

Jilli, my stats are about the same as yours. I had assumed if you skipped a board, your score for that board would register as zero. Somehow I think that would be a fairer way to play the game. I've been playing every board without skipping. If you can skip a board without being penalized that would explain why some people have such high averages. I'm new here. Thanks for the response.

[ElleJaye1976]

Cheers everyone!!
I love this game, I have been playing since August......I've seen an improvement in my scores and total words per game just from practice.......one thing that pisses me off.......lol, is I'm playing on a laptop, and my "Y" key is busted off........so when a "Y" comes up in a word, all I have to push on, is a jelly circular thing that I really have to smush on multiple times just to get the Y to show up........gawd I hate it......;) But I can say I have never skipped a board.......another thing that irks me, I'm on wireless and occasionally when I hit "Start Game" ...I loose connection.......so by the time I "repair" I've lost a minute and half.......arg.......
Regardless.....I love the game boards, I only wish there were more threads to reply to in the forums!!!
Take Care All
Cheers!!
LJ

[PaulE Louisville]

What gets me are those that immediately assume that if, for whatever reason, they can't reach the scores or averages others do, then those other folks must be cheating. At another site (which I won't mention) where you competed head-to-head with others, I did not play often, but always played under the same name. Whenever I'd come in and win a game, I was immediately accused of cheating in the game's chatroom. Of course, in the very next game, I'd finish 5th or 6th which, you would think, would make those folks realize I wasn't cheating.

But, no. There argument then became, "Well, you're just faking losing!" Seriously, ignore those folks - you will never convince them. I don't go to that site, nor do I listen to anyone who might accuse of me of cheating. I am nowhere near the best player here, nor do I care what my averages are. I find all cheaters pathetic, but would never accuse anyone outright of cheating unless I actually saw it happen. That, of course, is not likely to happen here. So, everyone should just have fun. If the cheating, if it exists, bothers you that much, I'd suggest staying away unless you can realize that you really can't do much about it.

[believenbeauty]

Be realistic. Everyone knows that there are cheat programs that can be bought and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out when someones cheating...and you'll never be able to prove it. Get over yourself.:)

[mcdonna]

well I am definitely feeling better now ... I haven't played Boggle in years but thought I did all right ... then I came here and I've learned to be satisfied with being in the average zone! glad to know that some of those impossible scores really are impossible ...

Donna

[Biloxidebbie]

I know what you mean about the average zone. I frequently get the highest points per word or most letters but my scores are usually pretty dismal. I don't get that many words in game either so my scores are frequently below average.

That said, I have been looking at the forum about people cheating if they get over 200 points. I just played a board and with a bunch of q words and got 329 points and a 20 point word to boot (squinters). I was so shocked...that is the highest score I have ever had but I didn't cheat! My husband walked by and laughed because I was typing so fervently! BUT, my score was still way below average even with that good game. Somebody else had over 600 points so my score looked puny. I hate that grid! I felt a lot better before they put it on here.


If you go back in these forums you can see a video of Crovax typing like a fiend and getting a really high score. He says "I can't tell you how to get high scores but I can show you" and he proceeds to type words so fast that you can't believe it. Anybody that thinks you can't get scores like that should watch his video. I guess it depends on your typing skills and your brain's quickness...hm, quickness...is that a word???? Hope I get it someday..

[cdsmith516]

I just started playing. I use the touchpad on my laptop to form my words. What do people mean when they say "type?" Perhaps that's why I am averaging only 80 points or so. I rarely stop to think and just keep forming words and wonder why my scores are so low.
Any suggestions?

[AdamsMuse]

You type the words in the blank below the puzzle. Sometimes you have to click the cursor in the box to start the words. Then you just hit enter after you type the word. I like the original game much better...the one at the bottom. If you type fast you can get more words. Good luck...this place is so addictive!

[midnight]

Although it is quite possible for people to cheat, you don't have to be a cheat, or even an insanely fast typist to register scores of well over 600. I have played online Boggle for almost two years now, only have a typing speed of about 60wpm (but faster when playing certain word patterns), but have still scored over 700 in a 4x4 Wordtwist game several times (I have screenvideoed myself doing this recently - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAHErqoSPr0). It isn't as hard as you might think.

It helps to know certain commonly occurring patterns of words. The following pattern alone (formed of the letters AEENSST) will probably score upwards on four hundred points in a Wordtwist game (I just checked the video I linked above and, although many of the words below weren't on the board, I scored about 250 points from the words below alone).

ate/s eta/s eat/s tae/s tea/s seta/e seat/s east/s sate/s
asset tasse tass
sae sea eas
ease tease/s
ane/s ean/s nae
ens sen/s ness san/s nas
sean/s sena/s sane/s sensa
tan/s ant/s nat/s sant/s
neat/s ante/s etna/s tane nates
eaten enate/s
ensate senate/s steane/s sateen/s sensate
stean/s stane/s assent sanest snaste
est/s set/s tes
ten/s net/s sten/s nest/s sent/s
een nee esne/s seen sene snee/s sense ene/s
sese see/s eses ess/e
eten/s nete/s tene/s teen/s sente tense/s steen/s

Mentally group the words in smaller clusters like I have above and they are much easier to remember. Add an R to the letters above and you will have dozens more words.

If you have a good eye for such patterns, and some of the more exotic clusters (things such as daily, iliad/s, illiad/s, eliad/s, eyliad/s, eyelid/s, eyeliad/s) it is extremely easy to score ridiculously high scores. Typing speed will be the main limitation on how high you can actually go. I could certainly score well over 1000 on some 4x4 boards if I had a better typing speed.