Cheating?

[Jeffsul]

Are there any known or possible cheats around? Some people's score are almost incredibly high, with an average of about 80 words per game and average scores of over 300 and I'm sure people can be this good, but could there be any hacks or something that could get you more time or the word list or something that some people could be taking advantage of?

[Miff]

I spend most of the time hitting back space because of my God awful typing :o and wonder if there are some Olympic standard typists out there!!:rolleyes:
Cheers
Meredith
wish I'd left my message uncorrected to PROVE my dud typing ability and thus explain my own poor boggle record... but did not want to come across as an more of an IDIOT!!:p But I did hit backspace over 25 times in just this short msg... In boggle terms that could be 9 ultra rare words and a new wooooooooooooooooooorld record...:D

[one4love4truth]

I'm a pretty good typist (~70 wpm) and a couple of times I've just gotten in the zone and scored 200 where I just lucked out and got a board that was easy for me. And during that time I typed non-stop. But my average score around here is around 130.

If I had a list of an already solved puzzle with 85 words right next to me, I doubt I would be able to type them in within the 2 minutes. Theoretically, 85 words is 42 wpm, but with the lag after enter and having to actually think what you are doing, I don't see how it is possible. (And I used to do Rubik's cube in less than 40 seconds.)

[Miff]

Impressive stuff!
The only way I could solve one (Rubik's cube) was to pull it apart and rebuild it... Never been very good spatially.
Ciao
Meredith

[ganja2ganja]

I cannot type fast at all & think I have played well if I get a score of 120!
By the looks of things I need to practise all day & everyday for about the next ten years.:D
Somehow I think there must be cheating going on, but as of yet haven't got a clue how:confused:

[admin]

To give some perspective, I'm (at best) an average-skilled Boggle player and a fairly fast typist - and I regularly hit 240s/250s score-wise on the 4x4s, and have on rare occasions broken 300. I have no doubt that highly skilled players who also happen to be excellent typists could hit 400+ pts on certain word-heavy boards without having to cheat.

If its any consolation, when I first started the site I considered 150/160 to be my top-range... with practice I got quite a bit better, and I'm sure that's the same for most folks.

[one4love4truth]

I didn't mean to imply that people were cheating.

When I said I don't see how it's possible, I meant I don't see how I could possibly get those scores. My brain isn't as young as it used to be. ;)

[poslfit]

Here's what I do. As an expert Scrabble player, I have learned all the three- and four-letter words, and so I begin each game by methodically scanning each 2x2 block within the grid and entering all the short words that they contain. If I notice that an extra letter or two can be hooked to the beginning or end of one or more words, I'll do those too. While my fingers and one part of my brain are occupied doing this, the rest of my brain looks for longer or less compactly arranged words, and interrupts the first part of my brain to take control of the fingers as needed. Oh, and if the board has one of the high-scoring letter, I'll search first for all words containing that letter.

[one4love4truth]

Thanks for sharing your strategy poslfit!

[MisterP]

I've played on Weboggle before and found that players do occasionally use an algorithm whereby one simply types in the letters of the square, and the algorithm produces the words, ordered from largest to smallest. I like this game space much better because the scores are actual and attainable. Those who use the algorithm only waste their own time as well as others. Why not just play. :rolleyes:

See you out there on the game space,

MisterP

[chiman]

Google "touchtyping" to a way of typing propperly, or get a book on it.
I had not done much typing before playing this game online, and over 2.5
months my speed has got a bit faster and checking out some players stats you will probably find an improvement on average scores comparing monthly/
alltime stats . When I first played i thought reaching 100 was good ; so keep up your practice.

[Master of Noodles]

as poslfit said, it is a good idea to memorize all 3 and 4 letter words in the SOWPODS dictionary, as these will account for most words on the board. I also recommend being able to type without looking at the keyboard, so you can search for more words while typing. If ou are able to type at least 80 wpm, and have most 3-4 letter words memorized, you should be able to reach 400 easily.

3 letters words:

http://www.isc.ro/lists/sowpods3.html

4 letter words:

http://www.isc.ro/lists/sowpods4.html

[Thrash370]

The way a lot of the top players get 300+ scores is by only selecting the good boards to play, those with hundreds of words.

A good tip for players who don't have the ability to memorize the words such as myself is when you get in a rut near the end of a game, if there is an S next to a vowel such as an I, start typing in as many words using this combination such as Pis, Tis, Tas etc. Might boost your average score up by 40 points!

[ataraxia]

I don't have much to say about the topic except that I don't cheat and I hope you believe me! I'm a pretty good typist (about 50-55 words a minute) and I've always been really good at word games (namely Scrabble and Boggle). Just do the best you can and have fun with it!

[WurdyGurl]

How cool...didn't even know there was a message board here! I love this site. I totally get what some are saying about scores though. I always thought I was a good boggle player until I started playing on line. Now, I am happy when I get into the 200's!

[jillhasskills]

Anyone saying they found, then typed over 100 words in 120 seconds is most likely cheating. I googled "cheating at boggle" and there are many sites out there that will solve the puzzle. That's why I like this site, because cheaters can still cheat, but they can't copy and paste the entire puzzle. I do believe they have another window open to get long and difficult words, but honestly, it doesn't bother me, because I DON'T cheat, and I enjoy competing with all of you, so when that rare time occurs that I become a record holder (usually because I'm the first or second to play the puzzle!) the victory is all that much sweeter. This is a great site, and a super way to unwind. Kudos to the creators and administrators.

[oboehobo]

Yes there are people who are really fast typists and have memorized a lot of words and letter patterns and get great scores without cheating.
And if someone was using a program, wouldn't that find all the possible words and thus retire that particular board?

[Crovax]

Anyone saying they found, then typed over 100 words in 120 seconds is most likely cheating. I googled "cheating at boggle" and there are many sites out there that will solve the puzzle. That's why I like this site, because cheaters can still cheat, but they can't copy and paste the entire puzzle. I do believe they have another window open to get long and difficult words, but honestly, it doesn't bother me, because I DON'T cheat, and I enjoy competing with all of you, so when that rare time occurs that I become a record holder (usually because I'm the first or second to play the puzzle!) the victory is all that much sweeter. This is a great site, and a super way to unwind. Kudos to the creators and administrators.

Actually, I'd say it's a safe bet that anyone who can submit more than 100 words in a puzzle isn't cheating. The most words I've ever submitted in one game is 113 and I was banging on the keyboard nonstop for the full two minutes, finding words as I typed the last one. There's no way somebody could be fiddling around with a cheat website while the clock is ticking and still end up with enough time to type 100+ words. And if that master typist does exist, he'd probably be better off just playing without cheating.

Once you learn all the tricks, the challenge is typing the words in fast enough, not finding them. For example, if you have A, E, S and T in a 2x2 square, there are at least 22 different words you can make. With just those four letters. And you can look for more words outside that box while you type up the list of words from memory.

[phliparoonie]

Aw, Gees, Meredith...all you have to do is peel the stickers off. I took my Rubik's apart once, but that was done by throwing it against a wall. :-)

[kuahine]

There's no way somebody could be fiddling around with a cheat website while the clock is ticking and still end up with enough time to type 100+ words. And if that master typist does exist, he'd probably be better off just playing without cheating.

I don't see any point in cheating -- what fun is that?! -- but to test your theory, I just played a 5x5 game and entered all the words that the cheat site listed for this particular puzzle, with 50 seconds to spare. (I'm a fast but not blazing touch-typist.) So in 2 minutes and 10 seconds I was able to enter 126 words for a score of 629. I'd say that it's therefore a fairly trivial thing to type 100+ words in two minutes if you're a moderately fast typist, even after using up a few seconds to paste the game board into a cheat site's window and generate the word list.

Just FYI....

[Crovax]

I don't see any point in cheating -- what fun is that?! -- but to test your theory, I just played a 5x5 game and entered all the words that the cheat site listed for this particular puzzle, with 50 seconds to spare. (I'm a fast but not blazing touch-typist.) So in 2 minutes and 10 seconds I was able to enter 126 words for a score of 629. I'd say that it's therefore a fairly trivial thing to type 100+ words in two minutes if you're a moderately fast typist, even after using up a few seconds to paste the game board into a cheat site's window and generate the word list.

Just FYI....

I was referring to 4x4. I should have elaborated on that.

[DrakkarDarkbladE]

Well, cheating will go on no matter where you play, I also play on scrabulous.com and its rampant over there.

Learning to type fast will definitely helps. But make sure it is accurate also, making a mistake in every word and going back at 100wpm is the practically the same as 25wpm, so just slow down and type accurately rather then fast.

I type around 100wpm accurately of course, so the second i think of it, its down on the board.

for those that do no know 1 word is considered to be 5 characters. so at 50wpm = 250 characters typed in, thats about 70 three letter words.

[Biloxidebbie]

What is the cheat website? I can't believe anybody would want to cheat. I see some weird things like in most points per word catagory where the average words per game is one...but I don't guess that's cheating. I guess they just look at the board and don't enter anything but the word in the puzzle that offers the most points. I can't figure out the points either. When I get a word with 8 or 9letters the points are measly. I know it's because they are "common" but seems like they should be more points for having so many letters. I love this website and play for hours. The reward is exercising your brain so cheating seems ridiculous...

[MadJayhawk]

I must be really stupid. Played over 300 games. Highest number of words i ever got was 27. BUT. I am not typing them. I am pointing and clicking them. OMG I was wondering how someone would get 93 words and I could only get around 21 with perfect pointing and clicking. (Try just pointing and clicking on the letters once). Now watch out because I can type fast. I must be a really stupid fast typist who wasn't typing. ROFLMAO. Real men don't read directions.

[BuffaloGal]

I was wondering if some of the folks have the kind of computers where you can just talk and it types and that is why they can get such high scores.
:D

[cheater]

IF your going to cheat do it right and build your own algorithm. Don't use some website that might get some of the words.

Usage All 4 5 6 7 8 9+
Common: 180 74 58 31 11 5 1
Wide: 96 28 31 21 6 7 3
Rare: 58 17 22 11 7 1
Ultra Rare: 198 58 72 39 19 9 1

Total points: 3333 New record!
Total words: 532 (180 common,96 wide,58 rare,198 ultra rare) New record!
Best word: STRELITZ (17 pts.) New record!
Longest word: PORTIERES (9 letters) New record!

My apologies to biscotti for using a puzzle with thier records to make a point.

[doxx]

I can understand that fast typists can get high scores with fertile boards, but when someone averages very high scores, it does appear that they are cheating.

[AgentOfChaos]

The best strategies to get consistently high scores have already been mentioned in this thread, and those are to increase your typing skills, memorize all 3 and 4 letter words in SOWPODS, and (although some might consider this unfair) only playing boards with a lot of words.

Or if you're smart you could do what I'm sure some people here are doing and just write a program to solve the puzzles for you. I guess that would be considered cheating though.

[naturopathetic]

Then there's the glitch where the timer stalls and one can take one's time...as long as one wishes...4 x 4 and 600 points in three? (four, five, twenty, thirty?) minutes. This was a problem a few months ago, and seem to be a problem again. I say "problem," and maybe that's MY problem, because it kinda sucks the fun out of the game. Otherwise, I'd have shut up. I reported it back then, and I've reported it again. It's a glitch. It's not fun to get a best score on a glitch. To tell the truth, I ran one of those out and got over 500 points, just to see if I could. Well, I could. Lousy victory. :(

I'll take my occasionally brilliant, mostly average, and sometimes lousy scores, because they're actually mine.

[typingraceLOL]

I play this for fun, not for "stats." I couldn't really care less if folks is cheatin'. I am an extremely average player, and even if I was great, I doubt I would care if people were exploiting.

They can go ahead and cheat; I can keep on smashing my face into my keyboard repeatedly.

[StrawberryCancer]

Why would people cheat? To be honest, you don't get anything out of it (other than stats), so why do it? The people who do cheat are not bettering themselves by cheating- only racking up stats. The people who play the game the right way increase their WPM and their knowledge.

That is not to say that cheating doesn't happen; I'm sure it does. But why worry about it? That only makes it THAT MUCH MORE AWESOME when you get a new record on a puzzle.

Jus' sayin'.

[AFishaNada]

You start to recognize the same names consistently getting high scores... and sharing high stats in general. These people are clearly just loving the game, playing it often, and getting better and better and better.

I got 415 today (big whoop de doo.... heh). That's a HUGE difference from a few months ago when I couldn't even fathom getting 200 consistently, or even breaking 300 even once.

This game is fun, it streamlines your typing skills, you recognize patterns, start getting good at "seeing" words you didn't see before, and if you see words you didn't know on the results page (god knows I usually do), you can click on the word, learn the definition, and learn a little somep'n somep'n. :)

I get a big old thrill when I set a 'new record.' If a games been played less than 10 times, I'm starting to be likely to set one! heh. Sometimes even if it's been played less than, say, 60 times, I set one! Before the really awesome players have had a chance at the puzzle. :)

But truth to tell, I'm just happy as punch if a game's been played more than 100 times and I find a word nobody else got yet - it appears in GREEN on the results page and I do a little happy dance.

heh

[StrawberryCancer]

But truth to tell, I'm just happy as punch if a game's been played more than 100 times and I find a word nobody else got yet - it appears in GREEN on the results page and I do a little happy dance.


Haha. I love when that happens too! Or sometimes when I end up typing in an extra letter- and its a word- I also do another dance. :D

[midnight]

A number of us have posted videos of high scores, so you can see how we play (I posted a video of a 764 point game a while back). I also know several of the top players from other forms of the game (Prolific, Noggin, and Scramble on Facebook mostly) and they seem completely legit. I have been playing for almost 3 years; there are players here who have been playing various forms of the game for over 10 years. I am only 60wpm in regular typing speed, but there are top ability players with typing speeds of 160wpm and more; I see no reason why they couldn't comfortably break the 1000 barrier on a number of boards without cheating.

[debbiedoo]

I was amazed when I saw the first video of Crovax...I know Midnight's scores are legit...amazing...

Some of my favorite moments have been when I find a word when over 400 people have played a board. Once I found an 18 pointer after it had been played 482 times...I was stoked...I can't cheat. I don't know how and wouldn't want to. I'll take my measly scores and have fun getting the best words I can...like in scrabble..

Happy boggling!!!