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The RoboBob3000's blog

Posts 24 posts

Wheel of Fortune Data Collection Sep 11, 2009
I'm trying to perform some analysis on Tengaged Wheel of Fortune. My goal is to generate additional posts about challenge strategies, such as this one: http://www.tengaged.com/blog/RoboBob3000/135229/wheel-fortune-play-5000

If you could, please post a comment listing the solutions to as many WoF puzzles that you've encountered that you can remember. If you can remember the category, please include that as well.

Thanks for your help, and I hope I can shape this into info that the community can use!
Points: 32 2 comments
Wheel of Fortune - Play for the $5000! Sep 11, 2009
imageI've thus far played in one round of Wheel of Fortune. Though I agree that it is the more random of the two available challenges, there are some key strategies that should help give your team the edge.

Don't fall in love with RSTLNE. They're great letters, but they're not the best. It doesn't matter what the show tells you. Here is the true distributions of the most common consonants and vowels, according to Wikipedia: TNSHRDLCMWFGYPBVKJXQZ EAOIU

The key difference to be aware of with Tengaged WoF is the fact that this version is solitaire WoF. In three-person WoF, your goal is to amass money without losing control of the board. In solitaire WoF, nobody is going to solve the puzzle out from beneath you. Your only real opponents are the clock and the Bankrupt wedge. Guessing an incorrect letter only costs you time, and nothing more. Because this is not three-person WoF, standard three-person strategies do not necessarily apply.

For starters, one doesn't need to guess the most common letters first. Save them for when they can really score you big!

Here's my full approach:

1. Start out by guessing upper-mid range consonants: DLCMWF.
2. Whenever you have money on hand, buy vowels: EAOIU.
3. If you are ever certain that a letter that will occur multiple times, just sit on it until later.
4. If you are out of upper-mid range consonants and vowels and you still don't know the solution to the puzzle, start guessing the upper range consonants alongside the lower-mid range consonants: TNSHR and GYPB
5. If at any point you know the solution to the puzzle, great! Let's start banking!
6. The goal at this point is to spin a $5000 no matter what. After you hit a $5000, choose the most frequently occurring letter in the puzzle and then solve.
6a. Anytime you spin something other than a $5000, guess a letter in the puzzle other than the most frequently occurring.
6b. If you spin something other than a $5000 and there is only one letter left in the puzzle, intentionally guess an incorrect letter. We want to score that $5000 before we leave.
6c. Don't get discouraged by Bankrupts! They will happen!
6d. Don't get discouraged if that $5000 never comes. Most of the time this strategy will pay off, but sometimes it won't at all. Just keep in mind that in the long run, playing for the $5000 is the way to go.

There are 24 wedges on the wheel. That means that the odds of spinning a $5000 is 1/24. That means that odds are even that a $5000 will occur within the next twelve spins.

Questions? Disagree with anything? Am I missing anything? Please let me know.
Points: 95 11 comments
Survivor Documentation Sep 10, 2009
After disappearing from this site for a couple of months, I just signed up for my first Survivor game. Our tribe has 9/10 people, so sign up now if you want to start a game quickly!

Anyhow, I was hoping that someone could point me to any documentation or any blog postings that describe how this implementation of the game works. I'd like to learn the rules, flow, etc, before I get started here.
Points: 27 3 comments
Tengaged Feedback Group Jul 2, 2009
http://www.tengaged.com/group/1514

Currently, there is no formal process for collecting feedback on Tengaged. Hopefully this group can pick up some of the slack.

Feel free to post any comments, suggestions, feedback, or ideas about any component of the site.

Don't like negging in the design game? Want better documentation for game types? Wish the algo was better explained? Want more transparency in moderation? Start a topic!

I certainly can't guarantee attention from higher-ups, but with a little time, this group could definitely start to gain some traction!
Points: 18 2 comments
Who the crap moderates this site? Jun 30, 2009
I swear, this place is a madhouse.

There's no rhyme or reason to why designs are rejected in the Design Game.

There's no documentation anywhere about how the algo works nor is there a written ruleset for the games.

This place is ban-happy. Everybody's reporting everybody else - everybody's getting banned and rednosed because everybody's creating multiple accounts. Someone who I had believed was a moderator got rednosed - what the crap! And this sort of overmoderation doesn't solve the problem - it just leads to the creation of more multis.

Is there a list anywhere of who exactly moderates this place? I've got plenty of questions about how this site is run, but I can't figure who I should talk to.

This site needs some sort of centralized suggestion box.
Points: 0 4 comments
Sharks are awesome. Jun 29, 2009
imageThis is entirely irrefutable.

http://www.tengaged.com/design/id-2945/shark-for-a-head
Points: 31 3 comments