Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

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philamental
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by philamental »

Hey guys, so let's talk about the difficulty of this years tournament. One player submitted a guess recently with little confidence and asked if it was just them who was finding this year's tournament much harder than last. I thought it was a fair question and as we approach the half way point, I'd be interested in some feedback from you all but here's my own thoughts on the subject.

Firstly difficulty is obviously subjective. What's easy to one player is difficult to the next and could be vice versa in the next example. In both tournaments I've seen images I thought were easy result in tumbleweeds, while what I thought were really tough images get a flood of correct answers. Some players are currently doing better than last year and others are struggling in comparison to their previous performance. But how much of that is because those players have/had more/less time to play this or last time around?

Secondly, and I think this may be a factor, last year 3 images a day were posted, which meant if a round stumped you another one replaced it just over 24 hrs later. If that one was equally tough, the third round arrived after before the end of the third day. This year, if you find two rounds in a row tough, it's day 5 before you see the round after that. I think that makes a difference. It was one of the reasons I originally went with 3 images a day as I felt it kept things moving in a rapid fire way, but as I explained it led to other problems.

Thirdly the bonus rounds last year were quite easy in their multiple choice format, however they were actually really difficult to source due to the time it took to find a recognisable image, that wasn't searchable, and was from a franchise where I could use the multiple choice answers. Sourcing these was the most time consuming and least fun part of last year so had no desire to repeat them. In the end I decided the current abstract bonus rounds were the way to go. They were more fun for me to put together, and even though they seem to be considered tough based on the limited correct answers I receive, they are tough for everyone so it's at least fair in that respect.

Lastly, the need to ensure the images aren't searchable to rule out the temptation to cheat means that a lot of challenging but easier images get ruled out. I would think on average 70% of the images I originally select for the tournament get discarded because they showed up in an image search. I will be the first to admit that some of the rounds this year contain quite vague images that are almost impossible to get on their own and only serve as a piece of the puzzle when added to the other images.

Overall, I would think this year is probably more difficult than last year, but I think it may mainly be due to the format changes. I try to spread the rounds across every age and genre of film to be as inclusive and challenging as possible. Of course that could mean that if you hate classic films, you'll be lost for the 'classic' round, and while you might like horror films my horror selection wasn't one you had seen so the balance I aimed to achieve didn't work.

If anybody wants to give their own thoughts and feedback on this years difficulty I'd be very interested. The honest situation is I'd be interested in doing another tournament this time next year, but I want them to be as enjoyable as possible for as many people as possible. I enjoy presenting the tournaments and want them to be a challenge for the proven cinephiles on here but if nobody plays because they are too difficult, then that would suck.

So if you want to offer feedback now, go ahead, but I will definitely have a list of questions at the end of the tournament about how best to proceed with any plans for Tourney 2019 so if you want to wait until then that's cool.

If nothing else, let's have a Vote ... The Hills Have Eyes ... fiendishly fun or eye rolling nonsense? (or somewhere in between)

igormachete
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by igormachete »

I haven't seen a single movie so far from the regular rounds so it's hard for me to judge the difficulty of them, but I really enjoy the format of this years bonus rounds. The answers to both of them are very exact once you get it, so there's not much vagueness. I'll say the difficulty is okay.

3dRevelation
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by 3dRevelation »

I've found it harder, but I haven't seen as many films as some of the other players so that's probably to be expected. Out of the films so far, I've only seen Network (multiple times), so it's not a shock that I was able to get it on the first image.

Regarding films I haven't seen, I think I am just bad at identifying people and other clues. Not much I can do about that. Unsurprisingly, googling black and white movie with a horse doesn't exactly whittle it down.

CosmicMonkey
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by CosmicMonkey »

I'm doing a lot better than last year, and I think that''s for two reasons. Firstly, the 12-hour format has helped me since last year I was definitely disadvantaged by the shorter rounds, often missing entire rounds due to my 12-hour work shifts. Secondly, by chance, I've just happened to have seen more films from this year than last years. Generally the rounds are much more difficult if you haven't seen the film in questions. Of the film's I've seen, I've gotten them all correct on the first round, but I've only gotten one film that I haven't seen correct,so far.

The Bonus rounds are of course, way more difficult, but I overall prefer them to last year.
Last edited by CosmicMonkey on Sun Jan 14, 2018 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

paulofilmo
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by paulofilmo »

i feel like ive seen the latest one. my brain is fugueing

MacSwell
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by MacSwell »

Re. the bonus rounds, I haven't come close to getting either but I've still kicked myself both times I've seen the answers.

mattorama12
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by mattorama12 »

As the person who mentioned the difficulty, I hope I didn't make you think I was complaining. I was mostly just curious if it was just sort of the luck of the draw that I was finding it more difficult, or if it was sort of across the board. I really love this game, even though I'm personally finding it way more difficult this year. You're right about the fact that some of that is the format changes, as well. (And I have had less time this year due to a busy month at work right now. Last year I'd spend some time trying to research on certain pictures if I could--this year has just been look and see if I knew or not.)

Anyway, I haven't gotten either of the bonuses, but I think they were both great and I do enjoy them, even if they're a little more inscrutable than last year's. But I think it's fun because it's different.

philamental
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by philamental »

Thanks to you all for the feedback. I'll definitely look to poll for opinions again at the end of the tournament to see if any changes/improvements could be made for future efforts.

Now everyone needs to get back to making sure Harvey Weinstein doesn't rekindle his Hollywood career ;)

MacSwell
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by MacSwell »

I'm guessing the current movie is American based on the truck in the first image, but then I can see Blur's Modern Life is Rubbish in the most recent one... and Americans don't listen to Blur, right?!

philamental
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Re: Image Game Tournament 2018 - DISCUSSION THREAD - DO NOT POST GUESSES HERE

Post by philamental »

*whistles to self* ;)

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