The Official Word Ace Thread of iPhone & Palm Pre Cross-platform Play

I played my first $4k table today. The first hand was check, check, check, and then on the river someone went all in. I had a 7 letter word just screaming at me, so of course I called.




And then I lagged and then the app dropped.
 
Sorry to hear 'bout the lag-out, custer... :( Obviously really frustrating. The only thing I can say, and I know it doesn't help the situation is that the server logs don't show any glitches - it looks like it was something between you and the server connection, which unfortunately, we can't really do much about. :(

In the case when you do lag out, though, if you rejoin as soon as you're lagged out, and re-establish a connection with the server, if you do it fast enough, we maintain your state in the game for a few minutes even if the immediate connection dies.

seppo
 
Got my first seven letter word last night at a $4,000 table, worth 29 points. 'Cleared'

Haven't had to buy any more chips since picking up the Pro version, but who knows, those $4,000 tables can turn on you pretty quick if you get a string of bad hands.
 
lawblob said:
Got my first seven letter word last night at a $4,000 table, worth 29 points. 'Cleared'

Haven't had to buy any more chips since picking up the Pro version, but who knows, those $4,000 tables can turn on you pretty quick if you get a string of bad hands.
Click to expand...

Not that I'd discourage you from buying chips (lol!), but you *can* play at the lower-stakes tables by going to "Select Table" from the main menu and manually selecting your buy-in/blind level. :) Not that you should. I'd never actually suggest that. Of course.

Seriously, though, it's kind of funny how much like "chump change" playing at the $40 tables is after playing at the $4K tables. :D

seppo
 
Fantastic game! Easily my most used *app* on my phone, bar none.

However, has anyone figured out a way to avoid cheaters? I have a hard time believing someone named BigPimp92 came up with Gourdes, the plural of the monetary unit of Haiti, all by themselves...

EDIT: I just read some earlier posts, seems like the cheating bugs everyone. I guess I'll scour the thread for GAF friend codes; mine is 69417.
 
Aptos said:
Fantastic game! Easily my most used *app* on my phone, bar none.

However, has anyone figured out a way to avoid cheaters? I have a hard time believing someone named BigPimp92 came up with Gourdes, the plural of the monetary unit of Haiti, all by themselves...
Click to expand...

The best way to avoid it is to friend us all, and play Gaffer games! Hooray!
 
Aptos said:
Fantastic game! Easily my most used *app* on my phone, bar none.

However, has anyone figured out a way to avoid cheaters? I have a hard time believing someone named BigPimp92 came up with Gourdes, the plural of the monetary unit of Haiti, all by themselves...

EDIT: I just read some earlier posts, seems like the cheating bugs everyone. I guess I'll scour the thread for GAF friend codes; mine is 69417.
Click to expand...

Heh. If you've seen the earlier posts, then you know what we're working on. Thanks for checking it out, and welcome! :)

seppo
 
Hey, GAFers - just wanted to mention that if you see someone who's blatantly cheating, or even playing really obnoxiously (all-in all the time, etc.), if you can take down their username and let me know, that'd be fantastic. I can add them to my list of watched users, and when I see them online, I'll hop on, and if they're playing badly, I'll let them know they could be in for a banning if they keep it up. While we're actively working on anti-cheating measures, the simple fact is that it's gonna take some time, and so in the meantime, I'm gonna actively be moderating the games, or in as much as I can, at any rate.

Thanks!
seppo
 
just want to jump in and say wordace is great. thanks selfaware games and thanks even more for making it free. this isn't an app that i'd normally have jumped on but i'm considering buying pro due to the high quality of the game.


also, my friend code is 81191.
 
dark_preacher said:
just want to jump in and say wordace is great. thanks selfaware games and thanks even more for making it free. this isn't an app that i'd normally have jumped on but i'm considering buying pro due to the high quality of the game.


also, my friend code is 81191.
Click to expand...

Thanks, dark_preacher! Really great to hear.
seppo
 
helava said:
Hey, GAFers - just wanted to mention that if you see someone who's blatantly cheating, or even playing really obnoxiously (all-in all the time, etc.), if you can take down their username and let me know, that'd be fantastic. I can add them to my list of watched users, and when I see them online, I'll hop on, and if they're playing badly, I'll let them know they could be in for a banning if they keep it up. While we're actively working on anti-cheating measures, the simple fact is that it's gonna take some time, and so in the meantime, I'm gonna actively be moderating the games, or in as much as I can, at any rate.

Thanks!
seppo
Click to expand...

I think you need to be explicit that using aids is considered 'cheating', because for a lot of people, they may just think it's not. Going all in is part of the game, and may be a valid strategy (all the time is annoying), but to people who don't know, where does it say it's bad? I think a set of guidelines would be nice.
 
That's actually something we're explicitly adding to the next release is a place that has "the rules." Going all-in every time isn't abusing the system - you'll eventually lose your shirt (I took $17K chips yesterday from someone who was doing it simply by playing well), but it is obnoxious.

Still, we'll be explicitly stating that use of anagram generators during gameplay is a bannable offense, and we'll start enforcing it pretty heavily. It's crazy to me that someone would play Word Ace with an anagram generator - if you want to play poker, just go play poker. If you want to rack up a huge number that has no connection to your skill, go play Progress Quest.

But griefers are everywhere, and Word Ace is no exception. We're dealing with it - developing the right tools takes time, is all.

seppo
 
yo seppo. got a bone to pick with you.

was just playing a game with some gaffers and the word zen is not in the game dictionary.

bull to the shit!





OK... that's all I've got.
 
LCfiner said:
yo seppo. got a bone to pick with you.

was just playing a game with some gaffers and the word zen is not in the game dictionary.

bull to the shit!





OK... that's all I've got.
Click to expand...
For whatever reason, zen is considered a proper noun by the twl. Not seppo's fault.
 
LCfiner said:
insolent rage... must... be... directed....
Click to expand...

Sorry! It's a proper noun, like mrkgoo said!

"Zen" is EASILY the word that's generated the most rage. We get a support e-mail almost every day that says WTFZENFUn00bz!!!! or something similar. Honestly, it seems silly to me - ZEN should be as valid as QIS - both are foreign words that have been appropriated into our language.

The problem is that we had to pick a standard and stick with it. We may *switch* that standard (we've gotten some very vocal feedback that people want SOWPODS as the standard instead of TWL, and we're considering making the change), but we have to pick some baseline and run with it. If every word is opened up to question, we're screwed, and have no way of dealing with finding the line between "too obscure" and "acceptable"...

So, yeah. Zen = not a word, as far as Word Ace is concerned...

seppo
 
lawblob said:
The fact that Battle Bears is #2 in the Games category while Word Ace isn't even in the top 200 fills me with rage.
Click to expand...

The question of how to succeed in the app store is a tricky one, for sure. I mean, I'm proud of Word Ace and Taxiball, but the basic issue that it all comes back to is, "Winners win," right? Battle Bears captures players' attention in a way that Word Ace or Taxiball clearly didn't. "Weird Laws FREE" provides something to the audience that Word Ace doesn't.

We're trying to figure out how to make a game we will love that everyone else will, too. I think Word Ace is that game - the problem really is one of exposure. It's not a fart game, it's not a game full of gory violence, or bright, flashing lights. Its selling point is only obvious once you've played it, and it's gotten its hooks into you. Which is obviously a problem for us, and we need the players who love it to help spread the word.

But it's also on us to figure out how to get people to buy the game. I think we've done one of the hard parts - Word Ace is a game that I want to still be playing years from now - the question is how we get people to give it a shot?

Any thoughts? I'd love some ideas on the subject. We're going to be doing Facebook integration (since we're actually going to have a full-blown Facebook version this is a total no-brainer). But if you've got ideas on how to get people to go get Word Ace, or what we can do to get that to pick up... lemme know. I'd love to hear what you guys have to say.

seppo

Ps: Every review site under the sun that I know of has been sent a code or knows of its existence. I'm hoping we'll maybe see a review or two sometime soon, as so far, we've only had a couple "impressions" posts here and there, and no formal reviews...
 
A few weeks later, it seems like everyone has started using anagrammers. People on the 4k tables are coming up with the most bullshit words I've ever seen.

One particular user by the name of CaliGrown (fucking ban her/him, seppo), had about 100,000 over the span of, like, an hour. I kept leaving but when I joined a 4k table, it always put me there. I eventually got pissed when my "yank" lost to her "eikons."

She was talking the entire time during the game, then when I was like "so, what does eikons mean? Where did you come up with that word?" No response. At all.

Gah. Something needs to be done about that kind of shit. I lost like 10,000 today because I can't beat these impossibly stupid words.
 
Dacvak said:
A few weeks later, it seems like everyone has started using anagrammers. People on the 4k tables are coming up with the most bullshit words I've ever seen.

One particular user by the name of CaliGrown (fucking ban her/him, seppo), had about 100,000 over the span of, like, an hour. I kept leaving but when I joined a 4k table, it always put me there. I eventually got pissed when my "yank" lost to her "eikons."

She was talking the entire time during the game, then when I was like "so, what does eikons mean? Where did you come up with that word?" No response. At all.

Gah. Something needs to be done about that kind of shit. I lost like 10,000 today because I can't beat these impossibly stupid words.
Click to expand...

All I can say is, "We're working on it." I wish we could do these things faster, but we're working as fast as we can. Thanks for the tip, re: CaliGrown.

What I'd suggest in the meantime is to play at the $400 tables - yeah, it's not the big money, but it'll at least keep most of the anagram jerks out of your hair, 'cause they're in it to rack up the biggest number possible and nothing more.

seppo
 
alright, well I guess I have a cheater to report! his name is just 'billy', and he openly admitted to using an anagrammer. So, yeah...

in lighter news, I just hit 70K!
 
Haha, I'll be able to, but will I?

I still play at the $400 tables on occasion, just cause I'm still scared of losing my money
 
Very sad this game's lost much of its momentum here. It's excellent and had lots of fun playing with the nice folks at GAF... Gamers are a fickle bunch...
 
I think to some extent, that's just the way that most Apps go - people are used to playing an app for a short time then finding the next new thing.

But, that said - Word Ace does seem to have some staying power. In Taxiball, you could see the number of players that completed any given level dropped by almost an order of magnitude every level you progressed into the game. A good number of people finished the game, but most people only played the first two or three levels.

With Word Ace, we just crossed 100K (we're actually gonna unlock $20K tables, instead of $40K) registered users (which is TOTALLY AWESOME. Thank you for helping us achieve this milestone)! But better than that, people are actually playing a LOT. The average? 51 hands. That's at least an hour or two, and that's just the average - for a free game, which usually end up being throwaways!

The hardest of the hardcore players? More than 7,000 hands played! That's more than double the number of hands I'VE played since we turned stat logging on halfway through development.

So, yeah - we see the daily stats for number of players, and the coolest thing is almost 10% of our userbase hops online to play, every single day. So that's really cool. So now we've crossed 100K players. What's the next goal? 200K? Why not just shoot for a million? :D

hahaha. Now I'm talking crazy.

The Facebook version of the game is coming soon. Really soon.

seppo
 
I had to force myself to cut back a bit. When I was into it more, I was playing until like 4am.

That said, playing randoms was kinda stink (about the time the $4000 tables opened). I'd jump in, obviously see an anagrammer, and it just wasn't worth my time so I just quit. Happened often enough until I stopped even going in. I still want to though. Just can't afford 4am sessions anymore.
 
We're setting things up to do push notifications in the release *after* the next one. Hopefully, that'll help players (such as yourselves) coordinate with their friends even more effectively.

seppo
 
Hey, all - I know it's unlikely, but if you're playing on a Pre, please download the 0.9.11 update, which is available on the App Catalog now. It's a maintenance release, to ensure compatibility with the coming OS upgrade - so it's not our first major update, it just makes sure nothing breaks with OS 1.2.

Thanks!
seppo
 
helava said:
Hey, all - I know it's unlikely, but if you're playing on a Pre, please download the 0.9.11 update, which is available on the App Catalog now. It's a maintenance release, to ensure compatibility with the coming OS upgrade - so it's not our first major update, it just makes sure nothing breaks with OS 1.2.

Thanks!
seppo
Click to expand...

I watched the Engadget Show last night - saw the brief mention of Word Ace. Jon seems like a real nice guy, and the palm seems very interesting. Good to know if I ever switched, I'd still be able to play Word Ace!
 
mrkgoo said:
I watched the Engadget Show last night - saw the brief mention of Word Ace. Jon seems like a real nice guy, and the palm seems very interesting. Good to know if I ever switched, I'd still be able to play Word Ace!
Click to expand...

We actually got a chance to meet him a little while ago. Indeed, a very nice guy, and crazy smart/focused. I'm really looking forward to the next few years to see how this all shakes out. If nothing else, it's gonna be great for the consumers. :)

seppo
 
Two things:

1.) Card Ace is a go for the iPhone. It's being submitted in the next day or so. So if you like Word Ace's interface, but wished you could play Hold 'Em instead, I hope you get a chance to check it out. It'll also be free, same as Word Ace. All your profile info, your friend list, and your chips carry over from Word Ace. It'll also be out on the Pre soon.

2.) ...we'll have an announcement re: Word Ace on the web soon. Not quite yet, but within the next day or so.
 
Well that is pretty sweet! Not too great at poker, though, so I dunno how often I'll be playing that. Looking forward to trying the web version, as well.
 
Foob said:
Well that is pretty sweet! Not too great at poker, though, so I dunno how often I'll be playing that. Looking forward to trying the web version, as well.
Click to expand...

Think of it as word ace, but without the possibility of cheating - only the bidding. The skill comes in determining the odds that your cards are better based on the chances. YOu'll get the hang of it.

Dammit, Seppo and co! There's no more space on my favourite ever games page! I either delegate another game off or move these both to the second page.... (they must stay together to be friends).

Also, the quest for looking forward to app stuff is never ending, seriously. I was looking forward to the unify update, which just came out today...
 
The icons look nice together, too. :)

ca_icon.jpg
 
centracore said:
Nice! Can't wait for Card Ace! With Apple's current approval process and times we should be seeing it around this time next month? :lol
Click to expand...

Who knows? Seems like every day they get busier and busier, so it's really hard to say. If all goes well, it seems like approval time is about two weeks, but historically, we've had to schedule in time for one rejection/revision for something or another with every submission, so it's definitely safer to say about a month. :P

seppo
 
helava said:
Two things:
2.) ...we'll have an announcement re: Word Ace on the web soon. Not quite yet, but within the next day or so.
Click to expand...

Alright. You got a Facebook account? Head over to http://apps.facebook.com/wordace if you want to play Word Ace on the web. Got friends with no iPhone or Pre? Point them there, then take all their money!

If you've got a Palm Pre, you can link your accounts together. If you've got an iPhone... you'll have to hang on for a little bit to link accounts. Still, I'd love to get feedback from GAFers about the Facebook version, so if you're able to give it a shot, lemme know what you think.

Thanks!
seppo
 
helava said:
Who knows? Seems like every day they get busier and busier, so it's really hard to say. If all goes well, it seems like approval time is about two weeks, but historically, we've had to schedule in time for one rejection/revision for something or another with every submission, so it's definitely safer to say about a month. :P

seppo
Click to expand...

The latest geodefense update (1.3) had a real issue out of the gate at the appstore end. Something equally strange happened months ago for them as well, and at that time the dev managed to become contacts with someone at the approval end of things. Fast forward to this latest episode, he managed to get it fixed by contacting the same people, but a whole bunch of bugs were introduced (his end this time) in the 1.3 update. For whatever reason, the 1.4 update was submitted the next day , I think and then went live a day after that. I guess it helps if you have a direct line in...
 
mrkgoo said:
The latest geodefense update (1.3) had a real issue out of the gate at the appstore end. Something equally strange happened months ago for them as well, and at that time the dev managed to become contacts with someone at the approval end of things. Fast forward to this latest episode, he managed to get it fixed by contacting the same people, but a whole bunch of bugs were introduced (his end this time) in the 1.3 update. For whatever reason, the 1.4 update was submitted the next day , I think and then went live a day after that. I guess it helps if you have a direct line in...
Click to expand...

Probably also helps when you've got the #1 game on the App Store. :)
That's an advantage I'd LOVE to have someday. Haha.

seppo
 
I'm sure that 90+% of you guys have iPhones, but if anyone on the thread has a Pre, we just released Card Ace on the Pre! Your Word Ace acct., chip count, XP, friend list, and all that stuff carries over from game to game. Get eeeeet!

seppo
 
Ahoy, all. So, while Word Ace has taken off like a rocket on the Pre, it has yet to really crank up a full head of steam on the iPhone. We've sent codes to a lot of review sites, but we have very few actual published reviews (though the ones we've gotten so far have been great).

So, here's a question for you all, just for information's sake:

Have you told anyone else about Word Ace? Why or why not?
If you were given an in-game reward for telling someone about Word Ace, would you be more likely to do so?
...if that reward was an Award?
...if that reward was 10K chips? 50K chips? 100K chips?
...if that reward was an increase to your daily chip bonus per user you'd successfully referred?

Any other suggestions on how to spread the word would be greatly appreciated!
seppo
 
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