05.05.2010, 17:37
I also noticed this trend and have given it some thought. To me, it seems that the puzzles in the Portal have been carried away by some kind of contest between the different authors. Each puzzle has to be bigger, have more kinds of clues etc. For instance, (sorry Luigi, nothing personal), take the Big Produktsudoku for the 500th puzzle: 8 different colored dots, a sum that has to be constant, flat conditions inside the sudoku and outside, sums on the outside. It almost seems to me the Cold War has shifted to puzzles. Add the Metaraetsel (that I do not really like) and there you have it.
For me, big is not beautiful (per se), nor is it more difficult (it is just more work). And if I wanted to crawl into the head of the puzzle maker to grasp his meaning with a puzzle, I would do a cryptogram (or crossword as it is sometimes called).
Fortunately, this trend seems to have been overturned a bit. Lately, some smaller puzzles with fewer clues have been put on the Portal (for a part thanks to Luigi).
An idea that I have:
- add a button "This puzzle is not ok" so that people can get rid of their frustration. If this button is pressed too often (say more than 30 times, just an example), the author could be asked to give more clarification or withdraw the puzzle. Of course, this idea suffers from the fact that among the solvers there are undoubtedly also people who have fun in harassing puzzle authors.
For me, big is not beautiful (per se), nor is it more difficult (it is just more work). And if I wanted to crawl into the head of the puzzle maker to grasp his meaning with a puzzle, I would do a cryptogram (or crossword as it is sometimes called).
Fortunately, this trend seems to have been overturned a bit. Lately, some smaller puzzles with fewer clues have been put on the Portal (for a part thanks to Luigi).
An idea that I have:
- add a button "This puzzle is not ok" so that people can get rid of their frustration. If this button is pressed too often (say more than 30 times, just an example), the author could be asked to give more clarification or withdraw the puzzle. Of course, this idea suffers from the fact that among the solvers there are undoubtedly also people who have fun in harassing puzzle authors.