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From: esr@iheds.UUCP (E. Rieback)
Newsgroups: net.math,net.puzzle,net.games,net.misc
Subject: Re: Games Magazine
Message-ID: <362@iheds.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Jul-84 11:51:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: iheds.362
Posted: Tue Jul  3 11:51:15 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Jul-84 04:07:42 EDT
References: <498@whuxle.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 26

I am a devout puzzler and Games reader.  I have considered using a
computer to solve Games contests, but haven't attempted it for two
reasons:
  1.  I don't have Webster's Unabridged in machine readable form
  2.  If I can find a maximum-score answer via computer, so can
      500 other people, and the contest comes down to a random 
      drawing.
I also find it irritating when the winning contest entry, submitted
by those 500 determined people, turns out to have such esoteric words
in it that it doesn't seem fair to creative-minded people without
access to a computer.  

I enter Games contests for the chance to use my creativity, and to work
through a difficult challenge.  Therefore, the only contests I enter are
those that do not have a maximum answer, but rather those which use
imagination and creativity and a hint of madness :-).  Good examples of this
type of Games contest are Chop Logic and Pic Tac Toe.  While I have not
won a Games contest yet, I did win two contests in Games Magazine's
(now defunct) offshoot magazine, Four Star Puzzler. The satisfaction I
felt in winning them could never even be approached by winning via a
computer-generated entry.

Any more comments from you letter-crunching Games contest addicts?

Eileen Rieback
ihnp4!iheds!esr