[quote name=\'Mr. Armadillo\' post=\'245714\' date=\'Aug 11 2010, 09:21 AM\'][quote name=\'wheelloon\' post=\'245690\' date=\'Aug 10 2010, 05:21 PM\']OXIDIZED, RAVE REVIEWS, or HO CHI MINH (which are legit puzzles of course, and ones the show actually used, but in practice, took too damn long to get through with the show's caliber of contestants).[/quote]
It doesn't really matter
what caliber of contestants you've got if you're trying to get them to guess OXIDIZED...there's no way you're going to get more than three letters revealed before the only consonants left are J, Q, Z, and X. I have to dispute the claim that that puzzle is 'legitimate', whatever that means.
[/quote]
Legitimate only in the regard that it COULD be used as a puzzle (not some smattering of random words like CUP MASK OF PANTS SCISSORS and calling it a "phrase," THAT is illegitimate), but no, I'd never use OXIDIZED as a puzzle if I was producer of the show. Then again... I wouldn't have had Megaword at all get close to making the cut (yes, that's what it fell under).
FTR, here is the puzzle in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHzQLXHFCoQAll the back and forth of the past couple of pages seem to boil down to a main point: in the genre of "game show", where do we strike the balance between "game" and "show"?
See, I don't think that anybody here will argue that the show, circa like 1985 to 1995 was definitely "show," but I think the differences come in whether or not, since then, the game has had too many wrenches thrown in to keep the game show-y and in turn, has hurt the game mechanic itself somehow. Some of the wrenches we, as individuals, might agree with or don't mind having there, some might think the opposite, and our reasons for such differ widely and because of what we expect to see from the show, possibly because of what we, at one time, used to associate with the show.
In my personal case, the "glamor factor" has been lost on Wheel with me, something I always used to hark on and on and on as a youngster about the show, as well as the ability to recognize and root for a good player who knows how the hell to play and what the concept of "letter blends" are, instead of spending half the show banging my head at the idiocy now...