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Ahhh Girl said
Someone PM’d me asking a question that I think would be a good discussion point for those who play this game.

Should clues be given out so quickly – like after two or three wrong guesses? What say ye?

Having had a few hours to think about this, and reading the responses so far, along with reading the rules in the OP, my thought is that a rule should be added which sets a point, at maybe around the five or six wrong responses given, where the first hint can be given.

There is already the rule that a solid clue be given after nine wrong responses and think it makes sense to have a point where people can start offering hints.

Yes, the forum – not just the games, has become rather sluggish in recent weeks. It happens, and has done as long as I’ve been here. Things will pick up again as they always do. I can also understand the temptation to give earlier hints when the game is going slower than we usually would to try and speed it up, but I would worry that it becomes normalised for hints to be given as early as someone wants.

While I understand Teddy and SB’s points, unlike SB I don’t feel “the rules will organically come back into play”. Firstly, there is no rule in the OP about when hints should be given. Secondly, when the speed of the game does pick up again, there’s every chance that newer members join in, and will look at the OP for the rules, and will have watched or looked at the most recent games to get an idea of how it’s played; should they see hints being given very early in the game they’ll likely think that that’s the way the game is usually played. I wouldn’t want newer members who join in having to be asked not to give hints so early because the game has sped up again, and that hints aren’t given before the fifth or sixth wrong response when the game is moving faster.

That, in itself, might put off newer members from continuing to play because that wasn’t how they saw the game being played, and that there’s nothing in the rules they read about when to start giving hints, slowing down the game again.

I’d probably set it that hints can start being given after the fifth wrong response, the midway point between the start of the game and the required solid clue after nine wrong responses.

Myself, I don’t think waiting for the fifth wrong response would slow the game that much or risk it dying.

Agree and disagree, @sigh butterfly, AG says hints are fine and they’ve generally not been used before around halfway to nine, but they’ve started to become more commonly used earlier in the game, and we’re being asked whether we think hints should be used that early in the game. There has never been a defined rule on when hints can be used as there is on the solid clue, just that they can be used.

Myself, I don’t mind a comment that so-and-so is close or on the right lines, but feel more specific hints should be left out of the early attempts.

And this is one game that has changed massively since AG introduced it (it originally kept on going until someone got the answer), and the rules have also changed and/or been better defined as time has gone by.

I agree with Teddy that a more specific hint can be offered if the game stalls though.