„Back to the past“ or „Back to the future“?
Unfortunately, everyone who has been playing here for 15 years or more has neither recognized the signs of the times nor the courage and willpower to make changes. But a lot has changed in the last 15 years, which should have been responded to:
1) The automobile has taken on a different status in public. AutoPuzzles-site can't correct that, but we have to bravely face the perception
2) The attempt to introduce young people to automobile history is in its infancy and is sometimes carried out only half-hearted. You can only have a very limited effect on this with AutoPuzzles, but you are simply confronted with this unpleasant situation
3) For everyone who has been playing for 15 years or more, all questions and most of the players (+/- 25) are familiar. For rookies, including myself as I have only been playing for more than two and a half years, there is a huge barrier to getting into the game. At first I didn't recognize any puzzle-object, even though I've been in the automotive scene for a very long time. The entry level is far too high. The puzzle-vehicles are completely uninteresting for rookies. If you just want to join in for the good mood or evening entertainment, you have no chance of guessing. Why?
Because no real rookie puzzles are offered. Almost every player chooses puzzles that should withstand all levels. Why? Because the few active players are gathered at the professionals and masters level. And you know in advance that mostly the puzzles will end up there.
In addition, most of the few players are extremely automobile-infected that usually they don't think, that the puzzles are as difficult, sending rookies cold shivers down the spines.
4) Why did you lose so many professionals? I'm happy to tell you: For months I only had around 20 ancient puzzles at my disposal because nothing came along except my own puzzles, which, among other things, helped only "gte4289" promoted to the Masters. So much for balance, another factor of democracy that I miss here more and more.
5) Attractiveness of the site? Every young puzzler I would encourage to play doesn't like the old-fashioned design of the site at all. A matter of taste. Of course, if you've been used to the site for 15 or more years, this won't matter. But you shouldn't be surprised that young people aren't taking part.
6) After a certain period of getting used to it, rookies find themselves faced with overpowering long-time-players who they believe, they can never defeat and give up. Why? Because the long-time-players use question parameters that match their databases, they have built up over the years, which means they can reach their goal quickly.
7) It is no longer a game played by pure car enthusiasts, but rather by people interested in cars, who have spent years browsing the Internet with a lot of effort and meticulousness, finding all sorts of pages with car information, that you cannot find in any literature. I still approach solving the puzzles using simple means. With my own knowledge and an huge archive of books and magazines. But the website hunters are far superior to me. I can't keep up with them. Maybe also a reason why so many people who are really interested only in cars and hate internet-searching stopped playing?
The site has developed into an elite car-connoisseur club and stucks there. It's only luck, if within a year a new a player steps up and stays, not just to disappear soon again.
"Search by image" changed everything. As far as I can remember, although I'm not confident with the computer-world, this didn't exist 15 years ago.
Criticism of altering images: Haven't editors created rules about pictures can be changed? As long as puzzle-creators stay within these rules, there shouldn't be any problems? If there are any, the editors should simply change the rules. Hardly it can be the puzzle-creators mistake, if he she/he alters the picture within the rules? Or is it?
9) I recently enjoyed watching solved puzzles set by BERTRAND:
The puzzles with the altered images (i.e. from color to black and white) were solved much less often than the other with unaltered images, which were very easy to find using “Search by image”. Strange, right?
Are all players really honest? I could imagine that some rookies, who have less experience of searching on the Internet, will use this unauthorized image search function at some point, to get once some feel of luck.
10) As I pointed out, I have no computer knowledge whatsoever. But: Can’t the use of “artificial intelligence” also help solving puzzles? Is it legal at AutoPuzzles to use it? Is anyone already using “Artificial Intelligence”? Are there any experiences?
