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Poll: Do you play language games? (crosswords, puzzles, etc...)
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Feb 1

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you play language games? (crosswords, puzzles, etc...)".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 01:56
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Yes Feb 1

I have been doing crosswords almost every day for several years and I’ve gotten pretty good at it. Very occasionally I also play Sudoku, but I’m not as good as my daughter Marta is. I also like doing puzzles, the problem is how much space they occupy if we can’t solve it in a day…

Philip Lees
Maria Laura Curzi
The Shredder
 
WolfgangS
WolfgangS
France
Local time: 02:56
English to German
+ ...
Yes Feb 1

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:

I have been doing crosswords almost every day for several years and I’ve gotten pretty good at it. Very occasionally I also play Sudoku, but I’m not as good as my daughter Marta is. I also like doing puzzles, the problem is how much space they occupy if we can’t solve it in a day…


Crosswords in German, French and Italian, Scrabble in French (I have no German partner for that).

[Edited at 2026-02-02 06:58 GMT]

Philip Lees
 
Jennifer Levey
Jennifer Levey  Identity Verified
Chile
Local time: 20:56
Spanish to English
+ ...
I used to 'play' Kudoz Feb 1

Then this Automated Idiot was let out of its cage and suddenly Kudoz was no longer fun, nor rewarding as a pass-time.
It still isn't - even after the bot was was given the proverbial boot.
JL

expressisverbis
Daryo
Maria Laura Curzi
 
Juan Jacob
Juan Jacob  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 18:56
French to Spanish
+ ...
Crosswords and Scrabble... Feb 1

...in French (Difficult) and Spanish (Easier).
 
Philip Lees
Philip Lees  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 03:56
Greek to English
Crosswords Feb 2

I do Greek crosswords every morning with my breakfast cup of tea. It gives me motivation to open the dictionary now and again.
 
expressisverbis
expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 01:56
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I prefer... Feb 2

Crosswords and puzzles are fun, but I prefer transcreation: the ultimate word game that actually pays the bills and keeps my brain cells alive!
It's (my) best language game ever!

Daryo
Maria Laura Curzi
Aitor Salaberria
The Shredder
 
Daryo
Daryo
Local time: 01:56
Serbian to English
+ ...
You could see it that way ... Feb 2

Jennifer Levey wrote:

Then this Automated Idiot was let out of its cage and suddenly Kudoz was no longer fun, nor rewarding as a pass-time.
It still isn't - even after the bot was was given the proverbial boot.
JL


I was about to say the same. If you wanted to play 'word games' that are actually beneficial for improving your skills as translator, Kudoz was for sure one of the best.

WAS - until the AI hype started flooding it ...

This 'fellow translator SN 670924' & 'helpful friend' of ours might have been kicked out of the playing field, but at times I get the impression this thing still tries to sneak back in disguise (as it started, BTW). So the fun is gone.

Not that much of that game is happening now anyway. As a quick proxy indicator I went backward through the list of Kudoz questions in my language pairs and noted the date of the question at the bottom of the list. Giving this series of dates, as of of today:

------------------------DAYS between
---End Date - 100 questions - 200 questions
2026-02-02 ---------- 77 ---------- 134
2025-11-17 ---------- 57
2025-09-21 ---------- 40 ----------- 90
2025-08-12 ---------- 50
2025-06-23 ---------- 49 ----------- 84
2025-05-05 ---------- 35
2025-03-31 ---------- 34 ----------- 56
2025-02-25 ---------- 22
2025-02-03 ---------- 27 ----------- 67
2025-01-07 ---------- 40
2024-11-28 ---------- 27 ----------- 48
2024-11-01 ---------- 21
2024-10-11 ---------- 25 ----------- 51
2024-09-16 ---------- 26
2024-08-21 ---------- 19 ----------- 37
2024-08-02 ---------- 18
2024-07-15 ---------- 20 ----------- 45
2024-06-25 ---------- 25
2024-05-31 ---------- 23 ----------- 49
2024-05-08 ---------- 26
2024-04-12 ---------- 16
2024-03-27 = Start Date

The last 100 Kudoz questions were spread over 77 days, compared to 16 days in 2024 (end March – mid April)

The last 200 Kudoz questions were spread over 134 days, compared to 49 days in 2024 (mid April - end May)

And I can’t see that trend reversing …

Maria Laura Curzi
Jennifer Levey
expressisverbis
 
Jennifer Levey
Jennifer Levey  Identity Verified
Chile
Local time: 20:56
Spanish to English
+ ...
Another indicator of the way Kudoz is heading ... Feb 2

In my language pairs there were precisely 30 Kudoz questions during the whole of 2025 that I decided were worth my time giving an answer.
They netted me a total of 35 K-points.

On a single day, 11th February 2006 - which was only my third whole day 'playing' Kudoz - I answered 35 questions and netted 51 K-points.

Rather makes a mockery of the use of Kudoz points to position members/users in the directory, doesn't it!
JL

expressisverbis
Maria Laura Curzi
The Shredder
Daryo
 


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Poll: Do you play language games? (crosswords, puzzles, etc...)






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