My God, It's Full of Stars
November 19, 2004 8:08 AM   Subscribe

Count Your Stars - an addictive gamelet to subvert any attempt at Friday productivity.
posted by papercake (43 comments total)
 
Oh sure, it starts out easily enough, but just you wait. My high is 128.
posted by papercake at 8:10 AM on November 19, 2004


Lovely. 100 so far.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 8:17 AM on November 19, 2004


I've always wished that I had the ability that some autistic people have to look at a group of objects and instictively know how many objects there are in that group (think of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man counting the matches that spill on the floor). Most of us can do groups no larger than seven (plus or minus one).

The trick is being able to break groups down into their prime factorials. I once read that some mathematician trained himself to factor down numbers whenever he encountered one, and eventually he was able to do it without consciously doing the calculations. The answer just came to him instinctively. When I first came across this little game (on Monkeyfilter), I tried to use it to do the same thing: to train myself to group the stars into groups of primes so that I could just transparently know how many objects there are in large groups. I didn't have much success, but I'm still working on it!

Make sure you have sound turned on. The music is great.
posted by painquale at 8:22 AM on November 19, 2004


ugh.. 75.

not being rain man, i can't count 10 or 11 stars that fast. and they fooled me the first time with 0 stars — i was thinking, "wtf, where the stars supposed to be? in the group of numbers?"
posted by howling fantods at 8:27 AM on November 19, 2004


90 first game. Stayed alive a long time by getting answer within 1 star many times. Great idea for a simple game. Back to work though...
posted by ae4rv at 8:27 AM on November 19, 2004


252. Autism, here I come.
posted by painquale at 8:29 AM on November 19, 2004


275, and #4 high score!

The wonders I can accomplish when I'm furiously procrastinating.

On the other hand, I didn't see the gorilla.
posted by speicus at 8:32 AM on November 19, 2004


What an incredibly annoying interface.

It's an amusing little test, though.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:33 AM on November 19, 2004


Tackled this a few weeks ago. 140 first try. 275 a few tries later. It got crazy after 200. Get 5 in a row for bonus points though.
posted by jmackin at 8:34 AM on November 19, 2004


ok, second game... 242 (just enough to make top 10!)
posted by howling fantods at 8:34 AM on November 19, 2004


There's no trick to it, just sort of unfocus the eyes and recognize how much "colour" is a range of about three numbers. There is definately a difference between 6--8 and 10-12. The frustrating this is most of the time I'm only one off, so I sepnd several turns at the same point level.

197 on my second try. I really want to break 200, but I have work to to do. Damn you papercake!
posted by nelleish at 8:34 AM on November 19, 2004


painquale, why does the "chunking" have to be done in groups of prime numbers? A chunk of four is easier to recognize than a chunk of five.
posted by mfbridges at 8:45 AM on November 19, 2004


Wonderfully fun, thank you.
85 on my first try, though some of my errors came from not trustin my gut, daggit!

I can see this occupying my life as much as Tetris.
posted by Peter H at 8:49 AM on November 19, 2004


Did anyone else find that they acquired a mental snapshot of the image and then counted the number of stars in their head after it was gone? Or is it just me?

205 on the first try, BTW, but I found it too tedious to repeat.
posted by grouse at 8:54 AM on November 19, 2004


I've found, being a new citizen of MeFi, that i must work in even more swift 10 minutes intervals now so to compensate for the 50 consecutives minutes then spent on reading links, playing stupid games repeatedly, and posting clever and/or annoying remarks.
posted by mic stand at 8:54 AM on November 19, 2004


Doh! I guess shooting stars count as stars too.
posted by Sir Mildred Pierce at 9:03 AM on November 19, 2004


mic stand - Like any athletic challenge, you'll find your endurance comes only from pushing yourself further and farther. When you want to stop is only when you need to keep on.

And the runner's high, it's like nothing you've ever experienced ...Unfortunately!
posted by Peter H at 9:08 AM on November 19, 2004


Did anyone else find that they acquired a mental snapshot of the image and then counted the number of stars in their head after it was gone? Or is it just me?

That's how I did it. I also couldn't count the stars some times (since the sliding time bar distracted me), so I had to use estimates based on the "clustering" I saw. My first score was 120, but it could have been much higher as I was off by one at least 10 times (in the 9-14 range).
posted by grum@work at 9:08 AM on November 19, 2004


I just did it again and scored 59,638
posted by Peter H at 9:11 AM on November 19, 2004


Only tried once, 145.
posted by rushmc at 9:14 AM on November 19, 2004


I'm kidding.
posted by Peter H at 9:14 AM on November 19, 2004


It was actually much higher.
posted by Peter H at 9:15 AM on November 19, 2004


Grouse,

You are not the only one. However, I tend to snap that mental picture and focus on the groupings, so a grouping of three in the top right, four in the bottom left, etc.

Of course, my highest score so far is 133, so I'm not quite ready to patent my magical counting system yet.

On preview: What grum@work said.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 9:17 AM on November 19, 2004


Grouse: I used that same technique. I would count as the selection screen appeared.

I scored 255 on my first try, lots of close calls though. Many times I would second guess my gut feeling/memory, and the ALMOST dialog would appear. It usually happened with more than 10 stars though.

I wonder if they use similar methods when doing cognitive studies or tests for neurological problems? It would also be interesting to see if those people with previous experience counting many objects (such as people who do inventory in large shops) produce higher scores than those who don't work using that skill.
posted by Vicarious at 9:17 AM on November 19, 2004


Peter H-

You've inspired me and right then I got caught gaming and got fired. I'm now at home and will be spending my former MeFi time on help wanted time.

thanks.


jk
posted by mic stand at 9:17 AM on November 19, 2004


mfbridges: I have no idea, but that's the way autistic people do it, and they're definitely more proficient than I am. It probably doesn't matter when you're down low in the 4-5 range.
posted by painquale at 9:20 AM on November 19, 2004


wow 241 on my first try, almost into the top 10. here goes my lunch break....
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 9:23 AM on November 19, 2004


144 and I got tired of it.
posted by kamylyon at 9:27 AM on November 19, 2004


For those who still haven't wasted enough of the day and can still see, it gets worse. See the rest of this person's games at http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/english.html. There goes the afternoon....
posted by Framer at 9:28 AM on November 19, 2004


167, and i'm done.
posted by garethspor at 9:28 AM on November 19, 2004


So I guess that the little bits of dust on my monitor aren't stars then...

(85, but I kind of got bored)
posted by Singular at 9:29 AM on November 19, 2004


111 but if you count the levels where I was off by one, 1,249
posted by petebest at 9:46 AM on November 19, 2004


198 second time around.

I got most of my points from stars in the range of 6-8; around the 12-13, I was mostly guesstimating to keep myself in the game until the numbers got back down to something I could snapshot instantly. I'd have runs of scoring, followed by a stretch of scrambling to stay in the game.
posted by 5MeoCMP at 9:48 AM on November 19, 2004


179. But listen, no matter what this game says, meteors are NOT stars.
posted by thirteenkiller at 9:48 AM on November 19, 2004


350 on my second try (144 on my first).

I stopped counting altogether after the first game. The number just started popping into my head after seeing the stars for a split second, and it was usually within one of the actual number. Pretty amazing stuff.
posted by chundo at 11:12 AM on November 19, 2004


143. got as many correct as off by 1.
nice. Kept thinking I noticed a pattern (going down/up by 1). That couldn't have helped.
posted by Busithoth at 11:36 AM on November 19, 2004


530. Then my laptop's refresh rate couldn't keep up.

The middle of the game is the hardest. I was stuck for a long time at the same score, but once the flashes started getting insanely fast, it seems like the subconscious just takes over. So trust your instincts, I guess.
posted by chundo at 11:44 AM on November 19, 2004


249. I seem to be getting better with practice.
posted by Yellowbeard at 12:37 PM on November 19, 2004


Does anyone else get the feeling we're being used for some Psychology PhD candidate's dissertation project?
posted by Yellowbeard at 12:58 PM on November 19, 2004


198 on my first try...better wait 'til I get home for more tries.
posted by djwudi at 1:37 PM on November 19, 2004


See the rest of this person's games at http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/english.html. There goes the afternoon....

Damn you to hell. These games are fantastic.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:53 PM on November 19, 2004


Tried once. 168. Then got bored and watched the karate chimp a second time.
posted by linux at 2:57 PM on November 19, 2004


166, and I stopped counting, I basically guessed right a bunch of times and close a bunch more before tapping out.
posted by fenriq at 3:42 PM on November 19, 2004


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