Inside StopotS: How the Score and Validation Systems Work
Hello, everyone!
Today, we’re here to explain more details about our category game: StopotS!
If you still don’t know, StopotS is a reinvented version of the “Categories Game” or “City, Country, River.”
We challenge you to think fast and fill all the categories with words beginning with one sorted letter. However, getting a good score depends on two factors: the points system and the validation system.
POINTS SYSTEM
Let’s picture a scenario: the random letter is C, and in the category Foods, the players answer with the following words:
Anna: Cake
Lisa: Cookie
Sam: Cilantro
Johnny: Cookie
Anna and Sam got 10 points because no one else answered with the same word. But Lisa and Johnny got only 5 points because both responded with “Cookie.”
VALIDATION SYSTEM
The players need to validate each other’s answers. Once the round is over, all the answers will be displayed on the screen for people to decide whether they’re okay.
Taking the previous example: if you believe “Cilantro” is just a condiment and is invalid within the Food category, you can vote to invalidate it.
As a standard, the game shows all the words as valid (in green), and the player must click on the ones they decide to invalidate (they’ll turn red once you do it). Don’t worry about words that don’t begin with the round’s letter because the game will automatically invalidate those.
Then, you just need to click on “Rate.” Pay attention, there’s a limited time to evaluate the words!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Your vote doesn’t count if you fail to click the “Rate” button before the time runs out. And, if all the players fail to do it, no one gets points on the round.
After the rating, if there’s a majority of downvotes for a word, that player doesn’t get points for it. For example:
Sam got 0 points because the majority of players didn’t think their answer counted as Food. This way, paying attention to this step of the game is essential: When you validate a wrong answer, you might be giving points to your opponent! But don’t try to trick the game, if everyone only validates their own answer, the round is invalidated and no one gets points!
The game has no database with pre-selected words for each category, so this validation is made essentially by the ones playing it. Similar to the traditional game, where the players can debate about the chosen words and decide if they will be accepted or not.
You can play using the desktop version or download the app, which is available for Android and iOS.
We hope this post helps you understand more about the mechanics of our game! If you have any questions, contact us at team@gartic.com
