FreeRice
FreeRice, an online vocabulary quiz with auto-adjusting difficulty levels, sounds more like a study tool than a game, but after just a few questions, the gamer mentality sets in. It plays on the "leveling up" mindset (I am so close to level 50 that I can taste the obscure verbiage) as well as the drive to complete a quest. In this case, the quest is ending world hunger, because for every correct answer, the site's sponsors donate twenty grains of rice to the U. N. World Food Program.
Twenty grains of rice won't keep anyone from starvation, but gamers are used to symbolic rewards. We spend hours searching for valueless collectibles, which unlock Achievements, which boost our Gamerscores. Why? Just for fun. Playing the FreeRice quiz often will likely improve your vocabulary, which is a similarly intangible but compelling reward. It's fun to amass a collection of clever words to play with, in the hopes of someday catching 'em all, and to show off the ones that never quite make it into conversation.
Intangible rewards are interchangeable, too. In one play session, the player progresses from charitable motivations to competitive ones, from a drive for self-improvement to playing the collecting game. The best part is that, given enough time and players, these intangibles become real. Over six billion grains of rice have been donated so far, which really will make a difference to hungry people around the world.
In this age of in-game advertisements and micropayments, why aren't mainstream games taking advantage of this idea? Any game to donate food for points would earn heaps of praise and publicity. Would gamers try harder and play more if their Gamerscore could be converted into grains of rice? This could create a whole new claim to bragging rights. It's not just how good you are, it's what good you've done.
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And I have YOU to blame for my lack of productivity! I am also at level 49. It helps a great deal to have a classical education, and to know foriegn words. I also found the word "grok" in there.
Maybe this issue is best debated amongst the people who need to get off my lawn. - JoeBedurndurn
They actually upped the number of grains of rice you "get" for a right answer to 20. Plus they've got it set up now so that, if you want, it'll remember your vocabulary level and the total amount donated for that computer (click the "Options" tab at the top of the site to go to the page to turn it on). They've also added a bunch of words since they started the site, so it's a lot more varied (and harder) than it used to be.
merphle wrote:
Steam ID
XBox Live
Dammit... they nerfed my Druid too.
"And now I'm off home to my castle for tea, biscuits and wenches. Tally ho!" - Jonman
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
Please for the love of God tell me the definition of grok was "to drink"
Sometimes the random wrong answers are really odd. This just happened to me after clicking around for 10 minutes.
(at level 42)Word: clerisy
Choices:
red hog
eye doctor
boo
intelligentsia (<--correct)
No, it's a Heinlein reference from Stra...ooooh. I see what you did there. Very good.
*golf clap*
Even at 20, the contribution are a tiny percentage of what you can donate if you click on links at The Hunger Site. But the game format is probably pulling in people who don't go to The Hunger Site, so it's still a net win.
“While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.” - Justice John Paul Stevens
Thank you for sharing this. What a great concept, a game that tests/ extends your vocabulary and gives food to others via the advertising generated... how awesome.
Besides, where else might I learn that:
omphaloskepsis = navel contemplation.
Did I need a spoiler notation for that?!?!
OK you guys I found this website and I don't normally send these messages but this one is REALLY REAL!!!!!!!1 It's called FreeRice.com and you go there and take some word quiz and for every write anwser they give ten grains of rice to poor children in Africa! Come on you guys this is real and if you send this mesage to ten people you know, Bill Gates will MATCH the ten grains EVERY TIME!!! Like he can't afford it right? And if we send 1 MILLION grains then Santa Clause and His Beloved Son the Nigerian Warlord will fly around the world really fast until it rotates in the opposite direction and reverse time and undo the Katrina disaster and the Indonesian floods! Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays!!!!!~~!111
Ken Levine wrote:
I'm stuck at 49 also. If you're listening Luna, I got platyhelminth.
Chiggie Von Richthofen wrote:
Awesome.
Last.fm
40,39,39,39,40,39.
I seem to be a bit below the bar set by goodjers, but I am having fun. I'll be happy to break 40.
I spiked my blood pressure when I half thunk 'pate' and answered wrong.
Fun stuff. Thanks.
What the hell are you talking about? They totally DO NOT have Tie Fighter. -Veloxi
I've made it to 52! Then promptly dropped back in the mid 40s. I really think the breaking point here is 49, which I where I also stay most of the time while playing. Started seeing the same words over again though.
Well, Cooking Mama didn't help me become a better cook, and Trauma Center certainly didn't help me become a better surgeon. I have the proof of both sitting in my freezer. -- imbiginjapan
Does anyone else feel like they're cheating? I don't know half of these words, but, I am very good at separating root words and they're implied meanings.
I think I answered 15 of these with a "yeah, I bet that's what that means" thought in my head.
Letters to the Internet
Thanks for sharing! I simply love quiz games like these, and this one even contributes to the greater social good.
Swing harder! Swing harder!
-- Lilarcor, Baldur's Gate 2
How is that cheating? That's exactly how I answer a lot of these.
Well, Cooking Mama didn't help me become a better cook, and Trauma Center certainly didn't help me become a better surgeon. I have the proof of both sitting in my freezer. -- imbiginjapan
It doesn't feel like a vocabulary test, it feels like a deduction test.
Letters to the Internet
The article was written when it was just ten grains, and easier. I start flailing about a bit at level 48 now, but I've been able to get to 49 a couple of times. Then I hit a massive losing streak and it all ends in tears. Tears and rice.
Steam ID: http://steamcommunity.com/id/nyles
Favorite puzzle: Grim Fandango -- the metal detector
That's seems like splitting hairs though. Even if I don't know what Heliotrope might mean, I do know that 'helio' means sun, so I can adequately guess what it might mean.
Well, Cooking Mama didn't help me become a better cook, and Trauma Center certainly didn't help me become a better surgeon. I have the proof of both sitting in my freezer. -- imbiginjapan
Maybe cheating was the wrong word. I couldn't think of the right one because, as previously stated, awful vocabulary.
Letters to the Internet
I have to admit I find it funny that there can be any criticism of the mechanics of a free game that encourages learning and gives food to the hungry via the advertising dollars it might otherwise have profited from.
Gamers can be a very demanding bunch!
So what Irongut is saying is, you get what you pay for.
Too true, Iron.
Letters to the Internet
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.
Make a game that gives a man a fish and he eats for a couple days.
Cute idea, but for a word game they sure miss the meaning of the term "problem solving".
"Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life." ― Terry Pratchett
raptr : steam
Yeah, 49 is a bear. I started at 41 and screamed up there, then blammo! Back to 45. I'm gonna get 50, though.
I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one by lethal injection. - Paleocon
We said they were people, we didn't say they were black. - Yonder
Let me know how your trip to Africa goes. For the rest of us simple folk, doing something seems better than talking about doing something better.
I heard that they were keeping Elysium in the ICU not because he needed intensive care, but because they needed to be careful of his intensity. - Wordsmythe
It may have been written then, but the post date says 12/04/07, and the change to 20 and increased amount of words happened earlier in that.
And I call shennanigans on BlackSheep.
merphle wrote:
Steam ID
XBox Live
I too am stuck a bit behind the goodjer curve at 38-39. I can't quite break 40 yet. I can get 3 in a row at 39. I guess you need 5 right at that point to progress?
I served up dessert pies for ~500 people at a local senior center the day before thanksgiving... Neener ;P
edit: You spoiled all my fun Stengah.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
How is serving pies made of sand to the elderly an act of charity?
The FAQ said it takes 3 correct to advance, but I've found that it's sometimes 4, one to stop the downhill slide, and three to get to the next level. It could be that I'm not paying that much attention though. I sit between 39-44 most of the time. Got up to 47 before the changes, but I can barely make it to 46 now, and that's mostly due to getting some words I've already failed on, so I know the correct answer.
Edit - cleaned up wording of last sentence.
merphle wrote:
Steam ID
XBox Live
I love Freerice. It's a great site that I go on for a break at school while writing papers. It's a lot of fun. My highest level is 45. I even got a few friends in on this site, so when we're at school sitting near a computer we group together and see how high we can get.
NaNoWriMo | Writing Blog | Ninja Duck Writer
The use of deduction as opposed to actually knowledge is endemic to all multiple choice tests, not just freerice. We could get into a long, boring debate about the proper method to test an individual's knowledge, but that would be missing the point of the site. freerice has two stated goals: 1. Send rice to hungry people. 2. Help users learn more vocabulary words. Multiple choice format helps both of these. With multiple choice (as opposed to, say, fill in the blank), the user can quickly go through page after page, generating more advertising impressions, and therefore more rice. It is also a lot easier to interact with and dive into, which encourages repeat and new users, generating more page views, ads, and therefore more rice.
As far as actually fostering learning, that's harder to argue, but lets try. Here's my hypothesis: As opposed to testing knowledge, freerice wants users to learn new words. If you "sorta" know the definition of a word, multiple choice can help you "stretch" by eliminating the choices you know the word isn't. That leaves you with the actual definition. Tadaa! Instead of sort of knowing the meaning, you've now been exposed to the actually meaning, through your deduction. Instead of fill-in-the-blank, where either do or do not know the answer, with multiple choice you've been able to engage with the material and think about it, which will foster long term memory.
Granted, the downside to being able to go through words pretty quickly is that you'll get exposed to a lot of new words all at once, increasing the likelihood of misencoding information or not encoding it at all. I still think that multiple choice is the best format for their stated goals.