A milestone: there is now a median of 1 public review per game. Some of the entries are starting to be highlighted in red - these are games that have a below-median number of reviews. If you’re writing public reviews, it might be a good idea to focus on those.
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This is such a kind way to keep track of which stories are getting what kind of attention! Thanks so much for putting it together, it’ll really help me figure out what to play next – and then I’ll be able to put reaction-thoughts in context with other reviewers!
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The total number of review is now at a median of 2 
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That’s cool!
And in detailed statistical news, the median is now greater than the mean! That’s a change too.
In the early stages of the competition, the mean was greater than the median, and the distribution was left-skewed. In other words, there was a clump of games with zero or one reviews, then it tailed off, with a few games with two and three reviews.
Now, the mean is less than the median, and the distribution is slightly right-skewed. That is, there’s a clump of games with two reviews, and…well, honestly, it’s hard to observe a tail either way, but it tails off more towards the zero.
The mode has changed too! In the early stage of the competition, the most common number of reviews for a game (i.e. the mode) was zero. Now, the most common number of reviews for a game is two, which is a real shift in a few days.
This might sound dull - and it is! - but I think the median and mode are really important. The median is important because it’s really important to say things like “Over half of games have a review now” (actually, it’s now two reviews, but when Autumn mentioned that early milestone it felt really important). The mode is important because it’s important to say “The most common number of reviews for a game is X”.
And I think the distribution is important too. It’s all too easy to reach a position where the mean number of reviews is 1 or 2, but, in fact, over half of games don’t have a review. In other words, a few games have got lots of reviews, but lots of games are unreviewed. So, again, I love this spreadsheet because it gives insight into things like that.
awkward pause
I’ll see myself out.
Also, I bet I’ve got something wrong above, because it’s easy to make mistakes when talking about statistics, so feel free to correct me. I was just getting excited about statistics really.
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Stats are cool 
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You’re not the only person who pays attention to statistics. I think those of us who do, know we can’t poke at it all the time, but I definitely do so when I wake up, and it’s fun to see the sheet populated with reviews … but I have to admit I have a local program to process things in my own way e.g. to see if the median for total games is about to be bumped up, and if so, what entries I should attack to push it over the edge. (I also like to look at data for private reviews in the authors’ forum. We are at 1 game for each.)
The shorter games tend to get a few more reviews, which feels natural, and it’s good to know I’m not the only one who may attack a game to get back in the swing of things.
I remember Autumn did some really cool predictive stuff last year as well. It seems nontrivial to repeat again this year, but it’s just neat to be able to do that with the data we have.
Also, in the spirit of watching stats, can/should @ChristopherMerriner’s notes on Alien’s Mistaken Impression count as a review? It’d be neat to get the “public unreviewed” down from 12 to 11.
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Oh gosh, it’s such a feeble attempt at a review but I suppose better than nothing. But I’m so time-poor at the moment that I barely have time to play, let alone review, anything. One of the other excellent reviewers for this year (there seems to be more than ever) will no doubt come along and do it much better. I’m really enjoying reading all the reviews!
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Wow the review speed is picking up! We’re already at a median of 3 for all reviews!
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Yeah, I’m really impressed!
There’s still a handful of games with 0 public reviews (A Chinese Room, Inside, Lost Coastlines, Low-Key Learny Jokey Journey, Prism, The Only Possible Prom Dress, Star Tripper, Thanatophobia, and U.S. Route 160) but a lot of them are a significant time commitment so those don’t surprise me. I’m optimistic that these will all pick up their first (public) review over the next week.
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Just wrote down my impressions of two hours in Lost Coastlines. I’ll be sailing those waters many more times.
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(Also, to be That Pedantic Guy, Prism should be thrown on the list.)
I was a beta tester for Thanatophobia, so I don’t want to put my thumb on the scale too much.
However, it feels like one of those entries where the unusual interface may initially scare people away. I quickly figured it out, though, and testing it was an enjoyable experience. I got comfortable with the interface very quickly.
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Thanatophobia also has an issue of not being available to ipv4 connections. So it kind of limits who can play it…
Which is a shame, because it’s really good.
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Good catch! I’m in the middle of Prism so I’m not sure why I left it out.
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Aha, I’ve done that too, being pretty sure I reviewed an entry when, in fact, I just had a rough draft.
And not just for reviews but for implementing features in my own entry: “I still have features B, C and D to implement. I implemented A, right?”
As for Thanatophobia–yes, I had problems getting things set up for testing, too. But with Windows, IPv6 isn’t bad to configure. I don’t know about Linux/Mac (maybe it can be done on Android? This is out of my comfort zone) so this may be worth a separate how-to topic. Every year it seems there are 3 or so such games.
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I tested Thanataphobia too, and fwiw on Windows all I had to do to deal with the IPv6 thing was install Opera and click one button to turn on the VPN feature. So it’s pretty easy, and I agree that I think folks would enjoy checking it out - I feel like I’ve heard discussion of chatbot based IF and this struck me as a robust implementation.
I’ve got Jokey Journey coming up like six or seven games from now, so should have a review for it in a few days. I tested Prom Dress and it is massive puzzle fest, though fair and quite well done - I worry it might take a while to find reviewers though.
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This worked for me, but only after switching the VPN location to America. With Asia it didn’t work. (On Mac, for the record.)
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I got back from my trip late last night and am digging into Prom Dress. I’m up to 12 points out of 250 after an hour or two, with no hints. Will probably play with hints at some point to finish it, but its the kind of game I’ll definitely revisit once I forgot all the walkthru. The game it’s a sequel to was one of my first favorite games, along with Curses!
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I too have Prom Dress open on my desktop and queued up to play. It’s great to see another TADS game in the comp.
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Yeah the TADS game is strong this year!
Protip for other folks who might not play a bunch of TADS games – use the QTADS interpreter, it makes for a really slick experience! In previous years I’ve typically just defaulted to Gargoyle, and I now that I’ve used QTADS I’m regretting those decisions.
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Also, QTADS supports graphics, sound, and hyperlinks, which can enrich the experience with modern games.
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