Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

571–580 of 601 posts

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#571

Post by dave333 »

dave333 wrote: post #499
thatguymike wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that newton's-second-law your own conker just as hard though? As the aggressor you get to choose the points of contact, which must be where the accuracy comes in. If you can strike your opponent downwards you're more likely to knock them off the string and lead to Stamps.

Conkers are usually oblate spheroids and the dangling one has its largest radius spot on top usually - thinking back I never thought to string one differently not sure if that was allowed. So the person taking the hit can aim to hit with the shortest radius section of their conker on the flat spot of the other. There's also the skill of an accurate hit - someone who misses a lot or hits away from center glancing blow…

Also the nut being hit is restrained by the string whereas the hitting nut can go in any direction or simply rebound. Cracks may start at the hole in which case being hit is worse than hitting on average.

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#572

Post by smolder »

shermantanktop wrote: post #567
smolder wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a special kind of person that gets a kick from "winning" at something that's not a challenge. You might as well write "winner" on a t-shirt in marker and wear it.

Solitaire is a game, and many people see games in terms of gaining or losing either social status or self-image. But for single-player games: - maybe "winning" is a special case of "completing" - "playing a game" in a competitive sense is totally different than "playing" in an undirected sense; e.g. playing with Legos or playing with a cat. Or playing with matches for that matter. - for me, i'd much rather write "win…

> But for single-player games

We were talking about people cheating at multiplayer co-op in this thread. I don't think people use rule-breaking cheats in multiplayer games (competitive or otherwise) purely for the story in the game, or they could go watch a TV show/movie or read a book instead and get a better story. (Or watch someone else play it!)

> for me, i'd much rather write "winner" on a t-shirt and wear it than prance around in a t-shirt that I legit competed for and won, and I need the world to know that about me. What kind of fragile ego does that? I'm more likely to see that as a "special kind of person."

These aren't the only two options. You can also just challenge yourself for the satisfaction of overcoming challenges and not wear a t-shirt. I think when people cheat at something where the outcome is broadcast there is almost always an element of status seeking.

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#573

Post by smolder »

bee_rider wrote: post #528
smolder wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a special kind of person that gets a kick from "winning" at something that's not a challenge. You might as well write "winner" on a t-shirt in marker and wear it.

I don’t really know that it is cheating to get a “win” label. Maybe it is just a distraction or fun flashing lights. Do you remember being a child and just playing with action figures? It was harmless and fun. I wonder where we lose that ability to just chill and have fun without a challenge. Actually, a lot of people seem to just spend a lot of time watching TV, which is also fun without challenge.

The comparison to TV watching or playing pretend is apt, though I don't see how cheating at multiplayer games is an improvement over those. If you cheat in something like helldivers 2 (what my comment is meant to address) that can also spoil other peoples' experience who actually want a challenge. Besides, nowadays you have the option of just watching someone else play a game to completion on twitch or youtube, which is quite popular.

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#574

Post by Nursie »

ascorbic wrote: post #73
Nursie wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC at some point schools decided to put a stop to it (it was a popular playground game in Autumn) because of the possibility of injury. Or that might have just been a tabloid outrage-bait headline.

It's such a persistent myth that a health and safety organisation decided to sponsor the championships to try and debunk the idea. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7637605.stm

Interesting!

I have a weird memory of seeing kids in safety glasses on the tv sometime around the turn of the century…

Looks like, as with all good myths, there’s a kernel of something resembling a twisted half-truth that got blown up out of hand - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/dec/09/conker...

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#575

Post by Nursie »

jamiek88 wrote: post #160
Ntrails wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also recall this, but suspect sometimes numbers may have been inflated...

I at nearly 50 years old still own my undefeated 48’er. It’s on a yellow bootlace in a box in the loft at my dad’s house.

I bet that thing’s hard as concrete now :)

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#576

Post by devnullbrain »

animal531 wrote: post #172
zabzonk wrote: post #68

When I was a kid (many years ago) me and a friend once went "conkering" down quite a posh road with several horse chestnut trees on it. We had collected a few good ones when a guy came out of his house and called us over. We thought "Oh dear, get off my lawn time", but no! He had big bin full of conkers that he had picked up from his garden, and invited us to choose from them.

He probably played it himself back in the day. Its interesting how games and other things like songs, stories etc. persist and/or disappear over time.

This one in particular has mostly died - schools don't like it & children otherwise don't play outside as much.

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#578

Post by dullcrisp »

nanna wrote: post #513
BlueTemplar wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like what ??

Reminding all of us how old we are

It’s not even true, no one had Tamagotchis two generations ago unless your generations are 15 years or so… Or am I counting generations completely wrong? Are kids these days two generations removed from millennials?

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#579

Post by animal531 »

grues-dinner wrote: post #544
zabzonk wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things from my youth, as well as conkers: - marbles (can you get them anymore?) - kick the can (where would kids get cans today?) - British bulldog/chain tig (far too dangerous) I can't remember the rules of these, but they were very popular in the early 1960s, when I played them.

> marbles (can you get them anymore?) Almost literally never been cheaper. Under £3 for 50 on AliExpress, free shipping if you buy 150. I don't know if a child gets or loses street cred for having more cheap marbles then you can physically carry in 2024, but they could acquire that many quite easily. > where would kids get cans today? Pretty sure cans still exist! They might be a little more likely to contain, say, o…

Here in South Africa marbles are still very much available at any toy store. The colours and different sets you can get now are so much better and varied than back in my day in the mid '80s.

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#580

Post by animal531 »

buildsjets wrote: post #535
aeneasmackenzie wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elaborate marble runs are very popular, although many people use steel balls instead.

Marbles is played sitting in the dirt around a circle. There are no runs involved, and nothing is elaborate. The objective is to take your opponent's mables, permanently, by knocking them out of the circle. Using steel balls to play would be completely pointless and it would ruin the entire game. I want to take your cool looking hazel cat's eye, not a random steel ball that looks just like all the other steel balls.

The actual games played with marbles is pretty varied. The local one that we had would have you put a marble a bit in front of your ankles, with your heels making a 90 degree angle. Then the other player would shoot at it from some distance away.

That variant was also a gambling type where you could win or lose. The shooting marble was often a metal ball, but the ones you wagered were the nice ones that everyone was after.

Post reply on HN