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

Frog or Toad?

downpour.games

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 55 posts

Re: Frog or Toad?

#31

Post by District5524 »

jna_sh wrote: post #29
jna_sh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks so much for the kind words and thoughtful comment. Regarding the objective, it's targeting the most common understanding of "frog" and "toad", which for most people will be folk taxonomy, and they probably aren't aware that there's not a scientific taxonomic distinction. So from your list, I think most people will approach it as option "a". However you might be happy to know that when selecting species, there'…

Oh and regarding the score: I chose not to track or display a score because it didn't feel in the spirit of the game, and besides that, there's no fair way to score it. It can't be based on their common name, as shown in the game itself, for example. You could argue that the only way to win is to always press frog, since all toads are frogs by scientific taxonomy, but I don't want to say folk taxonomy is invalid. But…

I see, thanks for the answer!

Re: Frog or Toad?

#33

Post by joshuahedlund »

jna_sh wrote: post #27
District5524 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the game! It is a very entertaining and is highly educational, probably thanks to the pictures ... And a good way to show us fascinating species (like the purple frog) that we would otherwise not bother to look up. Except for the most abundant species available in Europe, it seems quite unlikely that people would be willing to give these species "common names" in English. This does not decrease the value o…

Thanks so much for the kind words and thoughtful comment. Regarding the objective, it's targeting the most common understanding of "frog" and "toad", which for most people will be folk taxonomy, and they probably aren't aware that there's not a scientific taxonomic distinction. So from your list, I think most people will approach it as option "a". However you might be happy to know that when selecting species, there'…

Very fascinating. This is common in bird taxonomy as well, for example, with doves/pigeons, or egrets/herons

Re: Frog or Toad?

#34

Post by grishka »

My own assumption is that frogs are thinner, with finer lines in the shapes of their bodies, while toads are large, wide, and beefy with short legs. So that's how I made my choices. Wrong choices.

Re: Frog or Toad?

#35

Post by xanderlewis »

I played this for a couple of minutes, foolishly thinking I’d be quite good, before exclaiming ‘oh, what the hell is the difference!?’ and quitting it in frustration.

Re: Frog or Toad?

#36

Post by theogravity »

jna_sh wrote: post #12

Hi there! I'm the creator of this game, happy to answer any questions people might have. This is a total surprise, thanks so much for playing!

I wish there was a blurb on what makes a frog vs toad so we can be educated on how to distinguish vs just blind guessing.

Or if there isn't any, say so and maybe some history on why.

Re: Frog or Toad?

#37

Post by jna_sh »

grishka wrote: post #34

My own assumption is that frogs are thinner, with finer lines in the shapes of their bodies, while toads are large, wide, and beefy with short legs. So that's how I made my choices. Wrong choices.

The tree toad gets everyone

Re: Frog or Toad?

#38

Post by jna_sh »

theogravity wrote: post #36
jna_sh wrote: post #12

Hi there! I'm the creator of this game, happy to answer any questions people might have. This is a total surprise, thanks so much for playing!

I wish there was a blurb on what makes a frog vs toad so we can be educated on how to distinguish vs just blind guessing. Or if there isn't any, say so and maybe some history on why.

There's an explanation at the end of the game!

Re: Frog or Toad?

#40

Post by qq66 »

I thought I was starting to figure it out then I selected "toad" and was told it was a "toad-skinned frog"

FML

Post reply on HN