WoW Crossword: January 20th, 2009
by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 20th 2009 at 8:30AM
It's a new week, and that means a new crossword. If you don't remember from last Tuesday, this little project is an experiment of ours. Some time ago, Amanda Dean started this Crossword activity which was posted on Sunday mornings. It's been awhile since we've done them, so we're going to give them a whirl on Tuesdays instead, with Tuesday being the WoW player's lazy Sunday. Considering today is patch day, you probably have plenty of time to do this thing.
Last week I asked for feedback on the crossword, and you all supplied a lot of helpful advice that we attempted to put into play. We'll see how it turned out. The details on that are below the cut, along with the clues for this week's puzzle.
Last week I asked for feedback on the crossword, and you all supplied a lot of helpful advice that we attempted to put into play. We'll see how it turned out. The details on that are below the cut, along with the clues for this week's puzzle.
- Last week's puzzle wasn't terribly interconnected. It was a crossword that was kind of missing the cross part. That's boring! I tried to be a little better this week, but WoW words make it mighty difficult. Still, I tried.
- The printer friendly version should be more printer friendly this time around. Less ink wasted, and it's the standard paper size. The only issue is I sort of forgot about margins, so it might not actually print as well as it should. You folk should give it a whirl, and let me know how it turned out. I actually don't even own a printer right now.
- An interactive (flash/java) crossword is probably not something we'll do, but maybe one magical day we will. For now, this is what you've got. Sorry! I'll keep looking for a way to make it more easy to use, though.
- Last week there were some inconsistencies with how I displayed clues with a multi-word answer, that's fixed this week. If you see a clue with (6) listed after it, that means the answer has 6 letters. If you see something like (2-1-3), that means there are 3 words, and the numbers indicate show many letters are in each word.
And here are the answers from last week's crossword:
Have fun, and good luck! By the way, I'd love to see you guys post your answers once you've finished it, at least if you're one of the first people to finish. I'm curious how quickly this gets completed! Also, please keep the feedback coming, I'd love to keep improving this thing for all of you.
Filed under: Fan stuff, Lore, WoW Crossword
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jimsonweed Jan 20th 2009 8:45AM
While better than previous efforts, this is still not a 'true' crossword, lacking rotational symmetry and having too much black space for instance.
There is software to help with the creation of such things, possibly web-based as well (I haven't searched).
Failing that, I'll offer a little advice of my own, as someone who used-to hand prepare crosswords.
1) Keep it smaller
2) Choose 2 or 4 larger words, preferably the same length
3) Use these words as the 'spine' of the crossword
4) Write down sets of smaller words, like a list of 3 letter, 4 letter, 5 letter etc
5) Add the smaller words to the crossword in a symmetrical fashion as best you can, starting with the longer ones, and trying to create joins where possible (eg. hero, hemo, mage, omen can be placed to create a nonuniform square)
Lastly be sure you really love doing this. Creating (good) crosswords is difficult and time-consuming, and my experience is those that are truly good at doing it share not only a love for the medium but an OCD approach to the work as well!
Alex Ziebart Jan 20th 2009 8:49AM
Unfortunately, these aren't going to be symmetrical crosswords. No way, no how. There's not enough time in the day, and not enough money in the world. Plus, I'm pretty sure Azeroth is not a big enough place to sustain a weekly symmetrical crossword.
Asymmetrical or nothin'.
Teni Jan 20th 2009 7:18PM
Jimsonweed, as a crossword afficionado, your comments are right on the money!
I do appreciate the effort... but guys, I would like to encourage that you watch the documentary "Wordplay" with crossword guru Will Shortz. It explains how many blocks to start with, which blocks to use, etc. in creating what would be considered a "true" NYT-style crossword. And we all know those are really the only ones that really count.
One of the things that I think would make these crosswords much better is to not be afraid to also sprinkle in regular nonWoW-specific words. It will make fitting the blocks much easier. But make sure, like the NYT versions, to come up with a theme. We LIVE to figure out the entire puzzle based on the themes!
TheSloth Jan 20th 2009 8:48AM
If this could be done on some type of online app that would be really cool. Turned off at the need of printing really.
William Sagemire Jan 20th 2009 9:15AM
Seconded.
Even the ones I've tried to print won't fit properly on a letter-sized sheet of paper and end up with tiny, unreadable text.
Also, could you do away with the WoW Insider/blog/podcast/comic-related entries? I don't pay attention to things like "who writes the Encrypted Text articles" as I am not a rogue, or "who co-hosts the podcasts". I just don't give a crap about these and I don't want to take the extra time to look them up. I don't mind looking up normal WoW ones because I might learn something interesting about the lore. But I don't play WoW for the blogs or the podcasts.
Sarah Jan 21st 2009 8:32AM
Hey good job.
Enough with the negativity man. They're just trying to give us something to do.
Richard Jan 20th 2009 9:30AM
Since there isn't a "last page" button that I can find, the current last page (for 1 down) is
http://www.wowinsider.com/page/1311/
autumnbear Jan 20th 2009 9:53AM
The patch came through, but the realms are still down for maintainance.
I wonder if there's any Polearms for Resto Druids?
Oh yeah. Crosswords are fun and all, but let's try something challenging. How about a WoW Sudoku?
Richard Jan 20th 2009 10:23AM
heh. WoW Sudoku.
"First Tier of BC" 4
"Patch Ulduar is expected in" 31
"Number of WoW accounts in May, 2007" 9734575
I can see it.
elstor Jan 20th 2009 10:32AM
The answer to 11 across is Loser
Tildy Jan 20th 2009 11:22AM
It looks as though the printer version was resized by the uploading program (or otherwise downsized). Maybe you could host them on google web albums or something like that instead so we can download a properly sized and clear version of the page. I can read and use the printer version you have here, but it is pixelated and -- call me picky -- somewhat annoying to work with.
Fun stuff though.
Laynne Jan 20th 2009 3:35PM
The crossword actually printed much better. It's a much more reasonable size on the page. Now if I could figure out how to print it without everything else on the page printing too I'd be set...