I recently started playing Shiritori and am having a ton of fun with it. I find myself debating whether it's fair game to use the dictionary when thinking of words to play.
It's hard to justify calling it "cheating", given that nothing is at stake except maybe leaderboard bragging rights. But still, my instinct is to feel it's somehow wrong or against the spirit of the game.
The other consideration is educational value. Most of us are here to learn - is it better for one's Japanese proficiency to rely on recall, or more valuable to learn new words found in the dictionary? I'm starting to lean toward the latter (especially as I quickly exhaust my pool of well-known words), but I'm really not sure. Maybe it depends on your goals.
So far, my policy has been to try my best pulling things from my head first. If I'm stumped, I might open the dictionary, but avoid playing words I didn't already know.
Just curious on others' opinions here. Is there any kind of consensus on the "correct" way to play? Or do you have your own personal Shiritori code of ethics? Either way, this is a safe space. I promise not to judge or report you to the Shiritori police
I think words from the dictionary are perfectly ok. I mostly add them to my personal schedule of interesting words. Renshuu is all about learning, after all.
I don't think there's a "correct" way of playing. I can kinda tell when beginners use the dictionary, but I don't really mind. As long as they don't spam る words :D
In fact I want the games to keep moving. The bottleneck for the leaderboard isn't really "knowing enough words". I know more than enough words to play for however long I feel like. I just need to a) have enough games that move fast enough, and b) not get bored. 😁
I think it's fine to use the dictionary as long as you feel like you're learning something :)
PS: I stuck around 1-2 place for a few days (maybe a week at most) and have no idea how people play that much for months without getting bored
I can kinda tell when beginners use the dictionary, but I don't really mind. As long as they don't spam る words :D
Oof yeah I've been struggling with this one too. As a beginner, the る verbs are probably over-represented in my vocab. But I've learned to avoid them, I wouldn't wish more of those on anyone.
In my experience, after you play for a certain amount time, eventually you unconsciously make a list of random not-that-useful easy words in your mind that start with each letter, so only using words you remember really doesn't teach you anything, because you can use the same 200 or so words for years and never run out unless you play for multiple hours at once. Past beginner level the only way to really learn with shiritori is to use the dictionary imo, which most people do anyway afaik
I think it does depend on your own goals. For me it's fun and you can feel proud when you know a word I don't think I'd feel that way if I looked it up on the dictionary but if others do it it wouldn't really change my experience I guess.
