You were looking for a timesink, right?
Nov. 12th, 2007 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaSome time ago, my friends page passed around an online U.S. geography game in which you had to drag states onto a blank map. Your score depended on how many you put in the right place and your average number of miles off the correct location.
I found a new page of games, in which that particular game is Difficulty Level 3. Out of 9 levels.
On Level 6, you drag the states into place and then, if you are correct, they disappear. So you can never derive clues from relative placement, no matter how far into the game you go.
On Level 9, the states need to be rotated to the correct orientation and enlarged or shrunk to the right size before you can slot them into place. Also, they don't bother giving you any of the names except (magnaminously enough) Wyoming and Colorado, which would otherwise be impossible to distinguish. And the states disappear once you've placed them correctly, taking away all relative placement clues.
I made it up to Level 9 and did pretty well (3 errors each of two times, in just over 5 minutes on the second run through), but I think I only did that well because I'd spent a bunch of time on Levels 3-8 beforehand. I had the map very firmly fixed in my head by the time I tackled the hardest version.
It helps that the major U.S. rivers are included on the background. At first I wasn't really attending to them - then I realized that, of course, rivers commonly serve as state borderlines. After that, my accuracy of placement improved quite a bit.
An especially nice thing is that the site isn't U.S.-centric. They've got a whole range of these games, ranging from Canadian provinces to African countries. I went through the Canada ones too - they're a lot easier because there are just so many distinctive coastline features. (Although I do pity Canadian children assigned to draw a map of Canada for Social Studies class.)
So I've wasted a lot of my time on this, tonight. Now it's your turn.
I found a new page of games, in which that particular game is Difficulty Level 3. Out of 9 levels.
On Level 6, you drag the states into place and then, if you are correct, they disappear. So you can never derive clues from relative placement, no matter how far into the game you go.
On Level 9, the states need to be rotated to the correct orientation and enlarged or shrunk to the right size before you can slot them into place. Also, they don't bother giving you any of the names except (magnaminously enough) Wyoming and Colorado, which would otherwise be impossible to distinguish. And the states disappear once you've placed them correctly, taking away all relative placement clues.
I made it up to Level 9 and did pretty well (3 errors each of two times, in just over 5 minutes on the second run through), but I think I only did that well because I'd spent a bunch of time on Levels 3-8 beforehand. I had the map very firmly fixed in my head by the time I tackled the hardest version.
It helps that the major U.S. rivers are included on the background. At first I wasn't really attending to them - then I realized that, of course, rivers commonly serve as state borderlines. After that, my accuracy of placement improved quite a bit.
An especially nice thing is that the site isn't U.S.-centric. They've got a whole range of these games, ranging from Canadian provinces to African countries. I went through the Canada ones too - they're a lot easier because there are just so many distinctive coastline features. (Although I do pity Canadian children assigned to draw a map of Canada for Social Studies class.)
So I've wasted a lot of my time on this, tonight. Now it's your turn.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 06:02 am (UTC)waste timeplay with tomorrow, when I've had some sleep. Thank you!no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 05:25 pm (UTC)Me = geography nerd
no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 11:35 am (UTC)(Only tried Europe, and I'm still desperate. As expected, admittedly. And despite what I said before, what throws me is basically the countries that have appeared after I left primary school... Well, that's going to be sorted out soon, looks like.)