Talk:Hangman (game)

Origin
Does anyon know the origin of the game Hangman? It's such a morbid notion for a game that I wonder where it comes from.

jim@purple.com

Don't know jim, I have done more than a few google searches on the term myself. If I ever find an answer, I'll update here as well as email you. If you get an answer, please update the page.GameMan

Would appreciate any thoughts from others as to whether links to a few examples of online hangman games would be appropriate here. My personal feeling is that they would be. I believe the history of the page shows it is unlikely this would become a "link farm", as long as the links were kept relevant.

Another editor has disagreed, and suggested I ask for feedback here. All constructive comments are welcome.GameMan

After further discussion with the other editor, we have agreed a limited number of links to examples of the game would not present a problem on this page.GameMan
 * I had to remove these hangman links because they all lead to Google Adsense linkfarms. If we can find a hangman game with no ads, I would accept that but ideally, I don't think this article needs any links.  [[Image:Monkeyman.png]]Monkeyman(talk) 13:13, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I added in a link to a no-ad site. I hope this is an acceptable compromise.  [[Image:Monkeyman.png]]Monkeyman(talk) 13:25, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Hangman
I removed the link to the WP game, and now it's been restored. Why is this in the article, which may be mirrored on other sites? We generally avoid self-references and links to the projectspace from articles for just this reason, do we not? -- nae'blis (talk) 18:10, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

I recently added a link to my GWT implementation of Hangman on this page. This was based on the above comments which seemed to imply that a limited set of links to example implementations would be acceptable. However, an editor removed my link. I think it would be helpful to readers to be able to play a sample version, to get a feel for the game. Does Wikipedia disallow this? If so, why? Thanks. --Markroth8 11:48, 3 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Mark Roth's implementation does not work in my IE7.0, perhaps that's why it was removed.
 * I don't know the WP game mentioned above, but while I think avoiding self-references is often a good idea, wikipedia links should be no less acceptable than links to any other site. If it is to work in the mirrors, maybe it should be written as an external link, though.--Niels Ø (noe) 13:06, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
 * This ad-supported link violates WP:EL and WP:COI policies. Please do not re-add it. OhNo itsJamie Talk 18:25, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Language
"Other alternative is (making the game a bit easier) to give a word definition on the actual or on different language, allowing to use the game for language learning." This sentence makes no sense. I'm rewriting it, but probably losing information in the process. If anyone can fix it better, please do so. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nmichaels (talk • contribs) 14:28, 15 June 2011‎

Letter frequency
I am sure I once read that the order of frequency of the nine most common letters in English goes like this:

ETAONRISH

This is different to what the article says. I am aware that there are disputes about letter frequency, if no one disputes that E, T and A are the three most common letters in English. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 23:45, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Read the article on Letter frequency for more on this. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 23:48, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Possible variations
There must be some variations on this game. For example, I have always played where if one player guesses a letter, all examples of that letter must be inserted, but this is not the case in some versions. Any one who knows of other variations is welcome to insert them. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 08:23, 15 July 2011 (UTC)
 * In the board game "Probe", the hider only has to expose one instance -- though it's a bit of a giveaway when you pause to think about which one to reveal, which makes me think that a better rule would be "always leftmost". But I've never seen Hangman played that way.
 * The current text suggests that the guesser can try to name the entire word, but this doesn't make sense since that can't score any better than guessing the individual letters. This suggests the possibility of a variant where your score includes both hits and misses (and a correspondingly higher threshold for winning), so that knowing the word can be a short cut.  My preferred implementation would be that you can make a compound guess that names more than one letter, but it's a risky move because nothing gets filled in unless all of the named letters are correct.  Again, I haven't seen it done or played it myself this way (yet).  Joule36e5 (talk) 00:51, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

A confession
Several years ago at work, we played 'Guess the Movie' hangman. I chose '2012' as my title and absolutely thrashed my colleague, who (rightly) claimed that Hangman has always been about letters and NOT numbers. So just for giggles, I changed the rules on this page to allow numbers - and for whatever reason, it never got reverted. I'm not actually a tiny bit sorry, as it still makes a somewhat amusing story. But yeah, just setting the record straight. On the talk page and not the main article ;-)

Hangman video games
—  Ark25  (talk) 21:15, 22 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Mystery Word - a game for Speak & Spell console (1978)
 * TickleTux Hangman - http://sourceforge.net/projects/tickletux/
 * Hangman for DOS/Linux - http://sourceforge.net/projects/hangit/
 * hangman - console based hangman - http://sourceforge.net/projects/hangman/
 * hangman2 - http://sourceforge.net/projects/hangman2/

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Violence of game
Just wondering if something should be inserted about the violence of this game, namely that a human being is being "hanged" 120.29.53.223 (talk) 07:21, 31 May 2020 (UTC)


 * I think that is obvious, isn't it? I have seen objections to the game because of the violence. A mention of them might be added. I have actually written a comparable game myself, for use by language students, in which the player starts out with a complete pie and every mistaken guess removes one of the eight wedges.Bill (talk) 03:58, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

France
Je joue au pendu en dessinant un pendu. Je n'ai jamais vu la forme évoquée dans l'article 77.131.128.128 (talk) 08:45, 28 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Qu'est-ce que vous voulez dire? Vous ne dessinez que le pendu, pas la potence?Bill (talk) 03:56, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

Extended alphabets (French, German, etc.)
When the language includes accented Latin letters, such as Ä in German, is it customary to (1) treat that as a distinct letter, or (2) leave two spaces and treat it as the digraph "AE" (for languages/alphabets where this makes sense!), or (3) treat it as a match when "A" is guessed, or (4) treat the diacritical mark as punctuation that's provided in advance as part of the shape of the word? Joule36e5 (talk) 00:51, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Rite of words and life
Searching for the origin of hangman I keep coming across to this reference to the Rite of Words & Life, where a prisoner could win their freedom by guessing a word, being hanged if they couldn't. The sources describe it being the origin of Hangman.

Does anyone have any details on the rite of words & life? So far my sources are a few random websites and one Quora answer. It sounds completely made up to me but I'm not an expert. 2001:8003:8888:4E00:B8AA:1C63:B506:BDCE (talk) 14:33, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

Fruit
Watermelon 49.206.6.93 (talk) 08:31, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

Books
Sulaiman read a book🙂 37.36.209.245 (talk) 13:10, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

Book
Sulaiman read a book 37.36.209.245 (talk) 13:12, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

Hangman
I think this game is the best. It is learning worthy and helps with your brain. I find it very distressing and it helps when I have things on my mind. 80.0.44.11 (talk) 18:41, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

Strokes to draw stick figure
I can't find a reputable source for it, but the article should have illustrations of the strokes to draw before the game is over. If there are several standards, they can be compared. If a source is found, please ping me and I'll draw them. Thanks, cm&#610;&#671;ee&#9094;&#964;a&#671;&#954; 23:20, 14 November 2023 (UTC)