[tianqi]

They are difficult. As I'm not a native English speaker, I didn't know many of the obscure words or usages, so I actually played these games from a purely computational perspective. I discovered early on that there were a lot of at least NPC problems in them. As my English improved (partially thanks to these games), intuitions began to help me take shortcuts, as if I had become a nondeterministic Turing machine.

[mexicocitinluez]

> They are difficult. As I'm not a native English speaker

Kudos to you. That would be insanely difficult. There is a lot of American-based pop culture, knowledge, and slang that makes it even difficult if you are a native, English American speaker.

[rafabulsing]

Yeah, it can be pretty difficult at times. I'm quite proud of my 75% solve rate with Connections, which I'm slowly but surely improving (though the last week or so has been a bit of a regression).

I'm almost tempted to include that stat in my next CV as evidence of my grasp of the language :p

I always find it interesting to take a look at the Connections Bot, which gives the puzzles a difficulty rating based on how many people solve it or fail. It's not rare that I nail one rated 5/5 difficulty, just to completely fail the next day on a 1 or 2 out of 5. The gaps in general knowledge that you can have as a non native can be pretty funny at times! The groups relating to sports team names always get me.

[mexicocitinluez]

> I'm almost tempted to include that stat in my next CV as evidence of my grasp of the language :p

lol It actually is that impressive that you should.

> which gives the puzzles a difficulty rating based on how many people solve it or fail

Wow I didn't know that how that worked.

And again, I am insanely impressed non-native speakers can get through those games because they're difficult even if you do know the language.

[macintux]

The recent alcohol-themed Strands was brutal for me as an American. The first hint I received was utterly incomprehensible.

To avoid spoilers, the word in rot13 is just as meaningful to me: Znyorp

[mexicocitinluez]

lol I'll have to check it out. Thanks.