What is a Fun Puzzle?
I was curious to learn what makes a puzzle Fun so that I could devote my time to only working on Fun Puzzles. With that goal in mind, I set out to make a list of Fun and Not Fun puzzles. I knew this would be a contentious topic with many opinions, so I took an informal poll and below are the results. It turns out, I didn't agree with all of the choices, for example I like Logic puzzles. But I decided not to impose my beliefs, and have passed on the list to the puzzling community.
If a puzzle conforms to a special rule, we call it a Fun Puzzle.
Use the survey results below to find the rule.
Fun Puzzles ™ | Not Fun Puzzles ™ |
---|---|
NO COMPUTERS | KNOWLEDGE |
FLAGS | PROOF |
LATERAL THINKING | RED HERRING |
HUMOR | UNSOLVABLE |
FOLDING | OPEN ENDED |
PATTERN | TILING |
HATS | WEIGHING |
REVERSE PUZZLING | CALCULATION PUZZLE |
ANAGRAM | LOGIC |
VISUAL | STORY |
METAPUZZLE | WHAT IS A WORD |
MUSIC | CONNECT WALL |
NETWORK | PACKING |
ENIGMATIC | LANGUAGE |
BOXES | AFFIX RIDDLE |
CHESS | CRYPTOGRAPHY |
And here is a CSV version:
Fun Puzzles™, Not Fun Puzzles™
NO COMPUTERS, KNOWLEDGE
FLAGS , PROOF
LATERAL THINKING , RED HERRING
HUMOR , UNSOLVABLE
FOLDING , OPEN ENDED
PATTERN , TILING
HATS , WEIGHING
REVERSE PUZZLING , CALCULATION PUZZLE
ANAGRAM , LOGIC
VISUAL, STORY
METAPUZZLE , WHAT IS A WORD
MUSIC , CONNECT WALL
NETWORK , PACKING
ENIGMATIC , LANGUAGE
BOXES , AFFIX RIDDLE
CHESS , CRYPTOGRAPHY
What is the special rule that determines a Fun Puzzle?
Hint:
If you disagree with the poll results, feel free to swap the columns of any rows for the same answer.
Hint 2:
If it's not clear from Hint 1, this is not a What is a Word puzzle, it is a What is a Fun Puzzle puzzle. Follow the X's and Z's
Hint 3:
The answer to row 1 is ONE. Row 3 is lying to you.