Best Of MetaFilter

The New York Times Building photo by Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA - New York Times Building - Bottom Portion

The NYT Tech Guild is on strike, which means NYT Games (and Cooking) are behind the picket line. But never fear! Mefites needing their puzzle fix can find Wordle alternatives in this Ask Me thread and the secret word game Letroso, plus, for more fun, be sure to check out Catfishing (Wikipedia category guessing game) by Mefi's own Klipspringer, and Gisnep (quote guessing game) by Metafilter's own ironicsans.

The Final Pam screenshot

Rhaomi posts about one of the funniest goddamn things ever published on the internet – McElroy brothers' Monster Factory vids, with beloved faves ... and new episodes!

Love word puzzles and looking for something new? Then please allow Horace Rumple to point you towards Gisnep, a new daily word puzzle by MeFi's own ironicsans!

Gorogoa game artwork

derbyshire is looking for fun puzzle video games to play as a family.

via theconversation.com, Teetotums were used in an era when dice were associated with vice. Museum Rotterdam/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Wobbuffet has a lovely, expansive post on the early history of geographical board games, with a special look at America's first board game, 1822's "The Travellers' Tour Through the United States" in which "whoever gets to New Orleans first, wins." A timeless goal, indeed!

Screenshot of an elevator from Riven.

Now this is what the internet was made for, wonderous geekery! Come enjoy the visual splendor of almost every elevator in the video game series that started with Myst. Shared by rivenwanderer, this post does such a good job of showing how the series was able to enthrall people in its various worlds!

Virtual poker game at Puzzmo

mecran01 wants to know about your favorite online social puzzles.

Nice weekly free thread discussing the games we play! Don't miss Wobbuffet's commentary about the history of parlor games from antiquity to the present, and how old games reveal themselves in modern equivalents.

typing by Kiran Foster (cc by)

Go ahead and cancel your plans for the next few hours 'cause Kattullus has posted about an addictive game you can play. Best part is that each game only lasts 20 seconds!

Prompt. Type. 20 seconds passes. REPEAT!

image via generationamiga.com

Z303 has crafted an amazing megapost on demoscene history, techniques, creations, social scene, and more.

screenshot of opening level of the game I Have No Mouth, And I Must Create Blocks On All Sides Of Me

"charming, handcrafted, fiendishly difficult puzzle games with a retro 8-bit feel": Lovingly Crafted Puzzle Games Since 2013, a passel of Puzzlescript, iOS and Android games to while away the hours, 8-bit at a time.

Sure, you probably know there are major and minor scales. But unless you're really into music theory you might not realize those scales come in a whole variety of flavors called "modes"... Goofy, threatening, mysterious, devastating, relaxing: Zargon X posted 8-Bit Music Theory's analysis videos that use game music to illustrate modes.

Rhaomi posted a labor of love featuring the Flashpoint Archive preservation project with over 145,000 preserved Flash games, plus highlights, more emulators, more games, tips, background, new software and more. If you miss Flash Fridays, definitely *don't* miss this post!

Internet lore tells us the story of Cheapass Games, founded by prolific gamemaker James Ernest in 1996 ... JHarris posts about Ernest's new (2020) Crab Fragment Labs, "offering an array of both pay-what-you-want-to-print and paid-for-physical products: card games, board games, quick-playing and easy-to-learn pub games, solitaire games and a wide assortment of the best of the old Cheapass Games in Cheapassic Park."

In Ask Metafilter, Browser based games that don't require commitment or much attention?