I’m American and even I didn’t notice. I was also wondering why the flyer had it like an acronym, “H.I.N.T.” Now I know. 
Yes, I that’s how I figured it out. I was wondering why it was an acronym, too - and then it hit me.
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Yeah, it’s very common, never occurred to me it wasn’t everywhere.
Oh gosh! Good I didn´t see that and considered it an acronym! Otherwise I´d started to think what that meant…“Help Is Near Treasurehunter!” !!!
But yeah I think that flyer might help those who don´t know much about the US number/alphetic phone system. And those flyers are common enough(I think I found at least four of them so far).
Germany is a special case, I think: Due to several historical reasons we memorized the numbers and not the codes. (For example the phones with the dials had only numbers.)
But I’m curious: When does it got common in the USA to use the letters on the phones?
The “555” is a US phenomenon too. 
As far as I know in germany we haven’t such a dialing code that is only/can be used in films, games, etc.
I would also be very hardpressed to think of a german production where full phone numbers are given. Maybe they always write around that, I don´t know. But I also wonder if there is a solution for that everytime you see a license plate on a show (which you do a lot).
Anyway knowing how the numbers on the phones spell words I also understood this gag (I was referencing with 555-SHOE earlier) better:
“Remember nobody knows as much about RGNE as Dr. RGNE!”
Actually that episode might as well be where I learned about numbers spelling words on phones in the US.
Here’s what Wikipedia says:
You may notice the letter exchanges in old movies / TV shows and even some not so old ones (I heard it on Seinfeld once). Instead of saying 555 they say KL5.
In a lot of cases the phone numbers in german films are the ones of the filmmakers or a pr agency. So you can actually call them.
Yep. This is a classic one.
And for all other readers who like to know more about the 555:
But why did they use letters at all?
The letters used to be for geographic exchanges centers, and people know the names and the letters were abbreviations.
It had to do with the telephone switch system. The letters identified the city or area the call was being routed to.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/61116/why-did-old-phone-numbers-start-letters
EDIT: Ron beat me to it!
I didn’t plan to replay the game and now I’ll have to re-download it just to see pchars talking to each other.
The hint system sounds really good. Much better than being stuck for hours or going for a walkthrough.
I admire Ron for being so open-minded. His dedication to dramatically improve the game in its current phase is staggering.
Yes, but instead of letters they could have used numbers too. Similar to germany: Here each town has his own prefix number. For example all telephone numbers in Munich starts with a 089 …
This started back in the early 1900s, I don’t think they understood what was being created.
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That was a close one. If you molded the hint system into a puzzle you’d have another monkey wrench.
Edna’s hint number could be really good too. Unless you’re me. I completed all WC puzzles in the dark because I couldn’t find the light switch.
The patch polishes the game.
It adds a well-implemented hint system (with just enough spite in it to discourage overuse of hints at least from what I’ve seen) and it increases the immersion at least somewhat with more character interaction and some additional possible interaction through more of the corridors/rooms of the factory.
The folks really listened to the couple of things that did happen to come up in threads as points of contention for improvement or inconsistency (chars not treating each other like ghosts and actually being able to look around more inside the factory) and the result is a further improved game.
I’m not sure what else can be done to further improve the particular concept and execution of TWP. I always wondered why characters had precisely the same lines in many instances instead of slightly different lines but I think there might be something more to that which relates to the story anyway. The game seems pretty much complete to me now (it was anyway but now I can’t think of further areas to polish).
That just came down to a pure work-load issue. There is a shit-ton™ of dialog in the game we had to economize somewhere or we’d never finish the game.
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I see via the blog that they did toy with a currency for using the hints and personally I’d STILL like that to be somehow incorporated, but they tried and they tried again and it didn’t work out and this is just a personal preference of mine and not something that makes the game better or worse really.
That clears that up then. Of course, it came to mind but my romantic bias entertained a narrative driven explanation.
Given that it was a phone call (and that the 80s hint lines cost money), coins was the natural option, but it created complexities.
If you have no willpower, set…
hintsEnabled: 0
…and the phone will just ring and ring when you call.
I swear, my only intervention on this (off)topic.
I envy the sensitivity that your country shows today about those facts. In my country people is not so wise. Too many forget, too many are apologetic or even openly fascist. This makes me vomit in my mouth. Past is past, but the idea that we didn’t learn and so many people desire it again for the future shakes me more than remembering.
Sorry everyone, back to nice things…