The Elite Forum
The Big Three Plus One => General Chat => Topic started by: Infil on January 29, 2009, 07:51:00 am
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I've always had thoughts about making a puzzle hunt for the Elite. The first thought was to run it as part of a KotH, but the amount of effort involved to make a proper one didn't allow me to do that. For those who don't know what a puzzle hunt is, check Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzlehunt) and, if you're interested, browse some of the archives of the MIT Mystery Hunt (link in Wiki). The main gist of the event is to get together in teams and solve a bunch of puzzles that are presented to you of varying difficulties and styles. The answers to these puzzles are typically connected to a "metapuzzle"; solving the metapuzzle(s) gives you access to the "end game" where you solve one final puzzle to win. It's typically a race against other teams to see who can beat the end game first.
The main question is... who would be interested in participating in something like this? Because it would take me quite some time to put this together (on the order of months), I wouldn't want to do it if only half a dozen people are interested. Between the Elite and the Kart community, I would hope to get a good turnout of at least 25 people, and as many as possible are welcome. I've also contacted SnapDragon, and he seems interested in helping me put this together; Snap is a veteran of the MIT Mystery Hunt (he was on the winning team in 2004 and helped developed the 2005 hunt), so he knows his stuff. I've been following the MIT hunt since Snap first told me about it in 2004, and Snap and I participated in (and won) a few puzzle hunts around University of Calgary several years ago.
These are great fun, and you don't have to be good at puzzles or think you'll win to enjoy yourself. You'd be able to choose your own teams (not sure on size yet), so you wouldn't be solving puzzles by yourself. Because the main goal is to have fun, and not be super serious like the MIT hunt, if you're stuck on a puzzle for way too long, hints can be provided. Additionally, there is no limit to the amount of resources you can use in hunts. You can use the internet to its fullest capacity to search for answers/do research, you can phone a friend who has special knowledge on a certain topic, or you could write a computer program to automate something (naturally, we won't expect you to do this, but past MIT hunt puzzles have required this!). The only thing you wouldn't be able to do is talk to anybody on another team participating in the hunt (i.e., no "trading answers").
This topic is made to gauge interest. Post here if you think you would want to participate. I am not claiming I will absolutely run one of these for certain; it will depend on a variety of factors, but it certainly won't get off the ground if there is no interest. I would schedule it for some day (likely a weekend) in the summer (June/July or so), and the event would typically be a whole day affair, but I would provide sufficient notice. The hunt would be composed of a reasonable number of puzzles (probably between 12 and 15ish), and nowhere near the difficulty of the puzzles you'd see in the MIT hunt. As mentioned before, you don't need to think you're an awesome puzzle solver to participate; it's an opportunity to have fun with some friends. If this event gets off the ground, I'll make a "how to properly do a hunt" post, so people have some intuition about how these things really work. Hunts are usually pretty mentally draining for everyone involved (perhaps the organizers the most!), but they're well worth it.
So, any takers? You aren't committing to anything by responding here. I just want to see who even cares. It's a lot of work to put together if no one is interested!
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These are great fun indeed, did some notpr0n or whatever it was called and got pretty far with it. That was until I needed software programs to solve the puzzles. :P
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I'm up for it, hope I won't be too busy with other things.
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You know I'm interested! I really hope this happens.
ALSO, 2+2 has a board called Puzzles and Other Games which I know would be super-interested in this. I'm not suggesting bringing them into our hunt, but if you wanted to run it again on their forum, you could introduce your hunt to a whole new group of people. I'm sure whatever you guys put together will be amazing, so we'll want to share it with more than just The Elite.
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yeah why not
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Hell yeah.
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I declare pre-emptive victory!
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obv interested but don't know if I'll have the time to do it!
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I'm interested assuming I don't have anything big going on that day!
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I'm in ldo.
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I would love to do this.
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As stated in Chat, I'd be very interested as long as QB and Neo agree to team with me.
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As for notice, I would probably give at least three weeks before the day of the hunt. I hope this would be enough time for people to maybe try to trade a shift with someone/request the day off, if they work weekends or irregular hours. If you know more than three weeks in advance that you won't be free for a given weekend (sports tournament, vacation, etc), then you should let me know and I'll try to schedule the date when it best suits everyone. We can worry about this more in April/May, but I'll do my best to find a day that works for everyone, or gives everyone enough notice to keep the day free of obligations. I would probably pick a start time which can also work for Euros (maybe something like 10 or 11 AM EST). I don't want to exclude anyone.
Most hunts, especially those run via the internet, have a website built where teams can log in, get the puzzles, and try to submit answers. Unfortunately, I probably won't have the time to build such a site (and I don't have the knowledge necessary to build a site which has login/passwords, restricted access to puzzles unless they've made enough progress, etc). I should be able to run the hunt without such a website, likely by uploading PDFs of the puzzles to some central site in random, unknown directories and only telling those teams with access where to get them. However, having a central website makes life easier for everyone. If this project gets off the ground, who would be able and willing to help me build such a site? Again, not a necessity, but something that might make the hunt that much cooler.
As for answers, most hunts (including mine) do not punish you for incorrect answers. In fact, you're encouraged to guess at an answer if you think you're close enough, or you've pieced together half of it and you want to take a stab. However, if you're guessing randomly, and often, you'll be told to stop and to think a bit more. If you guess correctly and it seems to come out of the blue, I would hold the right to ask you to explain how you solved it. This is one way to eliminate cheating, for instance.
Most hunts ask you to submit a phone number and an email address where you can be reached at all times. Seeing as how this is online only, we'd only request an email address, but if we send mail to that address, we'd expect it to be read within minutes (Gmail has the best interface for this, you can just open the window in a tab and it will tell you when you have new mail). We'd open up a special hunt email, where you can submit your answers and ask questions. I'd also probably be available on AIM or MSN, we'll see. If teams are 3 or more, you'd be encouraged to find a way to communicate as a group. Maybe open up a separate AIM chat, MSN joint conversation, talk on a Ventrilo server, etc. I should also note that I probably won't require everyone in the group to be an Eliter or a Karter. If you want to get together with some real-life friends at someone's house and solve the puzzles together, I doubt I would be opposed.
Hunts are meant to be hard, but it is the job of the organizers (namely, me and Snap) to design puzzles that are solvable by the groups participating. We don't want everyone in the group to get frustrated and quit. We want to have people look back at the answers later and say "ah yes, I see now" and not "wow, what a poorly designed puzzle". But, at the same time, these puzzles are not be meant to be solved by one person in 20 minutes. Some of the puzzles will be easy, but some will be difficult, and require outside-the-box thinking. Sometimes you'll have to brainstorm, stare at it, or Google random things for a good hour before you have a breakthrough on a tough puzzle. If you're well-behind the leading team and you have absolutely no clue where to start, though, in the interest of fun we will probably prod you in the right direction. Closer to the date, I will post some helpful hints on what to look for in puzzles, and how to turn your idea about a puzzle's intentions into an answer you can submit. For example, if we give you a puzzle that's a crossword puzzle, sure, you can sit down and solve the crossword. But how can you turn that into the one-word answer we are looking for? Perhaps you'd need to organize the answers to each clue alphabetically and "read down" the first letter of each corresponding clue. That sort of thing.
I am quite interested in trying to put one together. Actual planning of the event, on my end, will have to wait until after I'm done my thesis and related work (probably mid-May), so it's still a ways away yet. If people have questions about how hunts are run, or anything related to it, feel free to ask here.
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If this happens, and we can all play, then I suggest Durk, Jack and I reform TEAM RUDEBOX.
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as long as the answer to the end game is the date when Goose will lose his virginity, i'm in!
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Nah, we need a puzzle that's solvable in our lifetime.
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it's been too long since I've done puzzles so I'm in
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Yeppers.
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Great post, Brick.
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I will singlehandedly crush team N, Neo, & QB. I just beat Riven, so I'm feeling pretty good about myself (https://forums.the-elite.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ezboard.com%2Fintl%2Faenglish%2Fimages%2Femoticons%2Ftongue.gif&hash=7cfc888ebd66cf455a55fd5e124ee8267da91148)
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I read this as Elite Pizza Hut (https://forums.the-elite.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ezboard.com%2Fintl%2Faenglish%2Fimages%2Femoticons%2Ffrown.gif&hash=9bb8520656650a7c2457ae0ae2ee8996e4109fd6)
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Same actually (https://forums.the-elite.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ezboard.com%2Fintl%2Faenglish%2Fimages%2Femoticons%2Fsmile.gif&hash=1adea417e08e9042f9ce1a5426616bf29f2ca20e)
Pizza Hut has a new line of pastas or something and they look amazing.
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There's a team N, Neo & QB?
Because that sounds like an awfully unstoppable team.
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I would never trust Pizza Hut to make my pasta.
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Yay puzzles! I'm sure I could find time between work and school!
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Semi-selfish bump to keep this on the front page, over those dozens of birthday topics.
One of my main concerns is that, if there seems to be enough people to do the hunt, that half of them won't show up on the day, and half of the remaining players will just give up after 20 minutes. I hope this fear is unfounded!
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If I don't finish this hunt, I'll eat Pizza Hut pasta.
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Hell I'd be interested, if it's not ultra serious.
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Sounds fun, but I don't think I'll have time to spend on this (https://forums.the-elite.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ezboard.com%2Fintl%2Faenglish%2Fimages%2Femoticons%2Ffrown.gif&hash=9bb8520656650a7c2457ae0ae2ee8996e4109fd6)
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Where is this Elite Pizza Hut?
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If this is anything like the Melbourne one we're doing now, I HAVE to join. The feeling of getting an answer is just amazing (https://forums.the-elite.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ezboard.com%2Fintl%2Faenglish%2Fimages%2Femoticons%2Fsmile.gif&hash=1adea417e08e9042f9ce1a5426616bf29f2ca20e)
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We're too late, Scott. I joined the chat last night 20 minutes after registration ended.
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....Drag I'm on the team silly....
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LOLOLOLOL!!1