Puzzle caches: when to archive?

[Lander Lancelot]

I would like to amend an earlier statement. I don’t necessarily consider that it’s Marc who’s on crack when he created the puzzle – it could just as easily be me because I’m clueless when I stare at it. No offence intended. I think Deejay stated it rather nicely. It’s the “in your head” puzzles I’m referring to.

[gotta run]

@Team Deejay wrote:

The second type are what I call “read my mind” puzzles. These puzzles utilize some sort of unrecognizable pattern which can only be discerned by external hints or other assistance from the cache owner. The best way to recognize one of these is, when presented with the solution, your first reaction is “why would I ever try that?” Another symptom is a puzzle where you MUST have a geochecker link, because the puzzle could produce many possible logical answers, depending on the path chosen. In my opinion, if the puzzle cannot be solved by anybody without assistance (and you have many of the best solvers around up there), it really doesn’t merit the space it is occupying. Again, we are not talking about hard puzzles, but puzzles where the solution does not follow from any sort of logical approach.

HOOOOOOOOOO Boy!!! That is so ripe for comment…that I just cannot without getting myself in trouble…must….not….add….2….cents….in….agreement…..AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

On the Left Side of the Road...

[Ry and Ny]

Could someone PM me with an example of the “read my mind” puzzle? I know it’s not a good idea to drop something like that out there in public, but I’m curious.

[-cheeto-]

My cage and aquarium cache is “close” to being this and was probably accused of such by one of our faithful reviewers. I added enough clues and hints to make it not a “guess what I am thinking” cache but it could have been one. Same deal with my clocktower cache in Neenah. It could have been this but it has just the right mix of hints to make it solveable without having to get inside my (the owner’s) head.

Here’s a “hypothecial example” (sorry if I ruined “your” next great puzzle idea, it’s not original anyway): How about posting a cache with only a picture on it. The coordinates (last 3 digits) are the X & Y axis measurements in pixels of the picture. If you had not seen or heard of this before, most would not be able to “guess what the owner is thinking”. Just a simple example.

Essentially, any cache where you are not given anything but a set of seemingly random numbers or a set of random words or just a picture and no hints can be construed or viewed as a “guess what the owner was thinking” “puzzle/mystery” cache.

Now throw a hint on there regarding a starting point for researching or whatever and it is now no longer a “guess what I am thinking” type cache. Remember, cache owners can be clever about their hints. Sometimes the cache name itself is that hint. Sometimes an attribute can be a hint. Terrain, difficulty, more hints (I am starting to sound like marc at one of his puzzle education events…) So what you THINK is a “guess what I am thinking” cache, actually has enough hints to come up with the solution without having to do so.

Also, part of the fun for some is coming up with the idea that pulls it all together. Again, this might be viewed as “guessing” but in actuality, is more like solving a riddle or solving a puzzle. And at the end of the day, is it all that bad if someone “guesses” the solution to a problem? People do that all day (and get credit for doing so!)

-cheeto-

[gotta run]

@-cheeto- wrote:

How about posting a cache with only a picture on it. The coordinates (last 3 digits) are the X & Y axis measurements in pixels of the picture.

We know the one you mean…

On the Left Side of the Road...

[-cheeto-]

Did you read my comments about it being not original?

[gotta run]

😆

On the Left Side of the Road...

[Lander Lancelot]

I don’t have a problem with the read my mind puzzles being out there, but if you get upset that so few have found it, then you need to be realistic as to why that is. If making it difficult was your intent in putting it out, then you can’t be dejected when so few logs appear. Harder puzzles will get fewer finds. Simple as that. Does that mean it needs to be archived? Maybe or maybe not. Only the owner can decide whether he wants to put out something everyone visits, or a challenge that only few will. What makes you happier as the hider?

[Ry and Ny]

I’ve never seen the “just a picture” caches, but the X and Y pixel thing would come second nature to me as I’ve played a few alternate reality games in my day where deciphering puzzles of that nature (in some cases, information can even be encoded into the picture itself as random data that, if the data is small enough, doesn’t interfere that much with the quality of the image itself — a process nicknamed “stegging”).

[-cheeto-]

I’ve played a few alternate reality games in my day

Sounds like geocaching…

[Team Hemisphere Dancer]

@-cheeto- wrote:

I’ve played a few alternate reality games in my day

Sounds like geocaching…

Reminds me of some of the parties I went to when I was a young man.

[Ry and Ny]

More like an “immersive” interactive online game where clues are out there and loosely tied teams will dig through clues to solve the mysteries. Sometimes it spills over from the internet into real live events (hacked into a site as part of the game one time that had almost scary amounts of detail on my life and showed me listed as due for stage 3 of mind-control implanting — stage 1 was at birth (and they had a “record” of the procedure from the hospital I was really born at), stage 2 was kindergarten innoculations (again, where I really got them) and stage 3 was coming up 2 weeks from the date I got the fax). Nothing like that type of thing and 3 AM threatening voicemails to keep you immersed in the game. 😉

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