Hunt reflections.
Jan. 25th, 2008 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saxikathSome thoughts on the Mystery Hunt, as I wait for a coworker to finish his part of a task so we can be done and I can go home.
This was my second year hunting with II&F, and I don't think I could ask for a better team. I certainly don't miss being in charge of a team; I'm happy to take a semi-leadership role at times during the Hunt, but not being the one in charge of organizing it all is just fine by me. We did respectably well (placing roughly sixth), kept our remote solvers in the loop, ate and drank and slept more or less enough, and were all still on good terms at the end -- and had a good time. As I commented on our mailing list, if that's not a winning Hunt, I don't know what is.
I'm not going to say much about individual puzzles, because I didn't really see that many or spend much time on any one puzzle. I ended up focusing a lot of energy on metas and on being fresh brains, partly because I was in and out so much. That being in and out probably saved me some of the frustration levels other people felt, as I wasn't staring at puzzles I couldn't crack for quite such long periods of time. But what I saw of the puzzles, and what people have described to me, included a great deal of very clever things. (And one very scary photo.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cramerica, it's disturbing to see my semicuz looking like that! :) )
It seemed to me that some puzzles went "a step too far" -- that is, there was a level of insight or manipulation required that went beyond the point of still being fun to solve. Not all the puzzles, by any means! But listening to the explanations of some puzzles at the wrapup made my head spin, and I wondered how anyone ever figured them out. That's always true after the hunt, of course, but there seemed more of it this year than sometimes.
Still, from what I've heard, Palindrome did a phenomenal job under some very trying circumstances. And every time I had to interact with someone from Palindrome, they seemed positive and encouraging and didn't let show the stress that must have been going on behind the scenes. So big kudos to all of Palindrome for putting on a hunt that was, if not the best I've ever participated in, more than worth doing.
We had a couple of teams with headquarters on the same hallway as us. I didn't interact much with Codex Bodley, but the folks right next door to us were from a small team called Left as an Exercise -- and they were great. When they decided to pack it in, they came over and offered us their leftover food. And even though someone else came in and used the space after them and left it in disarray, they apparently went over on Tuesday to check on it and clean it up. So good for you, guys, whoever you are.
A final thought: When the Evil Midnight Bombers won two years ago, I can't say I was unreservedly happy for them. Some things had happened in the leadup to that Hunt that hurt, a lot (more in the way they happened than in the fact that they happened, though that too). So even though the team includes a lot of people I think of as friends, I had very mixed feelings at that result.
But then they ran a really good Hunt last year, and I find myself psyched to see what they'll come up with for next year. The pain from two years ago has eased with time. So congratulations, EMBWBAM, without reservation. And good luck!
This was my second year hunting with II&F, and I don't think I could ask for a better team. I certainly don't miss being in charge of a team; I'm happy to take a semi-leadership role at times during the Hunt, but not being the one in charge of organizing it all is just fine by me. We did respectably well (placing roughly sixth), kept our remote solvers in the loop, ate and drank and slept more or less enough, and were all still on good terms at the end -- and had a good time. As I commented on our mailing list, if that's not a winning Hunt, I don't know what is.
I'm not going to say much about individual puzzles, because I didn't really see that many or spend much time on any one puzzle. I ended up focusing a lot of energy on metas and on being fresh brains, partly because I was in and out so much. That being in and out probably saved me some of the frustration levels other people felt, as I wasn't staring at puzzles I couldn't crack for quite such long periods of time. But what I saw of the puzzles, and what people have described to me, included a great deal of very clever things. (And one very scary photo.
cramerica, it's disturbing to see my semicuz looking like that! :) )It seemed to me that some puzzles went "a step too far" -- that is, there was a level of insight or manipulation required that went beyond the point of still being fun to solve. Not all the puzzles, by any means! But listening to the explanations of some puzzles at the wrapup made my head spin, and I wondered how anyone ever figured them out. That's always true after the hunt, of course, but there seemed more of it this year than sometimes.
Still, from what I've heard, Palindrome did a phenomenal job under some very trying circumstances. And every time I had to interact with someone from Palindrome, they seemed positive and encouraging and didn't let show the stress that must have been going on behind the scenes. So big kudos to all of Palindrome for putting on a hunt that was, if not the best I've ever participated in, more than worth doing.
We had a couple of teams with headquarters on the same hallway as us. I didn't interact much with Codex Bodley, but the folks right next door to us were from a small team called Left as an Exercise -- and they were great. When they decided to pack it in, they came over and offered us their leftover food. And even though someone else came in and used the space after them and left it in disarray, they apparently went over on Tuesday to check on it and clean it up. So good for you, guys, whoever you are.
A final thought: When the Evil Midnight Bombers won two years ago, I can't say I was unreservedly happy for them. Some things had happened in the leadup to that Hunt that hurt, a lot (more in the way they happened than in the fact that they happened, though that too). So even though the team includes a lot of people I think of as friends, I had very mixed feelings at that result.
But then they ran a really good Hunt last year, and I find myself psyched to see what they'll come up with for next year. The pain from two years ago has eased with time. So congratulations, EMBWBAM, without reservation. And good luck!
