New Competition Idea...

[Risk]

Okay, I've tried to come to up with several new competition ideas in the past and none of them have really caught anybody's attention but I recently came up with an interesting new idea.

This new idea came to me while I was buying some new screws for my car. I'd just baught 8 shiny screws and a quarter pint of flat black paint. I was trying to think of a way to paint the top of each screws without a paintbrush. Essentially, I had created a sort of simple logic puzzle: how would one go about painting 8 screws given a quarter pint of paint and only house-hold items (assuming a paintbrush is not one of them)? Many solutions came to my mind, but only one stood out to be the best. The first idea was to screw each screw into a cork and dip it into the paint, but this would require 8 corks (and I didn't have that many corks and chopping them up would require some effort). Then, I thought, maybe I should try aliminum. This would be good because I could form a base and set the screws down to dry after I was done dipping them into the paint. So this was my best idea and, to my avail, it was a success--the paint dried perfectly, covering only the top. But...


...how in the world does this apply to my competition? Well, the idea is quite similar. A logic puzzle is presented and the players must determine the best solution. The winning player determines the best (most beneficial and least item-requiring) solution. Here are the rules:

• Upon the beginning of each round, the winner of the previous round instantiates:




• A Feasible Logic Puzzle (must be realistic and solvable... ex: not associated with fictional elements such as ghosts, monsters, or fairy-tales and must require tool(s) to be solved)
• A Single-Categorical List of Items (generally associated with one common place... a garage, house-hold, bedroom.. etc. but item names are still specified)
• A Tested Sample Solution (to prove the validity of a given puzzle. Must be easily duplicable by all participants)Ã, 


• Each player then attempts to solve the logic puzzle and is voted for his/her:




• Conservation of Given Items
• Techniques Used (postives/negatives)

Granted, there's no such thing as a perfect solution but the point of the game isn't necessarily to find the perfect solution... just the best one you can think of. It's seems pretty simple and given the right logic puzzles, I really think this could be fun... especially for all you adventure gamers who love solving logic puzzles!

BTW, I tried to find the closest thing to this competition and here's what I found... http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22085.0. At first, I thought my idea was taken, but then I realized this is not a "logic" puzzle and therefore its rules are flawed. It's just one guy giving a pointless puzzle that makes no sense. No solutions are logical and the entire thing is a mess. So, that idea didn't work. Here's proof:

I hereby declare the puzzle competition dead. It was only Eggie and Ginny who used to enter regularly, anyway....Ã,  Ã, 

-SSH

Did I stress the importance of "logic?" It's the only thing that keeps order in the competition!

So if you like this idea, please ask for a sample round and I will continue one on this thread. Otherwise, if you would like to request a meaningful, slight variation of these rules, please do so. If a sample round is requested, the previously stated rules may be pended with notification if one or more rules are subjected.

[esper]

I really like this idea. At first, I thought it would be along the lines of, "A man tells the police he thinks his wife has been murdered. They enter his house, and he crosses the room and turns the lights on. The dead body of his wife is lying in the middle of the floor. The police arrest the man. Why?" and the first person to say "He obviously knew where the body was to step over it" wins. That is non-workable. However, the idea of presenting a solution to a given problem within a certain set of rules is really a good idea, and sounds like a lot of fun for those logical thinkers among our number. I second this.

[vict0r]

this sounds pretty cool! Lets do a sample round!

[mozza]

I really like this idea! I think we should try a sample round and see how popular everyone thinks it is. Also by doing a sample round, people can see any loop-holes or flaws in the idea.
Sounds good to me!

[Sam.]

not to piss on any bonfires, but isn't this like the puzzle cntest we already have?

[Ashen]

Except, as Risk said in the top post, the Puzzle Contest has kind of died due to lack of interest, and never had the 'logic' stipulation there is here. (In fact, since it was about Adventure Game puzzles, some of the setups and answers were downright illogical - but to be fair SSH's quoted one was one of the more random.)

Personaly, I think this'll get quite boring, not to mention how difficult it'd be to keep coming up with new problems every week/fortnight, without googling up existing ones (making it easy for entrants to get at possible solutions, if they don't already know them), or making them hideously contrived. (Why didn't you just buy a paintbrush when you bought the paint? Or paint them in situ - surely the paint would chip some when you tried to screw them in?)

I realise this isn't especially constructive - there's no suggestions for improvement - but I just don't think it's a workable, on-going idea. Of course, if I'm proved wrong, I'll probably still enter...

[lo_res_man]

heres a logic problem i like,

a dude is captured by an evil queen to be her slave. not wanting to be a slave, dude pleads to be set free. evil queen wants to APPEAR just to her subjects so she suggests test.
dude will be givien sack with 2 pebbles in it one white and one black, if he picks out black, dude slave, if white, he free.
next day dude in courtyard with queen and subjects. dude prepers for test when he sees queen pick stones. 2 BLACK stones.
How can dude go free with queen cheating?

[Andail]

lo_res_man, is the riddle about understanding what it is you're saying?

Honestly, I couldn't work out how to interpret that riddle.
Do you mean that the queen only put two black pebbles in the sack, yet he's supposed to pick a white one?

[Nikolas]

This is more of a classic enigma/riddle type than a logical problem. I'm sure that if I squeeze my head enough, I'll remember the answer.

I'll modify this post, with the answer if I remember it.

Answers:

*He can escape
*Kill the queen!
*Have a sack of his own, with two white pebbles.
*Have a white pebble hiden in his hands, so when he puts his hand to pick, he gets his.
*Hope that the Queen will be arrested by the political correctness authorities of her country and take her in for racial abuse of the pebbles.
*Have his hand covered with white paint!
*But can't remember the real answer, still...

[Andail]

Can't he just choose to remain her slave? Maybe she's hot and all.

[lo_res_man]

?
Honestly, I couldn't work out how to interpret that riddle.
Do you mean that the queen only put two black pebbles in the sack, yet he's supposed to pick a white one?

a big hint is my last phrase is "how can dude go free" no "how can he pick out a white one", that is logicly immpossible. Ã, its as much about logic as human nature. remember, the queen wants to APPEAR just. you could never plug this into a computer and get out answer, yet the answer is logical.

This is more of a classic enigma/riddle type than a logical problem.

maybe, but the answer is more similer to risks puzzle the say some mathimatical thing were the head with the most math skills wins.

[Kweepa]

So he's supposed to pick a stone, then empty the sack to show the remaining black stone I suppose.
I don't see how that'll work as an adventure game puzzle...

[lo_res_man]

ermmm didn't think its is ment to, i 'member Risk saying this is not supposed to be a "make a puzzle and solve puzzle" thread. your damn close btw  SteveMcrea.

[Ginny]

I know the answer, but then I've heard the riddle so that's not fair;). Steve basically said it though.

Btw, the competition idea sounds nice. The old puzzle time competition was about original/adventureesque puzzles, this one seems to be about logical thinking.

Btw, I noticed a voiceover comp was held 5 times, but I only found out now, and I was wondering if anyone was gonna bring it back.

[Tuomas]

evil queen wants to APPEAR just to her subjects so she suggests test.

I don't get it... does this mean something? I mean, in English? Although I have heard something very much like to this one, don't remember anything of it though.

About the competition, I think it's worth a shot, a fairly suitable idea indeed.

[Scummbuddy]

i believe he emphasized the wrong word.

by saying he wants the queen to appear just, that means for her to appear correct and that shes not cheating the 'system', even though she is.

[Andail]

Can we know the correct answer, please? I'm getting a bit curious

[GarageGothic]

Why can't the bloke just grab both pebbles so people can see that there were two black ones?

[lo_res_man]

ok ok... the answer is....
dude takes out pebble, does not look at it and "accidentily" drops it, then says "oh shoot, butter fingers! Well, we will know what i picked  by whats in the bag"
since there is still a black pebble in the bag it will seem that he picked the white one.
the queen will seem to be just, and he goes free.
the end
(takes bow)

[Ginny]

I was sure it was a commonly known riddle. Hope lo_res_man doesn't mind me posting the answer:

Spoiler

He takes out one pebble without showing it's color, then let the other pebble fall out, showing that it's black, which means that the pebble he chose must be white (since the queen is fair and all). She won't be able to say he got a black pebble without revealing that she cheated, so she lets him go.
As I said Steve was close, except his idea was more like proving that she wasn't fair.

[close]

The version I heard was about a mother telling her kid how to handle the canibal who lived in the nearby woods or whatnot. The idea is the same though.

[EDIT] Heh, just about to post and he posted:P nevermind though

Here's a nice riddle:
John Doe lands on Mars and sees a little Marsian. He asks him "Have I arrived in the rocky area?" (or some other area). The marsian, in reply, simply rubs his belly. John knows marsians understand some english but he doesnt understand their jests so he doesn't know if that meant yes or no.
How can he find out what the jest means by asking one more question?
(could be several answers)