MouseAdventure

[Ghoulish Delight]

No further details, but over at MousePlanet, they've announced that Mouse Adventure will be on November 5th.

Assuming prior info is still valid, I believe this MA will see the return of the Enchanted Race-style "Invitational" class of competition, which will allow us retired Masters to compete for prizes at the risk of our mobility.

[belleh5]

November 5th?? Hopefully my body will recover by then. I really miss Disneyland.:(

[Disneyphile]

The day after we return from our honeymoon.......

Not sure on that one. While we'll be really relaxed from the cruise, I have to consider if I want to kill that sense of relaxation the very next day.......

Hmmmm.

[Mousey Girl]

Hopefully the weather will be nice for all you Adventurers.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Wow, November....good, by then we'll be settled in our new place and will have time to make shirts.

[Ponine]

November 5th?? Hopefully my body will recover by then. I really miss Disneyland.:(
You're young, have a good attitude, and any nunmber of other things.
I think you'll be in good shape by then. However, you may not WANT to play.
It might be more fun to pull the "New Mother" and watch from the sidelines.

[Prudence]

As far as I know, this date does not conflict with any school activities. And it's far enough in advance of finals that that won't be an issue. No class to miss on Monday so I can recover. And airfare to LGB is particularly affordable that weekend. And since I'm planning to go "for reals" in December, I won't feel like I'm there and missing something.

[katiesue]

Our team is in, not sure which event though yet.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

We've never ever done an MA. And every time I think, "oh, maybe next time." But honestly? Between wedding planning for our two events, and work commuting etc, there's just no way we're going to get to an MA until at least spring 2008.

[Morrigoon]

I'm just not sure I'll wanna do that so soon after Florida.

[Stan4dSteph]

I'll be there.

[CoasterMatt]

I'd rather slather myself in honey and roll over a fire ant hill.

[BarTopDancer]

The Shiny Happy People will be there.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

We've never ever done an MA. And every time I think, "oh, maybe next time." But honestly? Between wedding planning for our two events, and work commuting etc, there's just no way we're going to get to an MA until at least spring 2008.Ok, I can swallow everyone else's excuses, but this simply won't wash, young lady. Just one Sunday, come on! ;)

[Ponine]

We've never ever done an MA. And every time I think, "oh, maybe next time." But honestly? Between wedding planning for our two events, and work commuting etc, there's just no way we're going to get to an MA until at least spring 2008.
You've never done an MA?
really? How did I not know this?

Wow.... I'm speechless.

[Not Afraid]

We're in. Team of 4.

[Ponine]

I wonder if any of my team mates will return?
They swear I do this just to torture them.

[BarTopDancer]

Hey TT, this is the thread. :p

[Disneyphile]

Well, Ken and I are considering it. Even if our teammates aren't up for this one, we think it will be fun to play as newlyweds. :D

[innerSpaceman]

Cool, since most gals only get to wear their bridal gown once.

[RStar]

Cool, since most gals only get to wear their bridal gown once.
Now THAT's an idea! Does Ken own the tux, or was it a rental? Get those wedding mouse ears and you've got a great costume!

(Of course the dress will slow you down so we have a better chance!):D

[belleh5]

You're young, have a good attitude, and any nunmber of other things.
I think you'll be in good shape by then. However, you may not WANT to play.
It might be more fun to pull the "New Mother" and watch from the sidelines.


That's a good point. But I still don't know if Daddy will let me go.:rolleyes:

[Disneyphile]

Cool, since most gals only get to wear their bridal gown once.Unfortunately, I don't think they'll let me in with the dress. However, we do have our wedding ears and wedding t-shirts already. :D

It would be fun to see if we will carry that new wedded "bliss" into the game, or if we'll be in usual down-to-business "bickering game mode". :evil:

[Ponine]

That's a good point. But I still don't know if Daddy will let me go.:rolleyes:
And you may end up not wanting to go.
Take those first few months one day at a time.
I am sure all the other mothers here will second that. You never know how you'll feel, what will be up with the little one by that time....

But the spring.... the spring is a whole other conversation. ;)

[Stan4dSteph]

Registration is open today (http://www.mouseplanet.com/mouseadventure/).

Hope to see you all there.

[CoasterMatt]

Can't think of anything I'd rather not do...

[Stan4dSteph]

Can't think of anything I'd rather not do...Thanks for sharing that. Again.

[Disneyphile]

Thanks for the link, Steph.

This is good that Ken and I have a little while to decide before the prices go up. :) If anything, we could at least play the Open event.

[Ghoulish Delight]

When I have more than 2 seconds to think, I'll go read the details and sign up. Thanks for the link and reminder, Steph.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Thanks for sharing that. Again.Don't mind him, he's just a loser. :evil:

No time on my break to sign up - but I'm sure we'll get it done today. :D :D :D

[Ghoulish Delight]

Don't mind him, he's just a loser. :evil:

No time on my break to sign up - but I'm sure we'll get it done today. :D :D :D
Timing...just finished registering.

[Not Afraid]

I haven't even had time to click the link.

[BarTopDancer]

WOOHOO! Going to register tonight! The Shiny Happy People are IN!

[RStar]

Hey, looks like I'll be making this one after missing the last couple of them! I'm looking forward to it!

[katiesue]

Our team is in - Enchanted Race.

[Prudence]

Oooop! I have to remember to finalize my plane ticket purchase tonight! I finally get to MA!

[Sub la Goon]

Does anyone need/want an extra team member??

I have never done MA but I am an avid Disneyland freak and can walk all frickin' day (with a double stroller if required).

[RStar]

There's usually a thread or two here or on mousepad about single players hooking up with a team.

Good luck, and have fun!:cool:

[Stan4dSteph]

There's usually a thread or two here or on mousepad about single players hooking up with a team.There's one on MousePad now, but not a lot of activity at the moment. Post there (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=60805) and you should get picked up quickly!


In other MouseAdventure news, if you haven't registered yet do it now. The Invitational is filling up, and there are only 10 spots left as of this posting.

Click here to go to the registration page (http://www.mouseplanet.com/mouseadventure/).

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

I might need 1 more teammate. Anyone interested, give me a shout!

[Stan4dSteph]

Another reminder to register if you want to do the Enchanted Race. There are now only 4 spaces left. Just over 3 weeks away!

[Prudence]

So who all here will be racing? Is it time to commence the swanky trash talk?

[katiesue]

My teams in Enchanted Race. We haven't done the longer format before so we'll see how we do. Our higest placing has been a second in the shorter format.

But yea, we can kick your butts ;)

[Ghoulish Delight]

My legs hurt already.

[RStar]

well, all things considered, we decided to do the meandering around with the camera bit. I don't think I could handle jumping in with both feet and covering 37,000 miles right off the bat!;)

[Prudence]

I have a brand new inhaler and I'm not afraid to use it!

[katiesue]

I have a brand new inhaler and I'm not afraid to use it!

I may need to borrow that.

[RStar]

Our team will trash the rest of the picture taking swine!

There, is that trashy enough?

I'm such a geek......:rolleyes:

[Prudence]

I really really hope it's still warm during MA. It's toping out in the low 50s here and I miss the sun.

[Alex]

Oh, you know not what you ask for.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I really really hope it's still warm during MA. It's toping out in the low 50s here and I miss the sun.
Oh, you'll regret those words some time around 2PM, Sunday Nov. 5th.

[Not Afraid]

Curse you Pru! I worry about the heat more than I worry about 10 miles of walking.

[Ghoulish Delight]

This Mouse Adventure will makr the first time we Happy Haunts will have the opportunity to officially compete against the Denton Affair (or, at least, a portion thereof). And while it was certainly gratifying to soundly beat them in our unofficial side-bet at the last MA we participated in, as 'retired' masters, I fear that the lack of a full team and years of rust may doom the DA to non-competitive status.

To that I say...screw that! While I'm normally one for some good natured intimidation, not this time. This time, I feel it my duty to prime iSm and mates for competition. Less than two week left! It's time to get excited, time to get that fire back, Steve. Think how glorious would it be to come out of retirement and return to the podium once again! Show all those newbies in what is sure to once again be the largest field of entrants what true MA royalty looks like!

This is not a prediction, just an improbable dream...Denton Affair and Happy Haunts going 1 & 2 (not necessarily in that order)!

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Dang it, I didn't make it in in time. I blame my teammates who took too long to sign up. Oh well. :(

As with every year I will accept $$ as a blocker. I can slow down anyone in the park. :P

[CoasterMatt]

I can e-stop any ride in the park :evil:

[Prudence]

Curse you Pru! I worry about the heat more than I worry about 10 miles of walking.

*whimpers* But we already have my luckiest of lucky numbers! Nothing can go wrong! The weather gods never fail me!

[BarTopDancer]

I really really hope it's still warm during MA. It's toping out in the low 50s here and I miss the sun.

Bite your tounge!!!!!!!!!!

MouseAdventure is best played in the 50s or 60s.

[BarTopDancer]

The weather gods never fail me!

You're not helping!!!!!!!

[katiesue]

This is not a prediction, just an improbable dream...Denton Affair and Happy Haunts going 1 & 2 (not necessarily in that order)!

Ignorant question, since this has always confused me a bit. Since you're both "Masters" teams do you actually get to place?

I'd say we'll take you all down except I'm just hoping to finish without a little call to 911 for oxygen for myself. :blush:

[CoasterMatt]

What if they give out nitrous balloons instead of oxygen :)

[katiesue]

Would that be considered taking performance enchancing drugs? If so I'm in.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Ignorant question, since this has always confused me a bit. Since you're both "Masters" teams do you actually get to place?
Normally, no, but since this is an "Enchanted Race Invitational" event, us Masters teams are once again allowed to pay and play for real. Which is what makes this such a momentous ocassion, the first live competition between us and the Denton Affair. Before that, we were always in the quests-only category while they were in the combined. And they were unable to compete in the first Enchanted Race Invitational as iSm had a wedding to officiate.

[katiesue]

I tought Enchanted Race was the exception but I couldn't remember.

Drat we're hosed then ;)

[CoasterMatt]

Disneyland's a wonderful place to be hosed :evil:

[innerSpaceman]

If we do crappy, I will trot out the excuse than one-third of our team won't be playing. We are like a well-oiled machine, and the absence of one third of our winning juggernaut is likely to make a bit of difference.


(Though, of course, the only other time we "really" played with two-thirds of our team .... well, we still came in First.)

[Prudence]

I get to use the "but I'm new!" excuse. And bat my eyelashes.



And then giggle as the other teams bob about in our wake.

[RStar]

And then giggle as the other teams bob about in our wake.I did what???

;)

[€uroMeinke]

I miss trivia

[Alex]

There will be trivia for prizes at the awards ceremony.

[RStar]

I love the triva also, but spent very little time on it because I was busy doing the quests.

I love this idea of the trivia before the awards!

Thanks, guys! (and Alex if it was your brilliant idea!)

[MouseWife]

I am so out of the loop~

Are people going just to hang out and not participate? I am not knowledged enough to participate but I am really jones-ing for a day at the park....

[Ghoulish Delight]

We avoided the trivia because it's just not our forte. What we know is the park. The rest (movies, the company, specific dates, people, etc.), not so much. So it never made sense for us to take the trivia.

Of course, there was that time where we outscored everyone, including the winner of the combined, with our quest score alone. In other words, had we entered the combined and just ignored the trivia packet, we would still have won. Made me wish we'd been entering the combined taking 30 seconds to answer "C" to all the questions. But that was our last competative traditional MA before we were retired after the inaugural Enchanted Race.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I am so out of the loop~

Are people going just to hang out and not participate? I am not knowledged enough to participate but I am really jones-ing for a day at the park....Yeah, there's always a handful of people around that aren't playing. There's even the chance that the staff might want an extra pair of hands or eyes.

Of course, us competitors won't be particularly social once the event begins, but the milling about beforehand and the congratulatory/conciliatory dinners afterwards are always fun. And I'm sure it's amusing to watch as several hundred people scurry about the park doing some very bizarre things.

[MouseWife]

Yeah, there's always a handful of people around that aren't playing. There's even the chance that the staff might want an extra pair of hands or eyes.

Of course, us competitors won't be particularly social once the event begins, but the milling about beforehand and the congratulator/conciliatory dinners afterwards are always fun. And I'm sure it's amusing to watch as several hundred people scurry about the park doing some very bizarre things.

I guess, maybe, times and such are posted somewhere?

Hee hee, I am really curious to see several hundred people scurrying about the park doing very bizarre things....:D

I am going to go have a look see for schedules....

Thanks for the info!

[innerSpaceman]

Meh, trivia was our ace-in-the-hole.

Our recent lousy scores have not been so much a refletion that we're no longer good at the game as much as we're not as good at the different game that's now being played.

[Stan4dSteph]

Confirmation email #1 has been sent out. Here's a link to the information on MousePad (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?p=962495#post962495).

Be sure to read it. It has all information relating to schedule.

[MouseWife]

I am quite bummed.

I have to work.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Ooooh, looks like my team has snuck into the photo-challange. Whoowhoo!

[RStar]

Yes, I'm Photo Challenged as well....:)

[katiesue]

Question - did the last Enchanted Race include eye-spy's? Just checking on what I should be studying.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Question - did the last Enchanted Race include eye-spy's? Just checking on what I should be studying.
No. Since it was purely a "who crossed the line first" event, with no time bonuses (which distinguishes it from the Mad Scamble format), Eye Spy becomes moot.

[katiesue]

Thank you - thought so but wanted to make sure I was remembering correctly.

[€uroMeinke]

Our Elusive team member may become even more elusive - Hmmmmm

[NirvanaMan]

:evil:

[Ghoulish Delight]

On the lamb from the lobster cops?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Just got the email...9am to 4pm....my legs hurt already!

That trivia game sounds like fun.

[RStar]

That trivia game sounds like fun.

Except that after your legs hurt, they make you STAND UP for the trivia game!:eek: :D

Makes you want to lose so you can sit!;)

[Alex]

Anybody been watching the weather reports for the weekend. See what Prudence caused?

[€uroMeinke]

Anybody been watching the weather reports for the weekend. See what Prudence caused?

Sorry, that curse long predates Prudence's post

[innerSpaceman]

Not even God has the power to alter MouseAdventure weather.


Reports and Predictions are meaningless!

[BarTopDancer]

Not even God has the power to alter MouseAdventure weather.


Reports and Predictions are meaningless!

I don't know about that. It was nice and cool the past 3 MouseAdventures.

I think P reinstated the curse.

[Prudence]

It's true, actually, I specifically requested that the weather gods give me temps in the range of 75-80. :evil:

[BarTopDancer]

It's true, actually, I specifically requested that the weather gods give me temps in the range of 75-80. :evil:

I don't want to hear/see any complaining about the heat from you missy. You have no idea of what you speak.

[Prudence]

I'll have to practice my evil cackle between now and Sunday.

[Not Afraid]

Well, we are squeeking under the requirement line with only 2 previous team members. But, we've brought in 2 special prosecutors. ;)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Well, we are squeeking under the requirement line with only 2 previous team members. But, we've brought in 2 special prosecutors. ;)
OMG that's right, the legal connection didn't even occur to me. Hah!

Hmm, who else is in the legal field?

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

So, is there going to be an after-MA swanking or just sitting in a corner wishing we'd worn different shoes type deal?

[Not Afraid]

So, is there going to be an after-MA swanking or just sitting in a corner wishing we'd worn different shoes type deal?

I'll go anywhere, as long as you carry me.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Good luck to all you swankers!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

So, is there going to be an after-MA swanking or just sitting in a corner wishing we'd worn different shoes type deal?I figure we'll gravitate towards each other after the event and make decisions then. Too early for Whitewater breakfast, that's for sure. See you guys in the masses on the esplanade.

[Prudence]

Eeep! I hope I haven't forgotten to pack anything!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Can't f'n sleep! Can't f'n sleep! ARGHHH

Off to try again, see you tomorrow (TODAY).

[innerSpaceman]

Ah, perfectly rested and relaxated. What a beautiful day for a mouseadventure.

See y'all at the Park.



Oh, CP and GD ... guys, ya know I love ya. But today .... IT'S ON!!


(so please forgive the snarling and nasty looks and any other usual MA Day indications of worst enemyhood.)

[Ghoulish Delight]

It's times like this that I love living 5 minutes away from Disneyland.

[innerSpaceman]

You heard it everyone .... back to Ghoulish Delight's place for post-MouseAdventure celebration or consolation!!

[Snowflake]

You heard it everyone .... back to Ghoulish Delight's place for post-MouseAdventure celebration or consolation!!

Everyone into the pool!

Have fun at MA and may everyone be a winning team!

[tracilicious]

Wishing everyone a painful day of heat exhaustion and frustrating puzzles.

(Just kidding, I'm just jealous!)

Have fun!

[RStar]

Well, it was a great time! I did about half the quests, which is about twice as many as usual! GD & CP, I don't know how you do it! You did about 4 times the work in 2 hours less!

I like the slower pace of the Photo open game though. Not as frustrating and frantic. We did have a player drop out so it was only two of us.

We need the extra brain becuse ours don't work as good as yours. ;)

[tracilicious]

Who won?!

[RStar]

The results for the Photo game have not been tabulated yet.

And the rest you have to wait for the results on MousePlanet :evil: ;)

[innerSpaceman]

Venerable Masters Team Brother Bear Won the Invitational. Awesomely.

I'm afraid the two other placing teams were unknowns to me, so I'll leave that for someone else or check mouseplanet.

Not that it will make a difference, but Superstar Losers, with a new lineup this time that increased their Lot Members to 3, was one of the few teams to even finish .... but they also got all the correct answers ... except put some in the wrong boxes, blowing themselves out of first place. UGH!!!

The Happy Haunts also finished ... which, for this game, I consider quite a feat. (Of 40 Invitational teams, only 11 finished the course.)


My team, the Denton Affair did beyond lame .... but that is NOT the reason why this had to have been, imo, the worst mouseadventure I can remember.


With apologies to all who devised this one, but it simply was - - again my opinion only - - - way too low on fun. I've had games where the enjoyment factor was low, but we did real well and that made it feel good (at the end) - - and I've had games where we did very poorly, but the game itself was a grand old time. This was doing poorly with a stupifyingly boring game that was too much puzzle-sitting, and not enough park adventuring.

Ah well, they can't all be gems. But bleh, I really did not enjoy this one at all.

[BarTopDancer]

My team had a blast. And for the first time in my 10 or so MouseAdventures, we finished!

It wasn't nearly as evil as the last Invitational; we could all walk after.

More later. Bed now.

[innerSpaceman]

I will not be playing the Invitational again. I don't like the concept at all. First of all, I despise the Mad Scramble format of all or nothing, either you have this one particular skill or you lose. I think, frankly, the whole thing is devised to make the scoring easier on the staff, and I call shenanigans on that for making it less fun for the participants (imo).

As for the Invitational in particular ... I think the object of making it more difficult is poorly executed. More difficult in terms of puzzlier puzzles, constant puzzles for every frelling little thing, even poorer instructions than usual or none at all .... It's all a reliance on puzzle excellence and not - as I would think more appropriate - - a reliance on DISNEYLAND excellence.


I simply prefer the stuff that tests and expands your knowledge of the parks and the resort, attention to beautiful detail - - and, most important, discovery of detail and use of the Parks for expanded levels of playfulness.

I applaud the Invitational scheme for requiring players to experience actual attractions ... but otherwise I felt it was too short on the elements that made me a mouseadventure fanatic.


Plus, I'll have to admit ... maybe I'm even a little burnt out. (although, the last game ... a Mad Scramble at that ... was intensely fun. So I think I'm perfectly capable of thoroughly enjoying a game that has my desired playfulness and discovery aspects.)


I'm going into semi retirement. I won't be playing any future Invitationals or Mad Scrambles, but I'll happily participate in good old MouseAdventure Classic when and if it happens to come around.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Well, I can still walk!

Sadly, we were undone by one simple fact...we NEVER get lockers. And thus, presented with a drawing of a pile of suitcases to find, the Main Street lockers never ocurred to us. Even after taking a 20 minute penalty to get hints (which informed us that it was on Main Street, not an attraction, and inside), we walked into every single open door on Main Street EXCEPT the lockers. And when we were forced to then take a second, 40 minute, penalty to skip the quest, we had a gut-wrenching, head-slapping moment the second they said, "It's a locker combination." Once they said that, the image of those lockers jumped into my head, clear as day. AAARGH!

So yeah, 60 minutes of penalties plus the wasted time wandering around in vain. At that point, we felt utterly defeated. And, idiotically, we failed to remember our lesson from the last Invitational...even if we feel like we're doing terribly, odds are that means other people are as well. Had we kept our pace up, even after that, we learned that we may have still been in contention. As it was, we eventually switched our goal to "just FINISH", which we did, and in what turned out to be a respectible time.

I thought there was a lot of fun stuff. From having to spot the Zip-a-Dee poster on the Splash river boat while on the train, to spying 3 "blooms" (brightly colored umbrellas scattered about DCA by the staff) from atop the Sunwheel, to my crash course on how to use a compass, I thought there was a lot of clever stuff. Though, having beta tested the open game, I liked some of those quests better.

HUGE congrats to all the others that finished. Hell, to anyone who even attempted. Damn we're a bunch of masochists.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

although, the last game ... a Mad Scramble at that ... was intensely fun.
<snip>
I won't be playing any future Invitationals or Mad Scrambles...Huh? I know you love saying "bah", but this seems a bit contradictory, at best.

I have to admit, this was not a fun game for us for one big portion of it. The first quest on Main Street we simply couldn't get right, and we're still not sure what we had wrong, as we just fudged an answer. This lead to the second quest's answers so we were stuck there too for a while till we could make some sense of the chart and make a guess. Then we hit the Buzz quest which was fun to begin with but ended up our downfall...

Since we never use the lockers on Main Street we were absolutely stuck, to the point of taking 1 hour in penalties, not to mention all the time we spent wandering around trying to find it. That was not fun - it was totally demoralizing to have to go first ask for advice and then simply give up and get a pass - both of which we never, ever do. And then, of course, it's obvious, right in front of our faces, but we never would have thought of it.

Thankfully, we were able to shake off the blues enough to enjoy the rest of the nifty quests, many of which were in DCA. I know the compass caused others some pain but for us it wasn't bad and allowed us to actually use good park knowledge, such as using the park map to find phones, and my immediate recall of the Nescafe billboard. The ears puzzle had us puzzled a while which was a bit of a downer until I finally went "Lend me your ears! YOUR EARS!!" as I grabbed GD's mouseeared head. On the Sun Wheel GD had that great A-ha while noticing the umbrella blooms. I love those golden MA moments and there were plenty of those to go around.

It seemed everyone was spread out so thin it was very hard to figure out where we stood. Of course when we did poorly we thought everyone was ahead of us, and something about the layout of the game made it hard to tell when we passed people. In any case, after our stumble on Main Street we barely saw anyone.

At the very end we handed in our clock times and decided to give it the ol' gas to get to the last station (after not really rushing due to feeling like we were totally out of contention) and in doing so we passed a team to the finish, as they had to stop and get a park map, having lost theirs. THAT felt good. :cool: Though I think they got 2nd place anyway....

We didn't stick around long enough to get scores so we'll have to wait until Wednesday. In the end I'm an MA addict and I just love too much about the game to get bummed by the tough parts. And we finished!!! We'll be back, always. :D

I'd love to hear what people thought of the Open, it was fun to test.

[innerSpaceman]

Sadly, we were undone by one simple fact...we NEVER get lockers.
Heheh, and we were undone by my teammate's intense magnetic field which causes compasses to spin wildly out of control and never point north. Whatever. It's the fact that one shortfall in one area spells doom. I hate it.

Although, and just my personal preference here, I'd rather the reliance on Park knowledge (i.e. lockers) be a singular factor than the reliance on skills that don't have anything to do with Disneyland.




Just to be clear, I'm not grumbling because we lost. It's clear that my championship days are far behind me. I'm grumbling because it wasn't fun for me. Hahaha, the lockers / Buzz quest was the only thing I enjoyed. It's all a matter of taste, I suppose.


And CP, having liked only one Mad Scramble out of all of them leads me quite confidently to skip them in the future.

[Gemini Cricket]

Steve's fooling no one. He'll play again... and again... and again...
:D

[Not Afraid]

I have 2 blisters on the bottom of my left foot, but otherwise I'm feeling pretty god in the muscle category. This cold, however, has turned me into a major snot producer. (Hey, I'm trying for payback for the vomit posts. ;))

As for the game, we tanked. We had a really fun time.....until we ran head-first into a very hard brick wall. GC knew our drawing was the lockers right away. I think we were one of the first to get that packet. Unfortunately, that packet contained a compass and there is where our troubles began. Prudence's fantastic puzzle-solving skills couldn't dig us out of the deep hole we had stepped into. We waited way too long to give in and take a penalty, and therefore we didn't finish.

I found the puzzles in this format to be really fun and challenging, but when you hit that wall, it hurts in a big way. There's not a whole lot of strategy that can be incorporated like there is in classic MA format. This particular event also relied too much on other skills (2 compass activities - one of which was long and hard!). That right there threw us out of the running (although Chris DID bring his own compass as a joke not knowing that it would actually come in handy - that is, IF he knew how to use it.). Next time we WILL bring that grappling hook.

I was also disappointed that the umbrellas came down before 4:00. Not that we could've finished the game in time, but we did spend our last 20 minutes walking around Paradise Pier looking for "Orlando Bloom, Bialystock & Bloom, Move yer Bloomin' arse" or any straw that might work.

We had a lot of fun playing with Pru and GC and would love to play again with these two, since it seems that A is definitely going to be out of the race and Steph is staff. Damnit, DL and MP - stop stealing our team!

[Not Afraid]

OH NO! Ryan (Pru's husband) called. Pru's flight's been cancelled and she won't know if they will be able to get her on another flight today until at least 12:30. Apparently, Seattle is in the middle of a deluge and the airport is closed. Poor Pru's phone has a low battery as well. I may have to go rescue her and give her another night at Hotel Swank. This time, I will slip the comass into HER luggage. :evil:

[CoasterMatt]

Prudence can stay at our place!

[Ghoulish Delight]

Simultanously obnoxious and hillarious moment of the day:

The first quest had us running around Main Street and Town Square. While counting canons in Town Square, we suddenly saw a member of another team running away from the Mad Hatter.

"Why are you running away?" asks the Hatter.
"Because you're trying to take my number!" the horrified contestant responds, referring to the numbered sticker all MA players must wear during the game to identify their team.
"I'm not trying," the Hatter implores. "I'm going to!"

Not a minute later, I'm suddenly aware that someone is hovering at my right shoulder. I move slightly to regain my personal space, but I can sense that they are still there. I look down in time to witness Alice pull my number off my sleeve. My first reaction was to angrily yank it right back out of her hand. Fortunately I calmed down enough to realize how wonderfully silly the whole scene must have been for tourists watching and restrained my usual competative snarl to a simple, "I need that," as I walked away in a huff.

[katiesue]

We had a great time but also got held up in a few places and waited way way too long to take a penalty. This isn't our best format and it was very puzzle intensive, I suck at puzzles.

We knew the code was a locker code but wasted a bazillion hours trying to figure out the picture instead of just going to the lockers and trying to figure it out from in there.

The compass was also our downfall. And try as we might we did not see anything resembling a "bloom" with numbers from the Sunwheel. We did finally recognize an MP staffer and see the umbrella on the ground, then walked around and got the other two numbers. We also didn't count Grizzly River Rapids as a mountain (I mean technically is it really considered a mountain?). We figured that out right as time was up so didn't get further.

Loved going on a lot of attractions to find answers. And the mouse ears quest was a lot of fun. As Swanie stated more than once, "we are definately getting our money's worth".

I really enjoyed the trivia portion at the awards. I thought it was a really fun addition.

We'll definately do it again.

[NirvanaMan]

I'm gravely disappointed today. Not because we did so poorly (even though during the game we thought we were) but rather because we did so well and then rushed at the last minute and transposed our answers. The teams of Superstar Losers and Ralph Wiggum, Fej and the POP featuring Nirvanaman were both down two members so we joined forces to form the superteam of Superstar Losers featuring the POP and Nirvanaman (formerly of Ralph Wiggum, Fej and the POP featuring Nirvanaman). Powerhouse that we thought we were, we all failed to produce even one clipboard. Amateur move right there. No worries though, I happened to have a hearty Range Rover brochure handy in my bag that served the purpose just fine.

We were doing great at the beginning, thanks to Andrew's quick thinking, and we were in second place just mere seconds behind first. That is until the evil map/lockers/buzz lightyear quest. None of us rent lockers either so the fact that the number was a locker combination didn't dawn on us until it was far too late. We were sure the drawing was an architectural map of some sort...to the point where we almost convinced ourselves that it was a map of Hollywood in DCA. However, we still couldn't make sense of the code or even what we would do when we got there. We thought the code may refer to numbers on the map, and it did correlate with all of the buildings in the Hollywood section of DCA...but we still had no idea as to what we would do once there. So, we ran around tomorrowland, went in all the stores, and even braved innoventions. Heck, worst case some secret clues might start glowing right? But no luck. We were about to give in...which no one on the team wanted to do...and use the cursed failure envelope to give up on the task and go to the next step. Then Babette reread the clue, which we had all done a million times, and focused in on the word "unlock." We then had a bit of a brainstorm, and decided maybe we should try the lockers...even though there were clearly no instructions of any sort that indicated we should go there. Even still, some on the team were encouraging the use of the dreaded envelope...but we pursued on. After all, there aren't that many lockers in DL right? Once in the locker room, we saw the luggage and cursed the evildooers. Never had I stepped foot in that room before. Drained and feeling like we failed...we moved on.

We did well again from here on out for the most part. We checked into the next location to discover we had fallen back to the 11th place team. Pretty big fall, but perhaps there was still a chance. Isaac saved us 20 minutes of torture by having memorized the entire spiel to the Tiki Room. Bouncing through several answers, depending on how the question was interpreted, he was finally confident of his answer. And really, who knows the park better than him. We trusted his instinct and went with it. This was our chance to catch up a bit after our fake map failure. We opened the envelope. Phew...looks like we were right and this next bit is a legitimate quest. Babette rescued us by breezing through the Soduku, instantly recognizing the need to translate symbols into numbers. Once we had a concept of where we were heading, we assumed incorrectly that the answer would be Splash Mountain. We were aware that DCA was still a possibility but we decided to head down to Splash anyway to save time.

Well it would seem that these fancy soduku puzzles seem to change constantly, as Babette had warned us. We were now certain that we needed to head to DCA and we couldn't be further away. No biggie. We headed to Grizzly, which was wrong (and closed) and we headed back to Soaring to solve the next clue, which we did in record time.

Collecting eyespyes along the way, we were actually doing much better than any of us realized. We had few problems with the compass exercise, save a bit of time having difficulty in tracking down those tires and we called the correct phone number on the first try, after getting all the answers correct. Off to the sunwheel, where Babette's sharp eyes caught those umbrellas, that the rest of us didn't see at first. I really have to argue that an umbrellas is not a bloom, but whatever. It was a lot of fun. So after we solved the remainder of that puzzle, I believe it was time to head back to DL, but not before a quick stop at ToT cause I was sure that art deco clock had to be somewhere over there. It was, and we captured the time (there was some disagreement about this with the officials at the end, but it was resolved).

Back into the park for the final test, which seemed to be more of a wild goose chase than anything so we didn't complete all of it as it didn't seem to make much sense. We correctly solved the final riddle and then we were off to the judging desk with only moments to spare. We then needed to do some funny math with the times on all the clocks we collected (we found all but one of these eyesspys) and then needed to transfer this to the answer sheet. And herein lies the problem. In the chaos of the last minute rushing and screams to turn the packet in, we did not realize that the lettering system used to identify the eyespys failed to follow normal English conventions in that it labeled photos down the column vertically, then over to the next column, as opposed to moving left to right…in the same manner in which we read. This seemingly minor transgression and a failure to double-check our work given time pressures lead to udder devastation as we handed in our answer sheet and watched as large X's were drawn through all of our seemingly correct answers. Wrong wrong wrong…was what we heard. All the right numbers were on the page…we failed to place them in the correct boxes.

So…all that..for naught. 7 hours. Miles of walking. And in the end, we did it all, and did it all correctly. We never gave in to the temptation of the penalty envelopes and we were vigilant in pursuing the eyespys. Needless to say, that leads to mixed emotions. Yes we were one of only 25% of teams to finish. That's little consolation. Actually, it would have felt better had we failed in earnest as opposed to a minor secretarial transgression. What hurt the most was that after what seemed like an impossibility due to our struggles with the locker task, it looks like we would have placed first, instead of ninth, had we simply double-checked the placement of our correct answers. Utterly devastating.

Of course..this is just some silly Mickey Mouse game…right? Right?

[RStar]

I'm feeling pretty god in the muscle category.
I make more than my share of typos, but I couldn't help but chuckle on this one. Sorry Lisa!:D

I thought you felt stronger when I hugged you!!;)

Oh, and the Buzz quest for the open teams....

We had to ride it 4 times to get the scores right!:rolleyes:

Sorry to hear about that little, but devistating mistake, NervanaMan!

[Chernabog]

Well it LOOKED like y'all were having fun when I ran into you yesterday...

I am still glad I am not participating -- after that year when I was literally screaming at my teammates out of sheer annoyance and frustration, I realized events like that are not for me :)

[CoasterMatt]

I am still glad I am not participating -- after that year when I was literally screaming at my teammates out of sheer annoyance and frustration, I realized events like that are not for me :)
I came to the same conclusion - I wonder who my teammates were? :p

[Chernabog]

I came to the same conclusion - I wonder who my teammates were? :p

I wonder! I wonder! I wonder why Matt and Rose don't talk about it... :D

MouseAdventure + Chernabog = A$$holebog ..... he doesn't come out to play too much but I don't like him at Disneyland :)

[RStar]

I had to me nice to my team mate. It was my mom......:eek:

[Not Afraid]

OH NO! Ryan (Pru's husband) called. Pru's flight's been cancelled and she won't know if they will be able to get her on another flight today until at least 12:30. Apparently, Seattle is in the middle of a deluge and the airport is closed. Poor Pru's phone has a low battery as well. I may have to go rescue her and give her another night at Hotel Swank. This time, I will slip the compass into HER luggage. :evil:

Well, I still have the damn compass and Pru is in Seattle. I'll let her share the details.

[Babette]

Nirvanaman said it all! Except: [smacking forehead] stupid, stupid, stupid! I cannot believe I transposed the friggin numbers!! All the answers were right, just in the wrong boxes. We were one of the few teams to actually find the clock times, and it didn't matter. We were so rushed, we had like 10 seconds to turn it in or be DQd at 4:00. The boys were pushing for the "Finish Line" envelope and I was convinced we could finish! The 60 minute penalty put us exactly 59 minutes after first place. We would have won by one minuite! One minute! Sorry guys! You were an awesome team!

My main complaint with this format is too many puzzles and all at separate times. Four people had to be doing the same puzzle or just sit around feeling useless. You try to find a way to help, but end up distracting the solver and wasting more time! Working all together means a plethera of hands and arms blocking the portion of the page you are trying to decode so they can fill in the answer they've solved. Not so efficient. I like when you get many quests together so you can divide and conquer. Then, check each other's work. You turn it all in and hope you got 'em right!

I didn't like any of the prizes anyhow!:p

[Prudence]

I made it home! Sheesh. It rained something like 6 inches today. At the moment I'm peeved that I went and bought the fancy TSA locks and they STILL cut it off my bag to search it. What the hell kind of scam is that? Now I have to go see what they stole. Grrr.

Stupid stupid compass! I think that for the next MA I will practice starting fires using a flint and catching and preparing my own food from park wildlife.

[innerSpaceman]

Heheheh, the entire game was custom-made for zapppop. I call shenanigans. Ahem, he routinely gets the daily high score on Buzz Lightyear, and who else has the entire (and I mean entire) soundtrack of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Roomcommitted to memory? (not to mention every other attraction in both parks!)


I have to agree with Babette that the constant puzzles all on one page meant other teammates sitting around doing nothing, or attempting (in my case) to do what I could from looking over shoulder. I much preferred when there was trivia or some other activities to spread among the team members. I am not the main puzzler on my team (though I contributed a bit when things got sticky) ... so, to me, there was all too much nothing going on too much of the time. Though I spend that time trying to figure ways to the answer without doing the puzzle, and that often pans out nicely!


I have to give kudos where due. There were some fun elements ... even in quests that, on the whole, I did not like. Hiding game materials in lockers was clever. Buzz Lightyear score battle was resourceful of a newish attraction. Spying things ON attractions (Disneyland RR, Monsters, Inc.) was a fun twist. Calling in to a phone recording was cute ... but Compasses was an unmitigated disaster (imo) that I hope never to see repeated. (I am reminded of the infamous sextant quest that was thrown out, with everyone getting full credit, after we'd spent almost an hour on it!)


For the Invitational, I was surprised (in an unpleasant way) of how little of the resort was in play. I mean, the last Mad Scramble had us going to The Disneyland Hotel, one of the parking lots, the ESPN Zone and the Grand Cal, in addition to DCA. I really expected to see more outside the usual MouseAdventure Zone of Play ... and I was very disappointed in that regard.

I am also surprised that so many people did not recognize the drawing as luggage and packing boxes. I mean, not necessarily every member of the team ... but certainly the person who transferred the drawings from the original page to the grid. Hmmm, just surprises me. Now, knowing where that stuff was in the Park is something else.

The words "unlock" and "combination" finally gave it to us, but there were so many other hint-like words that ultimately meant nothing. I kinda don't like the vagueness of this Invitational ... in a game where you must complete the task in order to move along.

And, in that vain, I HATED that MouseAdventure Central was in the Esplanade. Sheesh, a Jumpstart or Roadside Assistance should have had no further time penalty than the time it took to get there from a team's likely hang-up point. There were times we would have taken the Jump Start, but were too darn far away from the Esplanade. A 40-minute penalty would have come to twice that!


So we tried to muddle thru ... we did get a little assist from a couple of staffers in the parks, and actually got a good piece of help from MA Central without having to use our Roadside Assistance envelope, which was very nice.

As usual, in fact, the staff was helpful, pleasant, fun and professional throughout. That's one element of MouseAdventure that never varies and is always appreciated.

[Prudence]

Oh yeah - as much as I personally wasn't a fan of the compass, I had a great time. I've had a really rough month, some of which I've disclosed and some of which was just too unpleasant to talk about any more than necessary. I didn't know when I signed up to do this that I would have needed the escape as badly as I did. It could not have come at a better time. I was so busy, it was sunny (sorry, y'all), and I was at the Disneyland Resort with nary a neuron to spare for my spat of angst. It was the perfect time to ignore my life for a few days.

So, thanks to NA and Euro for their generosity and fabulous hosting skills, and to GC for sharing my Coke obssession and making it so that I wasn't the only new person on the team.

April, eh? Hmmmmm.....

[NirvanaMan]

I am also surprised that so many people did not recognize the drawing as luggage and packing boxes. I mean, not necessarily every member of the team ... but certainly the person who transferred the drawings from the original page to the grid. Hmmm, just surprises me. Now, knowing where that stuff was in the Park is something else.


4 people staring at it for an hour...not one of us saw "luggage". Maybe because we had already decided it was architectural diagram of part of the park, what with all the umbrellas and benches clearly displayed on the map...

Not just that...but we actually redrew it! That's right, because we all rather hastily drew in our own pieces it was a bit sloppy. Not that redrawing it helped us at all! We still couldn't figure out what the hell part of the park it was supposed to represent.

Not that we would have had any idea what to do had we seen luggage...


So does anyone know...what happened if you lost the Buzz battle?

[€uroMeinke]

I had to get up at 5:00 this morning to go to work and finally felt the pain of the day before. Exhausted, sore, and happy to have survived another. I had fun, and eventhough the Sudoko quest misdirected us to Critter Country, it seemed like we always had a chance - well, until the sun wheel anyway. The Compass killed us, bevause it seemed we had three possible locations for each question. Even when we were certain of our answers we must have called something like a dozen stranges in our quest to find the right number. I wish we saw the blooms, that seems like it would have been a great aha moment.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

So does anyone know...what happened if you lost the Buzz battle?You had to play again and again until you beat someone, as RStar said above. GD felt bad because the guy he beat was trying for the third time. Now I'm really glad he always plays Buzz with a game face. :)

4 people staring at it for an hour...not one of us saw "luggage". Did any of you look at the original sheets with the pieces? If there was one thing I knew about that damn puzzle it was that they were luggage pieces....but I'm guessing that once they were transposed you just kept looking at the full stack.
but Compasses was an unmitigated disaster (imo) that I hope never to see repeated. (I am reminded of the infamous sextant quest that was thrown out, with everyone getting full credit, after we'd spent almost an hour on it!)
I know it's "imo" but but it can't be "unmitigated" if others did well on it...which we did. There was no reason to throw it out because it was totally doable.

ACK my break is over more later

[innerSpaceman]

Did any of you look at the original sheets with the pieces?
Yeah, that's what I meant? Whoever was looking at the original drawings
(unless - sorry to say - really ditzed out) had to know it was packing crates and luggage and trunks. They had shipping labels all over them, by golly. They were perfect line drawings of suitcases, crates and trunks (oh, and one flower pot, huh?)

even though the Sudoko quest misdirected us to Critter Country...
That's where my Skip-the-Frelling-Puzzle skills came into play. Just about any fastpass would work. It was just a matter of finding one of the right ones (of which I suspect there were many). It was far quicker to try a couple of FP locations than to complete the puzzle. (BTW, even though it apparently wasn't the correct answer, a California Screamin' fast pass worked perfectly to decipher the next clue.)

Similarly with the cross-word, just putting in the last line or two got the question that was needed. I suck at puzzles, but am great at figuring out how to get away with as little solving as possible!

[€uroMeinke]

And why is it so hard to get another beer at Mimi's?

[innerSpaceman]

I was glad just to get my dinner.


(after a bit of deja vu reminder of why I haven't been there in years)

[NirvanaMan]

You had to play again and again until you beat someone

Ouch. Glad we sent Isaac to do it. That was a pretty easy decision.


Did any of you look at the original sheets with the pieces? If there was one thing I knew about that damn puzzle it was that they were luggage pieces....but I'm guessing that once they were transposed you just kept looking at the full stack.

Sure did. I remember saying at one point that we needed to go back to the originals to see if they made any more sense. They didn't. We then thought about cutting out the originals to place on the grids, as perhaps our drawing skills were to blame...they weren't. We saw plenty of buildings, tables, chairs and benches...but certainly no luggage. For whatever reason, I believe our minds were locked on the fact that this was an overhead 2d view of something big, as in a land in DL. Though we did consider the fact that perhaps this was a representation of a mosaic of some sort, even hoping that the mosaics in Inoventions would provide the answer, we never saw luggage. I think its like one of those eye teaser puzzles. Now, had we been able to leave it and come back to it later in the competition, maybe one of the four of us would have seen something else there. But, who knows.

[NirvanaMan]

Yeah, that's what I meant? Whoever was looking at the original drawings
(unless - sorry to say - really ditzed out) had to know it was packing crates and luggage and trunks. They had shipping labels all over them, by golly. They were perfect line drawings of suitcases, crates and trunks (oh, and one flower pot, huh?)


Well, that would be the entire team. A team that did finish the game btw. ;)

But in all seriousness, no, no one saw it. And I would hardly say it was clear. What you call "shipping labels" you have to realize were rectangles with other rectangles inside of them. Hardly definitive. Then there were the things that looked like wastebaskets with trash in them...oh and those things that looked like envelopes. One of which, had an extra circle in it. Yes..clear as day.

Who the **** packs a flower pot anyway?

[Alex]

You all played the version of that Adrienne was responsible for so I don't want speak as the official voice or anything.

That said, some comments.

Surprisingly, I agree with Steve at a personal level. If I were a player (and I've remarked on the irony before that I have never actually played MouseAdventure, its predecessor, or any of the similar events) I don't think I would care for the Enchanted Race format. I think my contributions would lie in multitasking well and overall strategy. So, I would likely be iffy on the game no matter how well done.

That said, it is the fundamental nature of a road rally type event that tasks come at you one at a time and you don't advance until you've completed it. That's why we originally came up with the Mad Scramble format. It perverts the pure time/race nature and allows for more multitasking (combining single tasks that must be completed before moving on but also having quite a few "event wide" events).

Where might you have placed MouseAdventure Central such that the problem described wouldn't have happened. If it had been inside Disneyland, then teams in DCA (where about half the game took place) would have resisted using it even more.

Lisa and Chris, so far as I know the umbrellas were in place until 4:00 p.m. Is it possible you just didn't see them?

I don't remember who came up with the idea of compasses but the way in which they were used was completely my idea, so I get the blame for that. That said, the first use of the compass was intended to be relatively easy to give you a chance to figure out the use before getting to the complex stuff later. Also, by orienting Main Street, it allows you to orient and align the two park maps which means you could sit at a table and approximately locate each spot before moving. Sorry you didn't like it, Steve, and I did have my worries after the map orienting puzzle last fall.

I hold no illusions that every idea we have will be gold, but let me tell you that after 13 of these things sometimes I'm just happy that we can still come up with ideas at all. Particularly for something like the Invitational where we know that all of the teams will be well familiar with our standard elements, unlike in this open where half of the teams qualified as new.

[Alex]

Who the **** packs a flower pot anyway?

Hat box.

[NirvanaMan]

Eh, I liked the compass task. While it did not necessarily give you an exact location, it got you close enough where you would then have to hunt a bit. I thought it was fresh, clever and rather fun.

[innerSpaceman]

Oh, and I, too, appreciate the effort - often successful - to come up with fresh ideas after all this time.

I would prefer that iffy ones (if the staff does consider them iffy) be saved for the classic format, where it's not all or nothing.

And yes, I realize that the Esplanade was the only central point between two parks ... which, to my way of thinking, made it pretty much useless for both of them. Rather, I think there should have been some staffed location in each park. Having to take a big time penalty is bad enough without having to go so far (and back) for the privilege.

Sorry to nik pit. I know (believe me I know) it's not easy to come up with these games, and to keep them fresh year after year after year.


But, as with Alex, my skills lie in strategy and multitasking. No more Mad Scramble for me. Just not my cup of tea.

(And I hate to think how much I would have hated the compasses if I wasn't constantly tickled that €uro actually brought his own in a prescient bit of flukery.)

[Not Afraid]

I have no complaints about the locker quest, but we (by we, I mean Brad) got it right away. It was an absolute breeze and a real high. But, I can completely see thinking it was a 2d diagram of an arial layout.

The compass thing was just no fun for us. We couldn't get good readings no matter what method we tried (and we had another compass to work with). That may have just been operator error, but we wern't even CLOSE with the phone location and we scrambled through quite a few "possible" stores for the Walt pictures before giving up and just dialing random possibilities. (Apologies to the people who answered at the wrong number.)

Lisa and Chris, so far as I know the umbrellas were in place until 4:00 p.m. Is it possible you just didn't see them?

Of course that's a possibility. One umbrella was spotted but the word "bloom" completely mislead us. Maybe there is a connection between the word "bloom" and the word "umbrella" that I'm just not getting, but it completely stumped us.

I still love the game, though. But, somehow, we just seem to keep getting worse at it rather than better. What's up with that?

[Alex]

Because of the Invitiational, though, some sad young Boy Scout went to one of several Orange County Wal-Marts last week in search of a cheap (but reasonably accurate) compass only to go away empty handed.

The humanitarian toll of MouseAdventure is phenomenal.

By the way, I just looked and saw that the high yesterday was 90 degrees. Just a couple days earlier the forecast was 80 degrees. The power of MouseAdventure to make the sun hotter is awe-inspiring. Someday I'm going to schedule the game so that we make the sun go dark in the middle of it and all the savages (players) will tremble before us.

[innerSpaceman]

And here I was thinking it was Global Warming. Silly me.



Oh, and no kidding ... my teammate cannot wear a wristwatch because of her wacky magnetic field. Watches freak out within moments of being in range of her. I would not be at all surprised if more than human error was at work in our compass disaster (human freakery being the other component).

And, hahaha, we started dialing random phone numbers, too. I hope we didnt' bother any of the same people!

[NirvanaMan]

Today was much hotter, so let's be thankful it wasn't today.

[Not Afraid]

(And I hate to think how much I would have hated the compasses if I wasn't constantly tickled that €uro actually brought his own in a prescient bit of flukery.)


Of course, had we not tanked, we would probably have be disqualified for using outside material.

[Babette]

Compasses was an unmitigated disaster (imo) that I hope never to see repeated. Well, even if they use them again, you won't see it repeated since you won't be playing anymore. :p

I liked the compass game. You just had to stop for a moment and let it settle. Turning the compass to make it go where you want only sends it spinning and wobbling. North is always north.

Some people are ditzes about recognizing sketches of luggage, some are ditzes about using a compass, some are ditzes for not matching correct letters to corresponding boxes. That is what makes the game so fun. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. MouseAdventure..yaaaayyyy!

[Alex]

What did you all think of the puzzle that lead you to Buzz? The one you did on the train or Mark Twain? We were calling it the advent calendar puzzle, the one you had to cut the windows into the letter grid.

[€uroMeinke]

So, did anyone here do the photo-quest thing? It sounded cool at least conceptually.

[Not Afraid]

We didn't have any problem with the "advent" puzzle. I'm just glad someone with better eyes saw the date on the paddle boat, or we would've been screwed. ;)

Fej asked m earlier today if we chose Train or Twain. The Twain wasn't running when we got there, so we made the obvious decision. Did anyone choose Twain?


I loved having our little "lunch break" in the Tiki Room. It was a perfect time to get out our various baggies of protein-rich goodies and renew our energy - not to mention cool off.

[FEJ]

Having beta-tested the Invitational, I knew it was going to be tough and possibly put some who were more accustomed to the regular format. It relied more on puzzles, and not as much on Disney knowledge. The compasses gave me trouble also. I think I have a electromagnetic disturbance field around me. I really enjoyed it and wish I could have joined my original team :) The clocks were pretty easy for our test team.

[Babette]

What did you all think of the puzzle that lead you to Buzz? The one you did on the train or Mark Twain? We were calling it the advent calendar puzzle, the one you had to cut the windows into the letter grid.
Oh, we loved how we were in second place, and by the time the train came we were even with like 5 teams, one jumping on just before the gate closed. That was a true Amazing Race catchup trick. That was mean because we were on a timed event.

The advent calendar was cool. It took a moment to think it through. We knew right away to fold the whole page in half. It still took a minute to actually tear vs. trying to fold the lines to make one of those little elementary school "pick a number/favorite color/who do you like?" games. Clever!

[Babette]

I really enjoyed it and wish I could have joined my original team :) The clocks were pretty easy for our test team.
Love ya', bro! The clocks were easy but we didn't read carefully at first and found like four before we realized we needed to be recording the time! The clock was a ticking when we had to revisit each location. (hee hee, I punny)

[NirvanaMan]

Advent calendar was relatively easy..but quirky and fun. I could see it being a nightmare if you screwed up though!

[NirvanaMan]

What I liked about the Soduku was that it introduced us to map symbols we never noticed. Like the "stand here" guy and the ejector seat wheelchair ride.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Advent calendar was relatively easy..but quirky and fun. I could see it being a nightmare if you screwed up though!
Yeah. Somehow we had the wrong answers from the first quest (and yet came up with the right total *shrug*). So ours came out...interesting. It took a lot of creative visualization to finally piece together what it actually was trying to say...

[NirvanaMan]

Yeah...that could be very very messy.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Alex - if you could provide the answers to the first Main Street quest it would really help me sleep better. Five cents for music lessons, 1989 for new golden era (=27), 10 days lost at the fire station, 1855 according to the Crystal Arcade (=19), address of the Music shop is 102 (=3), address of Crystal Arcade 107 (=8), 2 cannons, $2,400.00 for the Orgasmatron (=6).....can't remember the rest.

By the time we were completely stuck at the luggage one, we had fudged our way through the first two quests. We didn't exactly have confetti after slicing our paper but we sure as hell didn't have anything that made sense. We had to force square pegs into round holes all morning.

Alex, I really dug the train ride concept, except that I sat on the far left, and another team sat next to us (they claimed there were no more seats but I was still bugged by this). I could not see the Zip-a-dee-lady for the life of me. Thank God GD saw it.

I also really liked the splitting up for Buzz bit. I got to do a quest all on my own! I found out that when alone whilst MouseAdventuring I talk to myself. Out loud.

"Gotta get to Alice, gotta get to Alice, it's the FRONT of the book, gotta get back, he'll be off any minute, gotta be at that exit when he's done..."

I also had a fun moment when I found the scale at Starcade and another MAer was standing on it trying to read the rubbed out words and doesn't-work-well-in-sunlight readout. After glancing over her shoulder and realizing the answer wasn't on that part, I looked around her legs and split quickly, hoping she didn't see where I had looked.

[BarTopDancer]

Lisa and Chris, so far as I know the umbrellas were in place until 4:00 p.m. Is it possible you just didn't see them?

We did not see them either. And with the distractableness of our team by bright objects and ability to spot things that do not belong I am not sure they were there when we rode the Sun Wheel (about 2:45ish). We may not have seen them as *blooms* but we sure would have said why do those umbrellas have numbers on them?!

I really want to post a full review - just no time yet.

[Alex]

Afraid I can't, CP. I don't know the answers. In fact, I don't think I ever even saw the whole quest. I did the advent part of that sequence but the rest was Steve and Adrienne.

[BarTopDancer]

OK, a little more -

We did the train because the Twain was closed. But we made that decision by walking past the Twain, having a moment of excitement when we saw the Twain in the dock, started skipping towards the dock and then saw the trash cans. Path averted to the train where we saw the Brother Bears and regained our hope that we were still doing well. We read everything first but did not see the info about the boat. Ended up using the process of eliminiation to decide which way to bend the boxes and thanks to Matt's thinking outside the box skills we were able to get the answer without cutting the paper.

Minnie Mouse tried to help us and we had to tell her that we couldn't accept her help. She decided to autograph our envelope though. It was really neat having her interact with us for about 5 minutes. Such a random experience.

Buzz - I lost Buzz twice. The first time the woman I was riding with hit the 50k mark about 4 times and then hit every target out there and the second time I was just off. I only had to ride twice, though they didn't tell me that. It seems that was an alteration made during the game.

[Alex]

No, riding only twice was in the design from the beginning. We could only be sure we'd have enough Fastpasses for everybody to ride twice.

We did not tell people that the second one was free since we wanted people to keep trying.

[BarTopDancer]

No, riding only twice was in the design from the beginning. We could only be sure we'd have enough Fastpasses for everybody to ride twice.

We did not tell people that the second one was free since we wanted people to keep trying.

Thanks Alex. I had heard that some people had to ride 3 or 4 times so I thought it was something that had been changed.

[RStar]

BTW, the weather report on TV said that it was 94* in Anahiem on Sunday, and that it was the HOTEST SPOT IN THE NATION!!! :evil:

Did anyone doubt it?? :rolleyes:

[innerSpaceman]

What did you all think of the puzzle that lead you to Buzz? The one you did on the train or Mark Twain? We were calling it the advent calendar puzzle, the one you had to cut the windows into the letter grid.
Don't get me started, Alex. If you have the materials, please go back and read the instructions and follow them precisely. I believe you would never be able to solve that puzzle.

But, when we decided that (heh, not for the first time) the wording must be wrong, we had no problem ... and the puzzle was the most fun.




edited to add:

Although .... we, too, somehow got thru quest one with - apparently - the wrong answers, so the advent puzzle was a bit of a mess until we realized that and did some further experimenting.

In a game where I found it constantly possible to get to the next stage without correct answers to the previous one ... I think it's less than stellar form to make players rely on answers to previous quests in a new quest.

In this particular case, it wasn't like we automatically proceeded to the next step ... an MA staffer told us we got the Main Street quest answer correct ... and so it's sort of unfortunate that we somehow got the correct answer with all the wrong pieces. But, having been "blessed" officially, it took a loooooong time to second-guess ourselves.


Bah.



that was for CP

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Don't get me started, Alex. If you have the materials, please go back and read the instructions and follow them precisely. I believe you would never be able to solve that puzzle. I believe the Superstar Losers featuring the POP and Nirvanaman (formerly of Ralph Wiggum, Fej and the POP featuring Nirvanaman) said they solved that one easily.

Everyone has their strengths. This time, I do believe that there were no games with mistakes or changes in the park, and nothing was pulled or credited to everyone.

ETA - didn't see iSm's ETA :)

[innerSpaceman]

Sorry, CP .. but the instructions .. and of course, I wish I had them here ... but we read them a thousand times ... said to perform the "scoring" and "flaping" in "the space below"

The space BELOW.

Now, I grant you .. it was obvious that the task was to be performed on the attached, separate sheet. But why, oh why, must instructions at once declare that they must be followed precisely and also be completely misdirecting?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Darkbeer has stop-motion animation (oops, I mean photos) here (http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/gallery/2101265).

I went through them and these are the only pics of swankers.

http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/photos/108222392-M.jpg

http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/photos/108223093-M.jpg

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Sorry, CP .. but the instructions .. and of course, I wish I had them here ... but we read them a thousand times ... said to perform the "scoring" and "flaping" in "the space below"

The space BELOW.

Now, I grant you .. it was obvious that the task was to be performed on the attached, separate sheet. But why, oh why, must instructions at once declare that they must be followed precisely and also be completely misdirecting?Two words, sweetie:

NIT PICK.

:p

[katiesue]

Sorry, CP .. but the instructions .. and of course, I wish I had them here ... but we read them a thousand times ... said to perform the "scoring" and "flaping" in "the space below"

The space BELOW.


We had the same problem with this one. We did the scoring and flapping in the space below then tried to figure out how to hold that sheet over the other grids to make something show up, which of course it didn't.

[innerSpaceman]

Maybe I'm just a little testy this morning, but FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS PRECISELY IS NOT NITPICKING.

It is the way the game is SUPPOSED to be played.


Perhaps, as a beta tester, you are just a little annoyed that you missed this MISTAKE.

Because that's what it was ... it was an error in the game materials.

Sorry, but that bugs me.


(and sorry for shouting)

[NirvanaMan]

Yeah no problem with the advent calander one. In fact, by the time the second train full of MA'ers came by (we were on the first with about 5 other teams), we had solved the puzzle and it was time to move on. I believe the Happy Haunts were on that second train...and GD screamed something about us being cheaters. Not sure what he meant, but maybe it was because we were recording all the mouse-ear codes coming off the train. Or maybe it was because Babette was flashing him. Not sure.

[FEJ]

Maybe I'm just a little testy this morning, but
Perhaps, as a beta tester, you are just a little annoyed that you missed this MISTAKE.



I don't think she beta tested this puzzle, otherwise she would not have been able to play.

I on the other hand, did.

I do not remember the words "Below" but regardless, it did seem fairly obvious to me that the grid with the numbers was what was supposed to be used. Our grid was a little messed up in the test, but even with it a little broken, we were able to figure out the question pretty quickly.

And during the beta test, we were running real time also. I was pooped at the end of the day.

[katiesue]

Lisa and Chris, so far as I know the umbrellas were in place until 4:00 p.m. Is it possible you just didn't see them?


Actually one of the staff umbrella holders came by us where we were busily working on the puzzle at about 3:50 and told us to head over to mouse central so they did come down a little before 4. Although I'm not sure how quickly you could have gotten the puzzle done by then anyhow.

[Isaac]

This time, I do believe that there were no games with mistakes or changes in the park, and nothing was pulled or credited to everyone. Not quite. In the Eye Spy, the clock near the TOT had a different time than what the MP staff had recorded previously. After our answer was marked wrong we disputed it & a staff member went to DCA to check the clock. AVP told us at the award ceremony that we were correct & would receive credit for our answer.
Heheheh, the entire game was custom-made for zapppop. I call shenanigans. Ahem, he routinely gets the daily high score on Buzz Lightyear, and who else has the entire (and I mean entire) soundtrack of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room committed to memory? (not to mention every other attraction in both parks!)
LOL! I remember a year ago one of the MA questions was 'Which character does not appear in the birthday scene in Winnie The Pooh ?' I think we were the only team that didn't have to ride the attraction to get the answer. :D

[Stan4dSteph]

Actually one of the staff umbrella holders came by us where we were busily working on the puzzle at about 3:50 and told us to head over to mouse central so they did come down a little before 4. Although I'm not sure how quickly you could have gotten the puzzle done by then anyhow.Yes, the umbrellas came down at 3:50. I was under the Umbrella of the Beast (666) over by the CA Screamin' launch point, trading off places with another staffer. The other blooms were by the ampitheater and in the seating area of Cove Bar.

It was decided that they would come down a bit before 4 PM, since there was no way that teams still doing the Sun Wheel puzzle at that point would be able to finish by the 4 PM deadline. Before that time, the umbrellas were always up and we made every effort to keep ours aimed so that it would be visible from the Sun Wheel.

Next time I'm assigned to a task in DCA, I'm going to request an air-conditioned suit. DCA is like the surface of the Sun in sunny weather.

[Babette]

Apparently a few clocks were wrong, the times on the answer key were different from the actual clock. Something about clocks that were non-operational during beta getting fresh batteries that week. Two answers were "corrected" on everyone's paper so they could complete the final math problem. This fact did not matter to those who did not find all of the clock times - they were given the answer to any blank spaces along with a 20 min. penalty. I think any team that attempted an answer (I believe it was A and J) was given the correction without penalty.

Our answer for the ToT clocks was marked wrong and we disputed it. We were told all other teams had the time correct and we were wrong. But, they radioed over to DCA, double checked it, and we were right. We were credited for that 20 minute wrong answer penalty, but other teams were not penalized for the wrong right answer.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

(and sorry for shouting)I shouted first, so no problem. :)

Like FEJ says, I didn't test the Invitational, I played it.

[Stan4dSteph]

Apparently a few clocks were wrong, the times on the answer key were different from the actual clock.Originally all of the clocks in that quest were broken, i.e. the time never changed. However, after the game was written, and as beta testing went on, Disney started fixing clocks/replacing batteries, therefore "breaking" the math. Teams with an answer were then given credit and the appropriate answer because no one's time would be right to complete the quest if the clock was functional. At least that's the way I understand it from the staff orientation meeting.

[innerSpaceman]

Now that's the kind of game mess-up that is expected and even sorta cherished. The changed-since-beta element that crops up nearly every time.

LOL! I remember a year ago one of the MA questions was 'Which character does not appear in the birthday scene in Winnie The Pooh ?' I think we were the only team that didn't have to ride the attraction to get the answer
Ah, but as this instance proved, it's dangerous to skip an attraction that the game directs you to ride. In this instance, not only was a clue revealed in blacklight on Winnie the Pooh, but it was one of the most fun moments in any MouseAdventure ever (and one for which several staffers suffered temporary blindness in an ultimate MA sacrifice of goof for the greater good).


Come to think of it, it was probably the best moment ever on Winnie the Pooh, period.

[Stan4dSteph]

I didn't take nearly enough photos, but here are the ones I did take (http://homepage.mac.com/stan4d_steph/MouseStuff/PhotoAlbum22.html).

[MouseWife]

Thank you for sharing! Great shots! I love the lights in NOS. :snap:

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I didn't take nearly enough photos, but here are the ones I did take (http://homepage.mac.com/stan4d_steph/MouseStuff/PhotoAlbum22.html).http://homepage.mac.com/stan4d_steph/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2006-11-07%2020.51.18%20-0800/Image-132CA60D6EE411DB.jpg
The Not as Happy as Advertised Haunts
Bwahaha! So that's the game face. ;)

[BarTopDancer]

Now that's the kind of game mess-up that is expected and even sorta cherished. The changed-since-beta element that crops up nearly every time.


Ah, but as this instance proved, it's dangerous to skip an attraction that the game directs you to ride. In this instance, not only was a clue revealed in blacklight on Winnie the Pooh, but it was one of the most fun moments in any MouseAdventure ever (and one for which several staffers suffered temporary blindness in an ultimate MA sacrifice of goof for the greater good).


Come to think of it, it was probably the best moment ever on Winnie the Pooh, period.

OMG. That ride didn't suck [that one time] ;)

[Isaac]

Ah, but as this instance proved, it's dangerous to skip an attraction that the game directs you to ride. In this instance, not only was a clue revealed in blacklight on Winnie the Pooh, but it was one of the most fun moments in any MouseAdventure ever (and one for which several staffers suffered temporary blindness in an ultimate MA sacrifice of goof for the greater good).
No that was a different M.A.
There were two different M.A.'s in the past couple years that involved riding Pooh.

[CoasterMatt]

All the other MAs involved flinging Pooh ;)

[Alex]

Now that's the kind of game mess-up that is expected and even sorta cherished. The changed-since-beta element that crops up nearly every time.

You think that is bad, in the PhotoAdventure I had an evil paragraph puzzle that used the "it's a small world" rededication plaque (as well as several others in the park). The rededication plaque that was removed the weekend before MouseAdventure. Fortunately, in a total fluke I learned about it the Tuesday before the game and more fortunately had taken a picture of it so I was able to prepare by having a staffer stand there the entire game with a stack of printed photos.

As for the exact wording of the puzzle, I don't know what it was and I don't think I ever saw it in final form.

[Prudence]

Arg! The quandry! The next MA is tentatively scheduled for the day before finals start spring semester. Of course, since I no longer care about school, I'll probably chose MA. And I should only have two finals.

[RStar]

You think that is bad, in the PhotoAdventure I had an evil paragraph puzzle that used the "it's a small world" rededication plaque (as well as several others in the park). The rededication plaque that was removed the weekend before MouseAdventure. Fortunately, in a total fluke I learned about it the Tuesday before the game and more fortunately had taken a picture of it so I was able to prepare by having a staffer stand there the entire game with a stack of printed photos.

As for the exact wording of the puzzle, I don't know what it was and I don't think I ever saw it in final form.

What was also funny is that it was our last one of the signs, and as we were walking up I said "wouldn't it be funny if it had been removed?" Followed by "They did remove it!!"

We were gratefull for the photo and the nearby staffer (Who tried real hard to not be noticeable untill people stood there saying "Where's the plaque??")

[innerSpaceman]

There were two different M.A.'s in the past couple years that involved riding Pooh.
Now that's just cruel.

[gfy4dland]

We had a great time at the parks on Sunday (Oswald Returns). Got stuck a few times, which brought us down, but have to say the Happy Haunts were an encouragement. I kept remembering their comeback from behind in the last Enchanted Race. So, we kept pushing forward. We felt like we were in the back of the pack near the end and just wanted to finish. I think I asked (as we handed in our materials at the finish line)..."so are we team #38"? I was shocked when they said we were 8th (not counting penalties/credits)! I was so glad we kept up the pace throughout the race, or we would have never crossed the finish line at all.

Anyway, what do all you smart peeps do for a living? So many of you are in contention time and time again. Maybe a question for a new thread....

[Not Afraid]

First of all, Welcome to LoT, gfy4dnld!

Most of here here do actually work at jobs other than Disneyland for a living, although there is a CM or 2 hanging about. But, if you want real answers, please feel free to start a thread.

BTW, I wish i had met you in person. I saw your shirts (Black with white Oswalds) but I didn't notice any familiar faces.

Congratulations on your fininsh!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

BTW, I wish i had met you in person. I saw your shirts (Black with white Oswalds) but I didn't notice any familiar faces.gfy4dland is from the team with the Pixar history - the Unitelligibles, Finding Teamo, Team Story....:) I love bumping into these guys each MA. Good to see you here!

[Gemini Cricket]

First off, I want to totally thank Prudence, NA and the Euromonkey for allowing me to play on their MA team. I was totally flattered and, although hesitant, I came to realize that the highlight of the day was hanging out with three people I adore.
Also, it was great seeing Andrew and Steph and the Adriennes and everybody else that I haven't seen in ages. Love them.
:)
With that being said, I have to admit that I didn't have all that much fun. I found MA to be quite stressful. There was too much "sit and do this puzzle" and not enough "take a look at the park you love and find out even more about it" or "here's something you didn't notice about this place before..." The park is a place to relax, meet with good friends and have a wonderful time. The good friends were there, but relaxation and fun weren't there for me.

I did love certain parts. The luggage collage was awesome. I got it pretty quick. And I totally appreciate how much effort went into the game, it must be quite a bear to organize, create and do certain things the morning of MA to insure the game runs smoothly. But it's quite easy to get f'ed and get penalized because you couldn't figure out one aspect of the game.

Also, and this is a big also, part of me is still quite resentful of past events. Yes, it's all over but the bad taste in my mouth is still there. Me interacting with people I was/am miffed with made me irked. This is why I avoided MA like the plague. The whole smug, heavy-handed, arrogant, unforgiving way that issue was handled still bothers me. But hey, everyone concerned has moved on, maybe I should, too. Maybe not.

All in all, I was pretty curious about the whole thing. To see people I adore get so into it made me wonder a whole lot about it. Now I know. I don't think I'd do it again in all honesty.

Seeing everyone there was really awesome, though. I enjoyed parts of it.

:)

[MouseWife]

GC, I can understand the stress part but how cool you were able to do it with those folks as team members.

I don't know what happened but it is the past and you are so beyond that, right? Just a thought. I've felt such positive from you there is no way anyones negativity should be able to touch you.

[gfy4dland]

Thanks for the nice welcome, NA and CP! It's always great meeting new teams/people each MA, as well as seeing familiar ones. :)

[innerSpaceman]

Congratulations on your fininsh!
Oh, I didn't hear anyone with a command of nordik languages. Hmmm.


But, really, as a washed-up uber-champion, I heartily congratulate you on completing the race. It was grueling.

[Stan4dSteph]

The event recap is up today. Click here (http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=mm061109av).

There's also a link to a survey at the end of the article. Even if you have only played once and it was a while ago, we'd still like to hear your feedback. Click here (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=480702856664).

[Cadaverous Pallor]

We got eighth place. Sigh. I swear, I will not let the Haunts become like the Denton Affair :p

[innerSpaceman]

We must find out how the Brother Bears avoided the Masters Curse!!!

[Ghoulish Delight]

We must find out how the Brother Bears avoided the Masters Curse!!! They've never played as retired Masters, so they were still in game-shape.

We got eighth place. Sigh. I swear, I will not let the Haunts become like the Denton Affair :pAh, but take away the 60 minute penalty, and we would have been first (even ahead of the REAL winners, SSLFNAB(FORFAPFNM)). And hell, if we're taking away the 60 minute penalty, that would mean we had recognized the stack of luggage, so take away the 30 wasted minutes of trying to find that and we would have won by a large margian. AND take into account that after taking the 60 minute penalty we spent a good deal of time feeling defeated and moving slowly...

Of course, pure speculation, who knows how things would actually have gone, but I feel comforted that the results show that it really was that single gap in our knowledge that was our undoing, not some overall loss of competative edge.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oh hey, Alex (or anyone who did the photoadventure). I want closure on a couple unresolved issues we discovered during beta testing.

How many round portholes ARE on the moonliner? We counted 17 (including the 4 small ones on the cockpit), Alex said 20. We never got a chance to recount.

Also, what became of the question "How many attractions are on the 1957 banner hanging from Innoventions?" Alex went with 2, the number of attractions on the banner hanging next to the large one that said "1957". But CP noticed that the one that said "1957" actually had attractions represented on it, drawn in white outline in the background. We never found out how Alex resolved that.

[BarTopDancer]

10th place. 26 minutes behind The Happy Haunts.

[katiesue]

Congratulations to all the teams that finished. We had a rough time with this one, coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Welcome gfy4dland - it was nice to meet you!

[Prudence]

BT is contemplating participating in the spring. Mwahahaha!

[Alex]

How many round portholes ARE on the moonliner? We counted 17 (including the 4 small ones on the cockpit), Alex said 20. We never got a chance to recount.
I don't know. I could never get it confirmed so I just swapped out the question.

Alex went with 2, the number of attractions on the banner hanging next to the large one that said "1957".
I left the question as is and nobody seems to have had a problem. What suprised me about that puzzle are the number of teams who simply went out and tried to answer all 26 of the questions before trying to solve the cryptogram.

Oh, and when thinking "what if," the Brother Bears had time penalties too, so if you remove yours, in fairness you should remove theirs (though I don't know how long there penalty was).

[Stan4dSteph]

I left the question as is and nobody seems to have had a problem. What suprised me about that puzzle are the number of teams who simply went out and tried to answer all 26 of the questions before trying to solve the cryptogram.I solved the cryptogram from NY without any reference materials. It was very long, so lent itself well to just figuring out word patterns. I knew the Mad Hatter answer, so could fill that one in right away.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oh, and when thinking "what if," the Brother Bears had time penalties too, so if you remove yours, in fairness you should remove theirs (though I don't know how long there penalty was).Right, but I'm presuming their penalty was for not getting all of the clocks (we had penlaty time from that too). The 1 hour I'm referring to was the result of having to use BOTH of our hints on the locker quest due to a single gap in our knowledge.

[BarTopDancer]

Is the time breakdown posted anywhere? I'm curious if we got any other penalities besides the missing clocks.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Is the time breakdown posted anywhere? I'm curious if we got any other penalities besides the missing clocks.There's no chart yet - I hope they post it soon.

[Alex]

I don't think Adrienne is planning to post the detailed breakdowns beyond the final adjusted scores. If you interested, email her and ask about it.

I don't know the details of the Brother Bear time penalties or the amount but I do know they had penalties beyond the clocks at the end (I never did see that quest in a completed state so I don't know what it was about or how the penalties played into it.

[innerSpaceman]

having to use BOTH of our hints on the locker quest due to a single gap in our knowledge.
Not to pick a scab on a sore point, but why did you need to use both the Road Assistance and the Jump Start on a single quest?

[BarTopDancer]

From what they posted...

The hint they got didn't help and they needed to skip the quest all together.

[innerSpaceman]

ok, how could the hint not have helped? What was the hint?

Frankly, for using Roadside Assistance, I would expect more than a sly hint. We got that for free on that very same quest from nearly staffers. If we had used the official Roadside Assist, I would have expected much, much more.


(Oh, and when we did try to use our Roadside Assist, it was refused, and we were given EXPLICIT help gratis ... on a quest which I have to imagine the staff itself knew was poorly worded.)

[Stan4dSteph]

My understanding of Roadside Assistance was that you were permitted to ask 5 yes/no questions at MA Central. It's possible that the answers to those would not help you get any closer if you weren't able to narrow in within your question limit. I never staffed MA Central, so I didn't see it in action.

[Ghoulish Delight]

ok, how could the hint not have helped? What was the hint? As Steph said, we got to ask 5 yes/no questions. I don't remember all 5 of the questions, but we left with the following information: Somewhere along Main Street, inside, not an attraction, not visible from outside.

So, this is where the never get lockers really comes into play. It wasn't just a matter of not recognizing what it was...the locker room was entirely out of our consciousness as a place on Main Street. Never went in, never glanced that way, never acknowledged it at all. Complete blind spot. Total mental lapse that cost us the game. So after fruitlessly checking every single indoor area of Main Street other that the one we needed...yes, we had to give up a second time and ask for the answer.

[innerSpaceman]

bummer.


yeah, the game was stacked - - in certain ways. I kinda feel like the Disneyland-specific ones are fair game, and the other kinds grrr-compasses-grrr are poor sport.

F'rinstance, like I mentioned earlier, zapppop's team had an amazing edge - - killer Buzz Lightyear player and they didn't have to sit through the Tiki Room at all. I think that kind of advantage, as well as any corrresponding disadvantage, is appropriate to a Disneyland game.


I'm sorry you got tricked up, and I continue to hate the all-or-nothiningness of Mad Scramble-types. But I'd hope you'd feel better if the foul-up was on Disneyland expertise rather than, say, a magnetic device grrrrrrrCompass........



:iSm:

[Prudence]

I've only done one of these, so I don't have the best perspective, but I don't think I'd hate the compass thing in the formats where you get points for what you do, but I didn't like it in the all or nothing. I agree that tricky DL questions should be fair game, because I thought that was rather the point. I dunno, my perspective may be warped because we did well with luggage and sucked at compass, but I just didn't like it. I don't know how to articulate it. There's a line in my mind between really really hard puzzle that might take a while and skill that you may or may not have or be able to acquire quickly. I loathe sudokus with a passion and always freeze up when I see one, but eventually I work through it.

Of course, I've receive compass-related scoldings now from both spouse and sibling, so what the heck do I know? Of course, they are respectively former military and a forester, so they have a reason to know.

[RStar]

On the photo Adventure, Quest 2, there was a page 1 of 2 with a page 2 of 2 on the back side. Then there was an unattached page 1 of 1 seperatly. We couldn't figure out what to do with that page because it had no instructions other than circle the correct answers. Then what to do with the info.? It wasn't until later that I realized it was part of quest 2 (Yes, it said quest 2 at the top:rolleyes: ).

I'm just wondering if this was this a mistake, or something just to keep us on our toes. I know the Evil Puzzle Makers like to make sure we are paying attention and following instructions ;) !

[innerSpaceman]

I found the air of You-Know-What-To-Do in the game materials to be more than vaguely annnoying.

[BarTopDancer]

I found the air of You-Know-What-To-Do in the game materials to be more than vaguely annnoying.

Yup. I heard more than one team ended back up in the Tiki holding area wondering what to do after the show. A hint about opening the envelope would have been nice. When we were in there all of the teams hung out until the very end when everything re-set wondering what we were waiting for as well. I thought that the directions were don't leave during the show because they didn't want people disturbing everyone, and I was right but it still left room to wonder if the staff was going to give us something on our way out.

[Alex]

I hate to mention this, but on the compass puzzle it was only necessary to use the compass to find two of the numbers. All the rest could be found with the compass in your pocket.

Quest 2 in the PhotoAdventure had you using the VMK Fantasyland pamphlet. We had permission ot use VMK materials but at the last minute were warned that there may not be enough of them at the VMK booth for every team. So the second inserted page told you not to go get the pamphlet but to use it instead as we had replicated all of the pamphlet quests on the that page.

I found the air of You-Know-What-To-Do in the game materials to be more than vaguely annnoying.

I know it is a matter of preference but I don't think of it as "you-know-what-to-do" but rather "you can figure out what to do." I don't see anything wrong with part of the puzzle being figuring out how the puzzle works. In fact, quite a few I think that is the only puzzle and after that you are just following instructions. But yes, sometimes the vagueness is intentional and sometimes it is just a matter of being something that never occurs to us as needing instruction and isn't raised when we test the game. I've never hidden the fact that the hardest part about making the game is that no matter how much we look at it and test it, when it gets put in front of hundreds of people at least a few reasonably valid alternative readings and interpretations will float to the surface.

One thing the survey we've got up is showing us is that no matter what we do, a healthy percentage will not like it. A healthy percentage will find it too hard, too long, too short, too big, too complex. Some huge minority says they hate games that require going into both parks and yet every time we've had a two-park game there has been a single park option.

But pain is the sensation we forget most quickly and it will be at least 18 months before the race format comes up again so I expect everybody will be there. And at current growth rates we'll have 600 teams instead of 600 people and I'll simply stroke out.

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, I don't know how the constant growth will be sustainable. I suspect that, like with every system, there will eventually be a period of decline.

And I fully understand the concept of impossible-to-anticipate difficulties when a few hundred people hit the race. But one or two vague instructions is one thing, and people may or may not be tricked up by that (I found Tiki Bird names all over the envelopes to be sufficient hint, for instance) ... but it was a CONSTANT with the Invitational materials ... as if it were the style of the game for experienced players.

I think that philosophy, if it did in fact exist, was a poor one. Experienced players may have a bit more on the ball as to what might be expected, but they are not mindreaders. Things that seem obvious to the people who create the quests are simply not so to people playing them.

Frell, it's only mouseadventure, and a few quips about each one does not take away from the amazing effort that went into them and the wonderful fun that comes out of them. I just would like to see this "figure it out yourself" style eliminated in future ... even for the pros. It was needlessly baffling.

[Ghoulish Delight]

But I'd hope you'd feel better if the foul-up was on Disneyland expertise rather than, say, a magnetic deviceOh, we by no means feel cheated or poorly done-for. We failed to be Disneyland experts in that case, and rightfully lost. I was just noting that I felt comforted that it was a knowledge gap, not a coat of Masters-induced rust that was our undoing.

I can understand the inpetus to move away from explicit instruction for those that have palyed before, but this one felt like it slipped a little too far in that direction.

And for the record, I beat my opponent on Buzz on my first attempt, and I DID know that it was Fritz who finishes with "dishappear!" I was just worried, especially with the "don't leave to soon" admonishment in the clue, that there was some throw away line after "Hi-ho" that I've never noticed because I've only stayed all the way through maybe twice.

[RStar]

Quest 2 in the PhotoAdventure had you using the VMK Fantasyland pamphlet. We had permission ot use VMK materials but at the last minute were warned that there may not be enough of them at the VMK booth for every team. So the second inserted page told you not to go get the pamphlet but to use it instead as we had replicated all of the pamphlet quests on the that page.
That makes since now. One said to get the pamplet, the other said not to. It was a bit confusing with the contradiction, but now it makes since. There is just so much stuff to go through and absorb when you first open the materials that little things like that suddenly become road blocks.

But, it's part and parcel for this type of event and it's what makes things interesting.

Like finding the Small World sign missing!:D

[€uroMeinke]

Now the DSL is up and I located and downloaded photos from my Spycam - I thought I'd share them:

http://photos.xenarchy.com/albums/userpics/10001/Photo001.jpghttp://photos.xenarchy.com/albums/userpics/10001/Photo003.jpghttp://photos.xenarchy.com/albums/userpics/10001/Photo004.jpghttp://photos.xenarchy.com/albums/userpics/10001/Photo005.jpg

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Ooh, I like how the world blurs around the subject

[Babette]

I am obviously tricked by the spycam and unaware my photo is being snapped ;)