[Ghoulish Delight]

Sigh.

I don't know what it is exactly but something about the nature of the puzzles they've been creating no longer excites me. They feel more frustrating and confusing than challenging and clever. Even discounting the ambiguously worded ones, which is a whole other story. I know part of it is a significant move away from on-paper logic puzzles. I'm surely in the minority, but that was my strength and a large part of my enjoyment. That and the fact that everything is all-or-nothing, meaning that, as CP said, you can run yourself ragged doing 99.9% of the work, and get absolutely not credit for it because of one small error or oversight. Frustrating.

I did love having the detective's notepad. I used it a bunch and if we do play again, I'll definitely be bringing that.

There were of course elements I enjoyed. But the overall experience, between the vague quests, frustrating format, and brutal heat, left me feeling pretty sour on the whole.

Also contributing to my general feeling of disconnect from the whole thing was the new schedule. I know there's nothing the staff can do about it with the size of the event and the constraints Disney puts on, but with the staggered start and the short time between registration and game beginning, there was not the usual pre-game social atmosphere at all. We skipped the results at the end and we could have gotten some of it in by then, but by then we're exhausted. And part of what gets me motivated and excited is spending time beforehand talking to fellow competitors, seeing everyone's shirts, trash talking, etc. Without that, it was far more business-like and a bit less fun.