MouseAdventure

[innerSpaceman]

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

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

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.

[RStar]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

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!

[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 device

Oh, 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.

[Babette]

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