TOP GL'ER VEGAS - Alas, we knew it well....

[Zag]

No pressure, other team, but I just sent a version of the final PDF to jbv for final proofreading. (The work was evenly divided, I just happened to own the final assembly task.) This isn't likely to yield any issues, because all the pieces have already been checked over, including a beta test by jbv's incredibly helpful spouse.

My point is that we are easily on target for being done tomorrow. I'd be comfortable submitting what he have right now if we had to. Also, it's pretty good!

[LordKinbote]

Yeah, we're nowhere near done. I don't want to talk for Persona, but I think our motivation to get this done is extremely, extremely low. I mean, I want to finish it, but we have yet to even have a really good idea, and it's the middle of not only a work week, but my first week back at school.

I just don't see it getting done...definitely not by tomorrow.

Edit: That said, we're not dead yet. I just don't think we'll be done by tomorrow. Time will tell.

[MNOWAX]

well just remember you can keep going, but it will cut into your voting time.
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[MNOWAX]

Ok The deadline has passed, you have 7 days from now to do a little blurb on your partners. Also Team Even, as soon as we get your puzzle, one of the judges will post it.

The two teams each have a topic in VSP, with a link to the polling thread.
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[Persona]

Now that it's the weekend, I'll have more time to work on this again. It should definitely be done before Monday, in one form or another.

[MNOWAX]

Well um... the voting was close.....

Team Odd wins in a very lackluster fashion Good work on the puzzle. I believe we have one quitter, but I think we may need to omit another person, shall we?

.
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[LordKinbote]

I'm sorry we never got this done. Motivation just went completely out the window. Especially when we saw how in-depth the other puzzle was.

It's probably a by-product of the length of this game. Weeks and weeks go by. Sometimes it takes the competitors a really long time to come up with a puzzle. Sometimes it takes the judges a really long time to grade them. It's hard to maintain enthusiasm for months and months.

I don't know...I'm just blathering on. Don't mind me.

[Zag]

[jbvntx]

Is this round still going to be judged? I'd still like to see the judge's comments on our puzzle, if they don't mind. It is quite helpful to get the feedback. Does winning by default mean we get immunity or something? Just a bit "puzzled" by it all...
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jbv

[MNOWAX]

to be honest, I am not sure yet. You will not get immunity for winning, but you will get an advantage. I don't think there is any point in letting anyone else go, with one person leaving. but this game will be wrapped up soon with one more challenge to get us to the final three. We will then do the final challenge, (which by the way will be the same as last year: a Meta-puzzle of your choosing topic with at least 10 smaller puzzles) and there will be something new for this year after that.

I will make comments on the puzzle and judge it, but I dont think stalling the game out longer will help while we judge.

The last challenge for the five of you remaining is the total opposite of our first challenge: you must make a puzzle using not a single word or number of any written language. Additionally the losing team may not use characters that will end up representing specific letters or numbers of a particular language (IE ♂ = P or any type of substitution style is not allowed)

In short, the puzzle will have to cross all boundries of language. You have three weeks from today to finish this puzzle, and this will determine our FINAL THREE. Good Luck!
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[Projectyl]

/out

I'll claim the somewhat lame excuse that moving across country kept me busy these past few months, but that's not really enough justification for staying incommunicado as long as I did. I think I've burned out pretty heavily on puzzle construction for the time being, and I should've said so before I left my teammates in the lurch.

Sorry to everyone, and especially to Zag and jbv. I look forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with.
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"I am now telling the computer exactly what it can do with a lifetime supply of chocolate..."

[Zag]

A couple of questions:

So jbv and I can use symbols that will stand in for letters? What if figuring out what words are represented by the sequences of symbols is a significant part of the puzzle? Is that breaking the spirit of what you are asking?

Can we add instructions?

Can we make a puzzle game which runs in the browser, like a couple of the ones I made last year? That is, would the Javascript and/or Java code in the browser count as forbidden symbols? (Assume that there are no symbols in what the player/solver would see.)

[LordKinbote]

[Zag]

Not really. 1's and 0's is a symbolic representation of bits. The bits themselves are not symbols.

[Persona]

As a certified Symbolic Systemetician*, I can confidently say that bits are symbols too, for whatever the underlying physical representation of them are. Which, in turn, are symbols for the abstract bits themselves. Basically, elephants all the way down.

[Zag]

Of course, it's turtles, not elephants.

And I'm not buying it. A symbol is an abstract representation of something else. A zero or one bit, as stored in a flip-flop in your computer somewhere, is the thing itself. It isn't representing something else.

Anyway, MNO, would you answer my questions above? Thanks!!

[MNOWAX]

you can do everything but add instructions. In theory, this puzzle should transcend the english language.
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[Zag]

[Persona]

I'm likely done today, but if not, it'll be close.

[Zag]

sent. (Not to put any pressure on, or anything. I don't want to win by default like jbv and I did on the last one.)

[MNOWAX]

sorry i forgot to give a reminder, there fore you have a week left from today.
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[LordKinbote]

Darn, and I worked hard to finish today too. Mine's done, I just need to reproduce it in computer-form from my graph-paper sketch.

[Persona]

Mine's in too, and I'm excited to see how others approached this.

[MNOWAX]

deadline is midnight tonight!
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[LordKinbote]

Mine is sent. I'm probably going to get disqualified for being a smartass, but so be it!

[MNOWAX]

we have zag's LK, and Persona's. jbv, did you finish?
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[jbvntx]

I'd almost finished a couple weeks ago when I left town on business. I figured I had missed the deadline when I returned. If you're still accepting them, I'll finish it tonight/tomorrow and send it.
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jbv

[MNOWAX]

yeah jsut get it into me please
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[jbvntx]

Mine is sent now. Sorry for the late submission.
jbvntx
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jbv

[MNOWAX]

no problem this game has lated long enough lol

finalists will be picked soon.
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[jbvntx]

So it's been two months. Is this dead or what?
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jbv

[MNOWAX]

possibly be. It took a major hit on morale on the judges when two people jsut decided to drop out. maybei can get the judges going again.
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[jbvntx]

I'll volunteer to switch over and be a judge, and the other three can finish the contest, if it will help.
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jbv

[LordKinbote]

[MNOWAX]

I foresee a seaon 3 not happing the way this one has died lol. In a few days if the other judges arent comign back, I will just post the puzzles we got and go from there
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX