"You'll want to be hearing about the haunted riverboat, I expect, wont you?" asked the strange man in the strange chair.

http://gallery.vmkforums.com/data/1022/story1.jpg

I could only nod my head.

"You and everyone else that comes by these parts. I never see them again, tho, so I never know if they find the riverboat or not. Eh, you probably don't care. You're after the secret to their treasure."

I could only nod my head again.

He gazed off over the river, as if there was something out there he was looking at. When he began speaking again, I didn't know if it was to me or not. "Who knew there were still pirates back then? There were hardly any working riverboats, but there was still the Royal Princess. Ah, the parties that boat had. The riches. The famous people who walked her decks.

"One foggy night she was heading for dock when another ship came alongside her. Those of us on shore were confused, until the other ship flew the Jolly Roger. We could hear quite a fight going on over there! But the fog made it difficult to see. We saw a fire, and then nothing. In the morning, the burned pirate ship had crashed into shore. And the Royal Princess was gone."

"But people have seen it since?" I asked, finally recovering my voice.

"Yes. If you look carefully, sometimes you can see it out there. If you listen carefully, you can sometimes hear the spirits trying to speak to you."

"What do they say?"

He turned to me and smiled. "That you're going to have to figure out on your own."

"What do you mean?"

"If you can figure their secret out, they will give you part of their treasure. There are dancing lights. They leave clues."

I began looking out at the river, trying to find the ship. "Dancing lights? What kind of clues? And how do you know this?"

There was no answer. I turned to look at him. The chair was empty, as if he was never there.

And off in the distance was a riverboat.

http://gallery.vmkforums.com/data/1022/story2a.jpghttp://gallery.vmkforums.com/data/1022/story2b.jpg


The Spirits Speak!
Can you hear them to win treasure?


At long last, Spirits Speak! The game is opening.

http://gallery.vmkforums.com/data/1022/room5.jpg

Directions and an example are on the wall, but here is an explanation as well.

The spirits have picked a pattern for the scoreboards. If you can figure out the correct pattern in five guesses, they will give you a prize. After each guess, they will give you clues about how close your guess is.

You make your guess by setting the pattern of lights on the scoreboard, and then sitting in the chair in the next row. Each scoreboard should always have at least one light set.

For each scoreboard that has the correct pattern of lights lit, they will place a statue on the table next to the row of scoreboards. For each scoreboard that has a pattern that belongs on a different scoreboard, they will place a skull and books on the table. For each scoreboard that is completely wrong, they will put a pumpkin on the table. They will always put three items on the table.

So, lets see an example of my brother playing the game.

For the first row, he takes a guess...
http://gallery.vmkforums.com/data/1022/example1.jpg
...which is completely wrong. So the spirits place three pumpkins on the table.

He tries again...
http://gallery.vmkforums.com/data/1022/example2.jpg
...which at least gets one of the patterns right, even if it isn't on the right scoreboard.

So he guesses which one of the patterns is correct, and since all the other possible patterns have been used, knows what the last two must be...
http://gallery.vmkforums.com/data/1022/example3.jpg
...apparently his guess was wrong, since there is one scoreboard still incorrect, and he knows the other two must be correct. One of those is in the correct spot, but the other isn't.

He tries rearranging those that he knows, and a different pattern for the one he doesn't...
http://gallery.vmkforums.com/data/1022/example4.jpg
...looks like he still guessed the wrong one, and hasn't gotten the other two arranged correctly either.

His last guess, and he's pretty sure he knows what the answer has to be...
[http://gallery.vmkforums.com/data/1022/example5.jpg
...and he is right!


Come play the game, see if you can figure out what the spirits are saying, then see all the game results posted here in this thread. I'll also be discussing more about what inspired this game, tips and tricks, and how I run the game. Your thoughts are always welcome! I look forward to seeing you in the game and here on the board.

YAY! Its finally open!
I see why you needed the bug fixing!
I will drop by your room at opening (after you have played jungle cruise that is)
It looks really fun!

Lets hope for best game room!
See You Soon:)
~StitchMad

Wow, sounds like a very creative game! At last, it's open! :D I can't wait to play, do you have any idea what times you will be open today?

ooo! I'll have to make sure to play that! Sounds like a real brain challenge! Excellent idea for a game! :) Great story, too. ;)

Great idea! Looks like you planned this for a long time..

That is such a cool spin on 'Mastermind'. Really thought out and creative. I hope the game goes really well :)

[Yea it looks fun but i dont get it oh w/e how do u do thoose smile things well ttyl later peeps:mickey2:

People i suggest you come and play this game right now!
Its awesome!, i was the first person to play, and its so fun!

~StitchMad

omg that is awesome! It is mastermind on vmk!

Ah, what an interesting first day. I wasn't able to run it for as long as I wanted, so I was only able to get 16 games played (or mostly played). Of those, only two people won. Congrats to the first people who could understand what the spirits were telling them!

AceAlienHunter (solved in 3 tries)
bobtheadventurer (solved in 3 tries)


There were several others who came so close, but just couldn't figure it out. Without naming who it was, I want to give one example and discuss where it was going.

Guess 1: 444
Spirits said: 3 misses
Ok, so we know "4" isn't on any of the boards.

Guess 2: 253
Spirits said: 1 correct, but in the wrong place (which I will call "near"), 2 misses
So we have narrowed down the valid numbers it could be even further.

Guess 3: 521
Spirits said: 2 correct, 1 miss
This told us a lot! We now know that 1 is definately in the right place, because it is the only added change from before. We know that either the 2 or the 5 is in the correct place because that was the only other change. And we know the other number is incorrect. Additionally, we know that both 3 and 4 are completely invalid numbers.

Guess 4: 512
Spirits said: 2 near, 1 miss
This was both good news and bad news. Good, since we now know that 5 is completely incorrect. With 3, 4, and 5 being invalid numbers, we know that it is only 1 and 2. Furthermore, we know that the last two digits must be 21, since those were correct in the previous guess. So... we now have a 50-50 chance to get it right on the last try.

Unfortunately, at this point the person was disconnected, so we will never know what their last guess might have been.

I should point out for anyone who is interested that I do keep a complete record of every game - so if you wish to discuss it later, I can pull it up to talk about it.

:h-confuse :h-confuse :h-confuse

And now, for your letters:


I can't wait to play, do you have any idea what times you will be open today?


Sorry, I really never know what my schedule will be, when I will need to be AFK, or when I can dedicate a lot of time to run the game. My original plan was to be open all day on Saturday,but my plans had to change. In general, I will be trying to run it at least between 2pm and 3pm Disneyland time (thats 5pm-6pm WDW time, 11pm-midnight DLP time, 6am-7am HKDL time, 7am-8am TDL time. Everyone else, figure it out yourselves. :) ), and will try to run it other times as well, but I cannot make a promise.


Great idea! Looks like you planned this for a long time..


A very long time, yes! I'll be telling the whole story later. But its quite a story!


That is such a cool spin on 'Mastermind'. Really thought out and creative. I hope the game goes really well


Yes, it is based on the popular game Mastermind. :) More on that later, too.

Thank you, and everyone, for your praises. I hope it goes really well, too. There are some rough bits still to work out, but I think we can clear them up soon.


People i suggest you come and play this game right now!
Its awesome!, i was the first person to play, and its so fun!


I should point out that not only was he the first to play (and lose, unfortunately), but I wasn't on VMK for more than 5 minutes before he found me and asked to play. :)

:h-confuse :h-confuse :h-confuse

So, there are plenty more stories to tell, I hope you'll come and be a part of them. The spirits are waiting for you!

A very chaotic second day! Clearly I'm going to have to make some changes to the queue so things work better. Expect this soon.

I also want to hear some input from you. At least one person thought the prizes weren't that good. What kind of prizes do you think I should offer? (Pirate or ghost theme, please. I have to be able to get them in good supply as well, so it can't be rare or quest only.) Anything decided will be given to previous winners as well.

I was only able to run nine games yesterday, and only two winners. Aww. :( Several more were so close that I felt bad. You need to listen to the spirits more closely! They will tell you! :)

Yesterdays winners were:

CL_MsBehave (solved in 4 tries)
AdventureKasie (solved in 5 tries)


Both of these were great examples of how to solve the pattern. Kasie in particular was very nervous going into the game, but did great! I don't have time this morning, but I may edit this post later today to provide them. I also have a couple of (nameless) examples of patterns that people had trouble with. If I find the time today or later, I will try to post these as well so people can think about how they could do better.

I'm short on time today, and the spirits are calling. Or maybe thats my family calling. Anyway - hope to see you on the riverboat!

Wow! What an incredible day! I was able to spend four hours running the game, and we had quite a turnout. 42 people made it in to play, although 7 of them never completed the game, and we had a few who were acting really random and clearly didn't understand the idea. But we also had 14 winners:


krisco (5 guesses)
writergirl (4 guesses)
dangerman (4 guesses)
CL_thetitan (3 guesses)
PianoPrincess (5 guesses)
MoomaladeMuffin (5 guesses)
Astroashleyrules (2 guesses)
neosaye (3 guesses)
Astroashleyrules (4 guesses)
CyanMoonstar (2 guesses)
flowercutie (4 guesses)
bluemr.dude (5 guesses)
angelsmg (5 guesses)
DisChiq (4 guesses)


As always, there were people who were close! If they had listened a little better, maybe they would have gotten it. Maybe next time!

I realy wish I could have stayed longer! My apologies to everyone who waited on line, and were either disconnected before they could get to play, or who were left on line when I had to leave.

I hope everyone who played and everyone who watched had fun.

The game ran a lot smoother than it has the past few days, with only one notable problem that I'll mention in a moment. I have updated the queue, so it works a LOT better than it did before. I've also updated some of the directions, and I hope things are a little clearer. Finally, there is now a chair in the first row, to make it easier for people to enter. (Updated pictures eventually.)

The only glitch we had was pretty late in the run. I accidentally graded a person who didn't light one of the scoreboards. I declared I made a mistake and tried to start over, but messed up the program that helps me keep score (more on that another day) and then had problems placing furniture.

All this wouldn't have been so bad... except thats when HOST_Hula decided to step in and watch. -sigh- And then the player disconnected. And the next player clearly had no idea how to play and was just wandering up and down the rows not saying anything. I tried to manage everything as I had been till that point, but I don't think I left a very good impression on HOST_Hula.

:h-confuse :h-confuse :h-confuse

I wanted to remind people that you're welcome to post your comments on this thread! I really would like to hear feedback from people who have played the game, or looked at the line and decided not to.

I'd like to remind everyone that I'm open to ideas for better awards than the treasure chest, poster, or pin. Yesterday someone suggested that I give out magic instead of the treasure chest. I wish I could! But that means that, for example, I would have had to purchase and hand out 4 magic pins yesterday - and there is just no way that I could have replentished my supply of magic, even if I could have afforded them!

In the future, I will be providing insights and history about how the game was developed and how you can use some of the strategies in developing games and rooms of your own.

I will pass along, and comment on, this quote (that I got in two messages in the game):

i just had someone in my room say omg! That on dudes game, spirits speak is open, i need to go to it. bye!
then a few others are like, wow, really? I am going! Bye!


This was pretty cool to hear. :) I don't mean to take people away from other fun rooms, but everyone is welcome to come try to speak to the spirits.

:h-confuse :h-confuse :h-confuse

I'm going to try to highlight at least one game every time (when I can) that I think was particularly notable for some reason. If you have a game that you remember or wanted to ask me about, I can look it up and provide details.

Guess 1: 555
Spirits said: 1 hit, 2 misses
A pretty typical first guess. At least it tells you if that number is there or not.

Guess 2: 333
Spirits said: 2 hits, 1 miss
This person got very lucky that they guessed the correct numbers. :) Now all they needed was to figure the order out.

Guess 3: 512
Spirits said: 1 hit, 2 misses
This was confusing. From the first two guesses, they should already have known that 1 and 2 weren't going to work. But at least this tells them where the 5 is located, and it should tell them where the 3s are located to. So they should get it the next time!

Guess 4: 433
Spirits said: 2 hits, 1 miss
Even more confusing! So they knew where the 3s were, but didn't put the 5 there?

At this point, the person unfortunately disconnected. So I don't know if they would have gotten it right or not. Do you think you would have? :)

:h-confuse :h-confuse :h-confuse

I doubt I will be able to run it for 4 hours again, but I hope to run the game this afternoon and I hope to see you there! Till then, have a Disney Day.

i got to check this game out

I wasn't able to run the game yesterday. I was barely on yesterday! So I'll post the first part discussing how I came up with the idea of the game. Hopefully, you'll see how a very rough idea can evolve into a full-blown room.

:confused: :confused: :confused:

The story has a pretty early start, actually. Back in June, MrGenie posted about his incredibly successfull tic-tac-toe tent (http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=825&). This sparked a bunch of people creating their own board game rooms, and I was among those who were thinking about what board game I could do.

My first thought was a game I love called Zendo. In its normal form, it is played with some very colorful pyramids known as Icehouse Pyramids, which make for a very beautiful game. (If you like fun games that require a little thought, I recomend you look these games up - I can't point you at the website for them.)

There were a couple of problems with Zendo, however. For starters, its very visual - the pyramids are one of the fun things about it, and VMK just didn't have the equivalent. The second was manipulating the items - in tic-tac-toe it was easy for players to tell MrGenie what to do. In Zendo, you're supposed to guess how things should be placed - and trying to describe the many many ways they could be placed would just be too difficult.

This lead to my first thought about the game - players had to be able to set things themselves. They shouldn't need me to set things for them. That severely changed what items could be used - lights and scoreboards essentially. Possibly indicating something by sitting in a specific chair.

Soon afterwards, the random number generators became available, and as soon as I could afford a set, I bought one to see if I could use it. I thought it was a neat device - but just not practical for anything I was coming up with. I thought about a guessing game - but how could you say what number you were guessing? And how would I know if you were right, since there was no way for me to know what a generator was set to without you knowing as well.

About this time, I did see some people try to run guessing games. They didn't seem to work very well, since it was either "you guess it right or you lose". That was it.

Bit by bit, these ideas started shaping my thinking. When I remembered a game I used to play all the time with my uncle, called MasterMind, I began to realize how it might fit into VMK.

In MasterMind, the player places different colored pegs, trying to match up to a pattern set by the Master and hidden behind a shield. The Master tells you how many colored pegs you have in the right place, or in the wrong place. I could replace the pegs with rows of scoreboards. I didn't need generators to come up with the pattern. I could indicate right or wrong with some other markers. I began to see how this might work.

And as I did... a story began to take shape. But more on that another time. :)

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Hopefully I'll be able to open today! But the spirits are being very grumpy, so who knows.

Don't forget - I look forward to your comments and feedback in here.

Take care, everyone, and have a Disney Day!

Once again, I was unable to be on VMK to run the game. It hasn't been a terribly good week. So instead, more information about the evolution of the game (if anyone cares). (Is anyone reading these posts, anyway?)

:( :( :(

As the idea for what kind of game to make shaped itself, I started thinking about good stories that the game could be used for. I had just won a Haunted Mansion room, so I was thinking about ghosts and such. Looking foward to October, just a couple of months away at the time, it seemed like something with ghosts would make a lot of sense.

The aliteration "spirits speak" came to me one night, and I realized I could weave a story around it. The clues would be messages from the spirits. You had to find the combination to open their treasure. Perhaps if you didn't solve it, they would make you vanish!

I needed good markers, so I started asking for ideas (http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9849). There were some pretty good ones, but it wasn't until the pumpkin came along that I realized I had enough items to clearly mark the three possible results for each board.

I mapped out (http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10029) the haunted mansion room and started to fit things into it, and it was tight. I wasn't thrilled with how the queue would work, since it only had space for five people. I also wasn't thrilled with how the lightning would slow down the room for me, but overall it seemed like it would work out. And besides, getting the scoreboards actually working was a bigger problem.

Halloween came and went, and I started thinking about other stories I could use that might be longer lasting. When the Space Mountain room came out, I realized that I could make the story one of time travel. Instead of spirits speaking, there would be messages from the future. There would be "beacon markers" (of tiki idols) giving you the answer. The layout was better than the haunted mansion, so I moved things over.

But the queue for this wasn't perfect either. There was a lot of wasted space that was difficult for people to walk around in. It would be very difficult for me to get to my control area, so I had to work out a "back door" that would get me to my seat.

When the Pirate Prison room got mapped, I realized I could go back to my original storyline (with pirate spirits now) and things would fit into the room even better. So I started making offers (http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21450) for this new room. Once I finally got it, however, and put things in, I realized the layout wasn't ideal. With my first attempt at a river-based queue system, it looked quite ugly and was pretty difficult to walk around in.

I was now trying all the various room maps to see if I could fit things in. When I tried the riverboat, I realized that not only would it fit things wonderflly, but that I had plenty of room to create a good queue. I knew this would be it! I could use a haunted riverboat as the background for the spirits speak theme, decorate the room with skeletons and other spooky stuff, and create a great themed story and game.

Now, I just needed to work out the final details. But that will have to wait for another time...

:( :( :(

Ok, I promise I'll be running the game this weekend! Don't know exactly when, but I assure you it will happen!

I'm looking forward to it, and I hope you are as well. See you on the river.

Ah... so good to be able to play again. It is always fun to have visitors who are clearly enjoying themselves. I really wish I could stay around longer to play more - I just don't have the time.

We had 15 players this time, and three of them listened to the spirits carefully enough to win! Congrats to

prettyredpyro (2 guesses)
carlyiscoolio (5 guesses)
Halie (5 guesses)


:confused: :confused: :confused:

One event during the game bothered me, and I wish there was something I could do about it. We had someone come in the room confused, but after reading the directions and watching others play the game a few times, sounded really excited to play. But a game before they were due to play - they were disconnected. They returned to the room very upset and wanted to play next. But there was nothing I could do - I have no way to let them cut the line, and even if I did, it didn't seem fair to me. It didn't seem fair either, however, that they wouldn't get to play after sitting there for so long. I suggested everyone complain to VMK about the disconnect problem and invited this person to be a friend so I could invite them to the game when it next opened. They were very upset that I asked to be a friend, and then left angrily.

Sigh

What do you think I should have done?

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Todays example comes from earlier this week, and I thought would be pretty good. The player was very nervous, but did wonderfully in the end!

Guess 1: 351
Result: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
This is probably one of the worst results you can get. It just doesn't give you enough information to help out much or make a good second guess.

Guess 2: 521
Result: 0 hit, 2 near, 1 miss
This still doesn't help us much, unfortunately. We don't know if the 3 was good, but that the 2 is also good, or if it is the 1 and the 5 that are the good ones. The spirits are not being kind.

Guess 3: 245
Result: 0 hit, 2 near 1 miss
Same problem. Did we just swap out something that was good (the 1) for something else that was good (the 4)?

Guess 4: 452
Result: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
This is rough! We know the 5 can't be the miss every time, because we have never had more than one miss, and we have tried four other numbers. So we know the 5 is good, and is in the right place! So either the 4 or the 2 is wrong, and needs to be replaced with either a 3 or a 1 (which we know from Guess 1). If it isn't 2, guess 2 tells us that it must be 1, and we know it must be in the first position. If it isn't 4, then we just don't have enough information. We're going to have to make a real guess.

Guess 5: 154
Result: 3 hits!
So we made the best kind of guess we could - and it worked! :)

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Is anyone reading these messages? Does anyone care?

I'd really like to hear your feedback on my continued prize dilema, not to mention the dc problem above. And just general comments about the game is always welcome.

Hope to see you in the game!

Yes, Priz, im reading all of this stuff!
Its cool how u thought of the game, keep the news coming!:)

~StitchMad

Its a very intresting game I was in line then got dc. When you first see the game it doesn't make sense, but the pictures in the room they make fine sense.

Yes, yes, yes!! I'm reading and loving it. It's very interesting to see how you developed the whole thing, and also how you continue to refine it.
I think you did the very best you could with the player who was dc. That's just something that happens. We all have to deal with it.

Great job, Priz. And your story is excellent. You must be a Writer in Real Life.

Dude I was next and was figuring thm all out while I waited and DC right when the person finished. Not your ault or mine just vmks. Awesome game though. I look forward to playing during maybe a less busy time.

Oh man.. I was playing Spirits Speak, and I think I was on my third guess. I was doing pretty good, and I thought that I'd be able to solve it. But then, I got dc. Oh well, hopefully I'll get a chance to play again sometime. Great game, Priz! ;)

I was able to spend about two and a half hours running the game, shortly after opening on Saturday. We were able to get 33 games going before I disconnected and was unable to reconnect. Disconnects were a big problem! Ten of the games were never completed because of disconnects, and many more people in line never got to the front. I really wish there was some better way I could handle people who were disconnected in a way that would be fair to everyone.

But of the 23 who were able to finish the game, these nine won:

skippyskippy (5 guesses)
oDavido (3 guesses)
FantasyBluedude (5 guesses)
zafaralvr (4 guesses)
CL_TDSChristy (4 guesses)
hulagurl (5 guesses)
SoarinSoarin (4 guesses)
cuteGmonkey (3 guesses)
CL_MrGenie (3 guesses)


I think what is most fun about running the games, for me, is the opportunity to talk to friends, both old and new. And there was quite a bit of chatting on line today, which is always great. The line gives a good excuse for people getting together to chat, while also preparing to play the game - so we have a built-in topic for conversation!

:confused: :) :confused:

The topic of awards came up in some depth, but there wasn't much that really came out of it. One person said that my prizes were "worthless" since anyone can buy them. Thats something of a dilema for me. I'd love to give out prizes that nobody can buy - but how can I get them?!? In response to that, someone suggested I give out everest chairs. An interesting point - but a prize that is completely free is valued more than something you have to pay credits for? Really? (And besides - it doesn't fit the theme.)

So - I'm strongly considering something like the black pirate chair for the main prize. Would that make it more "worth it"? What do you think?

Another player asked why the prize for getting it on the first try isn't any better than getting it on the second or third try. I replied that I didn't want to reward blind luck. They seemed amused by this, but I wanted to defend myself here. The game is a combination of luck and skill (just look at today's example, and you'll see!), since someone who is skilled can usually get it in five tries (it is possible to mathematically prove how many tries it will take, and I will explore this another time). But since it takes real luck to get it on the first try, I don't want to make the reward any better than for someone who actually works for the answer.

:confused: :) :confused:

The game I want to profile this time has a bit of history leading into it. The person who played it asked, shortly before their turn, if I picked the numbers or generated them (meaning they were random). I'll go into this in more detail another time, but each pick is randomly generated new each time. I have no control over what the answer will be, so I can't pick a pattern that is "easier" or "harder".

So... how the game progressed:

Guess 1: 123
A very normal starting guess. Usually doesn't give much good information, however. But in this case...
Result: 3 misses
Wow! Lucky first guess! So that narrows it down to just two possible numbers, 4 and 5. That should make it a lot easier!

Guess 2: 444
After advancing to the next row, and before the spirits graded him, the player commented that one of those should have been a 5. It was a mistake to leave it at 4. But it was too late to change.
Result: 3 misses

At this point, the player in question asked me if the spirits were kidding. They were not. Do you know why the player was so amused? Because of the 125 possible patterns, they got one that was so terribly simple, and then they happened to accidentally make guesses that made it so obvious.

Did you get it yet?
Guess 3: 555
Result: 3 hits! Another winner!

:confused: :) :confused:

And now for your letters:


When you first see the game it doesn't make sense, but the pictures in the room they make fine sense.


Thank you for this feedback! I know the rules are some of the more complex ones in VMK, and there is only so much I can say with the pictures on the wall, so I'm glad that it does make sense.


Great job, Priz. And your story is excellent. You must be a Writer in Real Life.


Writing has been a hobby of mine. To be honest, usually I'm not very good at it. :) But thank you!

And to the several messages about being disconnected - I'm very very sorry. Thank you for keeping a good attitude about it! I just can't think of a way to speed up the game without also making the game less fun. And until VMK fixes the disconnect bug, I'm not sure what else I can do.

I loved the game. I did get dc right as I was about to play though...:10_1_23:
Otherwise, Great Game Priz! :)

I lost connection which i was almost winning

The topic of awards came up in some depth, but there wasn't much that really came out of it. One person said that my prizes were "worthless" since anyone can buy them. Thats something of a dilema for me. I'd love to give out prizes that nobody can buy - but how can I get them?!? In response to that, someone suggested I give out everest chairs. An interesting point - but a prize that is completely free is valued more than something you have to pay credits for? Really? (And besides - it doesn't fit the theme.)I would suggest giving out ice chairs, but yet again that would not fit the theme. You are looking for more of a treasure like prize, right? Why not create a small gift basket for the grand prize, it might consist of a pirate throne, treasure chest, and the sand rug from emporium - But make this only if they get it on the 1st/2nd try or something, after all that is a lot of credits. The other prizes are fine the way they are, Priz, don't worry about it.

Well, I =AM= a writer in real life, and I think it's a hobby you should develop!
Maybe fantasy, adventure or sci-fi stories.

That was so fun yesterday I knew it had to be that 1 pattern. The game is mostly about brain work It makes you think, I good game to get your brain working.

Did everyone have a frustrating day with the event? Sounds familiar. Was quite frustrating in the ole' spirit riverboat too. Our first try to run the game was a disaster, but we were able to get 20 games in when we were able to run it for 2 hours later until VMK did the big freeze.

Our six winners:

pinatine (5 guesses)
BlueTreasure (3 guesses)
LittleAdventureA (5 guesses)
Danish.Pastry (5 guesses)
AwesomeFairyOfFire (3 guesses)
friendswithall (3 guesses)


Only five disconnects while playing but, of course, many more while on line. I'm actually really impressed that so many people who are disconnected actually come back to try and play!

:confused:

We saw this game played yesterday. It shows some careful thinking, and just a bit of luck. Let's see if you can figure it out before the end.

Guess 1: 123
Results: 1 near, 2 misses
A pretty typical first guess, with one of the worst possible results.

Guess 2: 452
Results: 1 hit, 2 misses
We learn a couple of things here, but it doesn't make it a lot easier. We know that there has to be a repeated number, but we don't know what that number might be! We know its not all 2s, since otherwise we would have gotten a hit in guess 1, so we know there are two different numbers here.

Guess 3: 155
Results: 1 near, 2 misses
Some very useful information came from this! We know it isn't 5, since the hit in guess 2 wasn't repeated here. So we know it is a 1. If we had been smart, we would have tried the 1 in a different place (since there was no hit in guess 1), but we still have two more chances for it. Since we know the 1 was the near, we know the 4 must be the hit from guess 2.

Guess 4: 411
Results: 2 hits, 1 miss
Very close! But now we have a dilema. We know the 4 is correct. We know one of the 1s is correct and the other is wrong, but we don't know which one! If we had guessed better with guess 3, we might have a better idea, but we have a 50-50 chance now.

Guess 5: 441
Results: 3 hits!
The player guessed correctly!

:confused:

And now, your letters


I lost connection which i was almost winning


I'm sorry about that. I'm still open to suggestions how to handle that problem.

The best I can offer right now is that you can always ask me what the results of each game were. I record every game played, including the result, and will discuss it here anytime after I end the game for the day.

This holds true even if you weren't disconnected. If you can't figure out how the game should have gone, feel free to ask here.


You are looking for more of a treasure like prize, right? Why not create a small gift basket for the grand prize, it might consist of a pirate throne, treasure chest, and the sand rug from emporium - But make this only if they get it on the 1st/2nd try or something, after all that is a lot of credits. The other prizes are fine the way they are, Priz, don't worry about it.


Well, I am pretty committed to having the same awards for the first three rows. I really want to avoid rewarding pure luck.

But the "gift basket" idea was good. Starting yesterday, I added a sand rug to the top prize. Anyone who previously won this (and I know who you are) can find me while the game is not running and I will give you your sand rug.

I'm still thinking about the other two prizes - we'll see.

Thank you for the suggestion!


Well, I =AM= a writer in real life, and I think it's a hobby you should develop!
Maybe fantasy, adventure or sci-fi stories.


Thank you for your confidence. :) I prefer a more multi-disciplinary approach at this point - I think about the Imagineers who are my role models, and the best were talented artists, architects, storytellers, and planners - they weren't just limited to one thing.


That was so fun yesterday I knew it had to be that 1 pattern. The game is mostly about brain work It makes you think, I good game to get your brain working.


Thank you! That was my objective in creating the game - to have fun and make you think just a little.

:confused:

The spirits tell me that it is going to be a busy week, but that they will try to be there for at least an hour a night. Hope to see you there, and until then, have a Disney Day!

I won too ;). Not sure when but would you happen to remember Moomalademuffin? Yeah I won the pin :)

I saw it the other day and wanted to play but the line was just scary.

19 games yesterday, played in a little under two hours. Not as many disconnect problems yesterday, although we certainly had some (including the one that kicked me out and wouldn't let me back :b). Our four winners:

LAdyRaiders (3 guesses)
CL_LuxoJr (2 guesses)
friendswithall (4 guesses)
jpkitty (5 guesses)


I think the most interesting thing about this list is that we had a winner on every row but the first. As an aside - we haven't yet had anyone win it on the first try! With over 150 games played, we would have expected at least one person so far. Yesterday we had two people come very close - both had two hits on the first try!

But neither won the game. And this brings up something very frustrating to me. Clearly neither read the rules, or if they didn't didn't understand them. Or didn't care. We have lots and lots of people who have fun playing - and a few who... well... I don't know if they have fun or not, to be honest.

:confused:

Today's example is from a person who didn't win. They made a couple of mistakes, and didn't listen close enough to what the spirits were saying. I'll be giving my comments along the way, but let's see if you can figure it out before we get to the end or what you would have done differently.

Guess 1: 152
Result: 1 hit, 2 misses
Not a bad first guess. We'll need more information

Guess 2: 514
Result: 2 near, 1 miss
The biggest problem with this guess and result is that it makes things only more confusing. The guess itself was confusing - if you think either the 1 or the 5 are correct - why swap them around when one is a hit? We do learn some things from this: we know the 4 is correct, but we don't know where. We know the 2 is wrong. We know that we have either a 1 or a 5, and we know where it might be.

Guess 3: 332
Result: 3 misses
Ok, if we didn't know 2 was wrong before, we better know it now. We also know that 3 isn't it. So we've narrowed our possible values to 4, and either 1 or 5. That also means that one of them is repeated as well.

Guess 4: 135
Result: 1 hit, 2 misses
This was just a bad guess, although we can gather some information from it. We already knew 3 was wrong, so we can ignore it here. We knew it was either 1 or 5, so guessing both wasn't a great idea. But since we knew (from guess 1) that either the 1 or 5 was in the correct place, we now have a confirmation that it was the 1. So we now know where both the 1 and the 4 belong. But we have no idea what is supposed to be in the last spot.

Guess 5: 145
Result: 2 hits, 1 miss
Clearly a failure to listen carefully. There was no reason to repeat the 1 and the 5 since only one was correct.

Answer: 141

I think the real failure here was in guess 3. We should already have known that the 2 was wrong, so we should have used this to find out if 3 was involved (it wasn't) or if one of the others was (say, to narrow down the 1 or 5 question). Always associating the 1 and 5 together just made it difficult to know which was correct.

:confused:

And now, your letters:


I won too . Not sure when but would you happen to remember Moomalademuffin? Yeah I won the pin


Yes, I remember you. And yes, I sitll have the record of your game. Want me to post it tomorrow and you can comment? :)


I saw it the other day and wanted to play but the line was just scary.


This is the worst part of the game, I think. We do have a pretty long line and it does move fairly slowly. Games take 5 or so minutes each, including reset time, and that can be an awfully long time to wait. Worse if you get disconnected.

Hopefully, I think we still have fun while on line. We chat a lot and cheer the players on. Many people try to solve the game in progress, even if they're not the ones playing.

:confused:

Hope to see you again on the riverboat! Take care, everyone, and have a Disney Day.

Sure! :) lol ill make comments and all. Me and my rl best friend came to play but we left because of the line :( Its a great game though!

Hmm..Sounds really awesome I will visit after school (stupid school _-_')

Sure! :) lol ill make comments and all. Me and my rl best friend came to play but we left because of the line :( Its a great game though!

Well, I wasn't able to run the game yesterday. I hope I can today! It has been a rough week so far.

the line... the line... -sigh-

Here is our guest commentator, who will discuss what he was thinking during his winning game. So here's their game:

Guess 1: 432
Result: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss

Guess 2: 425
Result: 2 near, 1 miss

Guess 3: 412
Result: 1 hit, 2 near

Guess 4: 421
Result: 3 near

Guess 5: 142
Result: 3 hits!

this idea is one of the best i've ever seen :)...i actually heard about the game after my sister (LilAdventureA) was excited and told me that she won...i never got the chance to play but i will definatley look for your game :)

The biggest problem with running a game, in my opinion, is that it is filled with highs and lows. There are always some great moments - when people win, the great conversations, the cheering and the fun. There are usually some frustrating moments - the disconnects, people who don't really "get" the game and waste everyones time (including their own), running out of time.

Yesterday was filled with both of those in plenty.

I was able to run the game for only a bit over an hour, and got 14 games going during that time.

There were no winners, which is horribly dissapointing. Several people were able to get two right fairly early on, but then didn't listen to those clues - and blew it by the end.

Sure there are positives - several people really seemed excited to play, and I'm terribly terribly sorry I had to leave just before it was their turn. Even people who lost, one of whom really didn't try, at least claimed they had fun.

And I want to take this moment to thank Krisco, who VERY graciously donated a green pirates chair to help complete the collection. I like it when everything looks right, and now it finally does. :)

:confused:

In todays example, we will see someone trying, but who was disconnected before they finished. They made several mistakes along the way, but even so there were a lot of lessons learned.

Guess 1: 552
Result: 3 misses
This is one of the best things you can get this early. We now know that both 5 and 2 are completely wrong.

Guess 2: 214
Result: 2 near, 1 miss
The miss shouldn't be a surprise, since we knew the 2 was wrong. This gives us something we needed to know - that 1 and 4 are correct, and we've narrowed down where they can be. This was also a good result.

Guess 3: 111
Result: 1 hit, 2 miss
I was originally going to say this was a useless guess, but really it isn't. It tells us something we didn't know before - 1 was not repeated. So either the 4 is repeated or we have a 3 somewhere.

Guess 4: 153
Result: 2 near, 1 miss
Very very useful information. We know the 1 is in the wrong place. The 3 we know must be good. I might have done the 4 instead of the 5, trying to guess its location, but we'll see if we can do something with this.

At this point - the person was disconnected,and so never made a final guess. Let's see if anyone can both figure out the result and explain exactly why it is that result. (Here is your way to play without waiting in line! :D)

:confused:


this idea is one of the best i've ever seen ...i actually heard about the game after my sister (LilAdventureA) was excited and told me that she won...i never got the chance to play but i will definatley look for your game


Yes, your sister was finally able to win on the 12th, on her fourth try playing the game! :) (Including two disconnects.) Quite honestly, I'm impressed she came back after so many problems.

This amazes me. :) I know I have fun running the game. It surprises me that so many people have so much fun mostly waiting to play!

:confused:

I really hope I'll be able to open again tonight, and even more hopeful I'll be able to stay around running it for a few hours. I hope you come by and try to listen to the spirits!

cool game ( too short of post)

What an incredible night! I was able to find plenty of time to run the game, and it looks like the luck of the Irish descended upon us early! Of the 52 games, we had an amazing 24 winners! And although we had 8 people who almost got it on the first try, we finally had the first person who guessed it correctly right out of the gate - congratulations to lucky DisChiq!

Here is the full list of 24 winners last night:

KassyDMc (4 guesses)
DisChiq (5 guesses)
friendswithall (5 guesses)
DisChiq (1 guesses)
Tykef (5 guesses)
LAdyRaiders (5 guesses)
magicwingedyohsi (4 guesses)
AceAcesweetaman (4 guesses)
Adventureally (5 guesses)
isuperheartme (3 guesses)
DisChiq (4 guesses)
LittleAdventureA (5 guesses)
dangerman (4 guesses)
schmoofy (5 guesses)
DisChiq (5 guesses)
astroarwen (4 guesses)
jallicio (2 guesses)
Golfguy (3 guesses)
Griffindor_Boy (3 guesses)
tabbyCoolKat (4 guesses)
DeltaFlight (5 guesses)
JennyIsSlapHappy (3 guesses)
sakusan (4 guesses)
ResidentPixie (4 guesses)


We had surprisingly few disconnects as well, but those that we did have were particularly dissapointing. One person came in loudly complaining that I should let them back in immediately to play. I wish I could! I felt really bad about it. "If you really felt bad, you would let me in." -sigh-

The most memorable quote from the evening: "Oh! The evil pumpkins!"

:confused:

Today's profiled game was... well... interesting. The person insisted their strategy would work, although it only worked half the time they tried it. I'm going to show both games, and point out how they could have improved the strategy.

Guess 1: 111
Result: 3 misses

Guess 2: 222
Result: 3 misses

Guess 3: 333
Result: 3 misses
Do you see where this is going? :)

Guess 4: 444
Result: 2 hits, 1 miss
Ok, so now we know exactly what the numbers are going to be, but we will have to take a complete guess where they are.

Guess 5: 544
Result: 1 hit, 2 near
There were only two possible results, this one or the win.

Answer: 454

For their next game, they tried the same strategy, although with slightly different numbers. The results were slightly better too.

Guess 1: 111
Result: 1 hit, 2 misses
At least we got something on the first try! :)

Guess 2: 444
Result: 3 misses
I'm not sure why the player skipped 2 and 3, but they did. What really confuses me is that it would have been better to try and locate where the 1 would be located while you're trying to find the other numbers, instead of having to guess at the end.

Guess 3: 333
Result: 3 misses

Guess 4: 555
Result: 3 misses
So once again we get to the last guess, knowing only which numbers are in play, but having no idea what order they are in. It will be another total guess.

Guess 5: 122
Result: 3 hits!
The guess paid off this time. :)

:confused:


cool game ( too short of post)


Rather than posting a short post, perhaps you could say what you find cool about it. :)

:confused:

Well, perhaps they will be Irish spirits tonight, and we'll have even more great winners. Hope to see you again tonight and this weekend, when I'll hopefully be open. Have a McDisney day!

I had to go to my corned beef and cabbage last night, so I only had an hour to play. It was also a pretty quiet night - didn't get a lot of people coming in. But in the hour I was there we had 10 games, and 8 people won those games:

LittleAdventureA (4 guesses)
Bog.Frog (5 guesses)
Guest2311930 (5 guesses)
ChewBracha (5 guesses)
Tykef (3 guesses)
thecoolthecool (5 guesses)
yellowchimp (3 guesses)
CL_LuxoJr (3 guesses)


3 of these had two matches on their first try, so overall it was a pretty lucky evening for people.

:confused:

Let's look at one of these. The player did ultimately win, but had a little problem figuring it out. They thought their last guess was a real guess - let's see why they should have known they had really won.

Guess 1: 555
Result: 2 hits, 1 miss
This is getting to be a popular kind of first guess, it seems. That's fine. :) As long as you know what to do with the results. They even got lucky that they found it on the first try.

Guess 2: 545
Result: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
Clearly this person had read my last examples, and was taking the message to heart. Since they knew two 5s were correct, they went to figure out where they were and what the other scoreboard was. This guess tells them two things: (1) where the 5s were (2) that 4 isn't the other value

Guess 3: 553
Result: 2 hits, 1 miss
Ok, so it isn't 3.

Guess 4: 552
Result: 2 hits, 1 miss
And it isn't 2.

Now, at this point the person stopped and tried to think. This was kinda frustrating for me, partly because I needed to leave soon, and partly because the answer should have been very obvious. Do you see why?

They didn't know if it was 1, 3, or 4. We know it isn't 3 because we tested that. We know it isn't 4 because, although we didn't test it in this place, guess 2 only had two that were hits or near, and we are using both of those 5s. So it must be 1! Perhaps they were messing with us.

Guess 5: 551
Results: 3 hits!

:confused:

That's all for now. Hope I'll be able to run it a decent ammount this weekend, and I hope y'all come on down to play. See you then!

I didn't have any time to play yesterday, so I wasn't able to run the game. Since I have no new results to announced, I thought I'd explore some of the numbers behind the game.

There will be a little bit of math - but I hope you may find it fun anyway. :) If you have any questions about what I'm explaining, please ask!

http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/images/icons/icon4.gif

The most basic number, of course, is how many possible answers there can be. We have three scoreboards, each with five possible settings. Each scoreboard is completely independent of each other (so we can repeat settings), and order is important.

So we can figure out the number of patterns with 5 x 5 x 5 = 125.

"So what?" Well, this means that if you were trying to guess the pattern with no other information (which you are on your first guess), you have a 1 in 125 chance of getting it right. So, on average, every 125 people or so, one person will get it right on the first try.

So far, we have had 230 games, with only 1 person getting it right on the first try. If this holds, we should get our second person within the next few days.

The other interesitng question is if there are any numbers that are better than any other. There shouldn't be, of course. At this point in the game, each of the 125 possible answers should have been seen once or twice. But in reality, this isn't quite true. There are 21 answers that have never been seen, and one answer that has been seen six times. I'll update these numbers in a future installment, to see if things even out any more.

http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/images/icons/icon4.gif

More math another time - I'll let you digest this and ask questions.

Perhaps I'll be able to run the game today - I certainly hope so! See you on the riverboat!

Hey, Priz, if I remember college Statistics correctly, each combination has the same PROBABILITY of occurring, but that doesn't mean you will get all 125 in 125 tries. The odds are exactly the same for each occurrence. So it isn't all that unusual that you've had some repeats and some no shows. Obviously, the more occurrences there are, the more the combinations will even out.

Hey, Priz, if I remember college Statistics correctly, each combination has the same PROBABILITY of occurring, but that doesn't mean you will get all 125 in 125 tries. The odds are exactly the same for each occurrence. So it isn't all that unusual that you've had some repeats and some no shows. Obviously, the more occurrences there are, the more the combinations will even out.

This is true. And thank you very much for clarifying this! What I should have said was something more like:

On average, we would expect to have seen each number once or twice. But reality doesn't always work the way math expects us to. In reality, there are 21 we have never seen, and 1 that we have seen six times.

Now, it may be luck that causes this. For example - it is very unlikely that you will flip a fair coin and it will come out heads 100 times in a row. It is possible! Just very unlikely.

So, how likely is it that we've never seen 1/6 of the answers come up? It isn't too bad (no, I'm not going to do the math to explain it in detail), but it does begin to ask the question if the way I pick the answer is truly random. As we collect more data, we'll find out just how random things might be.

Well, I've rarely been able to play any of them, but I must say: I am quite a fan of your games (and clock, lol). I really like the idea of making players think, as opposed to races or tests of luck; and I think you definately are making players work for their wins. Quite fun from the audience standpoint too. I'm unsure which is more suspenseful: whether the current player will guess correctly, or if you'll get disconnected before you find out! (I've been disconnected 3 times in a row and counting! W00t!... ahem...)

Anyway, I'm really looking forwards to playing this :)

Have you told us yet how you're picking the answer? Some computer generated random program?

Well, I was able to get seven games started yesterday until the VMK black out. An absolutely incredible turnout! I hadn't even finished inviting people and the room was full. Wish we had been able to play more. :(

Of the seven, we had three winners:

WildcatHFRS (2 guesses)
bluedudeman (5 guesses)
CL_froghopper (2 guesses)


We also had one person who had gotten two right on the first guess.

:confused: :)

Let's look at that game and see what happened

Guess 1: 235
Result: 2 hits, 1 miss

Guess 2: 231
Result: 1 hit, 2 misses
Very very useful. We know the 5 is correct, and in the third place. We know the 1 is wrong, and not anywhere. Either the 2 or the 3 has to go, but we don't know which yet.

Guess 3: 245
Result: 1 hit, 2 misses
Even more useful information! We know the 5 is correct, so that was our hit. The 2 and 4 must be wrong. So we know the 3 in the first guess is correct. Since 1, 2, and 4 are all wrong, we know the first position must be a 3 or a 5. We can get figure this out in the next two guesses.

Guess 4: 335
Result: 2 hits, 1 miss
We know the 3 and 5 in the second and third positions are right, so the first positionmust be wrong. That leaves 5 to go there. We'll get it!

Guess 5: 135
Result: 2 hits, 1 miss
Or not...

Answer: 535

:confused: :)

And now, your comments:


I really like the idea of making players think, as opposed to races or tests of luck; and I think you definately are making players work for their wins.


You make it sound like it is so difficult! Yes, it is a challenge - but its a good challenge! And I think its better work than working hard to get into a staff game, for example. Tho I guess my awards aren't quite as good.


Quite fun from the audience standpoint too. I'm unsure which is more suspenseful: whether the current player will guess correctly, or if you'll get disconnected before you find out!


This is definately not one of the things I was aiming for in the game. :) I was really expecting that they would have these disconnect problems either fixed or worked around.

I think I need to find a better solution to the dc issue, but everything I come up with involves a lot more work on my part, and a lot more frustrations.


Have you told us yet how you're picking the answer? Some computer generated random program?


No, I haven't. :D But yes, I'm using a computer program to generate the results. This is actually a significant departure from the real Master Mind game, where it can be a battle of the wills - where the master is trying to come up with something to confuse the player. I'm more neutral here - every player has an equal chance (in theory) of getting either "555" or "124".

:confused: :)

Hopefully we'll have a pleasant time playing today. Till then, take care everyone!

It has been a rough few days, with many computer and other problems. But I was able to keep things going on Monday and Tuesday for a little bit, so I was able to get 17 games in. The 7 winners from these games were:

bluedudeman (2 guesses)
ChewBracha (4 guesses)
Alphaminiminigirl (5 guesses)
coolchip (3 guesses)
schmoofy (3 guesses)
KuteKylie (3 guesses)
CL_MsBehave (4 guesses)

Three of these had all but one on the first guess.

:confused:

Let's look at the one who didn't solve it, and we'll see it isn't always so easy!

Guess 1: 134
Result: 2 hits, 1 miss
A lucky first guess.

Guess 2: 235
Result: 1 hit, 2 misses
This was an interesting tactic, and I think the person did it intentionally. Trying to see if the other numbers were valid, and if the 3 was good. We get some information, but not a lot. We know (and I do mean know) that the 3 is correct - if the 2 or 5 were the hit on this round, then neither the 1 or 4 could be correct from guess 1, and we know that at least one of them was.

Guess 3: 124
Result: 1 hit, 2 misses
I think this is where the person started getting confused, since it doesn't provide us any information we didn't already know. We already knew the 2 was wrong, and we already knew that either the 1 or 4 were correct.

Guess 4: 421
Result: 1 near, 2 misses
Again, no new information. If we had the hit from the last round, why aim for a miss? We're also still playing with a 2, which we know is incorrect, and not helping us identify whats supposed to be there.

Guess 5: 323
Result: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
If this wasn't the last guess, we would have learned a bit from this, but still not enough to determine if it was the 1 or 4. We know the miss is the 2, we know that the near is one of the 3s (it is supposed to be in the middle), and we know that the hit is the other 3 (but which one?). This might have made a good guess 3, possibly wiht the 1 or 4 in the middle place to determine which number it was at least. But too little, too late. Need to listen more carefully to those spirits. :)

Answer: 334

:confused:

On Monday, I had a very very upset player who was disconnected. I got into a little bit of a discussion with them, but didn't actually come up with any better solutions.

On Tuesday, I put a new note in the instructions making my disconnect policy clear - there is nothing I can do.

The system got its revenge on me that evening - after just a few games I was disconnected and couldn't get back on. yuck.

:confused:

Hopefully the connection spirits will be more gracious to us. Hope to see you all on the riverboat!

I've been somewhat negligent in posting results recently, but it seems like the only time I've had recently has been when I was actually playing. And I figure you would rather try to play than read about playing, right?

So over the past 3 days, in between various VMK crashes and other problems, we've had 57 players, of whom 18 were able to listen to the spirits well enough to win:

krisco (4 guesses)
CptnPirateJack (5 guesses)
Lillrules (4 guesses)
skippyskippy (5 guesses)
Astrozathura (5 guesses)
SoarinSoarin (3 guesses)
IamAdifferentgirl (4 guesses)
FeenieAnn (5 guesses)
CL_TropicalStich (4 guesses)
gamedog (4 guesses)
Pokertoy (3 guesses)
WildcatHFRS (3 guesses)
stacymacey (3 guesses)
Kay.D (4 guesses)
mashaL (4 guesses)
brand-o (4 guesses)
GenieOfLamp (5 guesses)
BadgerHockey (5 guesses)


I'm so glad so many of you kept coming, despite all the disconnects and other problems I had running the game.

:confused:

I felt so sorry for the person who played this next example. You'll see why:

Guess 1: 335
Result: 3 misses
Not a bad start, at least we're able to eliminate 3 and 5 from our choices.

Guess 2: 351
Result: 3 misses
This was when we started wondering if the person understood the game, but they insisted they did. At least we can drop 1 from the list as well.

Guess 3: 354
Result: 3 misses
They clearly had an obsession with 3 and 5, although surprisingly this guess actually tells us what the answer is!

Guess 4: 413
Result: 3 misses
This is why I keep 15 pumpkins in the room - in case they don't get it, don't realize why they don't get it, and are unlucky enough to actually miss the correct number every single time.

Guess 5: 235
Result: 1 hit, 2 misses
Ok, not quite every single time, so there was one pumpkin sitting on the floor. But this certainly suggests that you should try other numbers before your last guess.

Answer: 222

:confused:

I was a little flexible about when I had to leave yesterday, so I simply declared the line closed and put barriers at the entrance. I've tried something like this in the past, but it didn't work very well then. I'm not entirely sure it worked any better this time, either.

People who couldn't get in line complained. People who were in line but got disconnected complained. And I just couldn't make exceptions because I needed to go soon.

So I'm still searching for a better solution here and for the disconnects.

:confused:

Hopefully more time and more fun this afternoon. Till then, have a virtually fun day.

i've won two times, in 5 guesses and in 2 yay!

The game is awesome, Priz. I have been waiting since October to play, and I finally did. Great work on the game, and the delicious goat cheese ;)

Okay, I was looking back, and one of my other characters, BlueTreasure, is happily on here. I didn't recieve the sand rug... is there any way I can still get it from you? I really like those things, but I can't spend too many credits on it...

A lot of problems running the game recently. Very unpleasant. Of the 23 people who have played, only 6 won:

CL_MsBehave (4 guesses)
skippyskippy (5 guesses)
krisco (5 guesses)
Luciegirlcoolio (5 guesses)
IamAdifferentgirl (4 guesses)
emmawatsonrocks (5 guesses)


Several close calls, however.

:(:confused::(


i've won two times, in 5 guesses and in 2 yay!


Yes, you have! Don't forget that if you want me to feature your game as part of an example for you to comment on, I will be happy to do so.


The game is awesome, Priz. I have been waiting since October to play, and I finally did. Great work on the game, and the delicious goat cheese


Hope it was worth the wait, hope you have fun, and hope you don't get sick on goat cheese.


Okay, I was looking back, and one of my other characters, BlueTreasure, is happily on here. I didn't recieve the sand rug... is there any way I can still get it from you? I really like those things, but I can't spend too many credits on it...


That is strange - you were in the first group that should have gotten them. But for anyone who won before I added this to the prize list, you just need to find me when I am not running the game.

:confused::(:confused:

However, finding me might be more difficult. Remember all those times when I say I have to go or I will get in trouble? Well, I got in trouble. Not sure how much I will be able to run the game.

Still, I hope to. If and when I do, I hope you'll come out and play.

Till then, take care, everyone.

Wasn't able to run the game yesterday, so instead I'll present some more game statistics.

So far there have been 334 games run, with 106 winners! Here is a quick breakdown of how many players have gotten it on each row:

1st guess: 1 player
2nd try: 8 players
3rd try: 25 players
4th try: 32 players
5th try: 40 players


There are still 13 patterns that have never been answers, and 2 patterns that have each appeared seven times. At this point, the odds say we should have expected to see each pattern two or three times.

46 people got two out of the three correct on their first try, but not all of them went on to win.

http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/images/icons/icon4.gif

Let's look at this for a moment. Last time we determined that the odds of getting it right on the first guess were 1 in 125. What are the odds of getting two completely correct (right pattern in right place), and one wrong?

Let's do this by example. If we assume the answer is "111", what patterns will give us the wrong answer?

211, 311, 411, 511
121, 131, 141, 151
112, 113, 114, 115

Is that it? Each row I showed above changes just one scoreboard to all the other possible numbers. So there are 12 possible ways we can be "really close".

You can do this for any other answer to demonstrate that if we change just one number through all the other combinations each time, we'll come up with the same result.

Since there are 125 possible answers, we can do 125 divided by 12 to get just over 1 in every 10 guesses will be close. In reality, 1 in every 7 or so actually get this close on the first try.

http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/images/icons/icon4.gif

That's enough for now. But there are plenty more things to explore a bit at a time.

Feel free to ask questions about what we're discussing! If I can't answer it, there are far smarter people than I who probably can.

I hope I can open today. Remember - listen to the spirits, they're telling you math is good!

Looks like people were playing the Narnia game last night, since we only had enough people coming out to play 8 games - and many of them played more than once. At least half of them won:

Adventureally (4 guesses)
dudedanrocks (5 guesses)
monkytea (4 guesses)
yazmyn (5 guesses)


:confused:

I wanted to take a moment to point out this post (http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50105) by CL_gilligantrips looking at the odds of winning a traditional VMK generator game.

Compare the incredibly low odds with the much larger numbers of people who have won Spirits Speak. The difference is that I am trying to emphasize thinking - while the generator games are pure luck. In fact, I don't award anything special to people who get it on the first two guesses, simply because that would be rewarding luck.

:confused:

Today's example teaches two good lessons - assumptions in the game are good, but you need to test those assumptions early, and you need to pay attention. Or the spirits will not be happy with you.

Guess 1: 413
Results: 1 hit, 2 misses
Pretty standard opening guess, and not a bad result.

Guess 2: 435
Results: 1 hit, 2 misses
This was interesting, and is part of the problem with some guesses. Is the 4 the hit both times? Was the 1 correct the first time and the 5 the second time? Was it the 3 that was correct, moving from one correct position to another? We'll need to test and find out!

Guess 3: 421
Result: 1 near, 2 misses
Well, at least this tells us that the 4 is completely wrong. But is it the 1 that is near (in which case it should be in the middle) or the 2 that is. What does it mean if the 2 is correct? Well, first of all it means the 1 is wrong, so the 1 from the first guess is wrong and the 3 is in the correct place. It also means that the 5 in the second guess couldn't be there, and since the 4 is wrong, we know the 3 in the second guess must be the correct one. But we need to test which one it might be. Good thing for us we have a few more guesses. What if it is the 1 thats correct? We know that 2, 3, and 4 would be wrong, so it must be the 5.

Guess 4: 345
Result: 1 hit, 2 misses
This wouldn't have been how I would have tested it, but it gives us some interesting results anyway. We know the 4 is wrong. The 5 may be in the correct place. In which case the 1 from guess 3 should be in the middle. If the 1 is correct, the 3 from guess 1 must be wrong, and we know the 4 and 2 would be wrong. So we just need to figure out what would be in the first place - it must be a 1 or a 5, but we don't know which one! This narrowed things down, but didn't provide much more information than we had with guess 3.

Guess 5: 352
Result: 1 near, 2 misses
Not helpful. This just reinforces that the 5 is involved instead of the 2 or the 3, but we already knew that from guess 4.

Answer: 515
Our best chance to win hinged on guess 4 - had we tried either the 2/3 hypothesis or the 1/5 hypothesis without any confusing information, we might have figured it out by the end.

:confused:

The weekend is approaching. I hope I have enough time to run the game a bit, and I hope you take time away from Narnia and the staff room events to listen to the spirits.

I had 3 hours to spend on Friday night, so I was able to get 30 games going (in between a couple of disconnects). Surprisingly, we only had 6 winners:


WildcatHFRS (5 guesses)
Bestdivadestiny (3 guesses)
BlackCatGirl (5 guesses)
GabsTheDancer (3 guesses)
MagicMuffin (3 guesses)
Apiko (4 guesses)


One of the most dissapointing things about the game are those who clearly don't "get" the game, haven't read the directions, don't ask questions to clarify their misunderstanding, take the time to play, and then are surprised when I don't give them something at the end of the game. I feel bad for them, and also for the other players who are waiting to get in, and often are disconnected because of the wait.

One of the most exciting things are to see people who keep coming back to try and play. I'm really thankful for all of you - who make the game as great as it is.

:confused:

Today's example:

Guess 1: 531
Spirits say: 1 near, 2 misses
Pretty typical opening and result.

Guess 2: 245
Spirits say: 2 near, 1 miss
Getting better, but it helps us less than we might think. Does this mean the 5 needs to be in the center? Or that the 2 and 4 are correct?

Guess 3: 424
Spirits say: 2 hits, 1 miss
This is, of course, good. :) But surprisingly, it doesn't tell us that much! The 5 could still be correct, and in the middle, and the two 4s correct. Or it could be the 2 that is correct and one of the 4s, in which case we also need to put a 3 or a 1 in place. If it is a 1, we know where the 4 should be - but things are still very confusing.

Guess 4: 444
Spirits say: 2 hits, 1 miss
Well, that settled the argument. The 4s from guess 3 are correct. The 2 is wrong. That means the 5 must be correct, and we know where it should be located (since guess 1 and 2 told us those locations for the 5 are wrong).

Guess 5: 434
Spirits say: 2 hits, 1 miss
They didn't listen to the spirits! In fact, this was a particularly poor guess - we knew the 3 couldn't be in the middle, since guess 1 had no hits.

Answer (as we know, since we listen): 454

:confused:

I will probably not be opening today - I want to continue my audition for NPC over at the VMK Clock (http://www.vmkforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=371625), and while this week looks like it could be busy, I should open up a bit later in the week.

Hope you take the... time... to visit me at the clock or later at the game! Thanks for visiting and playing.

Lately I have been caught up in my new ride, as I have left the world of games for a brief survey of thw world of rides. That is disappointing, though, as I know how you feel. I say, "Welcome. Please read photos on wall!" and the first photos says sit, the next to come in when turnstile opens, and the next to go to the maze and into the teleporter. They can't even get to the 'sit' part. It really frustrates you, then they say, "I don't get it, your pictures are too not easy!"

I have played the sprit game it is really really fun

I have played the sprit game it is really really fun

I'm glad you had fun.

Unfortunately, I won't be opening up the game again for a while. But if and when I do I hope to see you there!

I know you would like to be an imaginere and think your well on your way...
start with a story. Once you have that story, it will help shape what you want to do. I remember you said once.... The man who made Expedition Everest and Animal Kingdom, Joe Road, said that same EXACT thing. Just keep on going!!!! You have an imagineres brain!!!!!!! If you live in Florida like I do, go to DownTown Disney, then go across the street from the main entrance and that's where the imagineres have some of their meetings!
Anyways, Your room sounds great!!!!!!!

I played that game!!!:-) It's so good, well done! I hope you can remember me, im cutehayley on VMK. Though in the middle of the game i dc :'(

Hayley
x

Well, I'm finally back! And finally had some time to run a game. My machine crashed a couple of times, so I was unable to return for a while, so I'm sorry to those who were left in line without any notice. :(

Still, we were able to get 27 games in, with 11 people who could listen to the spirits:

soccerrunner (5 guesses)
cuteGmonkey (2 guesses)
Pokertoy (2 guesses)
pinatine (4 guesses)
monkytea (4 guesses)
Chevianah (3 guesses)
Kurasu (3 guesses)
Guest2693816 (3 guesses)
SuiteStarr (2 guesses)
IWearTheMoose (3 guesses)
hiAwesomemelissa (3 guesses)


One of the most exciting games was the player who was confused by the directions, but watched several games before it was their turn. Their first guess was very very lucky - getting 1 hit and 2 nearly correct. What was wonderful, however, was that they understood what that meant, and how they could react to it. They went on to win in just 3 guesses. :)

That is why I run the game.

:confused: :) :confused:

On to todays example:

Guess 1: 352
Spirits said: 2 near, 1 miss
This is always a tough result for the first guess. Never quite sure where to take it.

Guess 2: 314
Spirits said: 1 near, 2 miss
The guess itself wasn't great - why leave the 3 in the same place? And now we're pretty confused about what it is going to be. Is the 3 one of the nears from guess 1? Is it the 5 and 2 that are correct there, meaning the 1 or 4 is also correct? Lots that we still have to figure out.

Guess 3: 452
Spirits said: 3 near
Ok, so that answers that question. This actually tells us the answer. :) We know where the 4 is (since it was the near miss twice now, in two different places), and we know where the 2 is (since it isn't where we have put it every time so far, and it can't be in the middle), so we must also know where the 5 is!

Guess 4: 535
Spirits said: you're not listening! 1 hit, 2 misses
Ahem... the spirits were a bit loud there. This doesn't actually help with anything. It doesn't even confirm the exact place of the 5 (although we didn't need to know that).

Guess 5: 542
Spirits said: 1 hit, 2 misses
Too little too late, and not listening carefully enough. Still, if this had been guess 4, maybe they would have figured it out and gotten the confirmation they wanted.

Answer: 245

:confused: :) :confused:

That's all for today. I'm trying to earn credits for a quest generator, so I probably won't be running the game as much as I used to. But I do plan to open it periodically - so till then, keep your eyes open and your brains active!

Ah! I still have not won this game!
I was close on the last round yesterday though ;)

It sounds like it involves a lot of thinking-and luck. I'll try and stop by sometime to take a whack at it.

The game looks awesome

Avast mateys! I've re-themed Spirits Speak so it is now Pirate Spirits Speak. Same game, just with slight additions to the theming. Same prizes if you win, and you walk the plank if you lose!

Crew showed up for over 5 hours, and we were able to get 53 games going. Of those, the following 20 crewmates unlocked the treasure chest (and 33 were sent down to Davey Jones' Locker!)


amana (4 guesses)
mashaL (5 guesses)
MERarielMAID (3 guesses)
mashaL (5 guesses)
stacymacey (3 guesses)
Guest2848543 (5 guesses)
bravegirllygirl (4 guesses)
narutorocks (3 guesses)
MovieAddict (5 guesses)
CL_sugarbebe (3 guesses)
AwesomeCharles (5 guesses)
cuteGmonkey (4 guesses)
monkytea (4 guesses)
Choclateman (4 guesses)
Miss.Pizza (5 guesses)
MadSoccerKid (5 guesses)
AstroChelsie (3 guesses)
RNRGuy (5 guesses)
JessieSunshine (3 guesses)
FoamySeas (3 guesses)


We also had 5 people who got 2 right on the first guess, but were all unable to figure out the solution from there.

:piratesk:

Several good examples, but let's see how someone could have gotten so close to start, but not quite made it:

Guess 1: 435
Pirate Spirits Said: 2 hits, 1 miss
Good start!

Guess 2: 431
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
Ok, so we know that either the 4 or the 3 is correct (but not both), and that the 5 is correct. We also know the 1 is in the wrong place.

Guess 3: 412
Pirate Spirits Said: 2 hits, 1 miss
Not a bad next guess, but they didn't fully grasp what guess 2 was telling us. In particular, they missed the concept that the 5 was correct.

Guess 4: 413
Pirate Spirits Said: 2 hits, 1 miss
This confirms, at least, that its the 4 and 1, but they're grasping for the final number, when they should have gotten it from the first guess.

Guess 5: 414
Pirate Spirits Said: 2 hits, 1 miss
No joy, but we knew that, because we went and looked back at Guess 1.

Answer: 415

The trick is that we should have looked back to the first guess to figure out additional clues, and not just at our most recent results.

:piratesk:

How about another example? :)

Guess 1: 444
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 misses
A standard opening tactic, with at least some useful results.

Guess 2: 453
Pirate Spirits Said: 2 hits, 1 miss
Ok, we know which 4 is right, and have a lead on the other number. This is progress.

Guess 3: 433
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 misses
Ok, so we know the 3 is completely wrong. We're getting closer, but we're running out of time. We need to figure out the last number. We know it isn't 3 or 4 at this point, since we tested those explicitly, but we don't know about 1, 2, or 5. What might have been useful is if we had used our first position to test one of these numbers, just to see if we get a "near" match.

Guess 4: 452
Pirate Spirits Said: 2 hits, 1 miss
We knew the 4 and 5 were correct, so we were only trying the 2. We now know its wrong, but we have a problem. We don't know if the final number is 1 or 5. And we have only one guess left. As noted above, we should have used the 4 to test for a "near" case.

Guess 5: 451
Pirate Spirits Said: 3 hits
They guessed 1 and got lucky. :)

:piratesk:

Now, some letters:


It sounds like it involves a lot of thinking-and luck. I'll try and stop by sometime to take a whack at it.


As I hope the examples have shown, it does not take much luck. Some luck to get the best prize (and even there, if you're really lucky, you don't get a better prize than someone who has to think about it), but I don't think I've ever seen a case where with a bit of thinking, you couldn't have won at least something.

I hope, in the future, to be able to prove that everyone can win the game if you think about it a little.


The game looks awesome


I certainly hope people enjoy it! That is very important to me.

:piratesk:

That's all for today. Not sure I'll be able to open later, but I'll try. If so, come on down and join the crew! I'm sure we'll have some fun.

Yay! i just won it!
Thanks priz!

Its now done out in pirates stuff, Woot!

Avast mateys! Yesterday we be having just 8 crew members before me ship sank! Fortunately, 4 of them figured out the lock on the treasure chest and won the booty! Here they be:


StitchMad (3 guesses)
Marna (3 guesses)
dudejoejoe (3 guesses)
Guest2850148 (4 guesses)


Plus, some scurvy dog hid my list from the 22nd through the 25th! We had over 50 people joining our crew then, but only 15 of them survived to tell the tale:


GenieOfLamp (3 guesses)
CL_Teyla (5 guesses)
CL_MsBehave (3 guesses)
PartlyCloudy (4 guesses)
CL_Teyla (5 guesses)
monkytea (3 guesses)
kingperfect (4 guesses)
BlondeKari (4 guesses)
DizCaptain (5 guesses)
warner (4 guesses)
BluePrincessAsh (4 guesses)
BluePrincessAsh (4 guesses)
friendswithall (2 guesses)
ekoiscool (1 guesses)
cuteprincessangel (5 guesses)


You'll notice on that list that we've had our second crew member who has found the X on their first try!

:piratesk:

Today's example:

Guess 1: 134
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 misses
Not a bad start

Guess 2: 115
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
This was an interesting result. Normally, I'd be cautious that we stumbled upon two different hits (ie - that the 3 and 5 were the real hits), but the second 1 in guess 2 couldn't be the "near", since it would have also reported as a "near" in guess 1. So we know that the 1 is a hit and the 5 is in the second position. We also know that 3 and 4 are right out. That leaves 2 in the third position (it can't be 1, since we would have gotten another near for this guess, and it can't be 5 since we would have gotten the hit instead). X marks the spot!

Guess 3: 123
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
Clearly a landlubber. We knew the 3 was a miss already. This confirms the 2 is in the last spot.

Guess 4: 141
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 misses
This isn't telling us anything we didn't already know.

Guess 5: 125
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 near
Perhaps they had too much grog to drink. If they had another guess, they might have gotten it.

Answer: 152

:piratesk:

From your messages in a bottle:


Yay! i just won it!
Thanks priz!

Its now done out in pirates stuff, Woot!


On his fifth attempt at the game... in just 3 guesses! Do you want to share your thinking with us, StitchMad? Here were your guesses:

Guess 1: 424
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 near, 2 misses

Guess 2: 323
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 near, 2 misses

Guess 3: 152
Pirate Spirits Said: 3 hits!

:piratesk:

My weeks have been rough, but I'll try to set sail again soon!

so this is like the one game where u choose what color peg the other person chose and they say right spot wrong color for1 right spot right color for 1 and 2 wrong kinda gme?

so this is like the one game where u choose what color peg the other person chose and they say right spot wrong color for1 right spot right color for 1 and 2 wrong kinda gme?

yes this is zackly like dat one game itz name Mastermind itz wut i basd my game on u shud come pla sumtime!

Do you want to share your thinking with us, StitchMad?

No, i have no idea how i solved it anyways. LOL. It was all just pure guess of which to choose next ;)

No, i have no idea how i solved it anyways. LOL. It was all just pure guess of which to choose next ;)

Oh... you're a big help in me convincing people that it is a game of skill, not luck. :)

Oh yes, i try my hardest :) lol

Avast ye mateys! Finally back to shore to talk about our travels! Unfortunately, of the 51 crew members that I set sail with, I be returning with only 22. Our surviving crew this time:


Guest2850148 (4 guesses)
AceLollipop (3 guesses)
kingperfect (3 guesses)
schmoofy (4 guesses)
WorldOfMotion (5 guesses)
Mishele (5 guesses)
amana (3 guesses)
RoyalSnowTiger (5 guesses)
gligar (2 guesses)
princesspiko (4 guesses)
SoarinSoarin (4 guesses)
coolcoolfred (3 guesses)
mashaL (2 guesses)
CoolCatJossy (4 guesses)
acebahrr (5 guesses)
MovieAddict (4 guesses)
MagicMuffin (4 guesses)
AmandaActress (5 guesses)
WildcatHFRS (4 guesses)
CL_Dizznygrl (5 guesses)
krisco (5 guesses)
Firefox (5 guesses)


My apologies to everyone else who waited in line to play but didn't. The disconnects are getting frustrating, I know, and I was having computer problems one day where I couldn't even tell people I was having problems.

:piratesk:

On our cruise on the 11th, Admiral HOST_Lily watched us from the shore. You can also see some of the recent redecorating.

http://www.vmkforums.com/gallery/data/1022/host_lily3.jpg

Now, I know what everyone is about to say. Don't say it. I mean it. I get it at least once a day in the game, and I'm tired of it. If I win, thats great, but (1) I don't think I'm going to win, for a lot of reasons (2) that isn't why I run the game. I run the game to have fun. FUN! Get it? If you're having fun, thats the most important thing to me. If I get an award - thats great, and I'm not going to turn it down, but I'll keep running the game (at least until I get my next idea) no matter what.

:piratesk:

No examples today, mateys - the Pirate Spirits are tired. Hope to see you again when we next set sail!

Aarrr! A very interesting sailing today! With 27 crew members, only 9 found the X on the treasure map! Some of them repeat sailers!


NarutoFan (4 guesses) [222]
CL_Heartsdown (5 guesses) [222]
krisco (4 guesses) [521]
NarutoFan (5 guesses) [111]
ChixRule (5 guesses) [134]
mermaidmeg (3 guesses) [551]
astroiceboy (4 guesses) [123]
astroiceboy (5 guesses) [415]
CL_MsBehave (3 guesses) [222]



:piratesk:

We had a very unusual set of patterns. Of those 27 games, the pattern "222" came up 3 times - including the first two games run in a row! Additionally, we had two games where the pattern was "123"! The pirate spirits were being generous!

So, here's a question for you. We know that there is a 1/125 chance that any particular pattern will show up for a game. What are the chances that the second game would have had the same pattern as the first? Think about that one.

But I'll take this moment to be clear about something. The pattern is picked randomly each game. I run a program that picks three numbers and tells me what it is, and then I tell people at the end of their game. I am completely consistent (in fact, we had a problem yesterday, and we noticed that I marked it wrong) and fair. Using the program makes sure that I don't make it easier for my friends. (You'll notice that, in the spirit of full disclosure, I'm now including the answer for everyone who won.)

:piratesk:

No time for more! There is a ship of His Majesty's Navy on the horizon that I must engage. Hope you join our crew next time we set sail, mateys!

Before I begin, I want to thank a number of people who have helped make the game what it is.

You all know I pride detail in my rooms. When I first setup the game, it was incredibly difficult to get chairs that matched all the rows and tables, and the other chairs. I ended up compromising - I used green and yellow nemo chairs, while the rest of the chairs were pirate chairs. So my special thanks to Krisco, who gave me the first green pirate chair before they became host prizes, and to RoyalHighness, who without even asking me contributed to my bid for another green chair.

But a game isn't much without players. And while we always get a few problems, I have to say that you've been a wonderful crew! Yesterday, we had a new crew member who didn't quite get the game when it was her turn to start. Plenty of people stepped up and tried to help her understand how to play - not just give the answers. I have many players who have never won - but still come to play, chat, and have fun. There is no way I could stand running the game if it wasn't for all of you.

Every so often people ask if I'm rich. I am. I am rich in the wonderful friends I have met on VMK. So my thanks to all of you, and to all the friends out there I don't have on my list or haven't met yet.

:poison:

But let's get to the real question - did our crew find treasure? Aye, they did, mateys! 11 people got to play before my network died (again), and 5 got the loot:

dudejoejoe (4 guesses) [154]
RoyalSnowTiger (4 guesses) [332]
timaus (4 guesses) [411]
lilsanti (5 guesses) [452]
LilChoChang (4 guesses) [355]


:poison:

Here's this example from the other day:

Guess 1: 234
Pirate Spirits said: 1 hit, 2 near
Quite a good first guess!

Guess 2: 245
Pirate Spirits said: 2 near, 1 miss
This depresses me. We already know all the values. We just need to figure out where. Why bring a 5 into this? But even so, we now have valueable information. The 3 or 4 were the hit. The 2 is a definate miss.

Guess 3: 423
Pirate Spirits said: 1 hit, 2 near
Ah good, we're back on track. Although since everything has moved around, it is a little difficult. We know that the 4 is in either the first or last position (it is one of the hits from guess 1 or 3). But we learn something else interesting from the 3 - If the 4 is in the last position, the 3 is in the middle (the hit from guess 1), but if the 4 is in the first position, we know the 3 can't be in the last position (or we would have another hit in guess 3), so it must be in the middle no matter what! This leaves the 2. We know the 2 isn't in the first position, so it can't be 234 (that didn't work on the first guess)... so we know the answer!

Guess 4: 524
Pirate Spirits said: why do you keep using a 5?
Ahem... seriously... we know this isn't the answer. We know the 2 isn't in the middle, and we know the 4 isn't at the end.

Guess 5: 142
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
I think the person realized they hadn't tried 1 yet. This was not the time to try it.

Answer: 432

:poison:

How about another example? Sure! Since I've been so lax the past few days.

Guess 1: 543
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 miss
This is not a good start.

Guess 2: 123
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
This is getting better, but really, it doesn't tell us enough yet. Was it the 3 that was the hit? Or was it the 4 or 5 with the 1 and 2? Still, we have narrowed things down.

Guess 3: 313
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 near, 2 miss
Well, this was useful! We know the 3 is totally wrong. We know the 1 is correct, although it could be in either the first position (the hit from guess 2) or the last position (the near from guess 2). If it is in the first position, we know the 2 is on the end, and the 4 (from guess 1) must be in the middle (so 142). If it is in the last position, we know the 2 is in the middle (the hit from guess 2) and the 5 (from guess 1) is in the first (so 521). So... which shall we guess?

Guess 4: 521
Pirate Spirits said: 3 hits!

:poison:

Quite a Captain's Log, eh? Not sure when, but I hope to set sail a few times this weekend, so I look forward to you joining our crew.

I notice nobody has tried to answer my question from yesterday. I'll post the answer sometime this weekend, I expect, but go ahead and post if you have some thoughts!

I will come! :D

Please Open It, It is a nice brain teasing Game! i think I could figure it out! ?: Do you get better prizes when you figure it out quicker?

Yes please it seems really cool. I was going to play it but I didn't have time last time :(

Ah, VMK_Eagle came yesterday huh priz?
Sorry i didn't get a picture.
I'm sure you did :D

Yay Priz could win this again! This game does deserve it.

Its a great game! I have played it numerous times and won it numerous times! Awesome game Priz!

What an interesting voyage this weekend! Several problems, which prompted me to close and open several times over the weekend. Still, of the 50 people who were able to get in, only 31 were fed to the sharks. Here are the 19 who survived:


CL_PinkPokaDot (4 guesses) [521]
RadErin (5 guesses) [531]
truesportgril (4 guesses) [321]
Fairytori (2 guesses) [421]
ResidentPixie (5 guesses) [234]
AceDavel (4 guesses) [332]
Hens (5 guesses) [351]
dudejoejoe (4 guesses) [151]
acejokey (5 guesses) [123]
slycooper (5 guesses) [214]
CL_PinkPokaDot (4 guesses) [421]
Piinkbluegirl (5 guesses) [524]
Anne (4 guesses) [355]
Piinkbluegirl (3 guesses) [213]
SuiteAlex (5 guesses) [553]
Anne (4 guesses) [333]
Piinkbluegirl (3 guesses) [432]
Piinkbluegirl (4 guesses) [243]
Barbie (3 guesses) [154]


Those of you who were unable to get your treasure due to the trading bug, I have your names written down, so next time I see you you'll get whats due to you.

:pirate:

I had nobody reply to my challenge. So we remember, here it was:


So, here's a question for you. We know that there is a 1/125 chance that any particular pattern will show up for a game. What are the chances that the second game would have had the same pattern as the first? Think about that one.


So... what is the answer? On any game, there is a 1/125 chance that a particular pattern will be the result. But that is completely independent of what the previous result was - so the chance of getting "222" after "222" is exactly the same as getting "223" after "222". That is to say, there is a 1/125 chance.

:pirate:

Questions questions, ye have questions:


I will come!


Great! Always look forward to new crew members. Please make sure you've read the directions - it can be very frustrating for players who try to play and don't understand what is going on.

Don't forget - if you're on my friends list, I will message you when I open up.


Please Open It, It is a nice brain teasing Game! i think I could figure it out! ?: Do you get better prizes when you figure it out quicker?


To a point - yes. You get a treasure chest and treasure rug if you get it in the first three rows (the blue and green rows), a treasure map poster if you get it on the fourth row (the purple row), and a "Pirates of the Carribean" pin (the one you can buy all the time) if you get it on the fifth row (the red row). If you don't get it, you're fed to the sharks.

Some people like being fed to the sharks. It has become quite a pasttime.


Yes please it seems really cool. I was going to play it but I didn't have time last time


This is the biggest problem with the game. A LOT of people disconnect while waiting in line. We try to make the line as fun as possible, and I encourage people to play while watching, but there just isn't anything I can do about the disconnects.

I also don't want to rush people who are playing - the game takes some thought, and I want to encourage people to think about it.

But I hope you will set sail with us again in the future!



Ah, VMK_Eagle came yesterday huh priz?
Sorry i didn't get a picture.
I'm sure you did


Yes, Admiral Eagle joined our crew for a spell. He didn't say much, but be did join the line. I really didn't have a lot of time to snap photos - since I was trying to keep order in the game. But here's a quick shot (you can see him in the lower right):

http://www.vmkforums.com/gallery/data/1022/vmk_eagle.jpg


Yay Priz could win this again! This game does deserve it.


There are many fine games out there that deserve recognition and awards. I really doubt that Pirate Spirits Speak will get one, however, for a number of reasons.

More importantly - while I would be honored to get an award, it isn't why I run the game. I have fun doing it! I hope the people who come to play have fun, as well. The excitement when someone realizes how they can win, and actually does - that is just incredible to me! They have learned something, and have had fun doing so!


Its a great game! I have played it numerous times and won it numerous times! Awesome game Priz!


This is what I mean about having fun. :) Thank you.

I'll repeat my offer - if you want me to dig up one of the games you played, and let you present what you were thinking for each stage, I am more than happy to do so. I have every game recorded.

:pirate:

As always, never know when the winds will be blowing in our favor. But when they do, I hope you join me crew!

Calm waters yesterday, and a sharp crew. Only 15 people came to sail, of of those, 7 made it back to shore with treasure:


SuiteStarr (4 guesses) [535]
a_winner (4 guesses) [444]
BlueArielariel (5 guesses) [344]
Alphawildcats (3 guesses) [312]
Piinkbluegirl (3 guesses) [352]
Barbie (5 guesses) [243]
CL_LuxoJr (5 guesses) [131]


:pirate:

I would like your input. We've had a lot of people play who clearly don't quite "get" the game. Although they claim to, they will make guesses that indicate they have some basic misunderstandings, such as:

Getting a row wrong, and using the same numbers the next row
Asking "did I win?" (If you understand what is on the table, you will know)
Asking if there is a prize for getting all the rows right (Each row is trying to guess the same thing, getting them all right doesn't make sense.)


So - what can I do to make the game more clear? Easier to understand? Not as intimidating? Help more people solve the puzzle and win? :confused:

:pirate:

Some great examples from yesterday that I want to highlight.

Guess 1: 523
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 near, 2 miss
Ok, not a great start...

Guess 2: 545
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 miss
Now this is interesting. Is the last 5 the hit (meaning 2 and 3 are out) or is the 4 the hit (meaning the 2 or 3 are still correct). The first 5 was useful to help screen these out and not confuse things even more.

Guess 3: 341
Pirate Spirits Said: 2 hit, 1 miss
Very interesting! So, it could be that the 3 and 4 are correct, meaning that the last spot must be 4 (it can't be the 3, that would have been a hit before, it can't be 2 because that wans't the miss from guess 1, can't be a 5 because it was with the 4 from guess 2, and can't be 1 since we would have won). Or it could be that the 4 and 1 are correct, meaning the first spot must be 2 (the miss from guess 1). Can it be the 3 and 1? No, because otherwise we would have gotten a near instead of a hit on Guess 2.

Guess 4: 241
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 miss
Aha! So we know what it must be!

Guess 5: 344
Pirate Spirits Said: More treasure for the crew!

:)

This one is simple, yet you would be surprised how many people don't solve it under identical circumstances!

Guess 1: 241
Pirate Spirits Said: 2 near, 1 miss
It is always tricky to guess what needs to go.

Guess 2: 125
Pirate Spirits Said: 2 near, 1 miss
This is even worse! We don't know if it was the 1 and 2 that are still close, or if the 5 is somehow in the mix! But it certainly suggests what we should try next.

Guess 3: 312
Pirate Spirits Said: More treasure for the crew!
Luck helps... but it wasn't the only reason this crew member won. If this was not the correct answer it would have given us valuable information to help figure out which was. A good crew member would have gotten it!

:)

Here is another similar one. Again, it is surprising how many people can't solve it:

Guess 1: 531
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 near, 2 miss
A pretty typical result. It at least suggests what others to try guessing first.

Guess 2: 423
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 near
Ok, at least now we know what numbers are in play. We don't know if the 3 is the hit, or if the others are, but we can move things around and still win.

Guess 3: 342
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 2 near
It might have been smarter to keep one thing fixed, and moved around the other two.

Guess 4: 324
Pirate Spirits Said: 3 near
Ok, so we know the 3 isn't in the first position (from this guess) or the middle position (go look back at guess 1), so we know it is in the last position (the hit from Guess 2). Putting the 4 in the middle is consistent with both Guess 2 and 3, and the 2 up front is as well. So...

Guess 5: 243
Pirate Spirits Said: More Treasure for the crew!

:pirate:

I think thats more than enough for now. Please think about what I said above, and I welcome suggestions. Thanks!

wow you put alot of effort into all this! GREAT WORK!

Priz, being an Amateur VMK Game Designer, I must ask, to make my game a better experience: What do you think of the story of my game? Are you looking forward to the expansions? (Spirit Knowledge, etc.) Do you think the prizes are good? Are you annoyed by my questions? Do you think there should be a quest based on these?

Avast mateys! It has been rough seas for the past few days. On Wednesday, we had almost nobody come out to sail. Probably entering codes. On Thursday, we had quite a crew! But I fell overboard and couldn't get back on me ship. So only 16 crew mates got into the game, and only 5 made it out:

BarbieToo (3 guesses) [152]
WildcatHFRS (3 guesses) [222]
NarutoFan (4 guesses) [314]
magicstarpower (5 guesses) [455]
slycooper (3 guesses) [555]


:pirate:

So... some examples, perhaps? Do you folks like these?

Guess 1: 251
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 near, 2 misses
This is a tricky start, as usual, but let's see where it goes.

Guess 2: 423
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 near, 2 misses
Hrm. So we're left with the question - does the 2 belong in the last place, or did we just bring in a different near?

Guess 3: 154
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
Ok, so this person assumed the 2 was a red herring, and was banking on eithe r the 1 or the 5 from guess 1, or the 4 from guess 2. the problem is, we don't know if its the 1 or the 5 that ended up being in the mix - we know its not both, however. But this does tell us that the 4 is correct, and the 2 and 3 are wrong. It also tells us that either the 4 is double, or the 1 or 5 are doubled.

Guess 4: 414
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 hit, 1 near, 1 miss
This was a bit of an error, I think. We know the 4 can't be in the first spot (because of Guess 2), but now we know the 4 is definately in the last spot (the hit from Guess 3). Could it be the 1, doubled? No, because that would mean a 1 would be in the first spot, and we know thats wrong from guess 3. Can it be the 5 doubled? No, because it would mean a 5 in the second spot, and Guess 3 says thats wrong too. So the 4 must be doubled - in the middle position. That means we have to fill the first spot with...

Guess 5: 423
Pirate Spirits Said: 1 near, 2 miss
Well, we weren't listening and took a guess, it seems.

Answer: 544

:pirate:

Last night also marked a change in a major look of the room. The statues have been replaced by monkey skeletons, at least for now. So far, it looks pretty good, I think. Your thoughts welcome, as always

Speaking of your thoughts:


wow you put alot of effort into all this! GREAT WORK!


Thank you. Yes, it has been a lot of work, sometimes frustrating. For many months, I was staring at a room full of scoreboards that didn't work - so the game was