Incidentally
I had nothing to do with the MIT Mystery Hunt this weekend; I had bigger things going on, and the last time I sacrificed a puzzle event (Which would've been my first live one, actually) to a Bigger Thing, I came out the better for it.
Though I was still on the e-mail list for my previous team, so I learned a little about the theme and structure. All I have to say about that is that this is the second year in a row they've been scooped theme-wise by the previous summer's Microsoft Intern Game, doubly so if there was anything Phoenix Wright-related near the endgame. MSIG 2006 was timeshares turned selling your soul to the devil, and MITMH 2007 was solving the Mystery Hunt turned selling your soul to the devil. MSIG 2007 was a murder investigation you got framed for by the real killer, and MITMH 2008 was a murder investigation you got framed for by the real killer.
I wonder if there would be demand for a wholly online-delivered Mystery Hunt-structured puzzlehunt experience, in the sense that Google's USPC is an online-delivered culture-neutral logic puzzle competition experience. I know there are people who put puzzle sets and minihunts online, but is there anything to be gained by making it a real-time competition? Put something together that a single-digit team could solve in a single-digit number of hours and make the real-time events and stuff more Internet-powered, and I think there could be something.
Though I was still on the e-mail list for my previous team, so I learned a little about the theme and structure. All I have to say about that is that this is the second year in a row they've been scooped theme-wise by the previous summer's Microsoft Intern Game, doubly so if there was anything Phoenix Wright-related near the endgame. MSIG 2006 was timeshares turned selling your soul to the devil, and MITMH 2007 was solving the Mystery Hunt turned selling your soul to the devil. MSIG 2007 was a murder investigation you got framed for by the real killer, and MITMH 2008 was a murder investigation you got framed for by the real killer.
I wonder if there would be demand for a wholly online-delivered Mystery Hunt-structured puzzlehunt experience, in the sense that Google's USPC is an online-delivered culture-neutral logic puzzle competition experience. I know there are people who put puzzle sets and minihunts online, but is there anything to be gained by making it a real-time competition? Put something together that a single-digit team could solve in a single-digit number of hours and make the real-time events and stuff more Internet-powered, and I think there could be something.