It's finally over.
I'm not yet in a mental state to post any sort of recap-- I'm sure that'll come later. But nobody got hurt, all 22 teams finished, and I think we accomplished our major goals. Which doesn't mean there weren't snafus along the way. I'm just not sure how much the snafus were visible to players. We heard a lot of very positive comments from people, but comments are somewhat self-selecting-- I think people are more likely to congratulate you on-site than they are to complain (unless the problems are severe). From the inside looking out, the flaws and mistakes loom larger to me than the successes. But that's perhaps more a reflection of my personality than it is a reflection of the Game itself.
With only about 3 hours of sleep on Friday night and none on Saturday, I crashed around 11 AM on Sunday. Almost literally. I was driving to the final location at Owen Beach in Tacoma as I started dozing off at the wheel. I cranked the radio, opened the windows, and tried other tricks to keep awake, but nothing was working-- I couldn't keep my eyes open. I pulled off at the next exit and parked for a nap, and another GC member picked me up and brought me to the finish.
I hope teams enjoyed themselves and are glad they came.
Posted by Peter at August 22, 2005 11:15 AMPeter, this was a fantastic event. We had an amazing time throughout - the organization, the clues, the socializing, all the cool new things you tried ... I certainly hope you won't dwell on small things that weren't ideal in your eyes because (besides being mostly invisible to those on the the road) the overall experience was just superb.
Some of the stuff the Golden Nugget liked the best: Friday night's activity was tons of fun, and we really enjoyed the socializing both Friday night and throughout the event; the card game was both well designed and fun to play (not to mention stressful); great work on the Handbook (and some of the entries were hilarious); a bunch of clues were just terrific - some that come to mind include charades, the glass museum (great site!), the felt shapes, the whole Seattle Center experience, the blackjack game, the corn maze (wow, that was awesome), and probably a lot more that I'd remember with a list in front of me; and having meals provided by GC (and good meals too!) was really appreciated.
You guys did a phenomenal job. Thanks.
Posted by: John Owens on August 22, 2005 12:34 PMI don't know how you did it. You had to be on some crazy adrenaline rush to stay up as late as you did and still use your brain in any meaningful fashion.
Posted by: Nathan Beeler on August 22, 2005 01:06 PMI had a very good time, as did the Burninators in general, and I'm wearing my Mooncurser's shirt with pride as I type this. I particularly liked charades (one of the most brilliant clues I've seen, right up there with the Bat Blinker from Justice Unlimited), bowling for low scores (I still don't know how I finally hit exactly three pins), the four-player board games, and the rock-paper-scissors decision trees. We never had to Google for song lyrics or call our friends to have them mine the Internet for trivia, and I noticed and appreciated that design consideration. (Having read your blog beforehand, I knew we would be in good hands.)
Our team didn't enjoy the trading game or data-harvesting clues quite as much. Looking for the slug at the artwork site was very frustrating; one of us spent twenty minutes in exactly the right area without noticing the books. I spent at least an hour in the corn maze during the pit stop, and after another hour inside during the puzzle itself, the novelty had worn off (and it didn't help that our radios stopped working.) I had a sinking feeling when I saw the Monopoly board at 4 AM and realized what we had to do; I got into it eventually, though. The constellation walkabout didn't feel like a true puzzle. Some of the drive times were excessive, and I wish there had been time for a few more traditional drag-it-back-to-the-van-and-kill-it clues like your music, Boggle, and rock/paper/scissors puzzles.
One of our favorite moments: Shortly after we learned that Typhaknee had it in for us and had planted a bomb on our ship, we heard a loud, ominous, buzzing coming from somewhere in the van. We were sure it was the bomb, until someone determined that the electric toothbrush in one Burninator's bag had started up just then for whatever reason. (I'm still not sure why Typhaknee had such a bug up her ass, and I hope she gets her just deserts!)
I got my money's worth, and then some. If you guys run another Game, I'm in.
Posted by: Ian on August 22, 2005 02:37 PMIt was a great Game. :) Tigerpit really enjoyed it. Thanks for the great event!!
Posted by: TigerPit on August 22, 2005 09:11 PMTeam SharkBait (a.k.a. SharkShip One) had a fantastic time, and we all agreed afterward that we're eager to play in another one, after we get caught up on sleep of course. I've got some feedback for y'all, but I'll send that separately. We were definitely overthinking a few of the puzzles - those ones were the ones for which we had our longest solve times, of course, and I felt like an idiot Sunday night when I discovered that there had been a map available for the corn maze. Other than that, I think we all felt challenged by the puzzles, yet had a great time solving them.
I've heard some chatter from people who want to run a Game here, but I've been informed (not by them) that I'm not allowed to help run it, for reasons I think you're aware of. ;-) I'm so impressed by the amount of work and organization you've put into this. You've set a high bar, and we're going to have to work hard to meet it.
Posted by: Grubs on August 23, 2005 11:31 AMPeter we loved the event and thank you for helping to organize it. I posted some of my thoughts, as well as some photos, at http://www.weschan.com.
Posted by: Wesley Chan on August 24, 2005 10:49 PM