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ARGFest-o-con 2007 - San Francisco March 2-4
Moderators: Giskard
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konamouse
Official uF Dietitian


Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 8010
Location: My own alternate reality

 		It's all okay
So, here is a report from the official party room. Pardon my typos. I don't have my glasses, I've had a few glasses of champange & beer, and it's Celina's laptop (so the keyboard is small). And there is a lot of kareoke going on right now.

Argfest. Conference: information & interesting. Lots of amazing stories. I'll admit it, the SWAG museum blew me away (and I planned it). Wow! there is alot of stuff that celebrates our history. Pictures available after I get home on Monday. The people: amazing - so much fun to reconnect with folks that I've met over the years (from the first one in Las Vegas to Orlando [-sorry, missed Vancouver - the first conference in New York (by the way, that is the song that Bags & Mystery Jones is singing right now) to the social in Chicago to today]. And now we are helping to shape and influence the industry - puppet masters asking us, the players, what we like, what grabs our attention, what is different for each demographic, and if a game attached to a product would turn us off the game/product or not. And always, it's *my* personal preference to the type of game I enjoy, much the same as the type of book I read.

I'd like to encourage everyone to find their way to ARGFest next year. If only to meet your online friends (and if you are stuck hearing Bags & vpisteve singing "Beat it" in falseto....RUN!!!!!!).

Cya all in a couple of days after my hangover!
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 6:49 am
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		Tales from the field
konamouse wrote:
So, here is a report from the official party room. ... And there is a lot of karaoke going on right now.

May I just point out that the above timestamp says: Posted: Today, at 2:49 am PST I left when they set up the Wii at midnight o'thirty, so I missed out on karaoke. I didn't miss out on the hangover I have now, but it was worth it. Oddly, I was more buzzed friday night at the hotel bar after many many vodka drinks, but felt great the next morning. Last night I had one beer (a yummy dark ale) with dinner, followed by kona's champagne in the suite, and now I'm a queasy zombie. [/end scientific study of the effects of alcohol]

My story is mainly from the FestQuest, as I was stationed in a parking lot to receive the cake portion of the "ransom". I waited... and waited... wearing a jester's hat... and a rainbow tie-died bandana over my face... and Mardi Gras beads... and plenty of locals giving me strange looks... and where the heck was that team?! They had instructions to pick up a cake waiting for them at the grocery store, on which there was a cipher written in icing. Did they have trouble cracking the code? Apparently so, because they called for a lifeline to direct them to my car. Finally! We exchanged a little in-character banter about the kidnapping, then stood and looked at each other, and realized that none of us knew what their next step was. They still had to decipher the cake!

(this would be spoilery if I thought the puzzle was posted anywhere)
The cake had gibberish letters in groups of four, with the title "Dora the Explorer" -- the players told me it was Vigenere with "dora" as the key. (They'll have to tell you what they unsuccessfully tried for half an hour before calling their lifeline.) BrianEnigma tried reaching out to IRC to get some computerized deciphering assistence, but couldn't connect. His handheld couldn't run the usual java applets found on the internet, either. One person (sorry I didn't catch the name) considered whether to hand write out the entire 26x26 alphabet grid. Eventually they realized that they only needed 4 shifted alphabets -- actually only 3, because the ciphertext aligned with the A in "dora" would already be in plaintext. Volunteers claimed their letter and started writing. Another person in the group (sorry, another name I didn't catch) got his first lesson in how this cipher works, and was an active participant in looking up solution letters. After a few false starts -- it's common to do the alphabet shift for encoding first, rather than the opposite shift direction for decoding -- the solution began to appear. Then they lined up in order of D-O-R-A and took turns in sequence, reading off a letter from the cake* and announcing their lookup letter, while another soldier wrote it all down in real time. It was a thing of beauty; they were a machine.

Seriously, we're all so used to pasting text into a form and clicking a button, when these ciphers can still be done by hand with a little effort. The best part for me was being able to watch the cooperation evolve; it wasn't an instant success, but built thru negotiation, trial and error, and reward. Earlier in the day, I had heard the keynote speech which touched on the issue of trust: the players trust that the PMs will not give them impossible tasks, and the PMs trust that the players will be able to solve what is given them. I had to fight my internal puzzle slut urge to dive in and help them with this cipher, but it was a thrill to be there just as a spectator, and they got a sense of accomplishment. Ah, memories.

Well, I've rambled quite a bit now. A few more stray thoughts come to mind. One player (was that you, missphinx? did you recognize me behind the mask?) did suggest, as they were starting in on this large block of ciphertext, that they could start with the second half, skip the part which told them to deliver the cake, and get right to their next set of instructions. Very clever and spot on, but the team wanted the confirmation of working thru the entire solution. I think that is a common trait in our community.

*Oh, and the cake? I can just imagine the fear in the heart of the cake decorator when given this assignment! Rows and rows of nonsense letter sequences in sets of four -- and it had to be legibly printed with an icing tube. Wisely the organizers of the quest included a printout of the cipher in anticipation of "typos".

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 12:49 pm
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chippy
Entrenched


Joined: 19 Feb 2005
Posts: 789
Location: Leeds, UK

 		for those having irc troubles: connect via the ip address:
216.16.246.77 port 6667

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 1:18 pm
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bagsbee
Unfettered


Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Posts: 417
Location: NYC

 		Ow.

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 1:19 pm
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vortech
Unfettered


Joined: 22 Aug 2004
Posts: 465
Location: Atlanta, GA

 		Re: Tales from the field
catherwood wrote:
(They'll have to tell you what they unsuccessfully tried for half an hour before calling their lifeline.)

The cake is linked below, so you can try it at home. all you need is the cake, and the clue that the character on the cake is the key to the code. It's kinda hard to read, and when I'm back home I can put a scan of the printed code. The biggest problem were how many things I found that were too unlikely to be a coincidence, but were. For example, Dora the explorer has the same number of letters as four letter groups in the 2d set. And all of the "e" in it matched letter groups where the group started with U. Oh, and there was the issue of some letters being underlined in the note, which turned out to just be a printer problem.

It's probably not that big of a deal for codebreakers, but I think only 1-2 of us even knew how a vinare code worked to begin with let alone how to pen and paper it out.

Quote:

*Oh, and the cake? I can just imagine the fear in the heart of the cake decorator when given this assignment! Rows and rows of nonsense letter sequences in sets of four -- and it had to be legibly printed with an icing tube. Wisely the organizers of the quest included a printout of the cipher in anticipation of "typos".
Festquest cake
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 1:29 pm
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blue_j
Boot


Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 26
Location: Los Gatos, CA

 		Stragglers for the exploratorium
Hey, Just wanted to say that I -am- going to be there for exporatorium... but I am -also- going to be a bit late.

(hour's drive to SF, and less than an hour till 10:30)


On the plus side, I'll have a car with me, so I can drive people there and back (provided someone else can get me some directions)

I seat 4 comfortably, 5 if squished.


If this is a problem, or you just want me to head straight to the exploratorium.. email my phone at [edit: paranoid about spam Smile ]
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But a rabid zombie racoon can also bite you after its dead.
Curious symmetry
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xbl gamertag: bluejuh
Lance Corporal bluej: Red, Orange lietmarks
Playing: NeVec, Heroes, PXC

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 1:40 pm
Last edited by blue_j on Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:19 pm; edited 1 time in total
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
chippy wrote:
for those having irc troubles: connect via the ip address:
216.16.246.77 port 6667

And just now I'm successfully connected to foshizzle.ca.us.hub.chat-solution server at IP 69.80.195.68

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 1:41 pm
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vpisteve
Asshatministrator


Joined: 30 Sep 2002
Posts: 2441
Location: 1987

 		Here are some mobile phone pics from the sessions and late night podcast.
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 2:20 pm
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		argfest puts the 'un' in sunday
is it too early to bring up plans for later this evening? I'm looking back at this post by Vortech about the fancy schmancy dinner options. I'll be checking back later in the day to see if there might be stragglers seeking less expensive options. Maybe I can drag/coerce Leftbrained and my daughter to join me in one last ride up to the city to socialize and dine tonight, just maybe.

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:09 pm
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ariock
Has a Posse


Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 762
Location: SF East Bay

 		Re: Tales from the field
vortech wrote:
catherwood wrote:
(They'll have to tell you what they unsuccessfully tried for half an hour before calling their lifeline.)

The cake is linked below, so you can try it at home. all you need is the cake, and the clue that the character on the cake is the key to the code. It's kinda hard to read, and when I'm back home I can put a scan of the printed code. The biggest problem were how many things I found that were too unlikely to be a coincidence, but were. For example, Dora the explorer has the same number of letters as four letter groups in the 2d set. And all of the "e" in it matched letter groups where the group started with U. Oh, and there was the issue of some letters being underlined in the note, which turned out to just be a printer problem.

It's probably not that big of a deal for codebreakers, but I think only 1-2 of us even knew how a vinare code worked to begin with let alone how to pen and paper it out.


cough.

Sorry about the text at the top. It is funny how you ask about getting the "Dora the Explorer" figurine placed on top one week and they tell you it is no problem...to the next week being told they haven't had the figurines for at least a month.
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:40 pm
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ndemeter
Entrenched


Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 1037
Location: Sunny California!

 		I'd like to say thank you to everyone that attended the ARGFest-o-Con. Seeing familiar faces from almost 7 years past (wow, I feel old now) and meeting new folks was great. Listening to all the success PM's have had over the years was the icing on the cake.

Um, yeah, who ate the cake anyways?
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 6:19 pm
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dmax
Unfictologist

Joined: 09 Jan 2003
Posts: 1387
Location: Location: Location!

 		Still not sure if I can rendezvous, and IRC ain't happenin for me. Any firmed up plans for Sunday nite, just in case I can gnaw through this leg bracelet?
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That sounds like something HITLER would say!

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 8:00 pm
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		a little bit ago, Hojo logged into chat to say they were just walking out the door to head to dinner at a place "near Union Square". Gupfee relayed that it was "at the corner of Bush and Montgomery". That's all the details I got. It's too short notice for me to drive up to join them, but I'm pretty well wiped out from yesterday and wouldn't be much fun. BrianEnigma says he and Kim will be around the hotel afterwards and "will likely want to drink with the other stragglers."

For the rest of you staying for the week of GDC, let me know what next weekend holds. I'll recharge my batteries (as well as the Prius) and join you then!

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:26 pm
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Clayfoot
Entrenched


Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 785
Location: Warner Robins, Georgia, USA

 		Pictures
Link to pictures
Here are all 431 of the raw photos I took at ARGFest-o-Con 2007. Since I have limited time (Monday at midnight?! WTH?!), I'm uploading the initial raw photos by batch to wife Willow Rain's paid Fotki account. Once I have time to select, crop, and correct, I'll see about uploading a final set to Flickr. I started the upload a few minutes ago, so it should be done by the time most of you read this. Please leave comments with the Unfiction username for each person in each photo. I can't get to Fotki from work tomorrow, and I'm not sure I can get them all tagged myself by Monday at midnight (WTH?!).

http://public.fotki.com/WillowRain/clayfoot/argfest2007/
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:44 am
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OrangeForAHead
Boot

Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Posts: 24
Location: Santa Cruz, California, United States, Earth, Sol, Orion Spur, Milky Way

 		That was so fantastic and awe-inspiring! (and what a fun way to enter the community!) Thanks and thanks again to everyone who organized ARGFestocon.

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:41 am
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