Talk:List of Puzzle Hunts

Puzzle Hunt classification

Uncertainties in classifications:

• Colby's Curious Cook-off -> Offline as no defined end time, so "leaderboard" never closes?

New reclassifications

• HMMT Puzzle Hunt -> Online. No leaderboard, but does seem to have been competitive at the time, and seems similar to other High School / University based puzzle hunts (just smaller).

Agreed reclassifications (have been implemented)

• Co-Puzzle Hunt -> Online? This was a discrete event even though no leaderboard or registration is available on website, but it seems to fit better alongside DP Puzzle Hunt
• Google Puzzle Hunt -> Googol Conglomerate Hunt
• Inexact Puzzle Hunt -> Leaderboard found inside with puzzles. Therefore keep as online
• Intercoastal Altercations -> Online, as these were events at the time and brief leaderboard summaries are available
• MathCamp -> Was essentially a competitive Mathcamp event, provided like an offline hunt for the general public? Classified as "Online" though due to regularity of recurrence
• Microsoft Puzzle Hunt -> Unsure because we have such few available in any form. But presumable they were open to public and competitive, So keep as "online"
• PaizoCon Puzzle Hunt -> Online as they presumably ran live during the convention vs Offline as no online results are available. Classified as online due to regularity of recurrence
• Pea Puzzle Hunt -> PEA Puzzle Hunt
• Puzzled Pint -> Online, events held in bars around the world, so probably BAPHL / DASH like
• Ultraviolet -> Online as it was an event + Discord (and leaderboard is available at original source)

- CoreyPlover (talk) 18:29, 1 March 2022 (UTC)

Acronyms

The following are just preliminary thoughts and can be subject to community consensus:

• For most puzzle hunts, the constructing team is known by an acronym and the Puzzle Hunt name is a separate entity of sorts (usually that acronym followed by words like "Puzzle Hunt" or "Competition"). In those cases, I've used a convention where the links are in the form "ACRONYM Puzzle Hunt" (i.e. MIT Mystery Hunt, MUMS Puzzle Hunt, NPL Convention, RSS Christmas Quiz, etc). Within these hunt pages, there may be further links to the constructing team itself. If so, those links would likely appear under their expanded name at first instance (i.e. "The MUMS Puzzle Hunt is held annually by the students of the Melbourne University Mathematics and Statistics Society" and "Melbourne University Mathematics and Statistics Society (MUMS) are a students' society based in The University of Melbourne, Australia that have held annual puzzle hunts since 2004...")
• For other puzzle hunts, the hunt itself is the entity identified by an acronym. In these cases, the hunt is linked under their expanded name somehow, though I am uncertain which is preferred:
  • Boston Area Puzzle Hunt League (BAPHL) Different Area, Same Hunt (DASH), or
  • BAPHL (Boston Area Puzzle Hunt League), DASH (Different Area, Same Hunt)

- CoreyPlover (talk) 02:51, 2 March 2022 (UTC)

Adding a separate category for "live" hunts

Hunts that require a physical presence. There are certainly some hunts in this category for which a well-documented archive of puzzles exist (DASH, BAPHL), but there are also a decent number of such hunts for which we can only give an exposition based on accounts (but for completion's sake would still be a reasonable addition to this wiki). This would probably encompass all "The Game"s (Miskatonic, Famine Game, Wartron, etc.) and derivatives like BANG.

There are a few gray areas with this classification. For instance, the MIT Mystery Hunt can mostly be done online (and in 2021 and 2022, entirely online), but typically there are puzzles that require some parts of your team to be on campus. Microsoft Puzzle Hunt teams are basically required to be on the Microsoft campus, which might be a slight step up from MIT Mystery Hunt. A step down would be hunts like MUMS which are almost entirely online, but finding the physical object on campus for the prize requires physical presence. phenomist (talk) 03:04, 2 March 2022 (UTC)

Perhaps the distinction can be that the majority (or core premise) of the hunt requires a physical presence. This would usually entail the characteristic that the unlocking and solving of puzzles is contingent on physical presence or travelling (i.e. The Amazing Race or geocaching style and/or heavy emphasis on physical puzzle installations).

I feel that MIT Mystery Hunt deserves to be categorised as "online" alongside with Galactic, Teammate, etc because the majority of the MIT Mystery Hunt is indistinguishable from an online hunt, there is large effort placed in its centralised website creation and team registration as opposed to mandated physical presence, and events are more like semi-optional, fun breaks that only limited members of the team need to participate in (often providing free puzzle answers, etc). Similarly MUMS is mainly online irrespective that a final hidden object is often located on campus - CoreyPlover (talk) 03:30, 2 March 2022 (UTC)

Language-specific hunts

Adding non-English hunts is acceptable, especially if there's a working archive of puzzles, and at least some of the puzzles are language-neutral! They should be marked as the language that they are in though.

Also note that presently the language used in this wiki is English, so besides hunt names, puzzle names, etc. (which should be rendered in their original language, if an official English translation does not exist) page text should be written in English. Phenomist-alt (talk) 22:09, 14 September 2023 (UTC)