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A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

wired.co.uk

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Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#11

Post by ideonode »

grioghar wrote: post #10
OisinMoran wrote: post #8

This was a wonderful read and captures the feelings associated with this so well. I was only around 12 when I got my first pack free in my usual Focus science magazine, but was hooked from there. It even reached a fever pitch of me winning an auction on a discontinued silver card about relativity for around £80 but my parents wouldn't let me pay (I was very worried about my eBay rating for my account named something…

Wait. Explain your ‘Satoshi was found’ statement.

Presumably he means the Satoshi in the article. Not sure why GP being downvoted for their evocative reverie of puzzle questing...

Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#12

Post by sidlls »

Fnoord wrote: post #9

> Hall was pleased that the card was solved through the collective efforts of online communities. It reinforced her fundamental belief that the internet can be a unifying force Wisdom of the crowd, oh yes. However, this also trivializes games because you can simply look up a guide for a game. Which leads to games being primarily about dexterity, or leads to (for good or bad) RNG (which is also problematic in itself).…

> Everything has to be efficient and min-maxed.

I don't disagree, but this has been around forever, at least in RPGs (table-top and computer). If there's a social element, it's even more pronounced. For example, just try playing a certain race/class/talent combination in the endgame in World of Warcraft Classic that isn't on the community's collective "approved" list for raiding. That game is over 15 years old, and was just as bad about min/maxing and optimizing then as the reboot has been the last 2 years.

Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#13

Post by gregordv »

Hold up.

Let's go back to the end of the story, where Satoshi was found, not by the work of a community coming together in peace and harmony, but by creepy-ass Clearview-AI wannabe spyware that was fed the original photo and matched it cross the collective surveillance of third-party photos on the internet.

Does that not strike anybody as a little bit unsettling?

Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#14

Post by meowster »

uyt wrote: post #2

I love puzzle hunts and escape rooms but I never got into ARGs. How do people find out about them? And are there any interesting ones going on right now? This also reminded me of another long article on this topic but I can't find it again. Only thing I remember was that it had elaborate puzzle rooms filled with fancy practical effects that ate up a few millions in funding? It also had cult-like exclusivity and was i…

There is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alternate_reality_game... but they look like they're all complete except one where the "prizes" are just clues about an upcoming game release.

Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#15

Post by dane-pgp »

Wait, so someone obsessed with an unsolved puzzle ends up marrying the one person whose laptop contains the information she needs to solve that puzzle?

They must really love each other, because I'm sure a lot of people would be plagued by doubts about the real basis of their relationship if they found this out about their partner.

Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#16

Post by AlwaysRock »

gregordv wrote: post #13

Hold up. Let's go back to the end of the story, where Satoshi was found, not by the work of a community coming together in peace and harmony, but by creepy-ass Clearview-AI wannabe spyware that was fed the original photo and matched it cross the collective surveillance of third-party photos on the internet. Does that not strike anybody as a little bit unsettling?

That is the reality we live in now. Clearview is a nightmare and no one cares. Par for the course. If the NSA has been spying on us for years then why does it matter if a private company is doing it too?

Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#17

Post by rm445 »

One of life's little wondrous coincidences - a global hunt for one Satoshi, years before the Satoshi Nakamoto mystery. I guess it's just a given name, like Richard or whatever.

I wish there had been a creative solution to the puzzle, rather than 'wait until a sufficiently creepy facial search on internet photos product is invented'.

Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#18

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

Fnoord wrote: post #9

> Hall was pleased that the card was solved through the collective efforts of online communities. It reinforced her fundamental belief that the internet can be a unifying force Wisdom of the crowd, oh yes. However, this also trivializes games because you can simply look up a guide for a game. Which leads to games being primarily about dexterity, or leads to (for good or bad) RNG (which is also problematic in itself).…

> However, this also trivializes games because you can simply look up a guide for a game.

Reliance on guides predates the internet. For 1990s console RPGs like Final Fantasy, me and everyone gamer I know bought a (paper) guide for it.

Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#19

Post by uyt »

pronoiac wrote: post #6
uyt wrote: post #2

I love puzzle hunts and escape rooms but I never got into ARGs. How do people find out about them? And are there any interesting ones going on right now? This also reminded me of another long article on this topic but I can't find it again. Only thing I remember was that it had elaborate puzzle rooms filled with fancy practical effects that ate up a few millions in funding? It also had cult-like exclusivity and was i…

You might be thinking of this Latitude Society article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/xygykj/my-year-in-san-franci...

Yes this was the article I was thinking of!

Re: A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

#20

Post by uyt »

lehall wrote: post #4
uyt wrote: post #2

I love puzzle hunts and escape rooms but I never got into ARGs. How do people find out about them? And are there any interesting ones going on right now? This also reminded me of another long article on this topic but I can't find it again. Only thing I remember was that it had elaborate puzzle rooms filled with fancy practical effects that ate up a few millions in funding? It also had cult-like exclusivity and was i…

You’re probably thinking of the Latitude Society, by the creators of the Jejune Institute. Invites were given as blank white cards that would swipe you in at an anonymous building at an appointed time, kicking off the first part of the experience. https://nonchalance.com/latitude.html There weren’t elaborate practical effects per se (there were some cool builds, like custom arcade cabinets) but many extremely talente…

I think I was recalling the pepper ghost effect stuff.
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