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Never Completed Game

nevercompletedgame.com

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4chan has the current high score(spoiler warning http://boards.4chan.org/sci/thread/9202862)

now how the heck does that drone image translate to deadly sins! :)

curious to know this also

Zoom in, below left of the drone.

so there are numbers backwards in the bottom left

take all numbers, substract 5, get

SEVENDANGER

There are numbers upside down in the lower left, minus all numbers by 5, replace with alphabet, spells SEVENDANGER

It's at 34 0.0

35 already. 4chan is brilliant and horrifying.

Collective intelligence is cool

37 now. I love when these things happen.

39 and moving fast

The most terrifying hive-mind on the internet.

If only there were a way to direct it toward some useful purpose...

They are on the last puzzle now!

#33 - european union

#34 - horror movie

#35 - corpus christi

#36 - world war

#37 - plato

#38 - isaac newton

#39 - johann sebastian

Some people might not appreciate spoilers so publicly here, the other comment with the link gave a warning.

Anyways, #39 was just solved.

And it's all completed now.

aaaannnd they finished.

They just completed it, verified on my end.

http://boards.4chan.org/sci/thread/9202862#p9203437

And now the sidebar says "Go fuck yourself." as suggested by /sci/.

Never change, 4chan. Never change.

For "Roman XV" I've entered "Arabic 15" and got rejected.

"15" was accepted, though. Manual password guessing is not much fun - reminds me of school too much.

Yeah, and it takes "prime numbers" but not "primes". Kind of annoying.

"ramanujan" was pretty pretentious

That's the one that confused me.

It taking "ramanujan" and not "ramanujan-hardy" put me off it

Ah. That explains where I got stuck.

And "infinity" but not "infinite"

Interesting how this is a great example for on boarding users to a new software, or suck them into completing tougher and tougher tasks.

Start with simple questions and tasks and let the user build confidence. Once they answer / complete a few tasks, their ego will push them to take on the next few tasks!

So the final question will be P=NP?

It will truly be a never completed game.

Why not? It lets you guess twice and doesn't need proof.

On a multiple choice question, its 50/50 :)

Most games do this too, like CCS.

Additionally, the challenge in the name - Never Completed Game - luring people in who soon regret their hubris in thinking "how hard could it be?"

I'm thinking this is more of an example of what NOT to do; it's inconsistent and destroys confidence, which in turn makes the user mistrust the author through repeated mistakes and eventually quit. I would argue that far, far more people have fallen to that than some author-instilled urge to continue on due to confidence and ego.

For example:

"2 + 1 = ?": you are expected to answer with a number to complete the equation. The question mark is a good cue -- you know to answer with a number and not, for example, "addition".

"5 x 7 = ?": the same formula as before. You now safely assume that math -- especially math with a "?" after an equals sign -- should be answered with a number.

After that, it degenerates into vague riddles where you're left to guess at the intentions of the author, quite literally. The first place this becomes immediately frustrating is: "2,3,5,7,11,13,17 What are they called?"

Early versions of this game omitted the second line, leading people to guess "19" as a continuation of the prime sequence.

Other popular answers are "prime" or "primes", but the ONLY acceptable answer is "prime numbers." There is no clue leading to the acceptable answer and the only possible way to get it is trial and error or sheer luck.

Primed by that, we face the next problem: "3.14159265..."

Given past history, we can guess that the author either wants us to continue the sequence (unlikely, given the lack of _ or ? cues) or name the sequence. This would be much clearer with the addition of the words "What is" at the beginning -- this is frustrating BY DESIGN, not clever BECAUSE OF design.

A great example of this is the VERY NEXT problem: "1+2+3+...+999+1000"

Given the previous cues (? or _ to show a numerical answer is required, ... to show a sequence to be named), the expectation is that this should be named... however, the author really wants the sum of integers 1-1000. Again, this could have been solved easily with a simple, CONSISTENT cue.

Imagine trying to onboard users and you just say "a date box" without any indication of what they're supposed to use it for or what the consequences of it are.

This game does not build any confidence and should not be likened to good UX design at all.

There's no rule that states you should provide correct answer on the first try.

What's annoying is that when I typed "primes", it was the correct answer, but was rejected because of poor UX/lazy coding.

While the context of the question changes and it can be disconcerting the first couple of times, but as you go ahead, you quickly adjust to the fact that the answer can be anything. I found it pretty intuitive.

Also my point was that the goal of the first few tasks was not to test your intelligence or resourcefulness, but just to get you accustomed to the environment, the screen etc. I would compare it to "small talk" you would do with someone you meet the first time, so that you get familiar with the mannerisms of that person. It is merely polite.

And yet everybody loves this game. This is like some of the complaints against Facebook's website: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15368054 which ultimately amounts to "as a user, I am clueless about the decision tree being offered."

Good. Snapchat didn't explain anything, people figured it out. It adds to their curiosity. It doesn't need to be consistent to be successful, and it's not just survivorship bias.

All that matters is that the software solves a problem or taps into a user's need. In this case, this game taps into the need to satisfy curiosity.

EDIT: Ah right, people just want to complain. Go for it! Let's ignore the success that Snapchat represents with its inconsistent UI, or the fact that Facebook has ~2B users and an inconsistent decision tree, or that Git is the most popular version control software by far yet has an inconsistent interface. Ditto for Unix.

Ultimately, when we complain about things that are proven not to matter, it becomes hard to take the complaints seriously. If you can reach 2B users without a consistent decision tree, I think it's pretty safe to say that consistency simply is not an issue, no matter how much our cat-like desire for order and perfection believes otherwise.

The thread we're in is both a counterexample and rebuttal to every one of your points. The game is near the top of HN. Everyone loves it. I get that you're trying to argue against the idea that it represents good UX, and yet UX is an integral component of gameplay. This game was successful because it's fun and it had a good experience, just like HN.

> Everyone loves it. I get that you're trying to argue against the idea that it represents good UX, and yet UX is an integral component of gameplay.

I think the game has terrible UX but I also think it has compelling points (competition, bragging ["never completed"], brain teasers, a need to overcome frustration, etc.) that override the terrible UX.

I don't think I ever mentioned that the game would or should fail due to UX -- my primary point is that it doesn't represent a good user onboarding experience. The very things that make it a compelling game would make it a terrible onboarding experience.

Imagine trying to onboard users and you just say "a date box" without any indication of what they're supposed to use it for or what the consequences of it are.

And it turns out want your phone number.

And really they actually want the sum of your phone number.

This sounds like an exact description of Project Euler.[1]

[1] https://projecteuler.net/

Reminds me of notpron: http://notpron.org/notpron/

Which was a similarly "impossible" online riddle...

I was frustrated that "prime" did not work for the primes. Even the SNES version of "family feud" would accept variations on the written answer

I'm guessing you already know this since you brought up this specific game/version, but it seems to accept any answer with a subsequence matching its list of synonyms, which can be abused for tomfoolery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrWR5DqG4ZI

BAHAHA completely coincidental! Thanks for the link. My wife and I just tried to play this game on a Pi a few weeks back and I remember being surprised by the fact that the game would accept my answers.

My attempts to solve #24 sent me down a really interesting rabbit hole:

I was Googling for substrings and found this truly bizarre site that appears to be the WordPress equivalent of a numbers station, likely by someone Russian speaking.

https://nihilsphere.wordpress.com/

The about page is particularly insightful: https://nihilsphere.wordpress.com/about/

And perhaps the weirdest thing is that they appear to have a Google Plus profile: https://plus.google.com/110863007377623596048

I'm 100% okay with this being a complete red herring wrt the actual answer.

It's just numbers of letters in the alphabet, e.g. 0615180523151804 == "foreword"

---- . ------ ------ --------- --

struggling on this one.. (not morse code)

count them

still not getting it, tried 4.6692 and 46692

e: got it, thanks!

It's a mathematical constant. Answer is Feigenbaum.

Gah! I entered "feigenbaum's constant", but it didn't accept that, so I kept looking for another relevant term.

That number has some significant meaning. You'll have to Google it, the author expects exact answers.

4.6692 ?

You're halfway there - google that number.

Good lord... thanks :)

That's pretty stupid, though. Kind of like "prime numbers." If there are multiple correct answers, it should allow multiple correct answers.

still lost

It's been completed.

Thanks 4chan. It was a lot of fun watching that thread honestly. The collaborative effort was great.

4chan flew through the last several. Amazing work.

I actually want to see a timeline of how long it took for each question. The 4chan posts all have timestamps for when the answers were posted so this shouldn't be too hard to do.

There are archives of the older threads as well.

The last few were pretty easy. We were on beat for the cyphers used, and the last one just happened to be picked up by a music nerd.

I watched it live during the last ten or so. Each question was solved within about fifteen minutes. I tried to contribute to the process, but every time I found a clue, someone beat me to posting about it by a minute or so. The power of collective intelligence is amazing.

Based off when the solutions (or "gotcha" hints) were posted:

Q23: 19:28:28

Q24: 19:38:38

Q25: 19:54:52

Q26: 20:02:44

Q27: 20:05:08

Q28: 20:24:09

Q29: 20:27:42

Q30: 21:22:56

Q31: 22:37:51

Q32: 22:53:41

(thread languishes until 2-3 am, few posts are made, a new thread arrives)

Q33: 05:05:16

Q34: 05:23:58

Q35: 05:38:09

Q36: 05:54:55

Q37: 06:17:25

Q38: 06:21:57

Q39: 06:47:14

Q40: 06:53:04

The anon of the hour: http://boards.4chan.org/sci/thread/9202862#p9203437

Level 25

    Stop! Stop! Stop! Start. Stop!
    Stop! Start. Stop! Stop! Start.
    Stop! Stop! Start. Stop! Stop!
    Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!
    OK!

Let's say Stop! is 0 and Start. is 1, we get:

Or:

Not sure where to go from there

Converted the binary to decimal and got 74880. Searched 74880 on Google and got "Weleetka, OK 74880, USA". The answer is "Weleetka".

Wow that Q39 was amazing. 4chan is incredible.

Summary:

    Base 64 encoded gzip, 
    Expanded gives a set of directions (Left Down Right Up)
    Drawn gives 5138
    Flipped upside down gives 2138
    2=B 1=A 3=C 8=H, BACH
    Answer: johann sebastian

That's so contrived, and they got it so quickly. And they got #40 even quicker.

In hindsight it’s not that crazy compared to some of the Args we’ve seen them do. Gripped b64 sounds like it’s been used before even

That reminds me of a story about an infamous image from an old ARG.

http://www.unfiction.com/compendium/2002/11/15/wheregif/

If you try a bunch of bogus answers in quick succession you get an ad for a betting site.

Also if you look at their facebook page it's kinda weirdly hype-y.

Try entering in parameters manually and it tuxes an amusing inage if a man with the label “I’m a hacker”.

Is HN competing with 4chan on this? I'm gonna be pretty disappointed if we lose.

Nah, 4channers are more numerous and/or have more time on their hands.

Edit: besides, we are to collab, not compete.

Also the culture/format/rules there are way better suited for this

No, simply because HN doesn't have the culture of "Here's a problem, let's collaborate on it". We're much more likely to discuss the problem itself and discuss the pros and cons of different approaches.

If you ask for help with a specific problem you'll probably get it, but I don't think there's the same viewpoint that if a puzzle is posted we need to solve it as a collective as quickly as possible.

If you post on HN about a problem, you'll likely get 1 useful answer and 6 answers pointing out that your problem is symptomatic of a wrongheaded approach and you should be doing something else instead :)

I love the replies to this. Not to shoot any one of them down, but it makes me wonder what would it take for us to admit 4chan are smarter?

It’s like those on HN never go to 4chan and vice versa...

Thus the Formics were defeated.

Level 26... Did a base 64 decode.. The output looked base64 legal. Decoded that, looked legal again, decoded that... Canabarro Sandow?

1867 (Wiki mentions both names)

Many of the answers are stupidly narrow.

123567890134567890123456790

I can see the pattern: count successive powers of 2, dropping the digit that would occurred. So the next part of the sequence is 123456789012345678901234567891... etc.

But I have no idea how much of the sequence they want me to type in. Very frustrating!

It's simpler than that.

It’s much more simple it’s just 428 cause it’s missing those numbers

Ugh, lame. Thanks though!

Data entry font doesn't include the stars necessary to answer question (Chrome, Windows):

http://prntscr.com/gs9875

Just count the stars and put in the number.

First letter of alphabet

first letter of the alphabet is clearly 't', the game is buggy

Stop! Stop! Stop! Start. Stop!

Stop! Start. Stop! Stop! Start.

Stop! Stop! Start. Stop! Stop!

Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!

OK!

Not sure if it matters, but HN won't let me format it the way it's presented. There are five words/commands to a line.

weleetka

I'm guessing that's somehow linked to the zip code? I'm not seeing the connection.

OK = oklahoma...

Still not clear on the connection outside of the OK portion, where does weleetka come from?

binary 00010010010010000000 = decimal 74880

Interpreted as binary number (Stop = 0, Start = 1), you get 74880. 74880, OK (Oklahoma) is Weleetka.

You need an extra newline between line breaks. I've added them for you.

Thank you kindly.

4Chan got it.

#000 T '29

No idea for the above. Reference to the t29 heavy tank? "Black" T in 1929? Nothing is coming up. Black Tuesday/Black Thursday of 1929 wasn't it either.

black tuesday 1929

Answer is "wall street"

Ugh, thanks

And I'm out

Thursday.Tuesday was beige, as always.

Question 17 doesn't accept "taxicab number".

Try the name of the guy who came up with it.

123567890134567890123456790

(collab effort crowdwiz bruteforce yay)

the missing #'s in each sequence... 428

And here I thought that maybe it had to do with bits and powers of 2 (0 and 1 being among them)

Geez, I thought it was asking you to extrapolate.

Same, no idea what's needed from me on most of the questions

Damn, I feel stupid! I kept trying things like 23456789 (the same sequence but missing 2^0)

This is basically Godtower[1]

[1]http://www.godtower.com/

I don't see how to even start. Does it require Flash or something?

#29 gives me numbers 188, 144, 152, 150, 139, 144, 223, 154, 141, 152, 144, 223, 140, 138, 293. What next?

Somehow this converts to 'cogito, ergo, sum'. Still trying to find out why too!

Binary has to be inverted to be interpreted as ascii

thx!

Level 17 : 1729 = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103 Tried : ramanujam, taxicab, hardy-ramanujam. Nothing works.

ramanujan (ends with an N)

n, not m.

Also stuck on this one... last thing I did was open up a terminal (with no luck). lol.

res = (1..20000).to_a.map { |val| val * val * val }

res.select { |a| res.any? { |b| (b - a) == 1729 } }

35: Edxwer Rgnvgy Resxc Iuhnm.

Looks like a substition cipher; the family of solutions that jumps out to me as a possible clue is "[something] seized Savoy until".

corpus christi.

explanation: looking at the keyboard those spell out TXCC. There's a town Corpus Cristi, Texas...

Can you elaborate, please?

The letters represent locations on a QWERTY keyboard. If you draw out one "word" at a time, you get patterns that look (... if you squint a little) like T X C C.

Ah, I see, thanks!

A firearm against the man's skull, Fired a round, now he's deceased.

Answer is "queen". It's a reference to Bohemian Rhapsody

I'm disappointed I didn't see that one sooner! I think I'm at the point where each question is now a challenge for me though :/

I got the reference, but alas "Queen" was wrong, had to type queen (all lowercase) after seeing your answer here. Ruh.

Strong Chase Stone Hunt. ???

Something to do with this artwork: https://chasestone.deviantart.com/art/The-Hunt-83526657

Not sure what though

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Strong_(Pennsylvania_j...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Chase

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Hunt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associate_Justice_of_the_Supre...

Supreme court justices: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Justices_of_the_Suprem...

It's "justice". Goddamit, it's like my teacher asking me to say exactly what she was thinking.

Level 23

RWluc3RlaW4ncy4

Hint: Base64 Encoded

Thanks!!

Einstein's.

Not accepting that answer, what am I missing...

Same that's why I posted.

I got this worth pointing out it's a clue not a solution

"relativity"

Man I tried all sorts of things including "theory of relativity" with and without "special" and "general" etc. Thanks!

I got an answer here but it seems more like a clue?

`base64.decodebytes(b'RWluc3RlaW4ncy4')` tells me incorrect padding.

try https://www.base64decode.org/ instead

  230809200519
  152120080518
  140709011420

Hint: Letters.

simple A=1 index decodes to WHITESOUTHERNGIANT.

white southern giant

antarctica

Would you mind breaking down how did you arrive to that conclusion?

The numbers are each in pairs and each pair doesn't exceed 26 (the number of letters in the alphabet). a = 01, z = 26. Convert the number pairs to letters, you get

  whites
  outher
  ngiant

Stuck on this one as well.

much more natural answers "petrel"

160520180512

nor "fulmar"

062112130118

work

Got as far as number 12: did not accept prime as answer...

prime numbers

D73 S04 P86 B07 S95

European Union

Lightens the night.

moon

The answer they're looking for is Moon, despite the moon not being a night-specific phenomenon. Other things that lighten the night, that they aren't looking for, include stars, light pollution, lighting, love and laughter.

got to 14... apparently 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 ... 999 + 1000 are not triangle numbers! who knew. I'm not really into synonym games.

18: - .-. .- -. ... .-.. .- - .. --- -.

Morse code: "translation"

British Color

Colour

British Racing Green, clearly, should be accepted.

I was so sure it was british racing green!

I thought grey... but i guess thats a shade.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

L2:7

1,799,160,000,000 km

1,822,660,000,000 km

reduce to ratio 1914:1939, start of the each `world war`

35 = corpus christi

... and completed

Any hint on 30?

bump!

President of the United States of America

Completed Game.

hmm, can't figure this one out

97...98...99...00

millennium bug ;)

ahhh thanks!

Forever and ever. (inf symbol)

Infinity

f4nt45t1c

fantastic

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