2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!

[Eagletron]

I think it will be played like The Mayan Ball Game. Played on a rectangular field, with alliance partners. The goal is to work together as a team in order to put a ball through a hoop high off the ground without using your hands. If the ball touches the ground before getting into the hoop, game is over, or, ball is dead.
In this game you are competing against the other teams for the win by working cooperatively with your alliance team. FIRST likes this!

[dellagd]

Originally Posted by Eagletron

I think it will be played like The Mayan Ball Game. Played on a rectangular field, with alliance partners. The goal is to work together as a team in order to put a ball through a hoop high off the ground without using your hands. If the ball touches the ground before getting into the hoop, game is over, or, ball is dead.
In this game you are competing against the other teams for the win by working cooperatively with your alliance team. FIRST likes this!

But in that type of game you are almost completely reliant on your alliance partners for all of the match. While I do agree that FIRST likes coopertition, I feel something like that just puts your fate too much in the hands of whatever computer creates the match schedule and your alliance partners.

[tsullivan]

This hint was labeled "Hint #3" and we can assume that the photo of Rick Astley was the first hint, but does anybody know what the second hint was?

[Twest3259]

My thoughts on the significance of the number three in the hints up til now is that one of the game pieces will be Cubes. which leads me to think that the other game pieces if any will be a triangular pyramid, and a ball, corresponding to the FIRST logo, and maybe working off of the mayan game there are three types of goals that you have to put each game piece into to score points.

[Karthik]

Let's be honest. FIRST game hints can be kind of lame and pointless. I usually avoid them like the plague. However this year I'm intrigued by a couple parts.

1. The ciphertext of the hint consists of the first 52 digits of Pi. Kudos to everyone who figured this out on their own, and also to the GDC for using substitution scheme that looks considerably harder than it actually is to decrypt.

(Of course, consider a different possibility. In cryptography, if you can break a code/cipher really easily, it often has meant that someone has intentionally tried to lead you down the wrong road to distract you.)

2. There's lots of speculation that the first two lines of the decrypted poem refer to the 90's song "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal. I really hope this is true, just because it means that someone on the GDC enjoys 90's pop culture as much as I do. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMD2TwRvuoU

As mentioned by a few of you, this song was on the Batman Forever soundtrack, which is a fairly underrated album. The roster of artists is pretty darn impressive, spreading the gamut of musical genres. U2, Method Man of the Wu-Tang Clan, Michael Hutchence of INXS, Brandy, Massive Attack, Seal, etc. Kiss From A Rose went on to win multiple Grammys, while Seal went on to bigger and better things, namely marrying Heidi Klum.

As for Batman Forever, I highly suggest that those of you who've grown up on the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, go and check this movie out. It's pretty much the exact opposite of the new Batman movies. It's more of a comedy than an action movie (as suggested by Jim Carrey's presence in the film), and seems downright campy by today's standards.

What does any of this have to do with the actual game hint? Probably nothing at all. Game Hints are usually lame and pointless; I just wanted to had some context to the discussion.

[Eagletron]

On reading some of the other posts, it may work. There is a ball that climbs until it finally goes into a hoop. This works with placing heavy blocks onto a scale. Each alliance partner can do this and help the team. When the scale reaches it's limit, the ball rolls into the hoop. So, no one is touching the ball, yet, all work together by putting on weights.

[hobbes20xxx]

I have had suspicions that recently the games alternate between a "concept" game and an actual sports game.

2007: Rack 'n Roll
2008: Overdrive (NASCAR)
2009: Lunacy
2010: Breakaway (Soccer)
2011: Logomotion
2012: Rebound Rumble (Basketball)
2013: .....

[dellagd]

Originally Posted by hobbes20xxx

I have had suspicions that recently the games alternate between a "concept" game and an actual sports game.

2007: Rack 'n Roll
2008: Overdrive (NASCAR)
2009: Lunacy
2010: Breakaway (Soccer)
2011: Logomotion
2012: Rebound Rumble (Basketball)
2013: .....

Weather or not this is true, at the GDC FRC live thing at champs, they openly denounced this.

[Sean Raia]

Originally Posted by IndySam

Nobody has mentioned that the song was the theme for Batman Forever.

We have.
We also considered that the last two lines could point to the singer MEATLOAF, who's "Bat out of Hell" album was very popular.

Bat.... Baseball....3.... Triple Play?

I deserve a cookie.

[279 EMPIE]

Has anyone considered these numbers to have something to do with the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Because the second and third hint could be put together.

[jar24]

would you care to elaborate on the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar

[jason701802]

I think this is fitting:

[Roger]

jason701802: I was thinking that too, when I saw the second panel in the newspaper. Perhaps Monday XKCD will have something too?

This baseball theme: running bases; home runs; pitcher vs batter. "I don't know -- Third Base!" Three strikes yer out? Would the field refs be wearing chest protectors instead of striped shirts? "Strike Zone!" Sounds like a good game.

I agree with Karthik that "The Hint" only gives two weeks of fun speculation.

Originally Posted by IndySam

Nobody has mentioned that the song was the theme for Batman Forever.

Not in so many words:

Originally Posted by Roger

Both bats! (Batman Forever and Bat out of Hell)

Originally Posted by Sean Raia

We also considered that the last two lines could point to the singer MEATLOAF, who's "Bat out of Hell" album was very popular.

Bat.... Baseball....3.... Triple Play?

I deserve a cookie.

Mmmm ... cookies....

[akoscielski3]

I am going to guess that the significance of the three is that it is the value of points given for the "goals" or what ever it would be.

[|DELTA|]

Originally Posted by hobbes20xxx

I have had suspicions that recently the games alternate between a "concept" game and an actual sports game.

2007: Rack 'n Roll
2008: Overdrive (NASCAR)
2009: Lunacy
2010: Breakaway (Soccer)
2011: Logomotion
2012: Rebound Rumble (Basketball)
2013: .....

This is a pretty interesting notion, but isn't that kinda like the sport-nonsport and ball-nonball general rules?