The Difference Between Red Herring Clues And Official Game Hints

[pandamonium]

a few people figured out the game was soccer from one of the hints last year, many people figured out moon-fish, also some people figured out the tubes in 07. Based on the 07 speculation I even saw some hypothetical robot designs thrown around before the game was even released!

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by EricH

Official hints began for the 2003 season, Stack Attack, IIRC.

2003: the quadratic formula, used as the scoring formula. (not quite sure if that was official or unofficial via Dave's signature)

I believe this one was revealed by Woodie, a few days before Kickoff. FIRST posted some kind of news post about the upcoming kickoff, and it had a quote from Woodie in it, where he mentioned the Quadratic formula.

[Molten]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

I think the closest to do this was Madison K in 2006 who figured out the Shovel's Show part of the clue (David Spade - Just Shoot Me) and inferred a game dealing with projectiles.

I recall that Dave explicitly mentioned this during the kickoff.

And that is why I long for riddles again. They actually have solutions unlike the picture clues we've received lately. They are really hard riddles, but there is more substance to discuss rather then the randomness we get from pictures. I'm not saying there wasn't randomness from riddles(it was still FIRST) but at least we came somewhat close on the riddles even if we didn't know who got close.

[maltz1881]

Official hints began for the 2003 season, Stack Attack, IIRC.


AHHH.. Stack Attack was my favorite game ever.
I used to get excited to see the clues and trying to figure them out. The kids always bugging me if it had come out yet. Now.. it is fun no doubt but I find the over analizing it to death crazy. I enjoy reading for a couple hours for the amuzement but after that I tend to forget all about it.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Basel A

That, sir, is a sketch. Not a movie.
Thus, the intended irony has gone awry.

Ahem. "Parrot Sketch Not Included"

(and before you go running off to gather the Spanish Inquisition with charges of falsehood and heresy, please note that IMDB.com and several other resources [including the VHS tape box that I am looking at right now] identify this piece as a "compilation movie" of MPFC work). Say no more.


.

[Alan Anderson]

[quote=dlavery;987729]Ahem. "Parrot Sketch Not Included"

(...a "compilation movie" of MPFS work)./QUOTE]

Monty Python's Flying Saywhatnow?

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Monty Python's Flying Saywhatnow?

Monty Python's Flying SERCOS? [/machine control humor]

[Andy Grady]

The best prank that I ever saw, I think was before 2000. Dr. Joe Johnson of Chief Delphi made a post in the Rumor Mill in which he stated that he had received an e-mail that was intended to go to FIRST but instead ended up going to him. He then went on to show the contents of the letter in which it explained the game in pretty heavy detail. The amazing thing is that there was such chaos/outrage over the post, that tons of people were calling up FIRST HQ complaining. From what I heard, they had no idea it was coming, and Dr. Joe had to eventually go on the boards to apologize and explain to everyone that it was just a hoax to try to get people thinking. Its actually very possible that this was the very first hoax in FIRST history.

[JaneYoung]

Andy,
Didn't you make some excellent guesses in past games?

I'm thinking of Lunacy, maybe? Nope, now I'm thinking Overdrive...

Jane

[arizonafoxx]

Hmmm an extra picture on Dave's post? And what do you know its a train. Wasn't there yesterday when the discussion of the sign came about.

[JaneYoung]

Arizona,
That's for the game hint thread.

But hey ... while you are here - can you explain the difference between an official hint and a red herring clue?

It seems that no one is able to explain that to me.

Jane

[Chris is me]

I've seen two Dave posts that were clearly hidden hints.

One dated from 2004 tells people to work on their autonomy and the "vision / encoder / something pyramid" along with various other tetra references in post.

One post in 2006 was a reply to a post praising FVC for having a ball bigger than the robot, where he implied that something of that nature would come to FRC eventually... (2008)

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Andy,
Didn't you make some excellent guesses in past games?

I'm thinking of Lunacy, maybe?

Jane

I've definitely made guesses, but I'm not sure I was ever accurate. I did once hoax that I saw a Slinky truck making a delivery to FIRST...people decided to not pay any attention to the slinky part (my intention) and actually started steering towards the fact that it was made by Poof, thus sparking conversation about it possibly being Poof footballs or basketballs. Oddly enough, a couple of years later we would find ourselves scouring Wal-Mart for the ever elusive Poof Basketball.

[JaneYoung]

I'm going to go look around a bit. It was around the time of the tortoise and the hare but I seem to want to remember something else, too.

Oh! I didn't get very far before I found a really cool thread. Check it out. Dave posted his links to his animations in it and it has some of the hints - hahaha!

Yah - no, this isn't it.

Ah man! This was the best thread ever! And, if you read it, you will see that a few folks nailed some stuff about the game, Overdrive.

This isn't it either but it is just.so.cool! I remember thinking that it was amazing and would love to see it. And lookey - train tracks, haha!

[dag0620]

In my opinion Jane,

A official game hint has a lot of thought put into it. It has to relate to the game, designed (on it's own) to now make you get away from the actual game, but still make you think. Plus it has most of the GDC involved

Red Herrings: They could be anywhere from outright obvious, to not at all close to the game. These are made to screw with us, and get us in the wrong direction. For example, the whole multi level train track theory wouldn't exist without the herrings, and tennis balls wouldn't be even though of without these.

Both though do an excellent job at getting our brains thinking and trying to solve them, which is what the GDC wants us doing. They are designed to help us. They may not give us an early hint at what the game is, but they help us prepare our minds for the busy season up-ahead that is full of nothing but thinking.

If you need me to clarify any thing let me know.