Goo Game Question

Steve Dunn | February 24, 2004
I have a question regarding the clues on the goo game. Do people talk about this sort of thing in public, or should it be done via email? I don't want to violate any of the site conventions, given that the game is ongoing and all. So, er, um, let me know.

Scott Hardie | February 24, 2004
It depends on whether, by asking, you give away anything about the celebrity. Lori and Anna's discussion the other day did not.

You already guessed the current goo correctly, so I'm curious what it is you want to ask.

Steve Dunn | February 24, 2004
I'm a newbie, man. Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to email you.

Scott Hardie | February 24, 2004
Wise choice, it turned out.

Here's my question, to Lori and Anna and everybody else who has a guess in mind but is still uncertain: Do you think you will take a chance and enter it?

Steve Dunn | February 24, 2004
Well now... if I'd posted the question here, I would have been cryptic. Give me SOME credit!

Scott Hardie | February 24, 2004
Of course, of course. I wouldn't have wanted to write a cryptic answer, though. :)

Anna Gregoline | February 24, 2004
The three people I thought it could be are all wrong age-wise, so what's the point?

Lori Lancaster | February 24, 2004
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Steve Dunn | February 24, 2004
Anna, the point is that the clue is wack. That was exactly my point.

Anna Gregoline | February 24, 2004
What? So....if the clue is a lie, then how are we supposed to figure it out? Now I don't know what to think. Scott, comfort me!

Anna Gregoline | February 24, 2004
Well, I just guessed. I don't care if it's right or wrong, I'm tired of thinking about it.

Steve Dunn | February 24, 2004
Anna - I feel your pain. I agonized over the answer for a long, long time. Wasted time.

Anna Gregoline | February 24, 2004
Oh, Scott, you and your infernal games that we cannot escape from!

Scott Hardie | February 24, 2004
Sorry Anna, you were incorrect. :(

Lori?

Anna Gregoline | February 24, 2004
I will be damn excited to find out what the hell the goo is, as this one was mega frustrating. Can't wait to find out the trickery behind the clue, too.

Mike Eberhart | February 24, 2004
Not to give anything away, but the clue does make sense. You just have to think about it....:)

Anna Gregoline | February 24, 2004
Well, it didn't make sense on the trail I was on.

Scott Hardie | February 27, 2004
Now that the answer is revealed, does anybody wish to comment? (I've already gotten two complaint messages about it.)

Steve Dunn | February 27, 2004
The colonel/kernel thing was mildly off-putting, but didn't bother me much because I figured it out quickly.

The "just turned 26" part caused me to waste a great deal of time second guessing myself on what I thought was the obvious answer (Linus Torvalds) since neither he, nor Linux, is 26 years old. I now know that Linux version 2.6 just came out.

I think the clue went beyond cryptic, all the way into misleading. It was especially unfortunate in a goo that totally obscured all of Torvald's facial features, so you couldn't even confirm your guess by scrutinizing a picture of him.

Anna Gregoline | February 27, 2004
I already complained, so I won't say much. It just really sucks to be on the right track, figure that it's harder than you think, when it's really the obvious answer in the first place. I think the "26" was unfair. But a lot of people got it right, so I guess I should have gone with the obvious answer.

Sigh. I'm pissed.

Lori Lancaster | February 27, 2004
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Lori Lancaster | February 27, 2004
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Denise Sawicki | February 27, 2004
I found the 26 misleading and I can understand people's anger over it. I probably wouldn't have guessed either but I found something that looked like the source image on google image search when looking up Linus Torvalds. Also I figured since so many people were getting it right it must be the obvious choice.

Anna Gregoline | February 27, 2004
I just don't think that you should have to pick and choose what part of a clue to ignore if you're going to be going with a less than sure pick.

Erik Bates | February 27, 2004
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Anna Gregoline | February 27, 2004
It's just a game, but that doesn't mean that it didn't upset me when I found something that I perceived to be unfair in it. I'm not harping on it, and only complained to Scott before he posted about it. The clue is the most important part of the goo game, not the image, since it's not always possible to correlate your guess with the image - that's the point. But the clue shouldn't deliberately twist part of the hint to lead you astray.

I used to enjoy goo game a lot more in the beginning. I think it's great that players have gotten super competitive, but the consequence is needing tougher and tougher goos to keep the game lively. I guess it's surpassed it's fun for me.

Steve Dunn | February 27, 2004
I'm a newbie, so I wasn't sure what to expect out of the clues. I'm still not sure.

Obviously this is not a matter of earth-shattering importance, but I'm commenting because Scott started this thread asking for comments. Basically my beef is that the goo was totally unrecognizable as a human being, therefore the ONLY was to figure it out was with the clue. When I read it, I immediately thought it had to be Linus Torvalds. After a moment, I got the colonel/kernel pun and I was even more certain. I figured it would take me two minutes on Google to verify that Torvalds just turned 26, and I'd be on my way.

He's in his mid-thirties.

No problem, I thought - Linux must be 26.

It was created in 1991.

Damn.

Soooo.... since this was supposed to be a "hard" goo, and since Linus Torvalds was an obvious answer... it must be someone else!! So then I proceeded to waste a bunch of time trying to find a Finnish open source guru who just turned 26. I learned a lot about the history of GNU and Linux, and I visited a lot of nice Finnish web sites, but nothing seemed to fit. This was after midnight on Friday night. (Big mistake there - I've learned it is probably a good idea to wait a few days before spending significant time on a goo... hey, I'm a newbie).

When I saw almost everyone was getting it right, I figured it had to be Torvalds after all. Eventually I found the source photo, and that was that. i assumed the photo must have been taken when Torvalds had just turned 26, and this caused me to enquire with Scott whether the clue referred to the PERSON or the PHOTO. Specifically, if it says "just turned 26," does that mean the person just turned 26, or that the photo is of a person who just turned 26?

I know know the reference was to Linux version 2.6, so in that instance, the clue didn't refer to the photo OR the person.

I'm all in favor of making it hard, even tricky. I just felt bad for wasting so much time on it this week. There must be a way to be cryptic without misleading.

Anna Gregoline | February 27, 2004
EXACTLY my thinking, Steve. And amen to your last comment.

Erik Bates | February 28, 2004
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Anna Gregoline | February 28, 2004
You weren't rude, I'm just sensitive! =)

Dan Donovan | February 28, 2004
If you would like to complain about the clue to me, go ahead. It was meant to be hard and that is what I made the clue to be. The latest version of the Linux kernel is indeed 2.6. How easy do you want the clue for a hard goo to be? Would you prefer something that everyone can guess? Should I have asked him to use something like, "This open source programmer created the basis for an operating system that SCO is now deeming copied from Unix"? Even saying 2.6 would have been too easy. If you guys thought it was Linus, then why didn't you go to www.kernel.org and look up some info there instead of spending your time complaining here? Stop whining.

I'll even explain a bit why it made sense. Colonel is pronounced 'kernel.' The kernel is now in revision 2.6. Get it?

Erik Bates | February 28, 2004
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Anna Gregoline | February 28, 2004
I knew the kernel part silly. It was purely the 26 that threw me off. 26 is not 2.6. That's all I'm saying. I thought it was too misleading.

But it's over and done with. I just know that I no longer trust goo game.

Erik Bates | March 29, 2004
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Scott Hardie | March 29, 2004
It's not the "king" goo for the round; that is still forthcoming. I was doing research on Pelé and learned that was his nickname and couldn't resist including it.