Google Game?

Steve Dunn | September 28, 2004
I know Scott doesn't want the GOO game to be a Google game, but I'm curious whether it might be possible to construct a good Google-based game. Something that would be fun and produce results that somehow rewarded Google skills.

My initial thought is that it would be difficult. But...

Maybe something based on time?

Like... time begins when you receive your first clue. The clue sends you in search of a specific URL. You find it, copy the URL, and enter it back at the game site. If you got it right, you receive the second clue. Repeat the process for x-number of clues. Time stops when you submit the final URL. The winnner is the person who correctly submits the correct links in the shortest time.

You could do something similar with impossibly difficult trivia questions. Answer #1 gives you access to Question #2. The faster you can dig up obscure information, the better Googler you are.

I don't know if something like this is workable, or even if it would be fun, but I'm intrigued by the concept of a Google-based game with many of the features of the GOO game (theoretically infinite number of players, flexibility as to when you play, definitive results, etc).

Anyone comments on this, or ideas for a completely different sort of game?

Kris Weberg | September 28, 2004
Or perhaps a google scavenger hunt of sorts, using independent websites as "goals," with the URLs being the scavenged items. There's a lot of weird on the 'Net, and some of it is quite bizarrely funny.

I suppose that the GM would have two choices:

1) A competitive game, with specific websites ot types of sites required, but with strict rules, time limits, and unique or devious clues to prevent using the power of Google to win it.

2) A game whose competition is less in the realm of quantitative scoring and more along the lines of qualitiative judging; the GM appoints himself/herself and a couple of other non-players to judge which results are the weirdest or funniest or most (in?)approrpiate, or perhaps institutes a vote among the players to determien round scores or winners.

Scott Hardie | September 29, 2004
You guys start it. I'll play for a change.

Erik Bates | September 29, 2004
[hidden by request]

Steve Dunn | October 26, 2004
I'm thinking it would require some coding. I definitely can't do any of that. I like Kris's ideas. I originally was thinking about a competitive game, but every time I return to this subject, I go around and around and always find some fatal flaw in my design.

I should stick to Roofball.

Anna Gregoline | October 26, 2004
There would be no way to prove who was faster at getting results, as it doesn't seem quite fair. I think it would be better to see what people could come up with, or perhaps have a strange end site that's a secret, that hopefully someone will come up with.

Todd Brotsch | October 26, 2004
No way to prove?!? You time stamp the resulting answer once it's inputted into the game website. Done.

Anna Gregoline | October 27, 2004
But what I'm saying is, there's no way to prove how fast it was found - for example, different computer speeds? Seems terribly unfair to do it by speed. And there's no longevity to the game that way.