I need ideas. I am looking for a way to spice up life for my department (Information Services, or the “computer stuff” department) here at the office during cold February. Since computer people love puzzles, what I had in mind was some sort of mystery game, perhaps played via email, that would last for several days but wouldn’t take an inordinate amount of time. Maybe I could send out a clue every day or set up some brain teasers or some such. A CSI-type of crime mystery might be good.
Anybody out there done this sort of thing? Any ideas? Any sources of ideas?
Why not start a game where you post a different state every week and ask people to identify the sort algorithm…
Or start a game where you give a clue for an obvious item by codifying it, like 52 c in a s p d (52 cards in a standard playing deck). Try 14 k of g in a c m d…(gah, whatever that was…)
Okay found links…missed the 5 minute edit deadline…
Why not start a game where you post a different state every week and ask people to identify the sort algorithm…
Or start a game where you give a clue for an obvious item by codifying it, like 52 c in a s p d (52 cards in a standard playing deck). Try 14 k of g in a f p d…
Because I remember that accursed nightmare of a puzzle. Thanks for the link to the web site, though; it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who can’t solve it.
[quote]
I thought about something like that, and I may yet do it, but I am hoping to come up with something less brain-teaserish and more, I dunno, immersive. That’s why I was thinking about a CSI type of thing. I rarely see the show, but when I have it has been interesting.
[del]network stess testing[/del]First person shooters were popular at my office. Of course it was done afterwork (really!) not during. Unreal Tournament 2004 has a free demo, and if you want you can play humans vs. bots.
(but it does fail the inordinate amount of time criteria)
How many people are there?
Perhaps some variaton on 20 questions? Think of something detailed (A Tibetan zombie’s spleen). Either you can give out one clue a day, or have them ask questions.
We once had one that was pretty cool, but it could only last for a few hours, and it had to be dedicated time.
We were split up into teams of 5, and we each got an office to work in. Each team was given an empty paper box containing 3 sheets of big floppy paper, 3 paper plates, 3 styrofoam cups, 2 swizzle sticks, a roll of scotch tape, and a stapler. Or something like that. Using everything in the box (but not the box itself), we had to build a free-standing tower. It had to withstand a moderate breeze (one judge had a portable fan). The team with the tallest tower won some sort of prize.
As an extra wrinkle, halfway through the competition one person from each team was reassigned to a different team. People hated that.
Yeah, I’d say so. We used to play football and softball on our periodic picnics/outdoors business meetings, but we apparently got too old.
The crossword puzzle idea is a possibility. I’d probably be just about the only one up for Unreal Tournament. I’d rather do something during working hours, anyway.
[Winnie the Pooh]
Think, think, think. Humdy hum.
[/Winnie]
Gotcha!. Either with water pistols or little decals. Cubicles are off limit (you decide on other off limit areas depending on your office arrangement, so is anything outside the building. Distribute the names in one single loop, When you kill someone, you inherit his kills and target. Last man standing wins.
Do you eat together? Table gotcha is also fun. One randomly selected “assassin” winks to kill his victims. Players must figure out who is the assassin before getting killed. An extra “suicide” can be added to spice things up. Works better if nobody is trying to sabotage the game, of course.
One tip - since I do this at my office sometimes. Automatically reject any game or puzzle where you can Google the answer. Because there is always some idiot who will try Google first, before even thinking or trying to solve it first for him/her self. It acts like a buzz-kill for the whole game.
Yeah, I thought of that. Another option would be to try to find something for which Google would likely present a wrong answer on the first page or two.